In April 2013, Yoga Sports Science® (YSS) Founder Hayley Winter delivered the first YSS lecture on an American university campus to students and staff at Penn State University.

The two-hour lecture covered both the theoretical and practical aspects of applying sport-specific yoga to support athletic performance. The event was attended by students studying kinesiology, movement science, fitness studies and athletic training.

Penn State University is a major public research university with a well-established kinesiology programme. Its students are encouraged to think ahead and apply their knowledge and skills in preparation for careers beyond university.

The international network and opportunities associated with training through YSS were of particular interest to students approaching graduation and beginning to consider their career options.

Taking Sport-Specific Yoga Into the Classroom

The presentation of YSS case study research demonstrated how a research-informed approach ...

Originally published 2012 · Yoga Sports Coach™ Annelize Ferreira shares her personal experience of competition nerves.

Ten months ago, I would never have thought that I would be moving a 15 kg barbell plate 84 times from ground to overhead, performing 49 unassisted pull-ups and racing my way through 210 double-unders (all against the clock) in front of a 2,000-strong crowd.

I was competing as part of a six-member team at Europe's largest CrossFit competition: Divided We Fall CrossFit Games 2012.

As a recreational CrossFit fanatic, this was the ultimate test of my physical progress and an opportunity to compare my fitness levels against approximately 236 other women attending from across the UK.

Weeks of intense training and a few injury scares were finally behind me, and I was faced with the biggest challenge of all: competition NERVES!

Instinctively, I put into practice the skills I had gained from my Yoga Sports Science® training. I took myself off to a quiet corner, settled int...