35. Yoga Teacher Training - Part 2

This is a Part 2 of a blog series about my illustration experience through my Yoga Teacher Training (YTT) here in Windhoek, Namibia. (Part 1 was a pre-YTT gratitude post to former teachers, and Part 3 is a series of illustrated notes for each week's curriculum.) In this post I'll share a bit about what it was like to be in the thick of the course, trying to draw and take notes through each lecture. And I'll show and tell about a very rudimentary card deck I detailed to flash-card study all the yoga asana poses.

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The YTT was hosted by Samudra Yoga School, owned and directed by Lara-Lyn Ahrens who is also the former studio owner of Yoga Shala Windhoek. She was flanked by several other yogis who joined the course to lead morning practice or deliver guest lectures along the way. The student group was made up of 7 women (including me) - each of us at various stages in our yoga journey.

The training opened with a white-clad ceremony and then bam - we went straight into an 8-hour schedule, 6 days a week for the month of September. Normally, I am cautious in new groups and prefer to sit to the side and observe - preferably with pencil and paper in hand. But this was an intimate group with interactive teaching - so there was no room to hide! Thankfully it was a lovely cohesive ambiance - a rare, beautiful thing to rest my soul in. And I managed to eke out some drawings...

Notebook doodles: (1) hatha yoga surya namaskar (2) bandhas, muscles, exercise, (3) inversion preparation, (4) setting up for dancer, (5) yin yoga sequence for melting © thesmarti

We were gifted well-crafted thick manuals for the coursework, and encouraged to write notes inside. So I dutifully wrote notes and cues in the manual, of course. But I also had my little notebook at the ready so I could sneak in drawings and sketches. Such a delightful challenge to capture things quickly!

Notebook doodles - (1) mudras, (2) interior of Yoga Shala, (3) and (4) posture/progression/regression, (5) prenatal yoga

© thesmarti

Samudra Yoga School is particularly dedicated to cultivating well-rounded teachers. As our head instructor, Lara-Lyn emphasized that we have a responsibility to present all the facets of yoga in our classes - pranayama (breathing exercises), asana (the poses), meditation, mudras (hand positions), mantras and more. The monthlong training course that she coordinated includes a little bit of everything. And it was certainly more than I remember learning in my previous YTT.

Photo of my yoga mat station, holding up a notebook with a drawing of Lara-Lyn teaching yin yoga © thesmarti

This was me in the back of the class, with manuals out - listening, drawing, trying to capture the wisdom from Lara-Lyn. And yes, we're decked out in blankets because a) that day was all about being in cold bodies relaxing in deep long poses in Yin Yoga and b) it was the winter season in Windhoek and pretty chilly!

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In week 2, I bought a deck of notecards and started to draw out the asanas (yoga poses) as a way to translate what I think I know in my head into something visual. At first I drew them all in pencil at first, but then gave in and did them all in pen so the contrast against the white background was stronger. I add a color code line on the edge. Sun salutations (yellow), standing poses (green), seated poses (aqua), prone poses (baby blue), kneeling poses (cerulean, supine poses (periwinkle), inverted poses (purple) and arm balance/backbends (pink).

Photo of my home desk with manual, timer, pencils while making my flash cards of asanas © thesmarti

Using a deck of cards was helpful as a visual learner for two reasons. First, because I have to really understand the concept to draw it well. It forces me to pay closer attention to the little things. Where does the foot go? Is the chin tucked? Etc. Second, I could spread the deck out side by side and see the whole collection all at once! So DEEPLY satisyfing. I don't know why but concepts somehow get muddled or scattered in my brain if they are separated by pages of texts. Or maybe I'm just one of those students who has to practically make their own thing just to integrate it into my brain.

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Eh...just do what works.

At one point, I taped the deck up on the wall in the Yoga Shala to share with my fellow students as a way to keep track of all the poses we were learning. Since some students were quite new to yoga, I thought it might be helpful for everyone to see the poses and compare them. Because sometimes there are poses that are super similar but just slightly different. (Talking to you Samasthiti, Tadasana, Pranamasana.) In the end, I drew nearly 100 poses in my deck of cards! Here's a sampling of how they turned out:

Forgive the punching holes in the top left corner - so silly of me - I cut some letters off the titles! It's Ardha Chandrasana for those of you who are in suspense.

Ah, this is so embarrassing but fun to explain - I confess it took drawing cat and cow pose to realize which one is which! Cow is with back in an arch extension so that the tummy curves down to the mat so I doodled in udders - hehehe! Cat is tucking in navel to spine and rounded arch of the back in flexion like the rounded spine of a scared cat.

Just a note - I drew these cards to model basic elements of the pose, it's devoid of all kinds of details of safety/intention/purpose of alignment. Photos would probably be better. And of course, modifications and guidance from a more advanced yoga practitioner are always helpful for the specificities of each individual student, their body and/or particular injuries.

Also, if I do the deck of cards again, I would definitely include the drishti (gaze). Since I was focused more on the body, I made the silhouette shapes of the body more important. But the drishti line would be helpful as another layer of accuracy to the full pose. This would probably help me remember where to look so I can also gain that extra bit of strength in my neck and eye muscles. Full gains, my friends!

Eventually, the deck came in handy for the teaching assessments in the afternoon. I would lay out the cards and then play with the order, rearrange and test out transitions to learn how to make a yoga sequences. It was helpful to see my "class flows" come together via the cards. And it helped me remember some alignment cues while I was practicing to teach. Quite a hack for the visual learners out there.

For actual assessments I was allowed to have some flash cards. At first, I took advantage of this and wrote everything out. Newbie mistake. Eventually, I learned to rewrite the flows out in a shorter script by the end but still not short enough. I'll get there eventually I'm sure. What I do know is that figuring out and memorizing new flows is ROUGH! But I was encouraged by other yoga teachers that it just takes time and practice to build that skill.

At the end of the course, I challenged myself to design 20 classes before the end of the year. So I bound a thin notebook and I have been writing out the themes, flows, mudras and mantras to practice making and giving classes. I'm sure this process will evolve, but this is just how I'm starting out. If you have any great suggestions, I'm so curious how other teachers do it!

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During my first yoga teacher training, I didn't have the skill to draw, so I don't remember having anything more than a couple of bizarre stories from my experience. (It was an overall meh adventure.) By the time I did my Rocket YTT, I had enough coordination and time to doodle all kinds of body flow wisdom and fellow practitioners. And boy did that come in handy for this YTT at Samudra Yoga School! Each pencil line, each pen scribble, helping the brain to connect it altogether.

Cheers to drawing my way through YTT,

smarti