Yoga Teacher Training
with Windfire Yoga (Yoga Register School)
Principal: Godfri Devereux
About the School:
Windfire Yoga Teacher Training offers a comprehensive training
in Classical Yoga. It goes to the very core of the yoga method
and clarifies its simplicity and effectiveness. All yoga styles
are based around this core: asana, vinyasa, bandha, pranayama
and meditation. Different styles giving different emphasis to
the different elements. The Windfire Yoga Teacher Training establishes
the nature of their relationship by clarifying their inherent
unity. This reveals the essence and emphasis of all diverging
styles, while contextualising them within the pragmatic core
of the method. In effect then it is not only a training in the
essence of yoga, but also the key to every possible style of
teaching and practicing.
When considered through the clarifying lens of its foremost
authority, Patanjali, yoga appears very simple. According to
Patanjali the “activity of yoga is passionate enquiry
into the source of personal action”. This enquiry can
take place within the context of any internal activity. Its
purpose is to free action, perception and their vessel from
their habituated limitations. The effectiveness of this enquiry
depends upon establishing the body in “joyful steadiness
free from tension”. Any technique, any method, any style
of practice must support this process for it to honestly be
categorised as yoga. Only then can it lead to the freedom that
unfolds through yoga’s eight limbs: yama, niyama, asana,
pranayama, dharana, dhyana and samadhi.
The inevitable and necessary proliferation of schools and styles
of yoga over time has masked its essential simplicity. This
proliferation can only be clarified and understood through a
unifying perspective that burns through the apparent conflicts
to their essential core. This perspective can be provided by
the lens of the five elements: the five universal tendencies
or energies that underlie all aspects of manifestation, expression
and consciousness. Their dynamic is the inherent mechanism whereby
the natural world takes shape. Not only as a whole, but also
in every detail. It is the dynamic whereby all phenomena arise
from, change within and dissolve back into the matrix of their
source. The dynamic of yoga postures also expresses this universal
principle.
In yoga posture practice the solid stable continuity of Earth
energy is expressed in the form or shape of the posture (asana).
The fluid, potent cohesion of Water energy is expressed in the
movement in and out of postures (vinyasa) The intense, dynamic
catharsis of Fire energy is expressed in the internal integration
of the posture (bandha). The free, effortless vitality of Air
energy is expressed in the quality of breathing in the postures
(pranayama). The direct, immediate clarity of Space energy is
expressed in the internal awareness of the posture (drushti).
Each one of these five fundamental techniques can be more or
less emphasised. This gives yoga practice an endless possibility
of emphasis and variety. This boundless potential can also lead
to confusion. If specific emphases are attached to, the inherent
unity of the five elements is obscured and the dynamic simplicity
of yoga lost.
The Windfire Yoga Teacher Training penetrates to the very heart
of the hidden simplicity of yoga. Accordingly it is not a training
in a special style of yoga. It is a training in the practical
heart of yoga, that is relevant, applicable and essential to
any genuine yoga style. It offers a practical grounding in the
heart of the yoga method based on a clear understanding of the
nature of body, action, mind, perception, cognition, volition,
self, consciousness and their interrelationship. This understanding,
and its pragmatic implications, can then serve as a safe and
effective basis for teaching yoga in any style and according
to any school. This not only allows you to teach in the style
of your own practice, but to adapt your own understanding to
the needs and familiarities of others for different approaches
to practice, whatever they may be, without ever compromising
the power and integrity of yoga.
Based on the two fundamental texts of yoga: The Yoga Sutras
and the Bhagavad Gita, Windfire Yoga Teacher Training is primarily
pragmatic. It has been developed by Godfrey over many years.
It is based on the Dynamic Yoga Training Method. This method
is a specific approach to the learning of yoga. It is not a
style of yoga practice. What it teaches can be contextualised
into any style of practice that respects the biomechanical principles
of the body. Through the internal activity of yoga practices
it clarifies the source and nature of action and perception.
This clarification occurs pragmatically through the body via
the breath to the mind.
It is in six parts:
* The three week Dynamic Yoga Foundation Course (75 hours).
* The two week Dynamic Yoga Advanced Training (DYAT)(practice
and self-practice modules) (40 hours).
* The Windfire Yoga Teacher Training Course (TTC) (245 hours),
* A written paper.
* A Windfire Yoga Teacher Training Manual.
* A Yoga Teaching Review.
It consists of approximately 360 Contact Hours of practical
and theoretical training in the yoga method, and requires approximately
150 hours of individual study. 2005 The Foundation Course occurs
in May, August or September. It provides a thorough practical
grounding in the method of Yoga according to the principles
of the Dynamic Yoga Learning Method. It is a prerequisite for
all students, no matter how experienced. In it the dynamic yoga
method of yoga practice is learned.
Dynamic Yoga Advanced Training (DYAT) consists of the practice
and self-practice modules. They allow you to embody what you
have learned in the Foundation Course, so that what will be
taught in the TTC is already somatically available to you.
