Namaskar - Oct 2006

Namaskar • A Voice for Yoga in Asia
Teacher Training
A Pure
Experience
Kenneth Wong
Pure Yoga recently held
Hong Kong’s first fulltime
yoga teacher
training course and 39
students successfully graduated from
the programme on 19 August.
Before undertaking the course, I was
quite concerned it might be too
rigorous. The tight schedule and long
hours literally meant there would be no
television, no newspapers, no going out
and yes probably even less sleep than I
was used to. So, was it all worth it?
Looking back, definitely yes. The
immersive nature of the programme
was just what I needed to become
more disciplined and dedicated to my
goal to becoming a yoga teacher.
In Week One, we were introduced to
our two hour’s of vigorous Anusara
yoga daily at 7 a.m. on weekdays and a
3-hour practice at 9:30 a.m. every
Saturday morning. The morning
sessions were very often packed with
up to 60 mats, as we shared our
practice with other Pure Yoga students
and teachers. With so many dedicated
yogis, the atmosphere inside that
studio was simply electrifying, which
really helped us get going for the rest
of the day’s jam-packed activities. This
included lengthy group discussions,
asana demonstrations and
explanations by trainees, and paired
teaching practices. After a long day of
talking, chanting, and teaching
practices, the day’s training would
conclude with a one-hour asana
practice that was somewhat less
rigorous than the morning one.
In Week Two, our regular morning
practice and asana workshops were
followed by afternoon anatomy lessons
taught by Chris Kummer from
Australia. His cheery, easy-going
manner was a plus in helping us
overcome our timidity with the
technical nature of the subject. With
the aid of Lee, our human skeleton, we
got to explore the relationship of our
muscles and bones within the context
of some common yoga postures. Chris
also gave us plenty of hands-on
“The immersive nature of the
programme was just what I needed to
become more disciplined and
dedicated to my goal...”
exercises to explore various
anatomical structures, during which
time some of us gave each other muchneeded
massages. Overall the anatomy
and physiology sessions were fun, and
at the end of the week we were sad to
see Chris leave.
Weeks Three and Four. With the
morning practice and workshops now
getting more intense, our attention was
now focused on the philosophy and
history of yoga which was taught by
Frank Jude Boccio, a Buddhist teacher
from New York and the author of the
book Mindfulness Yoga. The lectures
were very challenging as they involved
many Sanskrit names and Buddhist
concepts; yet I was riveted because I
was delving into such subjects as never
before. He also guided us through
different meditation techniques that
brought wonderful calmness to our
classroom. Other subjects covered by
Frank included the teaching methods of
different types of yoga such as
Kundalini and Bhakti. The complex
Ayurveda system was also well
presented and we learned to identify
appropriate yoga practices for
different types of doshas. Finally Frank
signed off with a quick lesson on
mindful hugging that I will certainly
practice more frequently from now on.
In Week Five, we were joined by eight
new students for the final two weeks
which was entitled “Preparing to
Teach”. Their presence injected new
energy to our class and everyone
improved significantly in their teaching
practice almost immediately. It was
also the beginning of our video
teaching in which six trainees were
selected each day to teach portions of
a 90-minute class. More senior
instructors were also assigned to assist
in our teaching practices which now had
each individuals teaching more poses
to a larger group. The extra
instructors observed us very closely
and offered many timely suggestions.
By Week Six, with the end of the course
approaching, all the trainees had been
videoed by mid-week, allowing for more
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