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 YogaFit debateModerators: Moderators Jump to page : 1 Now viewing page 1 [25 messages per page] | View previous thread :: View next thread |
| Yoga -> General Yoga | Message format |
Rebajane |
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| Hi, I am working toward the 200 Yoga Alliance teacher certification through YogaFit and have completed just about all but the final four day workshop that takes you through the last half of The Anatomy of Yoga book, The Yoga Sutras, and more. I can understand the debate. I practiced Iyengar yoga for many years before deciding to learn to teach. I took the first two-day YogaFit class with lots of doubts but decided to stick with it partly because I could stretch out the cost for Yoga Alliance certification over a two year period and partly because I did learn so much about teaching and sequencing in the YFI class. And in retrospect I think I have learned more by not trying to cram it into a two week training. As with most things in life there are good and bad things about YogaFit. Some of the master trainers are absolutely fabulous and some are not quite that good. None of the five I have encountered were bad or unbalanced in any way. The organizational structure of the program is actually pretty smart. The weak link is probably the student teaching element which is fabulous for the student teacher but should probably be done under supervision- but that is really not practical or cost effective. One thing I like about teaching the YogaFit style is that it emphasizes safe modifications and that is really what allows the less experienced to safely teach the poses. Not always the best situation, granted, but then I've been in yoga classes with less than optimal instruction as well. A yoga teacher at a well known yoga studio in Santa Fe "adjusted" me in shoulderstand and just about injured my neck. An Ashtanga yoga teacher in New York City was brusque to the point of being rude to all of the class participants... not so spiritual! I think each teacher should be evaluated based many charitaristics including but not limited to where they have trained. Another thing I have thoughly enjoyed in teaching at the fitness center in the little city where I live is that the willing curious get an introduction to yoga and many become very interested in pursuing all aspects of it. I love yoga. It has improved my physical self and my spiritual life and I want to share it but not just with the dedicated who come to my other class at the yoga studio across town. Rachael, YogaFit is not perfect but there are some really good things about it. If you want to become certified through YogaFit I don't think it is a mistake. It is a good place to start especially if you view it as the beginning of extended learning rather than a quickie certification. It is what you make out of it. You probably will not be really ready to teach after the initial two-day YogaFit I class, but you might if you are exceptional- perhaps a natural teacher with lots of yoga experience and knowledge. Good luck. Namaste | |||
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| yogamama |
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| I hope that those who are so decrying YogaFit yoga have personally experienced a YogaFit training. Otherwise, I fear that they are unfamiliar with or in defiance of the Yamas and Niyamas. I have practiced hatha yoga for over 5 years--several different forms including Mysore Astanga, Iyengar, restorative, and your basic everyday hatha yoga classes. Yoga has transformed my life, bringing me from many places of desparate sadness and frustration to my present place of calm and equanimity (remembering, please, that we are all works in progress and will be for our lifetime ). I have embraced the YogaFit system wholeheartedly although I still practice the Astanga system. I have experienced all the trainings at least once. The YogaFit instructors are knowledgeable about traditional yoga--the esoteric aspects of yoga as well as the asanas. In fact, as one grows within the YogaFit garden, all of those things are part of the training. Reading the yoga publications, one finds growing evidence of injury from certain repetitive movements of a yoga practice. YogaFit leads the way in tweaking the traditional poses to places that are safer for the AVERAGE PERSON JUST BEGINNING YOGA and the long-time yoga practitioner who takes care of body parts...this happens as we age. I've been in traditional yoga classes where the instructors had little ability to read their students and conduct a class that was appropriate for the participants. I've been in traditional yoga classes with stellar teachers who were able to draw us in to explore deep within us. which is what yoga is meant to be about. How we get there is less important. Yoga is not about producing perfect poses. It's about making a journey. How we treat others along the way is more important than which form of yoga we practice. Safety concerns? Yes. I have concerns about a teacher who pushes me into a pose that my body is not ready for. That was in an Astanga calss. I have concerns about how my impinged shoulder responds to scooping through to updog...and have adopted YogaFit's style to take care of my body's needs. The American public is beginning to embrace yoga in large numbers and deserve to have choices of yoga--safe choices. YogaFit teaches safety in the poses, selects poses that are safely beneficial for the general public. Yogis can adapt to their own needs because of their experience. The first-time student who has never been physically active or the athlete whose body is tighter than a drum come to yoga for the openings that happen over time. If they get injured early on, do you think they'll return? And if they don't return, will they reap the inner benefits that the body opens them to with physical practice? Too much judgement in these pages. RAchel, the YogaFit training system is a system. You attend a 2-day very intense working seminar. You are responsible for 8 hours of volunteer yoga teacher before you earn your certificate for Level one. If you enjoy the teaching and want to go on into the further reaches of yoga, you participate in the other levels that teach you more complex poses AND how to teach them, step by step of hands-on-with-participant-permission adjustments, the chakras, the yamas, the niyamas. YogaFit was among the first to embrace the David Coulter book of Anatomy for Yoga. Now it's a best seller in yoga circles. At every step, you have support from the people who trained you and those around you. IN my mind and in my heart, I can heartily recommend a YogaFit training. It is a wonderful way to open up yoga for the average person. If you would like further discussion with me, please feel free to contact me. Namaste--the light that is me honors the light that is you | |||
