Sports
Off the Playing Fields T WO V E T E R A N C OAC H E S S E E K O U T N E W L E A R N I N G O P P O RT U N I T I E S By Mike Catano
A
36
The Exeter Bulletin
W INTER 2012
MIKE CATANO
Girls Soccer Coach Hilary Coder talks strategy with her team.
fter having coached hundreds of students during her 29 years at PEA, Hilary Coder P’04, P’08, chair of the Physical Education Department, understands the value of introducing new training techniques to her athletes.The coach of track and field and girls soccer recently looked to yoga as an aid for physical recovery and regeneration. “The whole idea of training an athlete hard is how quickly they can recover so they can train hard again,” says Coder. As a result, she began experimenting with yoga in her track and soccer workouts and soon realized her sessions would benefit from professional training. “I thought it was really important to make sure what I was doing was appropriate and as valuable and efficient as it could be,” says Coder. Thanks to an Academy-supported grant, she traveled to Vancouver, British Columbia, last summer to attend the Prana Yoga Teacher College, where she received instruction on how to formally teach yoga. The monthlong program was challenging for Coder, despite her many years training students and athletes. “The biggest piece for me was it put me back into the place of a first-year teacher,” she says. “It was humbling and rewarding, and pointed out many things that I needed to work on. It allowed me to step back and get in touch with how far I’ve come and how much I can continue to grow.” Back at PEA, Coder knows exactly how she will use her new skills. “I have 125 kids in front of me every day, especially during track season, who can benefit from this,” she says. “I’ll have track in the winter and spring where regeneration is a huge part, and almost every day there will be some yoga-inspired activity.” Coder believes Exeter athletes have a greater need for recovery techniques because of their heavy workloads and many interests. “Running is very linear, so yoga is a way to create balance and movement throughout the planes. It lets our athletes move beyond just front and back exercise so they can develop the muscles and the strength they need to keep their bodies healthy.Yoga also helps with injury prevention—for example, with some of the younger boys whose [muscles] are very tight having just gone through a growth spurt.” Coder also expects that yoga will help her soccer athletes with recovery after games, and she anticipates using yoga for warm-ups during light practice workouts. Due to growing demand by the general student body, Coder will also teach a credited yoga class during the winter term. Along with the physical payoff, yoga has provided an unanticipated psychological boost as well. “We are always looking for ways in track and field to erase the lines that naturally occur with event groups,” Coder explains. “It’s very important that we make sure we have that big team feel, and yoga gives us a chance to do that. All the event groups can benefit while they do a yoga warm-up or cooldown together, or a yoga strength or balance or recovery session.”