350hr Yoga Teacher Training
starts September 2024 — facilitated by Mick Barnes
Students Become Teachers
If you are looking for the best yoga teacher training around, this is it!
Simple, purposeful, practical, all in-person, with absolute guarantee you can teach confidently upon graduation.
The training is completed over 12 months at The Yoga Factory. This gives trainees a realistic amount of time to learn and process information properly and to actually practice teaching in real life setting, to then approach it confidently upon graduation.
At The Yoga Factory, we practice and teach 8-limb yoga, the path of action, effort, self-study, and devotion. In our times, this type of yoga is commonly referred to as vinyasa yoga. Graduates of our teacher training become 8-limb or vinyasa yoga teachers, who are equipped to teach everyone from beginners to more seasoned students.
This 350hr Yoga Teacher Training is taught in a unique and straightforward way. We all come together and learn how to communicate articulately, economically, and precisely, what it is we practice on the mat. This was how it had been taught in the very beginning of yoga times, but in recent years teacher trainings have moved away from this and are more and more about information and not the practice, about vague spirituality and not the essence of tradition and teaching. Of course, there is a whole lot of textual knowledge that supports the practice but, first and foremost, one needs to understand the asana and how to teach it.
This Teacher Training will teach you:
to know how and when to teach a strict vinyasa class or slow it down to teach alignment, all the whilst keeping a nice rhythm of the breath
all about the way forward in your practice, the order of asana
the sequencing and where everything fits (it is not just random)
to take the seat of the teacher and learn the secret to processing, discerning, and informing yourself about exactly who is in the class and how to go about teaching
to improvise the method and the way you deliver your class taking into consideration who is present
to modify but retain the specifics of teaching, so you may meet the needs of all sorts of students, be they young or old, strong or weak, stiff or bendy
to discover a whole range of ways to deliver the instructions, be verbal, via assisting or using a model to demonstrate
With the saturation of yoga teacher trainings these days, choosing the right one can be overwhelming.
Why is our training any different from the many on offer?
First and foremost, it’s in person and that is huge. Sure there is a convenience to online learning but it in no way compares to hands-on.
Yoga is a huge subject. Our experience is that each group of trainees is uniquely different. They come with a whole range of skills, practice, knowledge and understanding.
In this yoga training, we are together for 12 months, 350 hours. You get an enormous amount of time to absorb the teachings, reflect, practice, ask questions, gain knowledge, have epiphanies, laugh and cry.
You make great friends and bond deeply with like-minded people. You can’t do that online. Here, we hold you and nurture you. You actually learn to teach before being let loose in the world. We get to be together and get to know each other. That in itself is beautiful.
Going through the ups and downs of training requires support. It’s not all bells and whistles. For some teacher training is a cathartic experience, so you want and need the support of the facilitator and a group. You’ll get to know Mick and the other facilitators, the teachers and students at the school. You become part of a great community.
Time in its entirety will be spent guiding students to teach proper, safe, and inclusive yoga. Most of the 350 hours are spent face-to-face with the teacher and amongst the study group
Our teacher training course has two main components:
3-day long Weekends (Friday, Saturday, Sunday)
These extra long intense study weekends are an essential part of our yoga teacher training. That’s where we first come together to dive deep into the science of teaching. We learn about the method and the blueprint, look into the basics of what it means to be a yoga teacher, start with hands-on assists, and kick off the actual teaching. It will be exactly what the name suggests - an intense immersion into study, both theoretical and practical.
6 Weekend Immersions — Scheduled throughout the year
In the weekend immersions, we spend long hours looking into the history and philosophy of yoga, functional anatomy, energy/layers/bodies + other more subtle subjects, and continue with methodology and technique. We also have wrap-up sessions, where we bring it all together and thread theory into practice.
You will also be:
Teaching in a real class setting at TYF Annandale
Exchanging energetic and physical assists amongst teacher training group and TYF teachers
Assisting and observing in real class setting
Completing self study assignments
COST: 5000$ / early bird 4500$
payment plans available / early bird ends May 1, 2024
if you are keen to do the training but have a difficult financial situation that doesn't allow you to pay as required, please contact us to discuss, and we will do our best to accommodate your situation
TRAINING MODULES
Techniques / Methodology
These two modules will be covered during our initial 3-day-long weekends. We will look into asana, observation, discernment, fundamentals, and lineage. We will also cover class planning and sequencing; ways and means to teach all levels of students; adapting and modifying practices; skilfully using shastra in asana classes; and introduce principles of assisting students energetically and physically.
You will be shown a very safe and adaptable way to teach sun salutations, standing asana, balancing asana, seated postures, arm balances, and inversions. Everything you will learn will have an emphasis on being able to teach inclusively to all levels of students.
All subjects will include theoretical and practical parts.
Yogic Scripture and Chronological Timeline of Yoga
In this module, we will focus on 4 particular sources pertinent to our style and lineage: Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, Hatha Yoga Pradipika and Patanjali Yoga Sutras.
Anatomy and Physiology
In this module, we will focus on the functional anatomy of asana. A part of it will be dedicated to classic anatomical terms, but more importantly, you will learn to understand movement and how to effectively observe, process and make good decisions whilst teaching asana based on the information you receive.
