The last time I came to Val d’Isere, I tried snowboarding. And, without pretending to compete with the best of French time, I must admit, probably thanks to my years of skiing, I quickly rose to almost everywhere.
This time, the famous ski resort hosts a festival of a different nature, since it is yoga, which is strictly speaking not a sport but a discipline. Yet. More and more skiers – who often still consider yoga as a gym granny, quickly forgetting that Jean-Claude Killy already practiced – are now using. And Margot Roziès, vice Freeride World Champion 2012, who practiced for seven years: “I swear by yoga, which allows me to not think about anything except what I’m doing, to be there in the moment. And it helped me a lot, because it’s not my forte, “she says.
Tessa Worley, world champion in giant Schladming in February, did not she said that it was partly thanks to yoga that everything was going so well for her now? “Yoga, I started to practice three years ago, is now part of my training, she said. This is not only a tool to stretch my muscles, but also and especially to think better things and go to the essentials. It allows me to stay focused on me, rather than being obsessed with the result. ” So it was high time to place my carpet.
Supported by the tourist office of the station, the first festival of Yoga Val d’Isere has emerged thanks to the determination of Charlotte Saint John, an energetic 42-year-old English teaching here for eleven years. Today, it offers a course entitled “Wave of the eagle” in tribute to Val d’Isere, which is the symbol. No luck for me, this posture demanding firmness, making work abs, glutes and quadriceps – muscles that many skiers are in great need – and for good focus and work balance, is not part of my Favorite! And my comrades carpet (95% women, between 25 and 40 years) seem much more seasoned.
“YOGA WORKS IN TONE AND FLEXIBILITY”
I really thought that my two years of practice would allow me to keep up? Whatever. If the sequences of Charlotte are fast – warrior 1, warrior 2, reverse warrior and triangle – they are offered with great fluidity, principle of vinyasa yoga, she teaches. And that it is up to everyone to change depending on the injury or potential weaknesses (in my cervical) and (re) need to ask. But overall, I hold out. Precisely because the course of Charlotte is fluid. As breathing so has the time and space to unfold. That the firm engaged in intense certain postures (re) offset by a stretching posture as the half-distance. And remember the explanations Larbey Isabelle Morin, president of the National Federation of Yoga teachers: “For the body to function well, yoga works in tone [isotonic] and flexibility [isometric], and c ‘ is why it has so many profound effects. ” Thus, after the tonic sun salutations, it connects with a stretching posture as the dog upside down. “Be rooted in the earth [firm on your legs] and light at the top,” Charlotte repeated several times, while the musician Ann Malone joined the course with his guitar to accompany the “flow” of the end of the session.
While my arms stood literally carried by the music of Ann, I get the time automatically, the eagle raised by Charlotte, so powerful and lightweight. And, as every time I practice, I come with the paradoxical feeling of being drained and refilled. Tired perhaps, but strong new energy. It is this feeling that I will still feel after being yin yoga, one of whose principles is to stay long in one position. To allow time to tell our body, his pain and his reluctance.
“GO FOR A SMALL SPACE IN ITSELF”
On returning to the hotel, I think about all this and mouse, as the work goes well beyond the session. Indeed, confirms Tifenn Decorps, who will join me to tea, “yoga is not putting one foot behind the head, but get a little space so that the judgment and performance are suspended.” This brilliant woman – PhD student, research engineer, mother of a boy and seven months pregnant – knows whereof she speaks. In Annecy, where she taught for four years, she accompanies mountain guides, instructors and some high level skiers, including Tessa Worley. “Skeptical at first sports, which are intended primarily for me to improve their performance, are often picked by what yoga gives them. Suddenly they take the time to observe their body, learn to know, to identify bottlenecks, whether or not physical, “says Tifenn that wishes to clarify that the yoga teacher is not a shrink. The same is she refuses to erect into a miracle cure: “It takes time, discipline, consistency and above their own will.” This is probably the reason why the approach is still personal and not the fact federations or coaches. And then, “we must not forget that the practice of yoga does not necessarily require better results, but above all a much more accurate assessment of what you do and who you are.”
Sport, meditation technique, lifestyle? Difficult to give a label to yoga, because the principle of the old discipline of 4000 years and now offered to all sauces, is precisely to understand the body as a whole. “We can extract the postural work which will assist in the preparation, but it would be harmful to reduce it to a simple technique for yoga puts the whole person (body, mind, affect) in motion, and it is why it works, moreover, I had explained Isabelle Morin Larbey Yoga allows athletes to consider other objective:. instead of focusing on the outcome or a competitor, it’s between them and them. ” Facing the mountains, in this environment of peace and white, we think back to the words of Tessa Worley. As well as this beautiful sutra: “When you are detached from the fruits of action, jewelry appear.” Roll on next year!…
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