Written by Atiya Fields
How many college student-athletes do you know that do yoga? Well, Johnson Holliday isn’t your typical college student-athlete.
Holliday took up yoga after a harsh chest injury, which helped him recover physically and mentally.
Holliday is originally from Galivants Ferry, S.C which is a small community in Horry County.
The Aynor H.S. standout started playing golf when he was young. However, he didn’t start competing until he was in high school. Holliday played baseball and tennis before he made a decision to stick to golf.
“At one point, I was a pitcher. My coach put his son to pitch over me… and kept me on the bench, which happened too many times.” Holliday said. “I like how much freedom you have in golf compared to tennis and my family loved golf more than anything.”
Holliday doesn’t recall how he got injured. His team was on the way to Nationals when he felt an aching pain in his chest, and started to worry since he was uncertain as to why the pain was there. Before Holliday played, he would take Advil to help mask the pain. However, the pain continued to come back resulting in Holliday needing to take a few weeks off.
Over the summer, Holliday spoke with a doctor about the pain he was experiencing in his chest. However, the doctor told him to continue to rest and take Advil to help the pain. Continuously, Holliday took Advil but it didn’t help, which resulted in him to see a doctor in Charleston.
“The doctor said that it was a mixture of colostrum colitis and pectoral tendonitis… I had a bad problem with carrying my bag on one shoulder” Holliday said. “There wasn’t enough blood flowing to my muscles causing them to be pulled.”
Holliday’s mother was the reason he found out about yoga. His mother would go to yoga sessions, and tell him to join since it was a great form of exercise.
“When we lived in Charleston my mother had to deal with my older brother and was looking for a stress reliever” Holliday said.
Holliday tried hot yoga with a friend before he got injured just to see how it was. He expressed how intense it was, however it made him feel good after he was done, and he enjoyed it.
“I’m into extreme things… hot yoga was fun” Holliday said.
Physically, yoga has helped Holliday get into better shape than he was before. Mentally, yoga has helped Holliday become more focused on and off the links. Holliday uses breathing techniques from yoga to help him relax while being under a lot of pressure on the field.
“I’m a lot slimmer than I was in the past few years, and have built muscle as well” Holliday said. “Mentally yoga has helped regain my focused and has also helped with stress… it’s called the ‘Ujjayi breathing’ technique that helps slows down my heart rate to help me be in the moment as I’m playing instead of being caught in the moment.”
Holliday plans on continuing yoga after he’s done playing golf to help him stay active and to balance stress. Holliday expresses how there is a lot of strain on his body due to various movements while playing on the field.
“I want to be more mobile, and playing golf there’s a lot of twisting and turning causing a lot of strain on my body… being more flexible will allow my body to have a better chance to not become injured in the long run” Holliday said.
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