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Former Sussex man expands platform to make yoga even more accessible.
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Lewis Hatchett has created the Sport Yogi app, a platform which helps athletes to maintain their physical and mental health via various techniques and exercises.
The former Sussex paceman and self-confessed yoga fanatic originally launched the concept via his website, www.sportyogi.com, in 2019, but has now diversified his business to include an offering for both Apple and Android platforms.
Converting Sport Yogi from a website into an app has been no small feat, as Hatchett himself explains: “It’s been a bit terrifying. I’ve doubted myself almost every day and questioned whether I’m doing the right thing, but luckily I know where my mind is at with this stuff. The real challenge is to keep persisting and having that deep down belief that it’s the right thing to do.
“I’ve built everything apart from the app itself, and doing it on my own has been really hard. Social media content, the app content – all of it has been done by me. I’m exhausted, but also excited about it, and I will persist until I reach what I’m trying to achieve.
“With the App, I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel, I’m merely packaging it in a way that athletes would understand and seek out. The App is trying to build body and mind awareness, to have an understanding of how your body feels and how it could feel.
“The next six months will be really exciting because I’m fundamentally happy with the App that I’ve built, I just need to add a few bits and then we’ll really start singing and dancing about it.”
The concept of Sport Yogi is to provide a platform for athletes to build and maintain their physical and mental health through techniques that were previously seen to be for the “super flexible or uber spiritual.”
By simplifying the process and making it more accessible, Hatchett hopes to prolong the careers of as many sportspeople, amateur to professional, as he can by reducing athletes’ risk of injury.
It is an area in which the 31-year-old rightly considers himself an expert, not only because he is a qualified yoga and mindfulness teacher, but with his own physical and mental challenges, he himself was reliant on such techniques in order to thrive during his own playing career.
“It had a huge impact on my physical game, I went from being injured quite a lot to getting the odd one every 18 months. It allowed me to get on the field a lot more and my body felt better. I felt more recovered and able to do my sport, and I had a much better understanding of my body as a result.
“Moving towards retirement, the mindfulness I gained from it allowed me to gain a much better understanding of the challenges of transitioning out of sport. It’s hard for everyone and different for everyone, but ultimately you do go through that tough phase, no matter how much you try to wrap it up.
“I want to take Sport Yogi into communities, give back and impact people in many different ways.”
LEWIS HATCHETT
“That’s why I participated in an immersive experience to train as a yoga and mindfulness teacher, so I could create a platform to allow people to use these methods, that also wasn’t tough to understand for athletes.”
Moving forward, Hatchett’s ambition is a simple one: to spread the Sport Yogi word as far and wide as he can, with a little bit of help from his fellow PCA members.
“The likes of Luke Wells, Tymal Mills, Luke Wright and Jon Lewis have all been using the App, and I will lean on those contacts a little bit more and the PCA as well. It’s about trying to find the right people who are interested in this concept and will be willing to jump on board as ambassadors to help promote it and get it out there.
“Ultimately, I want to grow Sport Yogi and see how far I can go with it – I want it to be a successful platform. Sport has the power to change the world. You can use sport and its communities to have a huge impact and that’s the driving force behind this. Being able to have a social impact.
“I want to take Sport Yogi into communities, give back and impact people in many different ways.”
Sport Yogi is available for FREE to download on both iOS and Android devices.
Lewis also produces the Raising Your Game podcast which has featured guests including Phil Salt, Jason Gillespie, Cameron Bancroft and more, with new episodes every week.
