2001

Yoga Teacher Training

I really liked the yoga classes I had been attending and for the winter session beginning in January I again signed up for two classes at Health Advantage Yoga Center (HAYC). In February I signed up for a six-day yoga teacher training course. I had seen brochures for the course at HAYC and picked one up and found it interesting. The course was being given by three well-known teachers in the area, Betsy Downing, the owner of the HAYC where I studied, Susie Hurley, the owner of Willow Street yoga in Tacoma Park and Jenny Otto who had a yoga center in Annapolis Maryland. I wasn’t all that interested in teaching yoga at the time but thought that I could learn a lot from it. Oddly enough, although Betsy owned HAYC and taught classes there, I had never taken any classes with her.  The workshop was held at the Bay Ridge Swim Club in Annapolis, which is 180 degrees on the opposite side of Washington DC from Reston where I lived.  Not wanting to do the commute around the DC Beltway each day, which would take an hour in good traffic, I got a hotel room near the swim club for the week. 

The training had a three-hour session the first day, then all day the next four days, and then a final three-hour session the last day. There were also two, two-hour evening sessions. It was more yoga than I had ever done before at one time.  Being in the middle of winter, the swim club wasn’t open, and the training was held in a room with windows overlooking the bay.

The training was in the Anusara style of yoga with all three instructors being some of the earliest certified Anusara teachers, which at the time there were only a couple of dozen in the county, Doug Keller another being one. I was somewhat familiar with Anusara yoga for all the teachers I had taken classes with at HAYC were trained in the Anusara style. Anusara yoga was founded by John Friend which he defined as, “Anusara Yoga is a hatha yoga system that unifies Universal Principles of Alignment with a non-dual Tantric philosophy that is epitomized by a “celebration of the heart”.  The teacher training would go into these principles in considerable detail. There was about twenty students that attended the training, all women except me and one other man. Of the twenty, there were to women I recognized from HAYC but I did not know them.

The training was quite detailed with rounds of lectures covering the Anusara principes, anatomy, philosophy, and how to teach poses and classes.  After each lecture there were practice sessions which put what was taught into practice. The three instructions took turns teaching the session with each putting an emphasis on different aspects of Anusara yoga. One of the principles of Anusara yoga was The Three A’s, Attitude, Alignment and Action. Each of the three instructors were ideally suited for one of the three A’s, Susie Hurly for Attitude, Betsy Dowing for Alignment and Jenny Otto for Action.

Attitude was about using “heart language” in teaching. Heart language was described as using “The power of the heart as the force behind every action or expression in an asana.”, (asanas are yoga poses).  In one session Suzie taught about spreading your buttocks like a blossoming flower in a pose. One of the students said, “like a rose” then another, “like a zinnia”, and another “like a sunflower” and others chimed in. It was quite amusing and fun but wasn’t much help for me about how to spread my buttocks. I found the heart language to be annoying as I was more logical and rational.

Alignment was described as, “The mindful awareness of how various parts of ourselves are integrated and interconnected.”   It wasn’t just about the outer shape and position of the body, but also the alignment of the “inner body” and the “interconnectedness between the inner and outer body.”  Having a Ph.D. in sport psychology, Betsy Downing was perfect for teaching Alignment and I liked the sessions with Betsy the best.

Action was described as, “The natural flow of energy in the body, which provides both stability and joyful freedom.”  In a pose, Action is the power and the energetic process through which Attitude is expressed. The source of power behind all action is Attitude. Action is a physical manifestation of will power.[1] The Action sessions were taught by Jenny Otto who, being a physical therapist, was perfect for them. Jenny also covered considerable information on anatomy. Her practice sessions were that hardest.

There were sessions from all three instructions on how to teach yoga poses and classes overall. These included what words to use when teaching and how to assist the students both with words, but with physical adjustments.  We were taught never to tell a student was doing a pose wrong, or to “fix” students poses but rather suggest or show or to them another way using better alignment.

Read my comments to the teachers about the workshop here.

[1] Anusara Yoga Teacher Training Manual, Twelfth Edition, by John Friend

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