If you’ve been practicing yoga for a few years—or even a few months—you may have thought about becoming a teacher. Good news: You don’t have to spend a month in India (or even at Kripalu) to get your certification. This fall, there are three fabulous 200-hour Yoga Alliance-registered training programs right here in San Francisco. Here's the deal.

Yoga Tree
Dates: 9/14/07-2/17/08
Basic schedule: Every weekend
Styles taught: Hatha and Vinyasa
Price: $2950
How long they’ve been doing it: 7 years
How many students per training: appx. 40
Teachers involved: Darren Main, Stephanie Snyder, Jamie Lindsay, Elise Lorimer, Janet Stone, Darshana Weil, Chris Tompkins, Michael Watson
The deal: If you’ve taken yoga classes in San Francisco, you’ve probably gone to a Yoga Tree studio. With locations in Hayes Valley, the Mission, the Castro, and the Haight, the Yoga Tree community is large, wide, and well reputed. YT representative Jeremy Simon says that the main focus of the TTC is to expose students to a large diversity of styles and teachers so that they can find their own voice as a teacher. The program also includes a lecture series with renown visiting guests and unlimited free and discount yoga classes, the guidance of a mentor, and lifelong relationship with the Yoga Tree family.
Find out more: www.yogatreesf.com

Yoga Loft
Dates: 9/15/07-2/23/08
Basic schedule: most Saturdays, 7 Sundays
Style: no one particular style, though several of the teachers are Iyengar trained
Price: $3400
How long they’ve been doing it: 5 years
How many students per training: appx. 15-20
Teachers involved: Tony Briggs, Jason Crandell, Sabine Kuehner, Geoffrey Roniger, Anne Saliou, Patricia Sullivan
The deal: This is the smallest program of the three, and focuses on individual attention for students. In addition to the regular curriculum, each student chooses a mentor to study with and assist in classes. A cool aspect of this training is that the Loft stays connected with students well after graduation and offers them subbing opportunities and jobs teaching community classes in the afternoon. Studio co-owner Meg Whitbread says that the program is a reflection of what the Loft, itself, aims to do: "To keep this practice as real as possible, so people can really see themselves, see their true nature."
Find out more: www.theloftsf.com

Yoga Works
Dates: 9/7/07-3/2/08
Basic Schedule: one three-day weekend every three weeks
Style: Krishnamacharya lineage (Desikachar, Iyengar, and Astanga) with an emphasis on detailed alignment within a flow practice
Price: $3200
How long they’ve been doing it: 17 years
How many students per training: appx. 20
Teachers involved: Annie Carpenter & Julie Kleinman
The deal: Yoga Works is known as one of the premier yoga schools in the country. Though they don't have a studio here, they have partnered with Sports Club LA to bring their training to the Bay Area. The director, Julie Kleinman, was a student of Eric Schiffman and Rod Stryker and says that the Yoga Works TTC can be set apart by its two decades of experience in training teachers, its particular method of intelligent and thoughtful sequencing, and its emphasis on the skillful instruction of asanai.
Find out more: www.yogaworks.com

You may also want to check out an upcoming Anusara training at Yoga Tree, the Sivananda one-month training at the Grass Valley Yoga Farm, or the three-month immersion (not Yoga Alliance certified) at The Yoga Studio in Larkspur, all starting also in the fall. Of course, the best way to choose where you will study is to talk to the teachers who run the training and see if it is a good fit.