The Windfire Yoga Teacher Training Course (TTC) is an intensive
programme. It is a direct continuation of the foundation course
and the DYAT. In it the method learned in the foundation course
is analysed precisely and profoundly so that it can be effectively
taught. It is not designed to teach the dynamic yoga training
method, but to teach how to teach it. It takes place in 2005
in October.
The Teacher's refresher is a one week review of yoga teaching
skills designed to refine and clarify your understanding on
the basis of your own teaching experience and that of your peers.
It is a direct continuation of the Windfire Yoga Teacher Training
Course (TTC).
- The written paper is undertaken as a self study programme
with feedback from us, initiated during the Training Course.
This can be completed whenever you wish.
- The Teaching Manual is begun on the training course: you
will submit a rough draft of the core manual, during the TTC.
- The Teaching Review takes place during TTC.
- Following fulfilment of the above criteria certification
follows direct, personal assessment of your understanding
by Godfri.
- Further training in the art of teaching yoga is provided
biannually in The Dynamic Yoga Teacher's Refresher.
The training is designed to clarify the simplicity of the yoga
method and its transmission in practice. This involves approaching
Yoga from the multiple perspective of the five elements, which
are essential to a pragmatic understanding of the method. Our
training presents this dynamic and practical perspective within
the context of Patanjali's Yoga Darshana, outlined in his Yoga
Sutras. It ensures that you are not restricted by the limitations
resulting from attaching to a partial perspective. The emphasis
of the training is on the clarification of safe and effective
technique and its transmission. This is applied to a curriculum
of 120 techniques including:
* 15 breathing techniques, and their variations
* 10 meditation techniques, and their variations
* 5 linking techniques, and their variations
* 90 yoga postures, and their variations.
These techniques are analysed, in both theory and practice,
according to both their common principles and specific differences.
Each aspect of the technique is presented in its relationship
to all others. This permits an open-ended adaptation of each
technique to different limitations and capabilities. This analysis
is made from the pragmatic perspective of progressive sequentially
(vinyasakrama). This specific contextualisation of technique
provides a pragmatic framework for its varied transmission in
a class context. Emphasis is given to effectiveness of both
theory and application so that safety, the foundation of effectiveness,
becomes the fundamental issue underlying teaching of the techniques.
Together these 120 techniques, and their variations, provide
a curriculum through which safe and effective yoga practice
can be taught in a dynamic and interesting manner to the widest
possible range of students. This will permit you to present
Yoga safely and effectively within a context that serves as
a fertile seed for further development and refinement. It will
also permit you to develop a rich, satisfying and varied curriculum
for your students. Matriculation requires a practical understanding
of the relationship between the five aspects of Yoga: devotion,
service, purification, self enquiry and meditation and proficiency
in the five techniques of Yoga: asana, vinyasa, bandha, pranayama
and drushti.
During the Dynamic Yoga Training Course there will be tuition
for 23 full days and 5 half days. Each day has its own theme
based on one underlying principle of the yoga method, or its
specific application to a group of linked techniques. This will
be explored from five different perspectives: guided practice;
visual presentation; didactic presentation; personal exploration;
group exploration. This multiple perspective is designed to
clarify your understanding of safe and effective application
and transmission of each technique and its underlying principles
so that the simplifying unification of these principles is clarified
in action and understanding. It is on the basis of this simplifying
unification that the extraordinary effectivenss of the dynamicyoga
method of teaching yoga rests. Towards the end, the course will
include practice teaching by students. Each day students will
be expected to clarify what they have learned for themselves,
in the preparation of their teaching manual.
Acceptance on the training depends upon the judgement of Godfri
following a three week Foundation Course. This is a prerequisite
for everyone, serving as it does as a necessary foundation to
the teacher training. Certification follows satisfactory completion
of all the necessary Courses, Refreshers and Reviews, the written
paper and the Manual. Certification may sometimes require further
self practice, self study, training or assessment, but not repetition
of the Teacher Training Course.
The Dynamic Yoga Teaching Certificate will authorise you to
teach yoga through the medium of the Dynamic Yoga Teaching Method.
Graduates of a School on the Yoga Register (YRS)
are entitled to use the letters YRT (Yoga Register
Teacher) and benefit from a discounted subscription rate of
£25 for annual entry on The Yoga Register (www.theyogaregister.org).
Technical Training:
The Dynamic Yoga Technical Training is the core of the course.
It is a comprehensive exploration of the principles and practice
of the Yoga method. The main focus is on the five techniques
of Yoga: asana, vinyasa, Bandha, pranayama and drushti. They
are presented so as to clarify the differences and relationships
between Dynamic Yoga, Ashtanga Yoga, Iyengar Yoga, Viniyoga
and Power Yoga. The technical training forms the basis of a
personal teaching manual outlining the method. This manual is
prepared daily as the basis of a future teaching guide.
