Yoga Teacher Training course

Saturday March 15th 2008

Yoga Teacher Training Course, Victoria, London

Saturday

As usual, I don't arrive at the course feeling I have done enough preparation despite this being one of the most important days - 8 hours of practical tests. I managed about one full day's work on the course over the past week or so, so at least that is something. But a month or two back I was vowing to do 45 minutes a day of my own practice and other course work and, of course, that hasn't happened.

But it does feel like we are on the last bit now. Just about all the posture labs are finished, and most of us are more or less up to date with homeworks. I finished my last yoga philosophy homework last week and now just have the elective and final asana coaching notes to do. But with Well Being now getting increasingly close to commencement, time is getting squeezed a little.

The day gets off to a poor start when I forgot that I had the roof box on the land rover and hit the maximum height sign as I entered a car park. Then I discovered that I could have parked outside the yoga course centre for just a few pounds rather than the £18 it ended up costing to park where I did. So not in a good mood to start the day.

So today is 8 hours of practical tests on all manner of subjects. Perhaps the toughest day of the course and very important as it is being marked. Today's morning session is with Elena and has a strong emphasis on assisting and adjusting. As usual, there is a huge amount to take in and a number of innovations introduced that I find difficult to blend into the knowledge I already have. But overall it seems to go ok.

After lunch, Camille takes us for our last session of the course with her. Four more hours of practicals focused on backbends and twists. My backbend asana demo is one of the hardest we ever do, Urdhva Dhanurasana, the wheel pose. Only myself, Romana and Tracy can do this one - in fact Romana is really good at it. For me it is also a great deal of effort and so it is not one that I expect to teach going forward. My twist asana is also a tough one, Parivrtta Trikonasana, so I have a tough time with my postures demos today!

It is pretty clear that everyone is worn out by all this so Camille lets us out 15 minutes early tonight!

Tonight I stayed at a rather poor hotel near Victoria station. After a short trip across town to collect the car, I was pretty much done for the day. An early night was very much in order, especially as I hoped to wake up in time to see the Grand prix from Australia!

Sunday

Really tired today from the day of testing yesterday. A call from Emma first thing and we agreed that I would try and leave early from today's course so I could get to Cambridge before it gets too late.

I did 30 minutes of so very gentle stretching this morning based on some current reading I have been doing (Mark Evans book "Easy Yoga Stretches") and then rather spoilt it all with a cooked breakfast at a greasy spoon cafe near Victoria.

Our teacher today is Nita, who I have really enjoyed the previous sessions with. Most of the morning is taken up with a technique lab on restorative postures - something that I need to pay close attention to as the evening Well Being classes are aimed at being very restorative. This is then followed by a lecture on Ayurveda which I found surprisingly interesting. We had all had to prepare a questionnaire to identify our body type and I am a very clear "Pitta" type.

But I missed the afternoon sessions while on my way to Cambridge. Emma had tried to see if she could leave her stuff in her room as it isn't needed over Easter, but the cost truned out to be too high. So we have the full pick up - 20+ trips up the three flights of stairs carrying heavy boxes. After the weekends intensive yoga, this is quite a challenge and I am forced to have a break and a restorative meal before we set off for home.

Emma now has five weeks at home and goes back just before we travel to Spain for the first of this year's breaks. She is also planning to work on 9 of the weeks over the summer (all of France and Italy) which should be good.