One Big, Happy Yoga Family
I’ve been practicing a lot lately at Yoga Tree, the studio where I did my teacher training. I now think I finally understand fully why studios are so eager to start teacher training programs.
It’s not because they hope to train teachers to employ at the studio later on. It probably isn’t even because they can charge $3,000 a pop (although, I’m sure that doesn’t hurt the argument). It’s because when they’re creating a yoga community—and a large fleet of loyal, yoga-obsessed students who will always associate that studio with all the growth they experienced during their teacher training.
In the last week, I was at the studio twice—once to assist a class, once to take one. I encountered at least 10 of my teacher training pals. I got there early to chat. I stayed late to chat. It was a lot like going home after not seeing my family and home-town friends for an extended period of time. I can’t tell you how grateful I am for the friendships I made during the experience, and even more, I’m grateful that I know where to go if I want to talk yoga, brainstorm teaching ideas with someone, or just complain about my beginning teacher woes.
Since I’ve been sharing my own experiences like crazy for many months, I thought this would be a good opportunity to mix things up a bit and tell you how some of my classmates are using their newly-aquired yoga education.
Most of the folks I’ve encountered since the training are doing exactly what I’m doing. They’re assisting, practicing with the teachers who speak to them, and grabbing other teaching opportunities as they come. In my experience, there are two kinds of new yoga teachers: those who jump in and start teaching right away and those who want to extend their training.
The Jump-In-Head-First Type
Ken is a social worker who conveniently lives across the street from me—he also very conveniently owns a car—so he was my carpool buddy throug much of the training. Throughout the training, he was teaching a group of co-workers at the school where he works, a volunteer gig he was doing for extra experience. He also assisted Iyengar teacher Karl Erb.
Since the training, he has jumped in full-force. He even acquired his own regular time slot teaching at 24-Hour Fitness once a week. I’m sure he’s an amazing teacher, but he doesn’t want me to find out for sure. As of now, he’s too shy to invite his friends to his classes.
The Keep-Soaking-It-In Type
Bebe is one of the most dedicated yoga students I know. She assisted Karl on a weekly basis throughout the training, which is something she continues to do. But she can’t get enough yoga. To expand on her knowledge of the Iyengar style, she’s practicing twice a week with Iyengar legend, Manuso Manos. And just in case Iyengar turns out not to be her style, she’s looking into assisting a vinyasa teacher, too.
For most people this would be enough continuing education, but not for Bebe. She’s also enrolled in a Prenatal Teacher Training. I’m exhausted just thinking about her schedule.
