How to find a good yoga teacher.
Posted on 26. Jul, 2010 by yogi Tobye in Yoga
Ireland hasn’t caught on to yoga the way the rest of Europe or America has, but it’s getting there, every noticeboard in most towns is full with ads for yoga classes. So, here as everywhere else, those people looking to try yoga for the first time, must be asking themselves the questions “what type of yoga?” and “what yoga teacher?”
Most serious yoga teachers or studios will offer a free lesson to start off and if they don’t, they’ll at least let you pay for just one class. My personal feeling is that if you’re trying to find the right class or teacher then signing up for a six or eight week term where you pay in advance, is probably not the way to go. It might take going to a few classes and trying a few different styles before you find a teacher you’re comfortable with and the majority of experienced teachers are aware of this and will even suggest other styles or classes that they feel could benefit you more than theirs.
Some things to watch out for are, as Erica Brealey writes in the book “The spirit of meditation”…
“Avoid any teacher who claims to be uniquely enlightened, truth is the monopoly of no one.
Avoid teachers who demand uncritical acceptance or absolute obedience, or who set tests of loyalty that may require you to violate your own code of behaviour.
Beware any forms of exploitation, the most common of which are sexual and financial (although there are subtler ways in which unscrupulous teachers can exploit their students). It is perfectly acceptable for teachers or spiritual organisations to ask for appropriate donations, but charging extortionate fees or encouraging students to make large donations they can ill afford – often by playing on their emotional insecurities – is not.
Distrust teachers who do not practice what they preach.
Distrust teachers who take themselves too seriously or lack a sense of humour.”
And then there’s something I consider to be the most important facet of a yoga teachers training…. Adjustments or, as some people call them, corrections.
A teacher needs to be quick and firm, never rough and lingering. As a male yoga teacher, ninety eight percent of the students I work with are women. I have to be careful not to touch them in an inappropriate place ie “the swimsuit area” and half of my training was dedicated to making precise, intuitive adjustments that encourage the student to go deeper into the posture safely.
It takes time to trust a yoga teacher and there is a certain amount of intimacy between student and teacher. Some people feel uncomfortable with being touched (I for one certainly know this as until I started practising yoga, I disliked being touched.) and the teacher should never do anything to make the student feel uncomfortable. So for Women and Men, I would say, make sure you’re never touched in “the swimsuit area” and be careful the teacher isn’t giving you a little too much “touchy feely” attention. If you are showing any signs of discomfort, the teacher should be able to read this, stop what they’re doing and make sure you’re ok.
And as a general word of caution for anybody practicing yoga, with a teacher in a studio, or at home with a DVD… You should NEVER experience pain in your neck, lower back or knees.
Of course, probably the cheapest way to investigate yoga before jumping into a class is to buy a copy of a magazine like “Yoga Journal” Also, go online and check out yogaalliance.org Yoga alliance is a non-profit organisation that seeks to register qualified yoga teachers and schools. Their standards are very high and although there is a diverse amount of styles covered by them, each teacher and school is reputable and registered at a level befitting them ( I am registered at the 500 hour level and so can put the letters RYT 500“registered yoga teacher” at the end of my name).
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