5 tips for starting a Yoga Teacher Training course

1. Get over any worries, fears and preconceptions you might have.

Do you have to be super flexible to become a yoga teacher? No! Are you allowed to have a glass of wine and drink coffee? Yes of course! Will the stuff be too removed from everyday life and will you suddenly turn into a wheatgrass drinking hippie? You will definitely learn new (and sometimes strange) things but you can always make the connection to everyday life which is the great thing about yoga! The worst thing that can happen is that you don’t change at all. Any small change will be a benefit as you will become generally more healthy, fit and conscious of your body and mind. I’m only half way through my course but the changes are huge!

2. Decide what style of Yoga Asana you want to learn more about.

An Ashtanga or Yoga Flow course will be very different from a British Wheel of Yoga course or and Iyengar course for example. I wanted to do a more general course (yoga is yoga! The approach to asana might be different but that’s all) and then specialise afterwards for example pregnancy yoga, mum and baby yoga etc.

3. Decide what course structure and location suits you.

As a mum of two little kids I’m not able to do e.g. an intensive course in Ibiza that lasts one month or a course that includes lots of evening classes so Claire Weatherley’s course which includes 8 weekends (in Dorking and Godalming, Surrey) and one four day residential course suits me very well. It’s a 200 hour Yoga Alliance course (which means it’s regulated) and runs from September 2014 to May 2015. Here is an overview of what we’re learning:

Module 1: Yoga History and Philospophy
Module 2: Pranayama
Module 3: Anatomy and Physiology
Module 4: Asana
Module 5: Advanced Asana
Module 6: Energetic Concepts (chakras, nadis etc)
Module 7: A Yogic Lifesyle (nutrition, ayurveda etc)
Module 8: Setting up, growing and maintaining a yoga business 

The prerequisites for the course are a regular personal practice of two years and a reference from your current yoga teacher.

4. Go to a taster session or a workshop with the particular teacher. 

I didn’t do this but I did a lot of research on the course and knew a little bit about Claire’s background. I’m actually very lucky that I came across her because she is a really lovely lady, a very talented teacher, extremely professional, down to earth and very knowledgeable which are all qualities that I’m looking for in a teacher. If you do get a chance to meet the teacher beforehand (if you don’t know them already) then that’s great but I believe that our paths cross with people that we are supposed to meet so for me personally it wasn’t a necessity. 

5. Have an open mind and get stuck in. 

There will be lots of things that are difficult to get your head around in yoga philosophy. There is a lot I still don’t understand but I take it all in for now. If I’m particularly interested in something I read more about it and if not then I only read the necessary. If you’re not doing the course with the teacher who has been teaching you before, then there might be things that you’re not used to or that are done differently. My advice would be not to get hung up on it but just learn as much as possible. Every teacher is different so keep an open mind to get the most out of the experience. 

What I enjoy about Claire’s course is that it’s a nice mixture of theory and practice. We attend her classes with regular students which really gives the “real life” experience. She does challenge you but she is also in tune with the general energy of the group so adapts herself to what her students need. I think she takes a maximum of 10 students for her YTT courses (ours is smaller) so we get a lot of personal attention and there is always time for questions or anything you might want to go over again. She also doesn’t just include the standard yoga classics (Yoga Sutras, Baghavad Gita etc) on her reading list but also makes us read things like “The Cellular Awakening” by Barbara Wren which is not something which I would have normally read but it’s a great book about the body’s ability to heal itself. 

So if you are thinking about starting a yoga teacher training course then I hope the above will have helped a little. If you are thinking about a particular course then it’s definitely good to talk someone who is currently attending it or who has done the course in the past. It’s been a great experience for me so far and there is still a lot more to come so I will keep you updated!