I was one of her first trainees and must say she was a hard taskmaster. Her current trainees no doubt would agree with me. I enjoy these sessions as they give me time to discuss different ways to set students up depending on their difficulties. Not everything works for the same problem for each person that is one of the main things I have learnt. There is never any end to learning be it from our teacher, each other or our own self. I find this an important part of my teaching. The way knowledge is passed down in the Iyengar system is one of the things that makes this yoga special.
 
Apart from these training sessions I also attend about 4 times a year what we call our Professional Development Day. All the teachers in Perth join in these sessions which are run by our senior teachers. Again these offer an opportunity to discuss ways of teaching as well as advise about our own practice. I really don’t think anyone from the Iyengar community stops attending teacher training no matter what level they are.

 Carole Baillargeon, Senior Teacher, Darwin Yoga Space

Teacher Training in Darwin is a small and intimate affair.  First of all, it took quite a while to establish an Iyengar Yoga culture in Darwin and a lot of educating to do along the way but long gone are the days when I had to say:  ‘no, iced coffee cannot be kept on your yoga mat to drink during class’. That was in 1995, and 17 years down we have created, with other schools, a strong Iyengar tradition in Darwin.

At times our need for teachers was desperate and I tried to lure a few from ‘down south’ but without success.  Remoteness and heat alone make Darwin a hard place to sale. So as the students attendance grew and grew I had to start training teachers myself. I started to offer Teacher Training in 2000 and it evolved very slowly in an organic fashion and this month we broke a new record: five new students enrolled in the program which is more people enrolling at once than ever. 

There are many components to Teacher Training but Thursday morning; between 6.30and 10am is when the group comes together. For both parties (the trainees and myself) this session is one of the highlights of our week. Because our group is small, we know each other well and are tightly knitted: the training is challenging in many ways but there is also a lot of banter and laughter and of course at the base of it all a common drive for learning how to be the best teachers we can to support our yoga community. Thinking about it, the warmth and generosity we extend to our students probably comes in part, from the way we go about in Teacher Training.  And the trainees do enjoy their ‘small’ Teacher Training because they individually get a lot of attention from me….. and I Iove giving it to them.

Jamey Cock, Teacher trainee with Lulu Bull, Blue Mountains Yoga Studio

I am currently undertaking my Iyengar Yoga Teacher Training with Lulu Bull in the Blue Mountains, NSW. At present I am working towards my Introductory Level 2 Certificate. One of the main reasons I moved to the Blue Mountains 5 years ago was because Lulu trained her teachers through an apprenticeship rather than a course.

My training consists of the following; I am required to attend a minimum of two classes a week with Lulu. We have a teacher training session once every fortnight with all the trainees, where we are required to teach or practice in front of Lulu. We are required to assist Lulu in one of her weekly classes.  As a part of our training we all teach at least two regular classes within the school. Above all, it is expected that we have a consistent daily home practice of Asana and Pranayama.

It is a huge commitment of time for my family and I. It takes dedication and discipline for myself and also for my husband, who looks after our son while I teach and practice, at the end of his own working day. Doing this style of training has reaffirmed to me that Yoga teaching is not just a job that you leave behind when you go home, but a way of life.  Since undertaking the training my home practice has become very strong. My husband and child know that it is a part of my day and have adapted to that. One of the most valuable things I have learnt in my training is that a sustainable home practice will feed my teaching long after my Introductory Certificates are completed.

With this intensive style of training I feel like I am under the constant watchful eye of my teacher. I see my teacher at least three, sometimes four times a week. The amount of information that I receive formally through training sessions, and classes and informally through being a part of the yoga school and community, is rich and vast. Although I feel comfortable to approach my teacher with questions at any time, my queries are always answered before I have a chance to ask, either through a class or an observation or a point that she has made.  The apprenticeship style of training is a constant exchange of information verbally and non verbally and it seems that sometimes my teacher can read my mind.

My teacher sees me in at least two asana classes a week and is consequently familiar with my body, it’s patterns; it’s strengths and weaknesses. Although a lot of my findings are from work on my own mat, my teacher is able to shed light on things that I have missed and give guidance on a way forward. I find this invaluable.

