Teacher Training
As I drove to Seattle for our Yoga Teacher Training Group Session today, I felt like I was driving right into the middle of a violent windstorm. That’s because I was! As I got off the freeway, I noticed a bunch of tree branches being blown all over the roadway. I still had to drive one little stretch of roadway from the freeway to the studio and it was lined with big, tall trees. I panicked as I drove down the street and watched several tree branches fall all over the place. At one point, I saw a huge tree branch come crashing down onto the road, across the street from where I was, right in front of a car. Thankfully the car and the person inside the car weren’t hurt. I was really looking forward to spending the next three hours locked inside a warm yoga studio while this crazy storm passed.
Once our Group Session started for the afternoon and we had an emergency plan in place, just incase the lights went out during the storm, we wasted no time getting down to business. We began with another Posture Clinic. During our last Group Session, we had finished with Rabbit Pose, Sasangasana. Today, we picked up at the Twists and Surrender Series, starting with Separate Leg Stretching With Forehead to Knee Pose, Janusirasana. We then finished up our Posture Clinic with the final posture in the sequence, Corpse Pose aka Savasana. I couldn’t believe it. We had covered every single posture in the Hot Power Fusion sequence and it was only Week Three of our Yoga teacher Training. Wow!
My favorite part during the Posture Clinic today was learning about the bonus round postures, that when done in class, are done right after Wind Removing Pose, Pavanamuktasana and right before Savasana. I’ve taken 12 HPF classes so far during my teacher training at CorePower Yoga and have seen only one or two of the bonus round postures being done in only a couple of classes. It was like discovering In-N-Out’s secret menu for the first time (my California friends will totally get this reference.) I was in awe. I had no idea!
After the Posture Clinic, we went into a round a HPF popcorn. This is where we all sit in a big circle, going around taking turns saying the breath and name of the posture that comes next in the HPF sequence. Today, we did the entire sequence, including the new postures we had just learned in the Posture Clinic, including all of the bonus round postures. It was tough, a little nerve wrecking at times, but extremely helpful. As always, whenever it was my turn, I’d look to the ceiling to give me the answers. It’s perfectly normal to expect the ceiling of a yoga studio to have all of the answers, right?
We finished up our final Group Session of Week Three with a Round Robin Practice Teaching session. This is where one of us in the group gets up in front of the class and teaches the rest of us yoga using the cues we’ve learned in class. And yes, for this round we also went through the entire HPF sequence. I stuttered and said um a million times when it was my turn, but I didn’t get super frustrated with myself or sweat profusely like I had when we did the first few Round Robin Practice Teaching sessions in Week Two or earlier this week. I was no where near being smooth, but dare I say doing this exercise does get easier the more times you do it? I look forward to the day when I can get up in front of my peers and lead them through portions of the HPF class without being nervous at all. I wonder when that day will come? Probably sooner than later, the more I make the time to practice teach at home.
The windstorm was still howling quite a bit after our Group Session ended for the day. I decided to stay inside the studio and take the 5:30 Hot Power Fusion class with Annalee, with high hopes that the weather would calm down by the time I needed to head home after class.