KEY POINTS:
What: One-year part-time course for ashtanga yoga students interested in becoming Yoga Alliance-registered teachers at the Yoga Academy.
Where: Yoga Academy, 190 Federal St, Central City, ph 357 0750, email: yoga@yoga.co.nz, website www.yoga.co.nz.
Prerequisites: Must have completed academy's YA 200 (one-year part-time course to become 200-hour registered teacher). Student's yoga practice must include specific poses done competently. Must be over 18 and under 60. Must not smoke, and avoid abuse of drugs and alcohol. Proficient in English. Must have basic computer skills.
Course cost: $462 each month. YA500 students do get paid for teaching classes.
Courses: Start January 5.
Course requirement: Students wanting to teach at the academy are required to travel to Sri K. Pattabhi Jois and Sharath Rangaswamy in Mysore, India, to work towards obtaining an authorisation letter from the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute.
Course numbers: Three on the YA 500, (10-12 on YA 200).
Recognition: The academy is not NZQA-recognised but it is Yoga Alliance-recognised, which allows graduates to teach overseas.
What else? Different styles of yoga teacher training are available at Ashram yoga (www.ashramyoga.com) and Wellpark College (www.wellpark.co.nz).
Job opportunites: Teaching in the academy, private classes, gym and corporate classes; working in health spas and on cruise liners.
Student safety is top priority in the Yoga Academy's teacher training programme.
Jude Hynes, director of training, focuses on teaching students how to keep people safe in the various poses in yoga.
"Some people come with lower back problems, neck or knee problems. As a yoga teacher you need to be able to modify poses or give them other poses according to the injury they may be carrying or an illness they may have.
"And, of course we have lots of body types; the stiffer body, the older body, the younger body, the super-flexible Asian bodies, the pregnant body. Adjustment is a big part of that."
"Also we work on the basis of educational psychology, which is how adults learn whether their learning style is visual or auditory or kinesthetic."
The students also see themselves as teachers, and look at practical application of the philosophy of yoga in the modern Western world.
After students have done the introductory teacher training course, the YA200, they can teach the beginners' version, of the primary series of ashtanga vinyasa yoga in gyms, to corporates and in yoga schools around Auckland.
Students who progress to the YA500 course teach two classes of their own solo at the academy and assist with others, working alongside a senior with at least 10 years of experience.
The academy also films students' practice and their teaching. "They look quite different at the end of the year. We film them on the first day and the last day before graduation; and show these on two screens at graduation. People say, 'My god, look at the difference!"'
THE EMPLOYER
Peter Nilsson
Director/owner, Yoga Academy
Eleanor came through the training with excellent qualities and we took her on with two others, two years back.
And she has proved her worth.
Those wanting to be yoga teachers need to practise five to six days a week.
They need to show competence.
They don't necessarily need to be flexible.
However, they need to progress towards flexibility and pass various exams.
They do the course and the practice and they have to be a group person and have a good personality with the students.
Being one of the biggest yoga schools in Australasia, we can place 50 per cent of our students.
Some of our graduates have started their own yoga schools.
THE GRADUATE Eleanor Smith
Aged 30
Ashtanga yoga teacher with Yoga Academy
Graduated December 2007
I attended the Yoga Academy and Peter Nilsson was my teacher; and then Jude came on board and started offering the YA200 and YA500. I loved yoga and thought the best way to do yoga is to teach it.
We practised five days a week and taught between three to seven classes a week, in terms of assisting the teacher and teaching our own classes, with Jude supervising. It is really intensive training.
I chose to stay with the Yoga Academy as they are fantastic teachers. They have been around for about 10 years.
I have my normal day job working for a corporate trust. The great thing about the yoga course is it is part-time. The modules are during the weekends and you teach evenings or early mornings.
Yoga de-stresses me. In the corporate world you are dealing with people who are stressed and highly charged. With yoga, the community is different, priorities in life are different, they take time out and they focus on things that really matter.
At the moment I am teaching Monday and Tuesday at 7pm and Saturday at 9am and Friday 6am, a mix of beginners and Mysore style, which is more advanced.