I regard my apprenticeship as a conversation between my teacher and myself, as opposed to a course that has a definite beginning and end.  As my teaching and my practice become stronger we decide on a time to sit for the exam. This feels like a very natural and organic way of working. In the apprenticeship style you train solely with the one teacher. I have respect for her as a teacher, practitioner and as a yogi.  With this respect I entrust that she will guide me in the right direction. My experience with Lulu and the Blue Mountains Yoga School is inspiring and fulfilling, as a yoga student, as a teacher and an individual. I feel very blessed.

Many years back, one morning in Perth, I was forced to stay indoors because it was raining and I could not go for my usual bike ride with my regular group of fellow bike riders. Riding was my passion and I was feeling deprived. I decided to go to the local gym where I reluctantly joined the regular Yoga class. The teacher was Iyengar trained and I came out of the class having no clue what that actually meant, however something profound resonated inside of me during that first class. I was not sure what that something was. Because of this experience I decided to do the same Yoga class the following week and again a shift occurred inside of me.

Iyengar Yoga had logic and intelligence, and I felt energised after each class unlike my usual exhaustion after a long bike ride. I dug a little deeper, sought out more Iyengar Yoga classes, practiced more regularly and found changes occurring internally and externally in me with every session on the mat. I began to practice at home after having bought some of the Iyengar books, the first being The path to holistic health. I also acquired Light on Yoga, but early on I was daunted by the photos of Mr Iyengar doing asana. I would not even dare myself to read the explanation of how to do the asana. I recall giving my first copy to my teacher saying, “I could never dream to achieve any of the asana shown in this book in my lifetime. So what use is this book to me? You have it.”

I continued practicing and I began to feel different. I also began to question internally, I began to explore externally. I attended many workshops and intensives. I found myself reading Light on Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, The Bhagavad-Gita, and information on the wonderful health benefits of Yoga. I purchased another copy of Light on Yoga. I also began to feel that I wanted to give what I was beginning to experience to the people I cared for.  I then found myself wanting to impart the Iyengar Yoga method to people whom I had only briefly met for a myriad of reasons, be it health, fitness, wellbeing, stress management, lifestyle, etc.

Back in 2009 flyers came out requesting expressions of interest to do an Iyengar teacher training course at Yoga West studio in Shenton Park, W.A. with John Leebold.  I jumped at this opportunity and remember whispers going round that John required sufficient students in order to run the course as he was travelling interstate and internationally. I prayed that sufficient students would materialise because I really wanted to do this teacher training course. I even contemplated doing a distance teacher training course and began my search on the internet should John’s course not materialise.

Thankfully enough Yoga practitioners registered to do the course with John and we began as teacher trainees in May 2010. It has thus far been an incredible journey. I emphasise “incredible” on many core levels where I am challenged and equally rewarded every time I practice. I realised how little I knew before starting the teacher training course and I realise now that I still have so much more to learn and experience. This makes me feel humbled and blessed to be able to walk this journey with John Leebold and my fellow trainees. I am continuously amazed and immensely respectful of my regular teachers who give me encouragement and sometimes let me loose to practice my teaching skills on their valuable students. My teacher training journey will never be over even when I pass Introductory Lvl 2 and I am grateful for that. To be able to continuously learn, experience, and share Iyengar’s Yoga to the end of this life….how lucky I am!

Last year I was fortunate to experience Geeta Iyengar   at the South Africa Yoga convention and I will travel to RYMI in Pune next year. It will be a privilege for me to be in the presence of the Iyengar family and their teachers when I am in India. I believe it will add another layer of understanding and experience to my Iyengar Yoga teacher training and personal Yoga journey. I look forward to that and many more encounters with the Iyengar’s and their fabulous teachers around the world.

Lulu Bull, Senior Teacher, Blue Mountains Yoga Studio 

When I reflect upon how I became a teacher, I realise it was in the traditional form of an apprenticeship.

After a few years with various teachers, I settled with one teacher with whom I stayed with for many years.  Attending classes, practising in the same room, doing all the intensives, retreats, assisting in class, all this punctuated by regular visits to Pune to study with the Iyengars. It wasn’t ever a set frame time, the readiness to progress to the next stage, determined by my teacher. At some stage I was asked to start teaching all the morning classes and when it was deemed appropriate I began the process of assessments. (Again the time frame between these was determined by my teacher).

However this was not the main thrust of the experience, it was the practice and lots and lots of it!! This was closely followed by assisting, attending classes and being involved in all aspects of running a school. This suited me, I wasn’t in a hurry, I lived close, I was young and I saw the many benefits of being near my teacher and having daily contact.

