The following article, Does your teacher meet your standards, appeared in the January 2008 edition of YOGA AND HEALTH magazine

This is the time of year when many of you, perhaps being new to yoga, will be preparing for your first yoga class of 2008. But how do you know if the person standing at the front of the class is a ‘qualified’ teacher, a sincere and dedicated practitioner of many years standing with hours of training, or someone who completed a self-study correspondence course and, with no real experience, has set themselves up as your guide? Accreditation for UK yoga teachers is a slippery thing. Who is qualified? Who is not? According to the British Wheel of Yoga, an organization that claims to be THE governing body for the yoga industry in the UK, you can only become a qualified yoga teacher by completing one of their teacher training courses. But what about the many thousands of yoga teachers, many of whom are trained in India, the spiritual, literally and metaphorical, home of yoga, who are simply not recognized by the Wheel? The Wheel do not recognise the excellent teacher training offered by the Iyengar system which is much more rigorous than the Wheel training and is rooted with an Indian teacher, BKS Iyengar who was listed as one of Time magazines most influential people of 2006. The Wheel has no such roots in India. It is a Western yoga system, developed by westerners, taught by westerners and in many ways far removed spiritually and in conception from what an India would see as yoga. Set up to counterbalance the Wheel, the Independent Yoga Network is a new organisation trying to promote diversity of training in the yoga community. While its ideology and motivations are sound its criteria for membership are weak and easy to exploit. The same criticism is true for the American Yoga Alliance. At the end of the day if you fill in the form appropriately, perhaps twisting the truth a little to make your yoga education sound longer and better than it actually is, and pay the annual fee the IYN and the YA will add you to their register, no questions asked. There is only so long this situation can last. While I have some reservations about formal yoga qualifications like BTEC I feel that long term this could be a solution to many problems. Learning philosophy, anatomy, professional skills and the art of adjustment for asana teachers in a standardised way would still allow teachers to express the teaching of the tradition they come from but would ensure a benchmark for all. Additionally, ensuring that anyone who enters the programme has had a regular yoga practice for three years ensures a certain level of knowledge. Experienced teachers, confident of their abilities, could simply take the final exams and complete a viva to demonstrate their competence. However, simply studying with an Indian yoga master is no guarantee of quality. Many Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga teachers who have studied with its leading light, K Pattabhi Jois are simply terrible teachers yet state they are his direct student asid that is a distinction that guarantees quality. Many teachers I know are simply inadequately prepared to instruct others, regardless of whom they trained with. Many know little about anatomy and physiology. Surely this is a prerequisite of anyone who want to work with student’s bodies, especially in such a physically demanding practice and one so dependent upon physical adjustments. One experienced Pattabhi Jois student recently asked me what Patanjali’s Yoga sutras were? Soon this student will, if she gets her way, be teaching Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga with the direct authorisation of Pattabhi Jois’ Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute. I read an article a few days ago that claimed yoga teaching is now one of the most desirable occupations for those seeking a career change. What is most frightening is that there are absolutely no impediments to stopping many of those well meaning people to simply set up shop in a local hall or health club and start teaching. Chances are no one will ask to see their qualifications or even their liability insurance certificate. Say you go to class and your teacher hurts you with a poorly judged physical adjustment. This is not uncommon, especially in a very physically challenging asana practice like Ashtanga Vinyasa. Say you need physiotherapy or other physical therapy to heal what has been damaged. What are you going to do? If you went to a dentist and they ruined your teeth you would sue. If your doctor prescribed inappropriate medicine and you got sick you could seek compensation from the BMA. The UK government is currently taking the line that as long as each alternative or complementary health modality start to self regulate. This is a cop out by the government and rather than empowering the individual practitioner it simply allows each industry to set ridiculously low standards for their members to reach. For a yoga teacher I would argue that it is appropriate, regardless of which style of yoga they teach, for them to have a firm grasp of the philosophy that underpins their practice and their teaching. Surely it is not too much to expect a teacher to have a firm grasp of Patanjali and the Bhagavad Gita. For hatha yoga teachers surely a strong knowledge of anatomy and philosophy are essential. I have been practicing Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga since 1993. I have been practicing daily – by this I mean five or six days a week – for more than ten years. I have studied Indian philosophy with an Indian professor and Sanskrit and chanting with another. I have completed on anatomy course and am currently studying for a more advanced Anatomy and Physiology course. Many teacher bios state that they have completed a teacher training with such and such teacher. Ask yourself a question – what validity do these course have. Most yoga teacher training courses operate on the simple basis that if you pay the fees and attend the course you will get a certificate. Is this a criterion for training someone? Where is the quality control? Without a failure rate what is the validity of the course. How long would a university keep its good reputation if it gave all of its students a first class honours degree simply for turning up to the odd class for three years? My recommendation to all students, especially new students is simple: • Try and find a teacher via person recommendation. • Ask your teacher if they practice every day and for how many years. If they are not practicing how are they constantly adding to their knowledge? • Establish that they have insurance by asking to see their certificate. I recently taught at a yoga centre and when I asked around many of the teachers admitted quite openly that they rarely if ever practiced the asana systems that they were teaching. Many simply didn’t have time to practice due to their hectic schedules and a few expressed mild surprise that I still practiced asana every day and that I often spend many months of each year studying with my teachers. For many once they set themselves up as teachers they simply see no need to still be students. Yoga as an industry will continue to not be taken seriously until its teachers get their act together and decide on stringent criteria that make a teacher. I would suggest that each teacher should be assessed on their knowledge of philosophy, of anatomy and physiology if they teach hatha yoga, and that there is continuing education requirement that requires them to update their skills. Setting the bar high might mean that many people currently teaching are compelled to stop doing so. Without being excessively Draconian, natural wastage of the weaker members of our profession may strengthen the position of the whole community. The stable door is open. Soon the horse will bolt and if we, the yoga teaching community do not get our act together and work together, we may soon be unable to change the system from within and the government may step in and do it for us. That would be a sad day for all of us and will inevitably mean that some who are currently teaching are legally compelled to stop teaching. HOME How to perform Mula Bandha article.