Functional anatomy and the role breath/prana, bandha, and drishti have, whilst doing asana and pranayama will also be studied.
Lifestyle and Ethics
The important subjects of self-practice, cultural misappropriation, guru/authoritarianism in yoga, and how yama and niyama are important aspects of self-development.
Subtle Body
In this module, we will focus on components that make up the energetic systems of our bodies: chakras, nadis, koshas, and vayus. We will not only descriptively cover these subjects but also access a deeper understanding of these terms, through our experience.
Developing a Skill of Teaching / Bringing it All Together
We will have an opportunity to put it all together and practice what we’ve learned. You will begin to get a feel for being a teacher, practice teaching together with other trainees, and later at the TYF school during real-life classes, working through set assignments and exploring variations and different sequences. These opportunities to co-teach with Mick are invaluable so that you gain some confidence in putting it all together.
Continuation of Techniques and Methodology
Focus on pranayama and breathing waves, kriyas, bandhas, mudras and meditation. Learning the skill of energetic and physical assists, exchanging assists with other teacher trainees and TYF teachers.
Starting a Yoga Career
Here we look at how you can get into it and on with it. The pros and cons, the how and why.
Mick Barnes has been involved with yoga for over two decades. His first love was the practice. It was the heat, the challenge, the sweat, and the toil that first drew him in. Nothing about the practice was easy. The old body was busted from years of living life in the fast lane. Realizing early on that a commitment to practice was essential, he attended classes every day, twice a day. It wasn’t long until he realized that yoga works and that the root of suffering is intrinsically linked to the mind. The more he practiced the more he learned; the more he came to know how this suffering manifests.
What came next was teaching. He understood the how and why, and his purpose became to share this joy with as many people as possible. Opening yoga schools gave Mick the freedom to make himself a conduit for the practice, to keep it real, to get out of the way of it all and share the yoga how it has been for thousands of years.
His style is unorthodox. Why? Because he knows the only way to learn yoga is to do it: you can’t just read about it, catch it, if you hang around it, or just flirt with it. It only comes to the brave, those who know words like endurance and perseverance. Mick is tough love. He knows how to get the most out of us and sometimes we kick and scream and resist, but when we surrender, it works.
He has taught teachers from the very start of their teaching journeys and mentored seasoned teachers for years. The Yoga Factory's 350hr Teacher Training has delivered many exceptional students to the industry and Mick's mentees can be found all over the world. They stand out because they actually teach. Their classes are taught with the confidence and safety of a seasoned teacher. They can teach to whoever is in front of them, knowing how to structure the class around the ability of the students and not their class plan from last night or someone else’s class (which they happened to think was nice). Mick's gift is his ability to get teachers and students to believe that if they practice, they can teach. It is just about articulating your experiences and finding your own verbal cues for others to follow.
Do you want to teach? If so, then, yes, you can. Yes, we can. If your interest is becoming a true teacher, you could look no further than being facilitated by Mick. He knows how to teach and he knows how to help people believe in themselves.
ABOUT THE FACILITATOR
FAQs
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We practice and teach 8 limb yoga. This is essentially what these days is called Vinyasa Yoga. Upon completion of the training you will be skillfully teaching sensible and safe vinyasa classes rooted in tradition.
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- For those who want to share their passion for yoga with others; to become teachers, who teach thoroughly and effectively.
- For those who want to turn yoga into their life's purpose.
- For those, who would like to complement their existing careers with a deep knowledge of yoga and yoga teaching (Whether you are working in mental health, rehabilitation, education, managing a corporate environment, providing social work, or doing anything else, yoga can complement nearly every sphere).
- It is also suitable for students who wish to just broaden their practice.
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At TYF, we believe in the practice, and therefore ask you to have a practice before starting this training.
Do not get overwhelmed or intimidated by this requirement. It is, of course, to your benefit if you have been practicing yoga for years, but it does not mean that if you started with it quite recently, you can not embark on your teaching journey.
All we are asking for is an understanding that without a regularity of practice and dedication, yogasana can not be learnt, and certainly can not be taught.
So if you are still new to yoga or have been practicing irregularly, we would suggest you either start or get back into your practice before the teacher training start date
There is plenty of time.
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Do not be put off by the idea of the training taking longer. There are trainings out there that offer a certification upon completion of a month-long immersion somewhere tropical and nice. However, this is exactly the reason why the level of teaching is low across the yoga industry.
Evolving as a teacher is a life-long process. You need time to practice, you need time to process, and then to apply your knowledge to class settings, and practice that. It should be common sense that doing all that in four weeks is impossible.
Unless your goal is to get certified as soon as possible and find yourself in a tool filled with students performing rather than teaching, trust us, 12 months is not that long of a time when we are talking gaining deeper practical and theoretical knowledge and growing into confident and competent teachers.
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You should be familiar with the concept and the practice of yoga.
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We do not have a pre-requisite for the number of years you should have practiced for but we do ask for a commitment to a regular practice if you decide to learn to be a teacher.
If you have been practicing for a while, but have been inconsistent, you can use the time in the lead up to the training to build consistency at The Yoga Factory.
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As the training is year long and it is hard to plan that far ahead for most people, we do always confirm the dates in ou TT group chat to make sure the next scheduled intensive date suits everyone.