The Dynamic Yoga technical training has two aspects: somatic
and didactic. The somatic training clarifies effective performance
of each technique. This is based on guided practice of each
technique within a fertilising context of other techniques.
Each aspect of each technique is progressively clarified in
action. Yoga techniques are not matters of opinion, though opinions
about them can be endless. They are irrevocably bound by the
laws of biomechanics, biology, chemistry, physics and consciousness.
This means that each technique, while having many ways of being
done incorrectly and fruitlessly, has only one way to be done
correctly and fruitfully. But that the exact expression of this
will always vary from person to person, from practice to practice.
The didactic training analyses effective transmission of each
technique. This exploration is based on analysis of the shared
dynamic principles underlying the various groups of technique.
Each aspect of each technique, and each underlying principle
is progressively clarified in action, analysis, definition and
instruction.
The heart of the Technical Training is Vinyasa Krama: the bedrock
of the Dynamic Yoga Teaching Method. Vinyasakrama implies step
by step progression. This applies to both learning (somatic)
and teaching (didactic) yoga techniques in four steps.
i) Postures are learned in stages. This allows for gradual
assimilation of the underlying techniques, which are gradually
built up from the foundation to constitute the whole.
ii) Postures are entered and exited in specific steps. This
allows for safe and effective establishment of the body in the
shapes of the postures.
iii) The postures are introduced gradually, either in linked
groups or individually. This is done according to their accessibility
and effect, so that they prepare the ground for each other in
accessible sequences that allows the body to open without strain
or exhaustion and the mind to open without resistance.
iv) The posture sequences are also introduced sequentially
according to their accessibility and effect.
Overall this means that the individual techniques are presented
within a unifying context that makes transparent sense of the
use of each. This contextual presentation also clarifies the
underlying principles not only of the techniques, but also the
context. This permits greater autonomy and creativity to both
teacher and student.
Dynamic Yoga Theoretical Training:
The theoretical training is based on exploring the nature and
potential of being human. Upon this contextual basis it explores:
i) The theory of yoga: the nature of consciousness, awareness,
attention, concentration, thought and insight; the nature of
freedom, effort, action and relaxation; the internalisation
of awareness as the eight limbs of yoga; the source of integrity
in action (yama); the context of integrity in action (niyama);
the relationships between gravity, effort, action, challenge,
stability, ease, tension, release and relaxation (asana); the
relationships between breath, mind, awareness and consciousness
(pranayama, Pratyahara, dharana, Dhyana, Samadhi, kaivalya):
applied anatomy of yoga techniques; applied physiology of yoga
techniques; applied neurology of yoga techniques; the relationship
between anatomy and physiology in yoga practice; the relationships
between mind, body, breath, movement, intelligence, action,
impact, effort, relaxation and awareness. In addition students
are required to undertake their own study of pure anatomy and
pure physiology, upon which they are tested, and for which advice
and guidance is available.
ii) The theory of teaching: the theory of learning; the neurology
of adaptation and assimilation; the power of repetition; the
utilisation of principle; the utilisation of perspective (5
elements); the art of presentation; the art of verbal communication;
the art of visual communication; the art of listening; establishing
rapport and confidence; visual diagnosis of constitution and
condition; the art of sequencing; the art of progressive variation;
the art of therapeutic variation.
It also includes a deep and pragmatic study and interpretation
of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras as a practical guide as well as philosophical
primer.
Spiritual Training:
Spiritual training is the most important, subtle, and elusive
requirement of a Dynamic Yoga teacher. It includes learning
to allow a creative freedom with sensation, feeling, perception,
desire, instinct, emotion, thought, intuition, intent and surrender.
This does not depend on any specific techniques, but on the
ability to relate to yoga, life and the world as a mirror. Your
ability to use technical and scientific knowledge spiritually
depends on Yogavidya: living from awareness of the true nature
of the self. The source of this awareness is your ongoing selfpractice.
Daily guidance in this will be given during the training in
the form of directed and assisted practice. We also offer you
support in this through our various retreats, in particular
the Self-Practice, Dynamic Yoga Teacher Refresher and Dynamic
Yoga Intensive retreats.
Dynamic Yoga Teachers Apprenticeship:
The Dynamic Yoga Teachers Apprenticeship is for those who wish
to immerse themselves in a life of yoga for a period of at least
six months ending in October with the Dynamic Yoga Teacher Training.
It gives you the opportunity to devote your full energy and
attention to developing your yoga practice and your teaching
skills, free from the distractions and obligations of your normal
life. It is also open to those not wishing to teach who simply
wish to live yoga without having to renounce the culture and
reality to which they belong by birth and conditioning. All
apprenticeships involve work exchange in addition to the discounted
monetary cost.
THE WINDFIRE DYNAMIC YOGA TEACHER TRAINING
IS AN INTENSE STUDY
REQUIRING COMMITMENT AND DEDICATION
For further information:
website:
www.windfireyoga.com
email: bookings@windfireyoga.com |