27 years later, and with over 20 years of experience running my own school, I have adopted the same approach with my trainees. On average there are 4-6 trainees at any one time, they may be at different stages of their training, but it doesn’t seem to matter. Those who are at the same stage seem to “buddy –up “ together to practice and those in earlier stages have the advantage of having them as mentors . The mix is good!

The emphasis is on practice and the understandings that come from time spent on the mat .The time frame for when they apply for assessments is determined by me and their readiness. It requires that they are totally committed to spending a lot of hours at the school, in class, practising, assisting, teaching, with an additional day every fortnight specifically for teacher training. And of course visits to Pune and where appropriate attending workshops with visiting senior teachers. It is an  ‘in close’ experience, constant feedback, dialogues between trainee and teacher..so the relationship has to work, it has its benefits and its frustrations at times.

It does require that they live at a distance to make all this feasible, to allow them to fulfil all requirements.

From my perspective, it is a very different experience to attending a set teacher training course within a specific time frame. An apprenticeship system will not only train you as a teacher, but ultimately it supports you to develop your own practice, this being the natural source from which you can therefore teach. The teaching is more intuitive and less rote learnt. It produces yogis who are strong practitioners.

It is an on going process, an age-old method of passing on knowledge. Overall it may take longer, but the experience is rounded, the equivalent of a slow cooked dish, the flavours are rich and full, to be savoured not rushed.

I can distinctly remember why I started yoga teachers’ training. It wasn’t to become a teacher.  It was simply to be able to do more yoga. The course in 1980 was for five days a week, each day for a minimum of three hours for six months. In the seventies yoga didn’t have popular support and definitely wasn’t mainstream.  Uninformed people would often link yoga with a hippy life style or a cult, so to be practicing yoga seriously would raise doubts.

The course was held in an old tin roofed barn of a hall, freezing in the winter and hot in the summer.  Martyn Jackson’s voice would fill the space and enrich our knowledge. I was one of the lucky ones: I was taught well by a gifted teacher. Martyn was one of Guruji’s first international students.  He travelled to India and studied with Guruji in the sixties before the R.I.M.Y.I, was built.  At that time Guruji took classes (often one-on-one) in the family home. 

After completing my teacher training course I then assisted Martyn in his classes and would fill in when he was away.  I couldn’t have asked for better training.  In the early eighties yoga started to gain some credibility and the yoga school needed more classes so my yoga teaching began in earnest.

The crowning glory for me was meeting Guruji and subsequently going to Pune to study.  It confirmed that yoga was the correct life path and vocation for me.  Teaching felt like learning yoga another way: by developing new skills, having to intellectualize and articulate what was understood from the inside.  Teaching bought balance to my personality traits. Being naturally softly spoken, introverted and somewhat inhibited, I found that teaching developed positive and assertive aspects.

It is a surprising realization that I have been involved with training teachers in Iyengar Yoga since the early eighties.  I have witnessed the growth and change that is now part of our yoga history.  It is interesting for me to recall and ponder these times and know what a privilege and honour it has been to meet and work with so many people.

To recap a little of the history: under Guruji’s guidance the Australia Assessment Committee was established in 1986.  Pixie Lillas and I were part of that five-member committee and we both are still active in our community and the assessment process today. 

In 1987 the first assessments were held in Australia.  This began the first wave of teachers who held Introductory Level Certificates.  Those early days now seem like a time warp, it was before computers, internet and mobiles.  We took the first steps in starting the process; liaising with various international associations; organising on a shoestring; learning lots. From these humble beginnings our community has grown. 

Becoming a trainer of teachers has been a way of sharing the wonderful gifts I have been given.  I see Guruji as the pendant on the chain of Iyengar Yoga and I strive to maintain my link in the chain of knowledge, strong and polished.  This precious chain grows strong with dedication and love.

For me training teachers is a serious concern, it doesn’t stop because certain goals have been reached or certificates gained; it is ongoing.  Being part of a teachers’ study group gives me the opportunity and impetus to study and explore more fully the many aspects of yoga.  In this apprenticeship and ongoing teacher training programme, everyone learns.  I have to thank all the teachers who have allowed me to grow with them. To quote Guruji, ‘Education or teaching is finding the best within a person and bringing it to the surface’. (Tree of Yoga).