Why rugby players go into meditation

• Even if the subject remains a little "taboo" in rugby, more and more players are starting to meditate, like the pillar of the Stade Toulousain Clément Castets.
• By learning to control their emotions before matches, it is for rugby players to increase their level of performance.

Raise cast iron, align the turns of the ground, repeat endlessly the gestures of individual technique ... To survive in a world that is going faster and faster and hitting harder and harder (except Covid-19 period), the contemporary rugby player must go through certain compulsory exercises. But other practices are gradually making their way under the players' helmets. Stade Toulousain has just signed a partnership with Petit BamBou, a meditation application that claims more than 5.5 million users, including many athletes from all walks of life.

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Stade Toulousain chooses optimism by collaborating with @PetitBamBouZen, the app. number 1 in Europe on meditation! 🧘🏼

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Olivier Leprêtre acted as an intermediary between the company established in Tourcoing and the most successful club in France and Europe. "Meditative practice allows the musculation of the brain, to develop the areas involved in concentration and stress management," says the mental trainer and trainer located near Bayonne. At the head of two specialized companies, he has worked with the Rouge et Noir since 2008, essentially with the training center.

It is a question of applying principles: lucidity, acceptance and "focus". The sportsman must first realize the situation, not lie to his brain, then refocus on the routine worked dozens of times. "

An example ? A goalscorer who takes his country’s victory in the World Cup final to the end of the foot should not try to persuade himself (in vain) that he is hitting a banal penalty in a “peanut match”. Once the truth is admitted, and the stress integrated, it will then be easier for him to send the ball between the poles.

Cliché hunting

Contrary to popular belief, meditation is not necessarily practiced sitting cross-legged, listening to Zen music or the teachings of a master to think in long tunic and sandals. It will also surprise some, but in rugby, it can also be a front line affair. The proof with Clément Castets, one of the Toulouse pros who regularly seek the services of Olivier Leprêtre.

"The first thing is to accept the state we are in," confirms the 24-year-old young pillar. For example: "There, I am not stressed enough, I have to get started". Or "Here, I'm too upset, I need to calm down". Making a clear inventory of fixtures is 80% of the process. The former Montpellier man began to meditate on his own, "four or five years ago". "I tried for five minutes not to think about anything, but I learned later that it didn't necessarily work like that. "

Stade Toulousain: We tell you why the pillar Clément Castets spoke about ecology to Macron before the final https://t.co/D32cenR0DF via @ 20minutes pic.twitter.com/U520QR0pgL

But yes, by the way, how does it work? "In most exercises, in order to increase your level of concentration and arousal, there is above all a relationship to breathing," answers Olivier Leprêtre. We focus on the points in the body where we feel it most. This allows you to focus on the present moment. And, by repeating the thing, gradually improving the management of his emotions to evolve into "automatic piloting" when making a decision on the ground.

Difficult to talk about in rugby

Ideally, the specialist recommends "ten minutes of meditation daily". Castets, for his part, engages in exercise "10 to 20 times a month, per session of five to 30 or 40 minutes", generally alone or "with the support of the PetitBamBou app". If according to the champion of France 2019, "the practice is developing more and more in rugby", it is not always easy to talk about it.

"In our sport, we remain quite modest on the whole mental aspect, and even more on meditation," he slips. There is always this idea that you have to be virile, go drink cannons ... But in high-level sport, you still feel very big pressure. Meditation is a good way to unwind. It is also more advisable than the alternative and ancestral practice of putting on “cloth-cloth-rag-carpet” in the third half.

In search of the detail that will change everything

Especially when it comes to tracking the famous marginal gains that separate the very good club player from the potential international like Clément Castets, very close to the XV of France after having grazed the early end of his career because of a cerebral cavernoma. "90% of the performance will come from training, hydration, nutrition and sleep," says Castets. But there is a 1% that can be scraped left and right. "

Our file on rugby

And so on the side of mental preparation, which the young player deplores that it has not yet (?) As much importance in rugby clubs as physical preparation. "However, if we ask the players the ratio between mental and physical on the field, they will agree that it is 70-30 in favor of the mental", explains the pillar, able to speak ecology with the president of the Republic a few minutes before a Top 14 final. If that is not a perfect example of stress management…

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