Yoga Instruction Online ? Buyer Beware!

Yoga Teacher Training
#1

Yoga Instruction online is slowly catching on. It’s a strange concept for some whose sole experience of yoga has been in a group class at the neighbourhood yoga studio, but for those who understand that yoga is much more than just a group of exercises and techniques, the internet has opened up a whole new realm of yoga learning.

But it has also created a lot of potential problems. Anyone with web experience knows that creating a professional looking website or posting well-polished videos is pretty easy stuff, and you don’t need to be proficient in your subject material to do it.

Yoga is no exception, which means separating the yoga experts from the non-experts isn’t easy. In fact, quite often the real yoga authorities have pretty amateurish looking websites, while some marginally educated yoga enthusiast have some pretty cool sites. The bottom line is, don’t be fooled by design.

That doesn’t mean you can’t learn a lot about yoga online. It just means that you have to be smart about it. There’s several things to consider …

The first is not easy to reconcile. It’s that hotly debated topic of what proper yoga instruction is. I’ve gone on at length in many other posts and articles about this, and I won’t tread too far there today.
What makes for good yoga instruction online is the same thing that makes for good yoga instruction in the living, breathing world - having a teacher that is qualified and knows what they are talking about.

… and I’ve got news that might surprise you Just because someone has a certificate for a few hundred hours of “yoga teacher training” and/or is registered by one of the popular modern yoga associations, does not mean they really have a deep knowledge or experience of yoga.

Yes, sadly … that’s true.

Proper knowledge and experience of yoga comes through years of dedicated study and practice under the guidance of someone who has a real mastery of yoga … something that very few of today’s yoga teachers have.
Finding the right yoga teacher does take some work. It might be easier to assess someone face to face that it is in cyberspace. At least, in person, flaws and cracks can’t be easily edited away, and teachers need to be able to demonstrate in real time that they have successfully cultivated the virtues and disciplines of yoga themselves.

But most well established yogis have an online presence now too, and some are starting to provide some great new opportunities to learn yoga online as well. The internet is definitely no longer a place to be ignored by aspiring yogis. My advice, as always, is to do your research before diving in too deep. Remember that all is not necessarily what it seems on the World Wide Web … after all, that’s why they call it “the virtual world.”

#2

Its a shame your adverts for your product seem to concentrate on what others lack, because a lot of what you say makes sense. The internet can help in yoga practice but is a poor substitute for face to face time. The experience you describe in your marketing is not mine , even those instructors that have not offered a full expose of the eight limbs,have been incredibly kind and helpful in my process, just as I would not call those that have shared meditation and ethics without pranayama and asana are lacking.
I would be more interetsed if your marketing spoke more about who you are and what you offer,I have looked at your websites but still have to wade through stuff about what others are not offering. I have looked at one of your lessons, but you are not selling online yoga instruction to me Michael. At least you have increased traffic to your websites which I beleive is crucial in "the virtual world"
yours in yoga Jai Ma

#3

My view differs slightly from Charlie in that the post seems innocuous and doesn’t name others while illuminating some of the larger issues we grapple with in Yoga today.

I believe books and video can have a small role in yoga education. To assert a larger role seems to overlook some critical elements of the practice - the transmission of sensation from the lineage of the teacher through she/he to the student and the ability of the practice to be malleable to the current state of the student, just to name two. But as long as one is well aware of the voids and doesn’t allow themselves to be self-deceived…

I see people all the time who have taught themselves Yoga at home, through a book, a DVD, or the the like and I frequently have to un-teach them before re-teaching as a cup that is full can hold nothing extra. In many instances they have missed the underlying living of yoga and on the physiological level are actually building in patterns that will emerge later in life and be quite serious.

#4

[quote=Yogacharya;30313]
What makes for good yoga instruction online is the same thing that makes for good yoga instruction in the living, breathing world - having a teacher that is qualified and knows what they are talking about. [/quote]

Quack Quack Yogacharya,

This is distorted, possibly even deceptive and really bad karma. You are either misinformed or taking advantage of those who are. Teaching is still something more than “knowing what you’re talking about,” it’s about being there. Can you pay attention to me online? Can you see my breathing, my emphasis, my focus? Will you cue me according to what I am doing at that critical moment?

