The Iyengar Yoga Association of the Southeast recently hosted an Iyengar Teacher Training with Kathleen Pringle, owner of Stillwater Yoga in Atlanta. Practitioners came from as far as Washington, D.C. to attend. It was an incredible experience. Kathleen has trained teachers for many years and helped write the guidelines for Iyengar Teachers. She is the best kept secret in Atlanta. Many teachers from other styles of yoga train with Kathleen to deepen their own practice and enhance their teaching skills. In essence, Kathleen is the teachers teacher.
In fact, the depth of her understanding can only be fully appreciated by more senior teachers; however, it's hard not to notice even as a beginning student that she understands things at a profound level. Kathleen has over 30 years experience studying Iyengar Yoga. Anyone familiar with this method of yoga knows 30 years experience under the tuteledge of B.K.S. Iyengar, his daughter Geeta, son, Paschant, and his Senior Teachers is tremendously more rigorous than in any other training.
B.K.S. Iyengar pioneered a way to teach Hatha Yoga using an array of props to facilitate the strengthening process along with microscopic attention to the alignment of the body. Therefore, you can imagine training goes far beyond general philosophy, basic anatomy, and memorizing the names and shapes of poses. As B.K.S. says, "Don't teach only to teach. Teach to improve the student." To be a teacher, he says, "requires vigorous discipline of one's own self."
The certification process for Iyengar teachers is the toughest out there. Many train for years before even going up for Introductory Level I certification. The reason is that teachers in training like me realize the more you know, the more you know you don't know. Having said that, it is a process that is so engaging and enlightening on countless levels that you can't help but want to learn all you can.
I recently read an excerpt from a lecture by Prashant Iyengar on his father's 85th Birthday. He said, "In our asana, we need to understand: What is the grosser form of it? What is the substantive form of it? What is the subtle form of it? This is just a hint of the breadth and scope this particular practice goes -- not just pose to pose but also action to action. You learn things like why the rotation of your pinky finger is important to the alignment of your shoulders.
From your very first class, you notice something different about this yoga instruction. Some may consider it excessively picky, while others find it extremely nurturing and protective. Directions like turn your back heel out a hair more in Trikonasana could help you stabilize the hip and thigh in correct alignment, while also giving you a range of motion you didn't know you had. In the lecture mentioned earlier, Prashant went on to talk about how you would guide a pose differently in an athlete versus someone suffering from a neck issue.
His comments demonstrate how Iyengar Yoga is very inclusive. You can be a Cirque De Soleil performer or a heart patient and you will excel in the practice. It is not a competitive sport. Though as BKS says in Light on Astanga Yoga, "We compete with each other. We compare ourselves with others. We do, because others do." These actions leave negative imprints known as Samskaras and we can get caught up in them. However, these imprints can be worked through and Iyengar Yoga does that.
What's beautiful about Iyengar Teacher Training is everyone is supportive. No one is competing. We are all there because we know it is important. It is important to learn the subtleties of teaching well. B.K.S. Iyengar believes understanding what it is like to be in the body of your student is integral to being able to communicate the actions of a pose. However, before you can understand their body, you have understand your own.
Kathleen Pringle understands her body and continues to analyze student's bodies to better understand the variants involved in a particular action. The length of the shin. Leg to torso ratio. Arm length. She talks about bringing intelligence to dull or vacuous parts of our body. She understands human tendency within an action and helps us discern how to overcome it. Her inquisitive mind invites wonderful discussions that bring new light to even the simplest pose. That's what a great teacher can do.
No matter what discipline of yoga teachers have chosen most know that B.K.S. Iyengar, who is in his 90s now, has spent his entire life dedicated to practicing hours on end. He studied and studied the poses. In doing so, he learned to give voice and sensation to the instruction of every action in order to allow the depth of intelligence inherent each pose to grow within us.
Atlanta yoga teachers of all disciplines should be proud that there is a teacher's teacher among them to refresh their practice and their voice with the endless lessons of B.K.S. Iyengar. Kathleen's own Sadhana, or endless quest keep her traveling to India year after year with the hunger of a child to gain new knowledge and deeper understanding of the practice, so she can share it with us.
To learn more about Kathleen Pringle go to stillyoga.com.
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