From Gymnastics to Yoga Sports Science®: A Coach's Unexpected Journey
Originally published in 2018 · Written by Lisa Jackman, Yoga Sports Coach™
Editor's Note | Looking Back from 2026
When Lisa Jackman wrote this article in 2018, she was reflecting on a remarkable journey from competitive gymnastics to yoga teaching and eventually becoming a Yoga Sports Coach™.
Her story offers a fascinating glimpse into the experiences that brought people to the Institute of Yoga Sports Science®, often from sporting backgrounds that were quite different from traditional yoga teaching.
It also raises some interesting questions about the historical relationship between gymnastics, physical education and modern postural yoga.
We've revisited Lisa's original article to improve its flow and clarity while preserving her humour, personal memories and curiosity. Her reflections on historical connections remain questions for exploration rather than verified conclusions.
I was 47 years old the first time I ever entertained taking a yoga class.
A friend from work suggested I go along with her.
“The teacher is great,” she said. “A man named Billy. Come along next Tuesday.”
Well, I knew I needed to get out of the house.
I was battling many challenges in my life that had me crying with a bottle of wine most nights, wondering how I was going to make it through the next day.
To be honest, she could have asked me to play tiddlywinks on Tuesday and I would have gone!
My First Yoga Class
So there I found myself, saying hello to Billy Tudor, an ex-car mechanic in his sixties.
He was a softly spoken man who welcomed me warmly and offered me a mat to borrow.
This is going to be interesting, I thought as I looked around.
Billy was on his mat at the front of the room. A nearby table, draped with an orange cloth, held a photograph of a very beautiful man, illuminated by a small flickering candle.
The room was full of people chatting softly as they prepared for class.
As I glanced at my friend, I really didn't know what to expect.
Billy gave very clear instructions. I liked him, and he was easy to follow.
I found the lying-down-and-breathing bit difficult and rather boring at first. Once Billy started working through the postures, I felt much more comfortable.
About halfway through the class, he came towards me.
“Have you done this before?”
I was surprised. I'd never even considered yoga.
“No, never.”
He turned to walk away, then looked back and said with a chuckle:
“Are you a spy?”
A spy? A spy!
What kind of organisation was this British Wheel of Yoga?
My mind was whirring as I left that first class.
I'd won a gymnastics scholarship when I was fourteen and spent several weeks at a Russian training camp. Later, in my twenties, I'd been part of the stunt team in a James Bond film.
But how could I be a spy?
Did they really send spies to yoga classes?
Finding Something I'd Been Missing
That evening, I slept very soundly.
For the first time in ages, I woke with a bit of a spring in my step.
I liked the space that yoga gave me. An hour and a half alone on my mat, away from everything else that was happening in my life.
It took me back to somewhere I hadn't visited in a long time.
It was almost cathartic.
I continued going every Tuesday I could for about eighteen months.
Then one day, as I lay on my mat, Billy loomed over me.
“I think you want to be a yoga teacher,” he said.
Really?
It was a thought that had never crossed my mind.
I argued that I didn't have time, but every week he asked:
“Have you applied yet?”
Then one day he took me aside.
“What are you so scared of, Lisa?”
I told him the truth.
“I'm afraid to start something I can't finish. I haven't studied or written an essay in years. And although I know we've only just touched the surface here, from the books you've given me to read, I'm not really sure I'm up to three years of study.”
Billy looked at me kindly.
“You have much life experience, and I think you will make an excellent yoga teacher. You have no need to worry.”
Three years later, in December 2013, I graduated as a certified yoga teacher with the British Wheel of Yoga.
Meeting Hayley Winter and Discovering Yoga Sports Science®
As I continued studying yoga, I began wondering why so many of the postures had felt familiar during my very first class.
Was there a connection between the gymnastics I'd practised as a child and the yoga I was now learning?
That curiosity led me to read Norman Sjoman's work on the history of yoga in Mysore, among other books.
Just before graduating with the British Wheel of Yoga, I met Hayley Winter, founder of the Institute of Yoga Sports Science® (YSS).
A friend had told me about Hayley and her work.
Curious, I filled out an online application to become a Yoga Sports Coach™.
I never expected Hayley to respond so quickly, arranging a Skype interview for the following Monday.
I was very nervous.
Not only did I not know how to use Skype, but I certainly could NOT commit to more yoga study!
At the end of the interview, Hayley said:
“Great, I'll enrol you on the course.”
“NO!” I pleaded.
“But you must, Lisa. It's the best application we've ever had.”
Throughout my life and gymnastics career, I've been privileged to have some wonderful teachers.
Quite by chance, Billy and Hayley carried on that wonderful luck.
A Question About Gymnastics and Yoga
By now, I was becoming even more curious about the connections between gymnastics and yoga.
The gymnastics warm-ups and cool-downs I'd learned as a child, almost fifty years earlier, seemed remarkably familiar.
Had gymnastics influenced yoga?
Or had yoga influenced gymnastics?
