Questions and Answers

From Yoga Teacher Training Students

Q: I only have X years of experience with yoga; can I still apply for the training?

A: Personal practice is just that-personal. Your personal yoga practice is your foundation; a successful yoga teacher training comes to fruition in your ability to utilize your knowledge of yoga to serve others, or to enrich your own practice.

The length of time you’ve been practicing isn’t important, but it’s essential that you have healthy boundaries between your personal practice and the serious undertaking of becoming a teacher. Even if you do not intend on becoming a teacher in a formal or career sense, the knowledge you gain from the yoga teacher training program will naturally assist you in evolving as a practitioner. You will naturally teach yourself, and serve as both teacher and student in this regard.

The important thing is that you have an existing personal practice that is stable and well attended to (Yoga Sutra 1:14 for reference). If you come into the yoga teacher training without a stable personal practice, you will struggle. If this is the situation you are in, you should wait, find a yoga teacher, and develop a personal practice. This means that it is a part of your daily life already, not an identity or a desire you wish to “become”.

Students that are very new to yoga undoubtedly have more to learn from the yoga teacher training content. As a result, they may be less familiar with the material and take longer to learn. Students with less experience should allow more time for homework, and apply themselves diligently to the reading schedule. They should also take advantage of the other structured resources built in, including meetings with the staff and director. We have seen practitioners as young as 18 years old excel in the training if they are disciplined in studying the material. We do not enforce a set criteria for experience prior to entry into the program, but we do take our responsibility to maintain standards seriously. We will utilize our right to remove students that we feel are struggling if need be. The choice to attend the training is really up to the student, but often, removing a student is the only choice we have in keeping the integrity of the program if too much material is missed. It is challenging to infer qualifications from application materials or interviews, therefore, we often won’t know a student is unprepared for the training (experientially, intellectually, or otherwise) until they are immersed in the training. While this may sound uncompassionate, we restate that you need not apply for the training if this is off-putting for you. We also encourage you to research the training in depth, and schedule as many pre-training interviews as you would like before signing up. We do our best to put plenty of content on the website so that potential students will be able to make a determination for themselves as to the compatibility they have with the program, and if it suits their needs. Inquiring students can browse through the content underneath the syllabus and training modules. Truly, the training is clearly explained in the syllabus, and there really is not much more to the training other than the content therein, so we believe that the decision is best made by the student, to determine if they are qualified.

Q: I don’t know anything about yoga philosophy. Can I still attend the yoga teacher training?

A: Yes, we have yoga teacher training courses that include the history and philosophy of yoga.

Q: I am very devout in my religion; will attending this training conflict with my religious beliefs?

A: Yoga philosophy in the Ashtanga tradition is based primarily on the yoga sutras of Patanjali and the philosophical system of Samkhya. It is important to note that Samkhya is non-theistic, meaning that it does not have a place to include god. Although this may seem dry or uncompassionate towards religious belief or faith, yoga philosophy (yoga sutras, etc.) is really an extension of the philosophy of Samkhya but with a more practical aspect when it comes to belief. There is a word in yoga philosophy called “Isvara” which can be utilized to mean “god”; however, it is not necessary to believe in the existence of Isvara or that it is an actual entity at all. It is suggested that a yogi meditate on Isvara as a part of oneself that exists without ignorance and mind. Loosely explained, you can see Isvara as whatever you would like. Isvara does not conflict with any interpretation of god because there is no deity related to the term, no religion that uses the term, and there is no ideation of Isvara that is beyond any one person's interpretation. While this is really ambiguous and often unhelpful, yoga doesn’t hinder anyone’s lives or preceding beliefs. This is a system designed for all people. Yoga explores the depths of subjects that could be considered religious--certainly many religions have been influenced by Samkhya and yoga--but most importantly, yoga is older than almost any religion on earth. The actual content of the training is yogic, not religious, and because of this we do not think the training interferes with any religion.

Q: Do I need to practice Ashtanga Yoga in order to participate?

A: Ashtanga means “eight limbs” and it is the source of the majority of yoga styles today. Ashtanga came from the yoga sutras, so any yoga school that believes in the authority of the yoga sutras essentially includes the Ashtanga paradigm. Furthermore, T Krishnamacharya taught many styles of yoga (viniyoga, ashtanga, karma, hatha) but ultimately was an Ashtanga yoga practitioner because he taught a system that was philosophically in line with the yoga sutras of Patanjali. While the system of Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga that our school came from is based on the rigorous exercises of the school in Mysore, India; we like to consider ourselves traditional hatha yoga practitioners. We practice in accordance with the lifestyle outlined in the yoga sutras of Pananjali; this lifestyle or way of life is called Ashtanga.

If you do not have experience with Ashtanga per se that is okay because if you have practiced yoga, it would have most likely come from Ashtanga anyway.

Q: What supplies do I need to participate in this training?

A: You’ll need to bring a yoga mat and comfortable clothing to each session. Eventually, you’ll need yoga props like blocks, straps, and blankets; but if you don’t have these materials right away, you will have more time to acquire them after the training starts. Contact your trainer if you need to rent or use equipment from the studio. If taking the training through live online classes, you’ll need a stable internet connection and some kind of camera on a laptop or phone. There are a handful of required books and educational materials that supplement the live sessions that are necessary to invest in as well.

Q: Will I learn as much with the online program as I will in person?

A: You will learn as much, but the experience is different, and you will not have the benefit of face to face practices that will prepare you to teach in person. It’s advised that if you are going to teach in person, that you be aware of your lack of experience touching people and giving in person physical or verbal adjustments. There is no way to teach this skill online. The best way to compensate is to have a partner/roommate/friend who is willing to allow you to practice on them (i.e a “guinea pig”), so you can develop those skills outside of the online training.

Q: Is this program partners with the Yoga Alliance?

A: Yes, our program has been registered with the Yoga Alliance since 2006. By taking this course, you will be accredited with a certification that meets the curriculum and standards to become registered with the Yoga Alliance as an RYT (Registered Yoga Teacher).