Is your YTTC cert worth anything?

Yoga Teacher Training
#1

It seems that there are many hundreds of YTTCs that anyone can attend and it seems that almost no one can fail!!!

I have done 3 YTTCs now , the first in the UK, many years ago…and people could fail…then later one in India with a teacher I do have great respect for but no one failed…even the woman who had done hardly any yoga before and seemed to me to do very badly during the course…this makes me wonder if my cert has any value at all.
The most recent YTTC I did was here in Asia it was divided into 3 parts giving plenty of time to practice what we were learning. there was a written exam and an evaluation of teaching skills…it was possible to fail…the standard expected was high.

I think that when you are looking for a good YTTC…you need to find a course that requires a minimum yoga experience of at least 2 years (with proof)

a course that is divided into sections or spread over a long period so that you have time to practice what you are being taught and develop your skills(and practice teaching regular people not just others course participants, they are too easy to teach)

…and a course that will not guarantee a cert to all participants…

.check that the have high standards for a pass… check if there are both written exams and an evaluation of your teaching ability…if everyone passes just because they paid for the course and showed up every day…is your cert worth anything???

#2

The certification has very little value, particularly because it is just a scheme which is designed to take advantage of the desires of people in the marketplace. More often than not, even the teachers themselves who are teaching in these teachers training programs have not really taken the science of yoga to it’s very innermost depth. Only those who have come to their awakening are capable of transmitting it in a way which is to assist another towards their own awakening. Unless you have discovered your own flame, it is impossible to trigger it in another, unless you have discovered your own light, it is impossible to dispell the darkness of your own ignorance. That is in fact what the very word “guru” means, it simply means the dispeller of darkness. But these days, just about anybody can be considered a guru - even in the East, it is not a matter of awakening, but of simply going through certain formalities which make you a qualified priest or a yogi. But qualification is not transformation.

Even those very few who may be offering teachers training programs who may be awakened - even then it is limited in it’s scope because the kinds of people who come to these programs are often not sincere seekers of Truth. They are interested in yoga for other reasons - either to dissolve stress, or to become physically fit, or just to have a teaching career.

So, for various reasons, I would say that if you are interested in exploring the yogic sciences in their full depth, then one will have to seek elsewhere than most of these teacher training programs. There may be rare exceptions, but they are as rare as one can imagine.

#3

Yoga Cambodia eh why do 3 Teacher Training courses???

There is huge variance in standards, some are stricter than others but unless you can really do Yoga and have decent grasp theory wise (names of asanas, physiology, alignment, etc) then you shouldn’t really be passing. Some places are probably so keen to have new Instructors (especially if franchise system) they don’t want to fail people and risk losing money, or some might think if they fail this person it might put them off Yoga for life and they never come back.

#4

3 because each was very different…there is always more to learn…
the first was "hatha"and very general…a good start but not enough depth.
The second was in India with a teacher I had been to previously and was Ashtanga with more depth into the sutras.
The most recent I mostly only did because it was just part of a YTTC that I was teaching to our Khmer teacher trainees… and I needed to be there so that I can continue the study with our trainees…and I was interested in what the teacher had to teach…