Perhaps the relationship was more complicated than either explanation.
In 2017, I moved to southwest France.
On my very first evening in my new house, I slipped on a perfectly flat kitchen floor, fractured my tibia and ended up spending two months in plaster.
I was grateful for everything Hayley had taught me about anatomy and movement.
When the plaster came off, I felt that my knowledge helped me approach my rehabilitation with greater understanding.
I also became rather knowledgeable about the muscles and tendons of the foot and lower leg!
The unexpected pause in my plans gave me time to read Yoga Quest by Paul Fox, another YSS graduate.
Chapter 83, about Wilfred Clark and the founding of the British Wheel of Yoga in 1965, particularly interested me.
Oh my goodness, I thought.
I think I may have found some kind of connection.
The Yoga Mystery
My story was becoming less of a yoga quest and more of a yoga mystery.
I started thinking back to my childhood.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, from around the age of nine, I often went to the Army training barracks at Aldershot.
I remember us tiny gymnasts running the assault course as part of our training.
The coach in charge was Nik Stuart, a nine-time British gymnastics champion who received an MBE in 1962 and became Britain's first national gymnastics coach in 1964.
I was struck by what I understood to be similarities between Stuart's background and that of Wilfred Clark, who founded the British Wheel of Yoga.
Both had connections with the Army.
In the accounts I'd encountered, Wilfred had learned something described as “Indian PE” while serving in the East, while Nik had encountered a local circus troupe in Singapore who introduced him to acrobatic skills.
Could there have been a connection between these different movement traditions?
Could the circus performers have encountered yoga practices themselves?
I didn't know, but I was intrigued.
This train of thought led me back to William Broad's book The Science of Yoga, which discusses the historical relationship between yogis and travelling performers.
The more I read, the more questions I had.
What did “Indian PE” actually look like?
And might any of those practices resemble the movement exercises I remembered from gymnastics training?
I couldn't establish a direct historical connection, but the similarities encouraged me to keep exploring.
Bringing Yoga and Gymnastics Together in Schools
These questions also influenced the work I was developing in primary schools.
I'd begun creating classes called Yogym, bringing together aspects of gymnastics, yoga and physical education.
I felt that some traditional gymnastics lessons could be difficult to adapt for a class of thirty children with very different abilities and experiences.
Children vary enormously in their spatial awareness, coordination, concentration and confidence.
I wanted to find a way to make movement education more inclusive.
My aim was for children to receive a physical education, rather than simply complete a series of exercises.
I drew on my gymnastics background, the structure and discipline I'd experienced during my early training, and the self-awareness I'd come to value through yoga.
My studies in anatomy and biomechanics through YSS gave me additional ways to think about how children move and learn.
I also incorporated opportunities for breathing awareness and concentration.
The difference I observed was astonishing to me.
I became so interested in the approach that I continued documenting the classes over six years, filming sessions annually to observe how the children responded and developed.
This was a valuable record of my teaching experience, although it wasn't a controlled scientific study.
Taking Yoga Sports Science® into Athletic Training
Alfie Plant, European amateur golf champion, who worked with Yoga Sports Coach™ Lisa Jackman.
My work with athletes was also developing.
Two athletes who appeared on my website, GoYogym, in 2015 went on to attract public attention for their sporting achievements.
One was Alfie Plant, a young golfer who went on to achieve success in European golf and turn professional.
The other was Gavin Griffiths, an endurance athlete living with Type 1 diabetes, who became known for his fundraising challenges and advocacy through the Diathlete initiative.
At the time of writing in 2018, Gavin had recently appeared on breakfast television following a challenge involving twenty-five marathons in thirty days to support Type 1 diabetes charities.
Seeing athletes I'd worked with go on to achieve remarkable things was enormously rewarding.
Of course, their achievements were the result of their own commitment, training and the many people involved in supporting them.
But those experiences strengthened my interest in how yoga might contribute to a broader approach to athletic preparation.
And they brought me back to the question that had been following me since my very first yoga class.
Could yoga offer something valuable to athletic training and physical education?
After everything I'd experienced, I was convinced it deserved a place in the conversation.
What began with a friend's invitation to a Tuesday evening yoga class had led me somewhere I could never have imagined.
And the mystery, for me, was still unfolding.
About Lisa Jackman
At the time of writing in 2018, Lisa Jackman was a British Wheel of Yoga qualified teacher and Yoga Sports Coach™ with the Institute of Yoga Sports Science®. A former competitive gymnast with experience in film stunt work, she combined her background in gymnastics, yoga and movement education through her Yogym approach, working with children and athletes.
Lisa also went on to become a member of the YSS faculty, contributing her experience and knowledge to the education and development of fellow Yoga Sports Coaches™.
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Lisa's story illustrates how experience from different sporting backgrounds can inform the way yoga is taught.
The Yoga for Athletes 40-Hour Online Course from the Institute of Yoga Sports Science® explores how traditional yoga practices and contemporary sports science can inform teaching for athletes.
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