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| Hi Yogis,
Just curious how long you practiced yoga before deciding to become a teacher?
Also were there (are there) still some poses that are just not comfortable for you still? But you still find a way to teach them to other students?
Thanks!
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| Welcome to the forums Roxy. You'll find so many different responses to your question. For me it was practice asana for 2 years then my intention was a teacher training to learn better not to teach--however, that came then within a year. As for poses I'm not comfortable with--there are SO many yet I teach them as I can with modifications. Feedback I get is that students like that I'm not superhuman and we enjoy our journey together in many poses. Now what ego I do have I show off while demonstrating bakasana (crow), virabhadrasana (warrior) II, sirshasana (headstand), and chaturanga--just to keep the trrops entertained. I figure if Yogi Mittra chronicled 908 poses, I'll honor him by doing what I can do and try my best to practice and teach the rest. |
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| i suppose i'm not so great a standard. i've practiced yoga since i was a small child (i count from age four when i can remember). so, i practiced a long time before i taught a yoga class.
i was 18 when i started taking classes with a 'teacher' who was not my mother (and who was kripalu certified), and i was 19 when i taught my first yoga class. i'd started an apprenticeship with her about 7-8 months prior to teaching my first class.
there are a lot of poses that i can't do, a lot that i don't do well, and i'm always working on what i can do well and what i can't do. i'm ok with this. i figure there are thousands of postures not because we have to master all of them, but so that there are enough postures to meet everyone's specific needs.  |
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| I am a rookie teacher, after starting yoga in the late 80s. I didn't really intend to teach, just to learn more about yoga and deepen my own practice. But...I seem to have backed into teaching after all. I have a full time career, so the decision to teach is an 'extra' activity I cannot do all the poses to their full extent/expression but knowing the purpose of the pose and the different stages helps explain them to students at different levels. |
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| Hi Roxy,
I've practiced for 4 years when I was first invited to run a yoga class. I consider myself a novice teacher, attend many classes myself along with teaching. Although I took a teacher's course from my teachers, I want to get deeper into several-months training course in India (Pattabhi Jois or Swami Shivananda ashrams or Bihar school of yoga).
As for "difficult" asanas, for women power exercises are complex ones, and that's what concentrate on to bring more balance into individual practice. I give complex asanas to students, on the level I can feel and reach.
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| I took yoga for five years before I even thought of teaching, seven before I started teacher training at the beginning of this year, and I'm just about to start officially teaching this July. (I've been practice teaching for two and a half months - I love it!)
I certainly cannot do every pose there is! Many arm balances are incredibly difficult for me, and some of the strength moves... ugh! Heck, I can't even do a full navasana (my hip flexors are overactive in the pose, and my abdominals probably need to be stronger). But I will teach any pose that I am actively working on (and have been actively working on for a little while) and feel confident that I understand the actions of in my body. If I've just picked up a pose, and don't know where it's going, I'm not going to teach it, and that still leaves me with plenty to teach. But I don't have to fully master every pose to teach it. Besides, we're *always* students; there's *always* something else to learn about a pose. |
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| Wow! I appreciate all of your responses. I would like to get into teacher training but kinda felt like...uhh do I have to be able to get in every pose?? But yes, I agree...we are all life long students of yoga. So I feel a bit better now about my desire to pursue TT. Thanks so much everyone 
Heart,
Roxy |
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| Go get 'em RG--best of luck and namaste! |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
    
| RG - every teacher I know has limitations on their bodies from time to time. Even those who are very adept. And there are a few who teach from wheelchairs. You do not have to be able to do every pose but you need to understand each pose that you teach. |
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| Thanks Brucey and everyone
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How long before you taught?
