Not SYC Authorized Ashtanga: How to Choose a Yoga Teacher

How do I know if my yoga teacher is qualified?

Good question. There is no single nationally or internationally recognized standard that certifies the qualification or quality of a yoga teacher. Various private bodies and associations have created their own training standards.

Before I started teaching the first series of Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga, I waited until I was halfway through the second series.
Not because of insecurity. I was already teaching hatha yoga, and — even though there is always something to learn — I had knowledge I wanted to share. But there is also a question of respect for the student. If I put myself in their shoes: what would I want from a teacher? I would want someone who has already been where I am trying to go.

One can only transmit what one has already been through and properly digested. This was confirmed for me during my Master Course in Tibetan Buddhism, when my teacher spoke about the three wisdoms according to the Buddhist approach: the wisdom of listening, the wisdom of reflection, and the wisdom of meditation. Three distinct levels of understanding, each built on the one before.

Think of a child coming home from school after learning that two plus two equals four. They repeat it like a parrot: “two plus two is four, two plus two is four!” But they don’t yet own that knowledge.

In a second phase, reflecting on the calculation, they understand that if you have two apples and add two more, you have four — maybe counting on fingers — and the same holds for pencils, stones, anything. They are starting to move deeper into the knowledge of addition.

Finally, when knowledge becomes integrated, they no longer need to count at all. They know that seven plus five is twelve, without the fingers.

The same goes for yoga practice.

Can a practitioner be qualified to teach before reaching somewhere between the phase of reflection and the phase of meditation?

In India I completed two Hatha Yoga TTCs in Rishikesh and two Ashtanga TTCs in Mysore. I practiced with Sharath Jois, then moved to Vijay Kumar. With Vijay, whom I have been assisting in the shala for ten years, I have progressed through the fourth series.

What I have seen is that a yoga teacher certification, the standard 200 or 300-hour TTC, but also the certificates issued by the SYC (Sharath Yoga Center), which in theory holds the original lineage — is no guarantee of quality. I have met non-certified practitioners who are excellent teachers and multiply-certified teachers I would not consider good practitioners. It is not just about whether you can get your leg behind your head more or less easily.

One year I even thought about having a t-shirt made that said: “Not SYC Authorized.” I let it go. The point was already clear enough without printing it on a shirt. (At least for now.)

Teaching is a privilege earned on the mat, only practitioners can share their practice. I don’t have a solution. I have learned to ask the right questions, and I have a choice I made and keep making: wait until you have been through it yourself.

In practice and teaching I work with the Grammar of Ashtanga. If you want to know more, I have collected its Three Fundamental Elements in a PDF, you can download it here.

Buona pratica
Om shanti