What happens when I learn yoga without a teacher’s attention? Exactly what Gordon says and i agree with, you end up with bad habits that take far longer to reverse than to learn properly the first time, and that’s if you’re lucky, if you haven’t injured yourself.

$8.33 per session huh? Such a deal.

This one is on me.
siva

#5

Very good points Gordon, and I agree. Leaving people to “teach themselves” via books and videos is not good, and I am not in favor of the huge yoga book and yoga video industry, which largely does just that. That doesn’t mean that we can’t use those mediums in much more effective ways than they are currently being used … which is what I’m striving for. It’s been a learning process for me too, finding out what works well and what doesn’t. I don’t record an hour class for people to just pop in the video player and follow along. I definitely don’t think that just turning a yoga class into a video is a good approach to yoga teaching. I take a systematic approach, one that helps students to build up an understanding and firm foundation of personal practice in a step by step manner. I have enough success with students now to know that what I am doing is working. I don’t tell people to give up yoga classes, and many of my students tell me that they now have a much deeper understanding of what goes on in their classes and they get a lot more out of them as a result of the training they’ve gotten from me.

I can only say that when I get comments from yoga teachers who have actually taken the time to study through the programs I offer … and they say stuff like “I got more out of your course than I got out of my 500 hours of yoga teacher training,” (and I do get those kind of comments!) then I know there is great potential for helping to deepen the understanding of yoga through these mediums.

I do get a little resistance from other yoga teachers, but it’s mostly from those who haven’t bothered to really take a look at what I’m actually doing. Most who do take that time change their tone from skeptical to encouraging and supportive. I’ve found that most of their resistance is spurred on by things like sales pages, rather than the actual idea of online training, or the course material itself. But, unfortunately, I’ve learned that a certain amount of marketing is necessary and you do have to “play that game” to a certain degree if you want to get the public to engage with you in the sea of yoga noise online today. I know that “marketing” is like a 4-letter word to a lot of yoga folks. I hate it too and I used be so averse to any of it. The trouble was that it was hard to get anybody to notice. Now I’ve embraced the reality of the necessity of proper marketing, and the few feathers that still get ruffled are worth it in comparison now to the number of people who are really benefiting from what I’m doing.

Of course there will always be those who are just out to criticize anything that doesn’t fit in with their own narrow thinking … but that pretty much demonstrates how deeply yoga has really penetrated their beings anyhow.

Anyhow, that was a bit of a digression! ;O)

It would sure be wonderful if the Gurukul experience was the primary means by which people came to know yoga today, wouldn’t it? I’ve spend years myself in India immersed in yoga in the traditional ashram setting under the guidance of my yoga master, enough to know that the modern yoga class culture falls terribly short in its efforts and ability to transmit the teachings of yoga. What I am doing online is not a substitute nor a complete solution … but it augments much of what is missing in today’s yoga world and does seem to be adding much value for many people.

Thanks for sharing Gordon … I really appreciate your comments!

charliedharma, please visit my main yoga information website ( discover-yoga-online.com ). You’ll find much more about yoga and me there. no sales pages :O). You may also find my monthly yoga eZine revealing. It’s free to subscribe (discover-yoga-online.com/yoga-news.html ) … nice to meet you! :O)

Yours in Yoga,
Yogacharya

#6

I do not have the experience and background in Yoga to answer this question based purely on Yoga. I also have been using DVDs to train of late, but I do at least have some background in training with a real live teacher in the distance past and I am planning on returning to a teacher in the fall.

But if I approach this form what I know best, which is Chinese Martial Arts, I can say that distance training, be it on line or by DVD is not a good thing.

There is too much going on in Chinese Martial Arts that cannot be seen on a video and that you really need a Sifu (teacher) there to help you learn. There are some rather talented people (I am not one of them) that can learn form from video but then end up with no power or incorrect power and know nothing of applications. But I need to say that this type of talent is rare

Based on my limited background in Yoga I do see similarities here. There are postures that are so very easy to get wrong (sometimes dangerously wrong) that without a teacher there to correct you there will be problems. Those problems can pop up as bad habits that are very very hard to correct or injuries that may not be able to be corrected.

I will say the same thing about Yoga distance (DVD, online) training that I do about Chinese Martial Arts. DVD and/or Online training is at best a supplement for training with a real live teacher.

Just my 2 cents