On tour in India for the 2012 and 2013 Tournaments
Life comes a full circle for this yogi from South Africa
VIVEK
NEW DELHI, MARCH30
CURRENTLY with the Delhi Dare-devils as a yoga trainer, Jim Harrington shares a special if not circuitous tryst with India. An Australian who settled in South Africa. Harrington only accidentally stumbled onto India and yoga, a discipline he practices and preaches, since the encounter.
“I came to India for the first time when I was 20, that was 25 years ago. I actually came to visit Sri Lanka to go surfing and hopped to India on my way back where I met some people related to yoga and I became interested,” he says. After having spent two decades practicing and teaching yoga around the world. Harrington, who was previously attached with the Indian team during their tour of South Africa in 2010, is currently on a mission to reduce recovery time and help with recuperation of the Daredevils’ pace bowlers with his own brand of yoga.
“‘Yoga is a set of tools. and I work to see individuals benefit from a different combination of tools. I focus on yoga for sports, soyes,you can call it my own style. Working with an 1PL side is a challenge from a professional point of view. I have been asked to developspe-cific programs for fast bowlers to keep them injury-free.lwill try to use my un-derstanding about physiotherapy and blend it with how yoga works,” says Harrivon, who shot to overnight fame in Indiawhen hewas mistaken for former Zimbabwe all-rounder Neil Johnson during the 2010 tour.
Several Team India players like Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan, VVS Laxman and A.shish Nehru have adopted yoga to keep themselves injury-free and recover from the rigours of a packed calender. Harrington stresses the role the practice plays in helping with not just the physical aspect, but also the mental.
“Viru has been working on the equanimity of the mind. Asana practice develops that, and I see that mental as-pect as another important aspect of yoga apart from making a person phys-ically strong and fit as well,” he says. Harrington believes that the con-nect between yoga and patswill only grow in the future. -Sports like tennis and soccer are more inclined to think posit ively about yoga. Bad( home in South Africa, lot of rugby teams use yoga. Maybe in a few years, most sports will realise the true potential of yoga. Cricket wise, a lot will depend on how wel I we do in this tour-nament. If Delhi Daredevils can win this tournament, it will be a big plus for yoga aswer he says.
Part of the Yoga for Sports initiative.
My profile in the Delhi Daredevils website…http://www.delhidaredevils.com/member/james-harrington/
