As I have recently been taking yoga seriously in the last 2 months, I’ve been making great practice.
I hope to be a yoga teacher in the future.
Do you think this is a good performance of the yoga headstand?
What sort of feedback are you seeking?
[QUOTE=InnerAthlete;85764]What sort of feedback are you seeking?[/QUOTE]
Do you think this was a good, informative video and that perhaps I could have the chops to be a yoga teacher one day?
I know there is very little to go on, but I plan to make more yoga videos in the future and wondering what you think of this one?
Okay I’ll bite …
Chops aren’t what makes a yoga teacher. What makes a yoga teacher is a deep willingness to study the subject in their own body, the commitment to a sound training with a skilled guide, an understanding that the skill set of a doer and the skill set of a teacher are not identical, compassion for students, and humility.
Teachers of yoga take on an enormous responsibility and it shouldn’t be mangled, neglected, overlooked, or otherwise shirked.
As for the video, if I am to assess it in terms of a conveyance of Yoga then I would have to raise concerns. The first is that bearing weight on the head comes with a higher risk than other postures. As a result, the pose has to be instructed in very particular ways so as to do no harm whatsoever.
The second is that there’s no preparation. Teaching something requires that foundational elements are taught first. As an example one would not teach algebra to a person who wasn’t first skilled in multiplication, or addition for that matter.
The third is the lack of alignment. Just as your home stands in a storm due to the ways in which the components are aligned (and falls over at the first huff when it is not) so too is the case for asana. Aligned poses foster a profound flow (energetically) in the body. Malaligned poses places excessive demand on connective tissue and go into the weaker links in the body in the low back, neck, and knees.
The fourth is whether this pose is at all appropriate for beginning students with little or no practice in their body. Students should be taught inversions. But they should not be going into them, especially unsupervised, if they have not first fulfilled foundational abilities alluded to above. A student who cannot do a sound downward facing dog has no business doing headstand (yet). A student who does not know of and cannot access the action of the serratus anterior has no business doing headstand. A student who has not properly been taught the corrct placement for the head for the pose should not be doing it. To ignore these things is to invite cervical spine issues.
Now I’m certainly okay with a person inviting whatever issues they need in their lives to learn the lessons they are here to learn. And as I tell my students, if you want to stand on the tip of your nose at home, that’s up to you. But not in my class, on my watch, and under my direction. No sir.
I very much appreciate the feedback, especially regarding safety.
Hi DG,
You’re enthusiasm is admirable, but 2 months of practice is a really really short time. And while you’ve obviously found a lot of passion for yoga in the last couple of months, that by no means makes you qualified to teach.
Gordon is (as usual) spot on with his comments above. You have to remember that according to Patanjali’s yoga sutras asana is only 1 of his eight limbs … therefore only 1/8 of yoga is the things you encounter in a typical yoga class.
I first posted on this forum about 7 years ago when I was distressed that an injury was preventing me from starting the yoga teacher trainers course I had enrolled on … after only 1 year of my own practice. I now firmly believe that injury was a sign. 7 years later I’m about to graduate from a teacher’s course that I could not have fully benefited from or even fully comprehended without the last 7 years of deeper study and practice AND overcoming my own ego to deal with an injury in a mature way and really evaluating WHY I wanted to teach.
I really believe that I would have been a terrible teacher if I had followed my desire to become a yoga teacher seven years ago and now I am humble to realise that a training course is just the beginning.
I don’t want this to seem like a holier than thou message. But, your headstand was not great even from a purely physical perspective.
However, you do obviously have a confident and communicative approach that may make you an excellent teacher one day … please, just not today 
[QUOTE=JenW;85781]Hi DG,
You’re enthusiasm is admirable, but 2 months of practice is a really really short time. And while you’ve obviously found a lot of passion for yoga in the last couple of months, that by no means makes you qualified to teach.
Gordon is (as usual) spot on with his comments above. You have to remember that according to Patanjali’s yoga sutras asana is only 1 of his eight limbs … therefore only 1/8 of yoga is the things you encounter in a typical yoga class.
I first posted on this forum about 7 years ago when I was distressed that an injury was preventing me from starting the yoga teacher trainers course I had enrolled on … after only 1 year of my own practice. I now firmly believe that injury was a sign. 7 years later I’m about to graduate from a teacher’s course that I could not have fully benefited from or even fully comprehended without the last 7 years of deeper study and practice AND overcoming my own ego to deal with an injury in a mature way and really evaluating WHY I wanted to teach.
I really believe that I would have been a terrible teacher if I had followed my desire to become a yoga teacher seven years ago and now I am humble to realise that a training course is just the beginning.
I don’t want this to seem like a holier than thou message. But, your headstand was not great even from a purely physical perspective.
However, you do obviously have a confident and communicative approach that may make you an excellent teacher one day … please, just not today :)[/QUOTE]
Thank you for the feedback too.
I’m not going to attempt being a teacher for another couple of years at least, but it is 100% something I am very excited for in the future.
In the mean time I will make occasional videos regarding it, just purely for fun.
“Give the hard earned money you’ve been saving to have your name put on the 200 hour Yoga Alliance directory and you’ll be good to go” [B]~Guru Sarcastic[/B]