Certification
Students who complete the training are eligible to register with Yoga Alliance as Registered Yoga Teachers (RYT®).
Requirements:
In order that you can enjoy and get the most out of your investment in this course, Yoga Sutra Shala recommends that you have:
- A good level of general fitness
- At least 1 to 2 years of regular yoga practice a good level of English (for listening, speaking, and reading)
- Motivation to learn and determination to carry you through both the physical and emotional challenges that will come up
- An understanding that yoga is a lifelong journey and that doing the course is just the beginning of your learning as a yoga teacher
- The desire to share knowledge with others and to teach with compassion and kindness
- Absorbed as much as you can from the reading list
Course overview
This course will suit you if you would like to teach what you have learned so that you can share the benefits of this wonderful union of body, mind, and spirit with others. This training course gives you the opportunity to study Hatha and Vinyasa yoga to a level that you can then confidently teach these styles to your students. It also gives you a chance to gain an understanding of Yin yoga.
You will learn from not only the course leader, Namit Kathoria, but also from other experienced teachers, sharing your training with a small group of like-minded people, together in a beautiful rural setting in Valencia country, Spain.
The training aims to give you the best of both an Eastern, spiritual approach and a Western scientific approach to yoga teacher training, with a holistic approach to pranayama, asana, chanting, and meditation and an exploration into the philosophy that forms the solid foundation of these practices, so that you can grow, develop, and gain confidence in your practice and bring yoga fully into your life, on and off the mat.
Through supported teaching practice, you will benefit from continuous opportunities to apply what you are learning and to realize your potential in sharing it with others. You will learn from not only the course leader, Namit Kathoria, but also from other experienced teachers, giving you a comprehensive idea of how and where you might like to continue on your yoga path.
Yoga Sutra Shala offers each course to a maximum of eight students, allowing the team to give their full attention to your development and giving you the space to grow.
Their intention is to share with you the true spirit of yoga, with its depth of knowledge, wisdom, and discipline. In addition to this, they would like to explain Western developments in the path of yoga – such as the science behind yoga and the anatomy behind the asanas - in order to help you to develop your own yoga practice, to help you to develop yourself as the best practitioner and teacher that you can be: In balance, in harmony, in good health, and in peace.
In terms of the physical side of yoga, you will learn about:
- Alignment and how to adjust correctly and sensitively
- Using different asanas for opening and strengthening different muscle groups
- How to sequence Vinyasa flows as well as Hatha yoga classes
- The fundamentals of Yin yoga
- How to develop your own practice
In terms of meditation and philosophy, the training will cover:
- Metta (loving-kindness)
- Being present
- Connection to the earth
- Being an observer of the thoughts and feelings
- Many other interesting topics
Please note, the course is intensive and is ideal if you are wanting to spend the 23 days putting your heart and soul into learning. In order to receive your certificate, you will need to apply yourself, keep an open mind, and demonstrate that you fully understand what it means to be a yoga teacher. If you are not able to do this during your course, you will have an additional opportunity to do so and hence qualify at a later date.
Syllabus
During the course, you will cover various techniques and postures, and you will be taught their Sanskrit and their English names. You will practice for yourself and learn to teach:
- Pranayama
- Warm ups
- Hip openers
- Twists
- Back bends
- Shoulder openers
- Strength building: Standing balances (with Ashtanga-style jump-through and jump-backs)
- Strength building: Seated arm-balances (with Ashtanga-style jump-through and jump-backs)
- Core development
- Applying the Golgi Body reflex to asana practice
- Flexibility development
- Strong Hatha
- Working with the entire length of the breath
- Alignment
- Adjustments: Safe and sensitive methods, including teaching for injuries and limitations
- Using drishti (vision points) to lengthen the spine
- Yin yoga sequencing
- Guided meditations: Metta, Karuna, Mudita, and Uppeksha and the philosophy behind them, connection to the 4 elements and maintaining a state of meditation, being in the now, gratitude, 7 Chakras, the yogi in you, chanting linked with the Chakras
Recommended reading list
- Ann Swanson, The Science of Yoga
- BKS Iyengar, Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
- Eknath Easwaran, The Bhagavad Gita: Introduced and Translated and The Upanishads: Introduced and Translated
- Sharon Saltzberg Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness
- Tick Nhat Hanh: The Art of Living and Our Appointment with Life: Sutra on Knowing the Better Way to Live Alone
Further reading
- Ray Long The Key Muscles of Yoga: Scientific Keys Volume I and The Key Poses of Yoga: Scientific Keys, Volume II
- Eckhart Tolle: The Power of Now and Stillness Speaks
Sample daily schedule for Monday to Sunday
- 07:00 Pranayama
- 07:20 Asanas
- 08:30 Break
- 08:40 Meditation
- 09:00 Breakfast and free-time
- 11:00 Alignment and adjustment
- 12:00 Break
- 12:10 Sequencing
- 13:10 Break
- 13:15 Philosophy / discussion
- 14:00 Lunch and free-time
- 15:30 Workshop
- 16:00 Teaching practice - pranayama
- 16:20 Teaching practice - asana
- 17:10 Teaching practice - meditation
- 17:40 Teaching practice - chanting
- 18:00 Free-time
- 19:00 Dinner
Silence will be observed from 21:00 to 22:00 each day.
