ASHTANGA FOUNDATIONS TEACHER TRAINING

AREAS OF FOCUS

You will learn how to teach the foundational principles of the practice, not only to others, but also to deepen your own practice.

1. VERBAL CUES – In each pose there can be hundreds of small details to explore. How do we convey this exploration effectively and safely using as few words as possible? Can we give too much instructions? What is the ideal ratio between silence and instructions?
2. TRUST THE SILENCE – How can we let go and trust that our students are capable of practicing if we minimize our talking during a class, without feeling an awkward silence?
3. BREATH AND BANDHAS – We will explore the interconnection of the ujjayi breath and the three bandhas.
4. PRACTICAL ASANA AND VINYASA – What are the purposes of the vinyasa system? How can we utilize the vinyasa to keep an interrupted flow, and at the same time maximize the benefit from our stationary (sthiti) asanas? Entering and exciting the asanas with great skill and accuracy will enhance your practice ten-fold. Let’s explore some ideas.
5. ASSISTING SAFELY – How do we assist safely and effectively? We will look at some key points to look out for. Assisting can be done both verbally and physically, and for different reasons. Just as a shaman, we will need to be able to use our hands as antennas, and internally connect with the student to be able to provide a safe physical assist. We will talk and explore and discuss ideas and controversies in these areas. What to avoid, and what to encourage? Are there different ways to assist male and female students?
6. ASANA FOUNDATION – What are the important foundational points in the asanas? Let’s cross reference this with a few selected sutras from Patañjali and explore what they actually mean.
7. ASANA INTEGRITY – When do we want to adjust or modify or use props? How can we make sure that the foundation of the asana will not be lost? Is there a difference between asana practice and yoga practice – and can we unite yoga and asana?
8. PAIN – The practice will inevitably cause some type of pain, either physical, emotional or mental – but the practice is not supposed to hurt you! When we lie in bed in the morning we can have two conflicting ideas: the body wants to sleep more, but our mind tells us to practice. This causes friction and gives rise a kind of mental “pain”. When we expand our comfort zone, there is inevitably some kind of pain to walk through, either emotional, physical, mental or spiritual. We will discuss and study selected sutras from Patañjali.
9. TEACHING STYLE – Ashtanga yoga is taught either as led group classes, or in a mysore setting, or preferably both. We will discuss the benefits of both, and figure out when it is best to teach in a led class, and when is it good to teach as a mysore class for beginners. The goal of the teaching should inevitably be to make the students interested in deeper inner development in a mysore setting. Both teaching styles have their pros and cons.
10. YOGA PHILOSOPHY – We will be studying selected sutras from Patañjali Yoga Sutras every day.

We will start each 4h session with about 2h of practice and exploration and laboratory, and end each session with about 2h of theory and philosophy (a small break is included in each 4h session). BRING YOUR OWN PENS AND NOTEPADS FOR TAKING NOTES!

Daily schedule from monday – friday
16.30 – 18.30 Practice and exploration and laboratory
18.30 – 18.45 Break
18.45 – 20.30 Philosophy and chanting

Teaching language of the training is English!