Teacher Training

You will receive a copy of the teachers’ dialogue when you register for training. I recommend applying as early as you can so that you have several months to memorize the dialogue. A large part of Bikram yoga teacher training takes place in posture clinics during which you will need to teach, working with one posture at a time, each of the postures to several of your fellow students reciting the dialogue verbatim. This takes place in front of senior teachers and your peers. Memorizing the dialogue before you arrive will reduce the stress of training tremendously. Also by working with your studio owner as mentor in the memorization task, you will get insights into the postures and delivery techniques which will ultimately take you from “dialogue reciter” to true teacher.

😆

Thanks waterwatch!!! I was JUST about to post saying to read some of the blogs from teacher training.

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi Annie

OK now I can continue with the rest of my answer!!! 😆

Bikram teacher training is predicated on your ability to recite a particular set of words so that you can be certified as a teacher. You asked for some ideas on how you could best prepare yourself. Here are mine:

Teaching people a yoga class is not a recital, it is a individualized narrative said in the moment to a unique set of students with unique needs. While using the prescribed dialog is the way that Bikram uses to certify you, I do believe you can better prepare yourself so that learning his dialog is even easier, and more importantly makes more sense to you in the process.

Before I went to training, I honestly didn’t realize that I would be asked to just memorize the pages. I thought I would be learning the poses in a different more holistic way. So what I did was listen in class, and even taped a couple of classes with permission from my teachers of course, and I went home and pieced together my own kind of narrative. I literally typed out my own class.

My own pre-work made me understand the poses inside out. I found that a large proportion of people at training got caught up in trying to memorize the exact words and because of it they found it really difficult. They would mostly get stuck and not remember the next line. They weren’t making the connection between the poses and the ‘dialog’. That happens a lot when you try to memorize something without having a ‘hook’ for your memory. What often happens is you start to blurt out your words, get distracted somehow, and then wham, the next word gets lost. You can’t remember that word, you can’t remember the words before because in your memory you have linked everything into one long recital (pose by pose). Find a way to KNOW what you are reciting. When I understood the poses (which is easy when you have the passion!) then memorizing that particular set of words becomes a cinch.

So …

1 Construct your own class based on what you have been taught, pose by pose
2 Break your poses down into process. For example, how to set-up, how to enter, what to do in the pose, how to release.
3 Only once you have finished your homework, go to the ‘dialog’ and read it. It will be infinitely more easy to learn.
4 Here’s the clincher: If you lose your way while reciting your dialog at training (and most people do at some time or another) you will KNOW where you are at, can pick up with your own words. This flow will keep your mind moving and you will remember the ‘dialog’ words and flow back into them seamlessly.
5 When you leave training you will be a better teacher.

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

I’m looking to go for TT myself too [if not Fall 09 then spring/summer ’10]

I’ve been advised to practice 6times a week, with added 2x doubles on the weekend [if you’re up for it though]. I’ve done doubles on weekends for a few weekends, and I feel pretty good! Although the first weekend I felt like molten tau foo 😛 You might need to stock up on the electrolytes while doing so, though.

DO start a blog if you go for Fall 09 TT, I’d love to read up about it 🙂

Mei