21 October, 2012
I do not expect many of you residing in Yogaland to know whom Richie McCaw is. However, if you asked any New Zealander they would tell you with chest puffed up that he is one of the best rugby players to have ever lived and the captain of World Champion All Blacks. Unlike my compatriots, I do not profess to be a rugby fan – but of course recently at a friend’s BBQ surrounded by Australians the Bledisloe Cup (annual Aussie Vs Kiwi slug match) was playing in the background, & I couldn’t help but get my imaginary black and white jersey on in defence and support of the AB’s.
The pageantry of the All Blacks is enough to get anyone carried away, Gladiators they roll out from underneath the stadium to roars of applause, the powerful war dance of the Haka bringing a tear to your eye and a reminder to call home. However, among the elite athletes hobbles a crumbling Captain Richie who at the young age of 31 seems to be coping with more injuries than a UFC fighter. Bandaged up like a mummy he recently revealed that his foot injury at last year’s Rugby World Cup was so terrible that he came close to limping out of their semi-final win over Australia.
It got me thinking to what cost athletes will sacrifice for the success they, their coaches, their teammates and their fans expect of them. The fact that Richie just kept playing through the 2011 Rugby World Cup with serious injuries does not bode well. It was clearly obvious to me watching this young man pushing his body to the brink, driving from the place of ego and force that he is in desperate need of a yoga coach.
Now try as I did search for facts about the life expectancy of rugby players in the motherland, I couldn’t dig up much dirt. However, in a fairly similar sport American Football, according to the NFL Players Association, the average life expectancy of a NFL player is 58 years of age. Is it possible that the countless games of bashing up against one another, the jarring on the spine, the tackles high and low has far greater consequences on these athletes than anyone cares to imagine?
Pretend for a moment that you’re buying your first car and you’re being advised on what second hand option to go with. Are you going to choose the hand me down from a little old lady who lives in suburbia, who only drives down to the shops once a fortnight at 20kph, never misses an engine check and has kept it inside her garage since purchase under a protective silk slip? Or would you prefer the second hand taxi which has made 5000 100kph journey’s to the airport, been in several fender benders, stinks of cigarettes and too many Saturday all-nighters and takes five goes on the ignition to start?
It’s a no brainer. And our beautiful bodies, of which we are only given one, are no different. I think what we can learn from watching the big boys smash themselves up time and time again on the rugby field is the importance of looking after our bodies and making sure they’re around for the long haul.
Of course it’s not just rugby players that take it out on their bodies, there’s a long distance running/triathlon pandemic in the corporate Western world and we’re taking it out on our knees like never before. Perhaps you know someone who has hardly crossed the half marathon line before they’re on the iPhone registering for next month’s Tough Mudder? If only knees could talk!
In researching this article I discovered that Richie McCaw has announced he will take six month break from playing rugby next year, so thank god for that. If I was Richie’s Yoga Coach I would incorporate the following practices to enable him to come back to his peak performance as an athlete in the minimal amount of time possible.
Photos thanks to Pinterest http://pinterest.com & http://www.stuff.co.nz/
Post partly inspired by Master Classes with Power Yoga God Father Bryan Kest
