WILLIAMSVILLE, NY — The Williamsville East Girls Varsity team combines fitness with mental well-being with yoga, from Yoga with Joy.
According to Saint Luke's Hospital in Houston, football causes 455,000 injuries yearly, but soccer is a close second with nearly 415,000 injuries. The most common concussions are responsible for over 20 percent of all injuries.
"Every time that I played soccer, at some point I've gotten hurt, and every time I've gone to the physical therapist or my chiropractor, they always say do yoga," said Paul Loweecey, Head Coach of the Williamsville Flames.
A study from the National Library of Medicine proved that using yoga as an additional workout can prevent injury and fatigue, especially in soccer. The girls on the team love it.
"We do it like after we have a game or after we have like a busy week of a lot of games, it's kind of like an instead of having a practice after a hard week, it like still gets us a decent workout while like kind of stretching us at the same time," said Gabriella Stanton, soccer player for the Flames.
The yoga instructor Joy Kelley, says it is good exercise and great for the girls mentally.
"It's a good cross-training tool to strengthen their quads, lengthen their hip flexors, more mobility, more flexibility," said Kelley.
It benefits even the injured players like senior and team captain Elizabeth Crawford who tore her ACL over a month ago.
"Even though I'm not playing like, I'm still able to be better physically," said Crawford.
The Williamsville East Flames will face off in playoffs with the winner of the Ken West v.s. Hamburg game on the 20th of October.
