Yoga Teacher Training

Saturday October 20th / Sunday October 21st

Yoga Teacher Training Course, Victoria, London

Saturday

The next weekend of my course has come round really quickly, mainly due to us being really busy for the last few weeks with Emma going off to college, etc. But unlike last time, I have actually done my prep for the two practicum sessions this weekend and, post Qi Gong at Gaia House, I feel I know a little more about the body awareness sequences that Elena likes so much. Not confident exactly, but feeling ok about doing it.

But first off today it is an Introduction to Yoga Philosophy with Swami Saradananda. It turns out that she wrote one of the yoga books we have at home - "Yoga Mind and Body". I actually quite enjoyed this lecture as it contained quite a lot of material that I have some familiarity with and is does make a big difference to what you do in yoga if you have some more of the background ideas. So we reviewed the five main branches of yoga - Jnana, Bhakti, Karma, Raja, Hatha - the time lines of Indian philosophy, the six main scriptural types and the major philosophical schools. A nice start to another busy weekend.

After that, we have Camille taking us through the Seated Asanas in our syllabus. Having studies the syllabus in great detail together with Elena's document on teaching methodologies that she submitted to the British Wheel of Yoga as part of her accreditation process, I now know much more about how this first block of teaching on these asanas fits into the overall programme. But from a couple of conversations this morning, many other people are still very unclear.

Over lunchtime I had a quick chat to Camille. We discussed where I've got to with Well Being and she hinted that she might like to look at helping us with some of the yoga teaching next year, which would be very good if we can work something out. But we mainly talked about my work on the syllabus, etc, and I had a few questions for her that also suggested some additional points.

Overall, I have to say that I think Camille is the best teacher on the course as she is totally focused on the issue of "Yoga teacher training". No distractions, no wider issues, just a relentless focus on the key points we need. And from what I could tell from the others, they also thought this was a very good block of teaching. But I did ask several people whether they realised that we had actually finished the first teaching for standing asanas and there are quite a few who didn't realise we had. Also few people really understand the Practicum / Posture Lab interaction.

Our last two hours this afternoon are given over to a Practicum on seated body awareness. We are split into groups of three and each have a turn at working through our plans (if we have them). I am teamed up with Romana and Vicky who have been seated either side of me today. As always, I am happy to leap in and have a go first no matter what a mess of it I make. So while Camille and Elena circle round taking notes I run through my sequence based on a whole series of Brad's Qi Gong lessons from Gaia House. Romana is also well prepared and does an excellent sequence. Vicky hasn't prepared anything in advance but I thought she did do a very good job of improvising.

So then Elena runs through what she thought of everything. We are asked in turn to say how we thought it went and then our guinea pigs are asked for their views. Finally Elena gives her views. I am reviewed first and it seems to go ok. My guinea pigs were reasonably happy but Elena is critical of my own movements - I hadn't really paid as much attention to what I was doing as I should have done. Afterall, I am the teacher and I need to set an example!

And Elena has some common themes throughout her review. She thinks it is obvious that we aren't doing enough practice ourselves. In her words, we all look "lazy". We need to practice our teaching in front of a mirror and take care with what we are saying so we avoid saying too many negatives. But she does surprise me by also saying that she would definitely come back to a class of myself and Romana - however I think that is more because the two of us were very well prepared, while many others simply weren't. I suspect Elena was actually really cross about this but if so, she didn't let on.

So we finish the first day of the weekend - another very tiring day with loads to take in and digest. Tonight I am staying in a cheap hotel near Paddington - the cheapest Lastminute.com had to offer. And I can see why. Another tiny narrow little room, though compared to the other recent ones, this one did have a shower. I would have been quite happy to go straight to sleep but I felt I should try and go out and see the Rugby World Cup Final. So I settled into a little pub round the corner, had a couple of beers and watched the game. No doubt my fellow yoga trainee from South Africa - Sarah - was pretty happy with then outcome. I was close to falling asleep by the end!

Sunday

Awake at 5:30 and plenty of time to have a couple of run throughs of my practicum for this afternoon, focusing on some of Elena's points from yesterday. I also have time to draft a new version of the Well Being Brochure so it goes out to 8 pages. This could then be available to download off the website as it would print much better. I will also print some up for the coming month and for the various people we'll be seeing.

I left the hotel around 8:00 and set off to walk to Victoria through Hyde Park. The sun was only just rising and the morning was cold enough to produce mist rising from the Serpentine. I was surprised by the variety of birds on the lake. Not only were there the ubiquitous ducks, geese and seagulls, but quite a few herons and loads of cormorants, most of whom were sitting on the tied up rowing boats with their wings extended out. Most joggers were wearing furry hats but despite the cold there was one guy swimming in the lake!

Our first course session today is a second session by Swami Saradananda, this time an introduction to meditation. I probably have more experience than most of meditation, but mine comes from the buddhist tradition, not yoga, and there are some very clearly differentiating points. But the practical advise is sound enough, though her view that we should all be doing 20 minutes a day is unlikely to match what people actually do.

Next up is a two hour block on backbend asanas with Camille - another excellent session I thought. Elena starts the afternoon with a partial review of what she expected that Camille had covered but her questions are often not precisely related to what we were taught and I suspect that Elena was a bit annoyed that we didn't always have snappy answers to her questions. Much of this can probably be put down to us not really having digested the material yet.

This afternoon, Elena take us through more anatomy - this time on the shouders and upper back. We don't have the handouts available before us and so much of the lecture to me is a confusing list of various parts of the body, questions that I don't know the answer to about various joints, and so on. These next few weeks are when I will be studying anatomy much more - especially while away in Spain - so maybe I'll know something in time for the test in 3 week's time.

Then on to the second Practicum - kneeling body awareness. I am paired with Bridget and Rhea and again am happy to go first. I try to correct the errors of yesterday in respect of my own posture but apparently I talked too much this time. Still I was pretty happy with the progress. Despite what Elena said yesterday, Bridget hadn't been able to do any prep for this and Rhea had done a little. So Elena was a bit more strident in her grumbling about the need to prepare.

We finished the afternoon with another run through the 10 week sun salutation programme. I'm still very unconvinced by this idea but it is the was she wants to set it out.

At 6:00 Elena and I settled down for a chat about the work I have been doing on the syllabus etc. We look at a few of the points in detail and I learnt one or two surprising things about the behind-the-scenes situation for her. We have a possible plan for a one hour session about the syllabus for next time, but will perhaos decide on this nearer the time. Elena's husband tells me that Lewis Hamilton as failed in his attempts to win the F1 championship and Raikonen has pipped him, which is a bit of a surprise.

Yet again I am feeling that there is loads to do for my yoga course and I need to get going with some of it urgently. So as soon as the Well Being Website is working . . . . .