Swastiyoga TTC Review
Choosing a yoga TTC program is challenging because reviews are either absent or overly glowing (it was amazing, the best teacher in the world etc). I chose this program with Rishikesh based Swastiyoga based on word of mouth after i arrived in India. This is my review of the program as it is taught in late 2018, and speaking as one with two years yoga practice.
A note about TTC200
The Yoga Alliance USA partially regulates teacher certification with a 200 hour program that permits you to teach, and a 300hr extension program that allows to you train teachers. Obviously the consensus is that these are just bare minimums, and attending either course will not per se make you a competent teacher.
The scope of the 200 hour program is such that it allows absolute beginners to attend, however, in practice, most participants tend to have some yoga experience. Thus, most people find the program a significant compromise. It is my view that the program should be two programs, a yoga primer, then the teacher training. So, best to heed the common advice to not expect too much from the program.
By treating it as a one month yoga immersion, and by doing it in India, you will get a great little taste of the real classical yoga.
For reasons not completely clear to me Swasti keeps a low profile. Theres no bookyogaretreats listing, and no Yoga Alliance profile (though they are fully registered). That reduces the review platforms to near zero. Welcome to India, where things are done, well, differently.
Surinder, fifty something, has a calm, friendly presence, and an indian wit that oozed perpetual anecdotes. He is someone who is particular about alignment and is not afraid of using props when needed, so a bit Iyengar inspired possibly. While he likes Surya Namaskara, a lot, he also covers the full range of asana. He holds poses for some time, so those looking for vinyasa will probably want to look elsewhere.
Swasti charge USD1000, plus optionally USD400 for accommodation and food. Our whole group elected to stay at the shala, and while you can easily do this for half the cost in the village, the accommodation was comfortable and most importantly it cut the commute time to zero. With such a tight timetable, and timetable changes, this proved the right decision. Like almost all of the TTC venues, the shala is basically a hotel, with the first level comprising reception, kitchen and lounge, then 3 floors of bedrooms, then the yoga hall, then lastly the roof deck above that. Its located on the outskirts of the Ram Jhula "yoga village" precinct, a bit of a trek by foot down this maze of back alley ways. The roof was the only place you could get some fresh air and sunshine, and we did more and more classes up there as the course progressed.
The program runs over 22 calendar days, with the first and last days being welcome and farewell, plus 4 days off, this leaves 16 teaching days to deliver 200 hours of material. (While 24 days is typical you can find programs up to 27 days also). So, yes, the course is intensive.
Our group was unusually small at 7 participants, all were last minute registrations due to a group cancellation. This made for a very personalised teaching process. Half the group were over 35, and only one had no yoga experience. The teaching team comprised Vikram (pranayama, anatomy), Surinder (asana), Vimal (philosophy), Swamiji (meditation), and Gurmeed (teaching methodology), and Usha (ayuveda). The entire team were in my view authentic indian yogacharyas, ashram trained, but with a surprisingly amount of experience in the west, as well as being lovely warm hearted people.
The daily timetable had some compromises in my view. The entire day seemed to be arranged around the centers popular daily drop in class. A typical day was: 0630 neti/pranayama, 0715 asana practice, 0845 drop in class, 1030 breakfast, 1115 anatomy, 1300 lunch, 1345 philosophy, 1530 teaching methodology, 1700 "general", 1815 meditation (every 2nd day), 2000 dinner. The general slot comprised pep talks from Surinder (always interesting), and later on where we each got to practice leading a class. Every other day you had an hour free at 6pm, and usually a half hour before lunch was generally also free. Other than that it was full on. Meal times were just long enough to eat your food, and after dinner, there is a 2100 front door curfew, so its basically straight to bed. By the end of the course most were tired, and i found myself nodding when someone said that they were glad that there wasn't another week. I think only two made it through the final asana class, with plenty of knee and back aches.
The dropin class was the first time i've ever seen yoga mats literally touching, 42 people in the class, 300 rupees. Again spread by word of mouth, people came as regulars day after day, arriving a half hour early to get a place. He would do an invocation prayer, then launch into 4 rounds of Surya Namaskar, the non classical high and low lunge, chaturanga version, holding each position for several breaths, and adding twists, leg ups, all sorts to it, making us really sweat. Then a brief savasana, then launching into a half dozen peak asanas, and finish with a long savasana, a closing prayer, followed by a ten minute philosophy talk.
The TTC participants were invited to attend this class each day if we wanted, either to take part or to observe. I went every second day and watching him at work taught me the value of sensitive personalised hands on adjustments, and about teacher student bonding. But it did feel a bit incoherant to do a our one hour asana practice in the morning, followed by the longer dropin (for the eager), then another hour and half in the afternoon of asana instruction. What im trying to say here is that while we got lots of practice there was little actual teaching instruction. Gurmeed's afternoon class nominally called teaching methodology consisted of teaching us in quite a lot of detail, how to perform correctly about 30 main asana. As none of the classes had learning objectives specified, and each day seemed to evolve in an organic, indian, chaotic manner, we were never quite sure what the day would bring, or how the various classes fit together. One day we were told we would be leading a class the next day, but we still hadnt had a single lesson about designing or running a class. As i had time to digest this, and after we had all successfully took our turn to lead the others in a 45min class, each quite different but all good, this oversight seemed irrelevant. By learning yoga well, we would each find our own way to share it with others.
The curriculum did tend to be a bit asana dominant. Partly this is because such programs are pitched at westerners, partly because the body is a doorway to the mind and soul. For me while the asana and anatomy were fairly familiar, but it was great to also learn something about pranayama (one of my own goals for the program, something that few 'yoga' teachers in the west broach in any meaningful way). Learning mantras, something about indian culture and meditation with Swamiji, and the three ayurveda classes were also interesting and enriching. But the jnana yoga component, in the form of our after lunch philosophy class proved to be my real teacher. Vimal's strong linguistic focus on the yoga sutras in the beginning far exceeded my ability to concentrate. As as time went on, i came to see this class as my personal challenge. I went out and bought a book on the sutras, and got stuck into it.
Overall, for me personally, the course was great. By not saying more about the program I hope that i will leave others to have your own experience with it. A couple of things that i will say is that during the first two weeks, many of the class had bad head colds, and this is part of the body acclimatizing to india. So, if possible come to india a few weeks before the program starts to get that out of the way. The other thing was that after the course, i felt like i needed some time to digest, and practice. Moving across the road to the Niketan Ahsram for a couple of weeks proved to perfect for that. Upon reflection, if i was to take this further, rather than the TTC300, i would look for a longer, non yoga alliance affiliated yogic studies program that some of the ashrams run.
2018-11-23
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