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| tourist |
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Expert Yogi Posts: 8440      | yogamama - First of all - congratulations on your practice. It sounds like it has been a blessing for you as it has for so many of us:-) Have we met on another board? I personally have less concern about long time yoga practitioners teaching yoga no matter how they certified. MY concern with Yogafit is that it claims to take a person with ZERO yoga training and make them a teacher in a weekend. I'm afraid the 8 hours volunteering means very little in my mind since it is not supervised. I've posted elsewhere on this board with an analogy to a knitting teacher and I stand by that. As far as safety and modifications go, if the Iyengar classes you have been to were with a qualified (not neccessarily certified since we teach for a couple of years with a mentor before we are eligible to take certification) Iyengar teacher, you should have found that it is a very safe method for all kinds of bodies. Bear in mind there are a lot of people out there who claim to teach Iyengar who really just teach Iyengar "style." Observing the yamas and niyamas does not mean we accept everything everywhere without using discrimination and examination. Really, over time a yogi becomes more and more discriminating with how s/he lives his/her life rather than less. I would never tell someone "do not go to X class, it is terrible." I don't have to. People say "I hear there is a weekend cert program, how long did you train?" When I tell them it is four years and still going, the look on their face says it all - experience and depth of practice make a big difference. | ||
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| YogaDancer |
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| Unfortunately, although the weekend #1 clearly tells fitness peope they hold a certificate for 15 hours of teacher training, the gyms who hire these accidents-waiting-to-happen simply call it a certificate and therefore, a certified teacher. The students/graduates of that 15 hours either run with it or do not know the difference themselves. Many, many fitness people go no further because this is all it takes to get another dollar or so per class. I, having experienced the YogaFit level I, can tell you that despite best intentions, the people with whom I share the weekend left with their eyes spinning, enough information (not knowledge) to injure their students, and absolutely no information about modifications or what a pose is actually for. There simply is not enough time in 15 hours to cover what a practice of years can teach someone. I, nor the studios where I teach and/or practice, would ever, ever consider hiring someone who was (sorry -- this is a judgement call I also stand behind) silly enough to have wasted their money on YogaFit and its slam-bam, so-called certification. They would be politely thanked, recommended to take a studio teacher training program in (probably) the yoga tradition of that studio where they happened to be applying, told to continue their practice for experience, and turned away as gently as possible. Hopefully the person turning them away will have the grace not to let their pity show to the YogaFit graduate. As a matter of fact, I think this is the first time I have ever admitted I have experienced YogaFit. It is certainly not on my résumé. I got into a spitting contest about the fact I could not and would not ever recommend YogaFit as comprehensive or safe training program. Ironically, it is not about YogaFit itself or its instructors, it is the fact that those who are released upon the world do not (usually) have practices themselves, and have no clue about the total body experience yoga is meant to be. But that is another story and another board. Hopefully in the 2 years since that, YogaFit has actually come to be more about the yoga than that insulting, denigrating hoo-ha about bringing yoga to the masses. How incredibly rude. But again, that is my opinion -- and experience. I see from the post here they finally made enough changes, evidently to satisfiy the YA. Standards are a good thing -- oh, and volunteer work means nothing, despite what YogaFit tells you. Siva (service) is part of every yoga tradition. Ask yourself honestly if you would do it for free if you did not have to. Also, simply because you experienced an attitude or forceful adjustment from someone, consider the niyamas and yamas before you condemn the remainder of that yoga tradition. Ashtanga teachers, without other training, can be as dangerous as YogaFit instructors. But so can anyone who forgets the Siva in yoga, making that student and the pose about themselves. Attitude? Before you condemn, ask yourself what was going on in their lives, perhaps? Consider the location and common human interaction? NYC is not So. CA or the midwest and many are affronted by the pereceived rudeness. Ask yourself questions. Dont use that kind of hoo-ha to attempt to elevate YogaFit or any other program as The One. There is value in all, but none are The Way, despite the western need to validate their choice so they are not wrong. Figure that one out and there is probably hope for you. Enough. C. | |||
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