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Tennis phenom Boris Becker has been “instructing fellow prisoners” in a “special kind of yoga and meditation,” in accordance with an article published within the German tabloid Bild earlier this week.

In April, Becker was sentenced to 2 and a half years in prison for failure to reveal assets related to his 2017 bankruptcy. He’s currently serving time at Huntercombe Prison, lower than an hour’s drive from Wimbledon Stadium.

“As a sportsman, he knows only too well the highs and lows of victories and defeats. He’s sharing his life experience along with his fellow prisoners,” said a source near Becker, reported Bild.

Becker’s life within the news

Becker made history in 1985 when, on the age of 17, he became the youngest tennis player in addition to the primary unseeded player to win the lads’s singles at Wimbledon. Often called “Boom Boom” for his aggressive serve, Becker took home the Wimbledon trophy twice more and won three other Grand Slam titles in his 16-year profession. During that point, he also drew almost as much news coverage for his indignant outbursts, typically directed at himself or his racket, as his strong forehand and intense playing style.

After retiring in 1999, Becker became a television commentator and mentor to other tennis players. The media continued to scrutinize his life, specializing in a bootleg romantic escapade prior to his divorce, his various business ventures, his conviction for tax evasion by German courts in 2002, in addition to the bankruptcy and subsequent imprisonment.

Boris Becker reaches a return after falling on the clay during 1989 Roland Garros French Open. (Photo: Marc Francotte/TempSport/Corbis via Getty Images)

The mental fortitude of athletes…

It’s unclear the precise role yoga and meditation play in Becker’s life, even though it’s not unusual for athletes—including tennis players—to include yoga into their training to boost each physiological and psychological agility and stamina.

What’s more apparent is Becker’s understanding of mental fortitude. Skilled tennis player Novak Djokovi hired Becker as his coach in 2014 following two Grand Slam final losses. “We’re not significantly changing anything in my game…no one-handed backhands, stuff like that,” Djokovic told reporters shortly after he announced his decision to work with Becker, in accordance with a Reuters article. “The largest part he can contribute is the mental approach. I felt I dropped two or three titles within the last two years I could have won. I felt there was a mental edge I used to be lacking.”

Djokovic went on to win five out of six tournaments where he competed, including the coveted Grand Slam, while working with Becker.

Becker continued to share his understanding of what it takes to be successful with junior tennis players in online trainings, including the World Tennis Conference in March 2021. “Mentality is rather a lot about controlling your emotion,” Becker explained, in accordance with an article in Tennis TourTalk. “You practice the boldness part, the mentality part, each day outside of tennis. It starts with the way you approach life.”

“Imagine me, there are 10 different situations a day I could scream,” Becker explained. “People disrespecting me, people being nasty, people don’t understand me. Ultimately, I hurt myself. By respiratory out and in, try to grasp the opposite person and why he’s like that. So while you go on the court, and there’s a difficult situation, breathe out and in, and don’t let your emotions take over. That’s the secret.”

Sounds rather a lot like yoga.

…but at what cost?

When Naomi Osaka withdrew from the French Open in 2021 and, a month later, selected to step back from Wimbledon, she cited depression, social anxiety, and the necessity to take care of her mental state as her primary concerns. Becker publicly questioned her decision, asserting that pressure is a component of the professional tennis lifestyle.

But he later modified his approach and emphasized the necessity for greater understanding of the plight of skilled athletes. “The struggle is real,” said Becker in an interview with The Guardian. “It’s easier said than done—with winning comes expectations and responsibilities–but feeling good about yourself will at all times be more necessary than winning. The tennis community has to make sure that they’re not putting players under an excessive amount of pressure.”

Becker knows firsthand that pressure takes its toll. In his autobiography, The Player, Becker revealed his drug and alcohol addiction, which he said began with sleeping pills.

Yoga in prison

In recent many years, sport psychology has been experiencing a shift from performance enhancement through focus and imagery to also include management of self-talk, focus, anxiety, and depression through awareness of the breath and bodily sensations. There’s also an increased emphasis on treating substance abuse.

The practice bears a substantial resemblance to certain points of yoga, meditation, and mindfulness. Becker can have already been on his option to understanding how one can navigate the challenges he’s faced prior to his recent incarceration. In an interview with the BBC in 2015, he explained, “There are various disadvantages of getting older, but one in every of the benefits is you turn out to be slightly calmer, slightly wiser, you understand more who you might be and who you will not be.”

“Yoga is such a practical type of practice that supports transforming character,” says James Fox, founding father of the Prison Yoga Project. Fox began teaching yoga to inmates in San Quentin 20 years ago before launching a training program for yoga teachers to bring “trauma-informed, mindfulness-based yoga on to prisoners to support their desire to alter their lives.”

Most incarcerated individuals receive cognitive behavioral therapy to develop understanding of how and why they ended up where they did, explains Fox. Although that is needed, continues Fox, what trauma experts and therapists lately have learned is that the healing process has to involve the body.

“Whenever you’re now not doing a competitive sport, yoga is taking you out of that competitiveness, especially for men,” says Fox. “You’re doing something in an effort to mean you can more deeply access yourself. And from that, you get clear considering, clear insight, into points of yourself that you just haven’t really frolicked experiencing.”

Sooner or later, continues Fox, whether you’re incarcerated for all times without parole or two and a half years, you say, “‘That is my life. How do I need the standard of my life to be?’ Because that’s something you continue to have control over.”

“He’s also obviously stepped into karma yoga by sharing yoga along with his fellow inmates. That’s unbelievable,” says Fox. “I feel Boris Becker is using his time well.”

Yoga Journal and Outside Inc. support Prison Yoga Project through Find Your Good, a campaign to encourage individuals to support the planet and others. Donate to Prison Yoga Project.