Sybel Boss-Ayme's Yoga Students In The News

YOGA: Mind, body & soul


NBA athletes are among those who have enlisted Sybel Boss to help them relax and improve their game

MIKE HENRY
Herald Staff Writer

BRADENTON - A half-hour after completing a strenuous full-court basketball game at Manatee Community College, Detroit Pistons guard Chauncey Billups finds himself floating down a peaceful river.

Billups closes his eyes and allows the lingering tension from his workout to escape his body. As soft music caresses his thoughts, the water carries him to an untold destination.

Flat on his back, Billups draws his knees toward his chest and rocks slowly, massaging his back while resisting the onset of sleep.

Billups and several other NBA and college players participating in the journey never got wet. They were taking a yoga class taught by Sybel Boss, an expert in the Ashtanga tradition who has instructed athletes at IMG Academies the past two years.

"I almost fell asleep at the end," said Billups, who hopes to win converts to yoga when the Pistons' preseason camp opens next month. "I think it's great when your body can reach such a different level of relaxation in a matter of a couple of minutes. I was looking forward to trying this to increase my flexibility, but I'm doing it more for mental reasons and to learn how to relax."

Joe Abunassar of the IMG Basketball Academy encourages clients to supplement their on-court training by working with Boss, who has produced a two-volume DVD that enables practitioners to do yoga exercises at home.

"Yoga is great recovery for basketball players and helps prevent them from getting sore or injured," Abunassar says. "It makes them more flexible, which helps with body control and change of direction. It translates to the court by adding muscle endurance for longer periods of time and gives them a chance to do the stretching they need. NBA players are not expert yoga takers, and Sybel does a great job keeping the class shorter and catering to their needs."

Twists of fate

Boss has been a professional instructor for five years. Her introduction to yoga came when she was pregnant with her older daughter, Jasmine, who teaches yoga in London.

"My body was in an awkward phase when I was carrying Jasmine, and the stretches and poses I was doing made me feel better, gave me a lot of peace and helped relieve problems with my sciatic nerve," Boss says. "Yoga also helped me get back in shape after Jasmine was born and wear the clothes I had worn before."

Boss has taught yoga to dozens of professional and high-level amateur athletes, including NBA players John Wallace and P.J. Brown; Major League Baseball players Brian Tollberg and Lance Carter; NFL players Will Green and Mike Pearson; hockey star John LeClair and tennis players Tommy Haas and Maria Sharapova.

"I thought it would be challenging and rewarding for me to help athletes reach their goals and feel better in their bodies," Boss says.

It seems to be working.

Boss teaches hatha yoga, which consists of physical exercises that connect the body to the mind and spirit.

"Sybel has accurately developed these yoga routines to help address key flexibility and strength deficits that we see in clinical evaluation of athletes of all levels," says IMG Academies performance enhancement specialist Dave Hogarth. "A lot of pro athletes are on the tight side of where we want them to be. We want them to be a little more mobile, and Sybel's programs are an effective addition to our integrated rehabilitation and performance training programs."

Boss considers hatha yoga an ideal way for basketball players to regenerate themselves after a hard practice or game.

"Basketball puts so much stress on their bodies, especially their joints," she says. "After a workout, they need to relax not only their muscles but their minds.

"With yoga, everyone thinks first of improving flexibility. But it also builds core strength - the deep muscles in the abs and back - and if someone has a strong core, they are going to be a much more powerful player."

Breathe in, breathe out

At the start of a class Thursday, Boss handed each of the players a rubberized floor mat, then popped "The Tao of Healing" into her cassette player.

Boss began the lesson by instructing the students to sit on their mats with their eyes closed, straighten their backs and concentrate on their breathing.

As Boss moved the players into various stretches and poses, some of the taller players struggled to replicate her movements. But it wasn't for lack of trying.

The healing music and Boss' soothing words seemed to have a hypnotic effect on the players, who blocked out curious gazes and chatter from members of the MCC volleyball team eager to take the floor for practice.

Concentration is an important element of the class.

"I am constantly using the word 'focus' and emphasizing the importance of breathing," Boss said. "When the heat is on in a game, a player wants to be able to stay in the moment and not lose his head."

A half-hour class also makes it easier to put a missed free throw or a defensive mistake in perspective.

"Yoga is very relaxing," said NBA free agent Obinna Ekezie. "We put our bodies through a lot working out, and I feel very relaxed afterward."

Boss encourages dedicated athletes to perform yoga in the comfort of their own home. Sharapova is using Boss' DVD, which is available to the public, as she prepares for next week's U.S. Open in New York.

"When I travel to tournaments, I put the disk in my computer three or four times a week and do yoga for about an hour," Sharapova said. "It helps my flexibility and gets me more relaxed, especially after a good workout. I enjoy it, and it helps my game tremendously."

Other articles about Sybel's Yoga:
Fruit of the Spirit

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