Posted by tracy on December 31, 2006 @ 9:28 pm It s been awhile since we shared our geeky fascination with numbers with you. See and for examples. In that post, we estimated that the Ashtanga yoga student population had grown by 100% since early 2002.
Here we take a close look at the trend in Ashtanga yoga teachers during the past four years. It looks like the number of Ashtanga yoga teachers, authorized or certified by the grew by 179% from February 2002 to December 2006 (which means that we underestimated student growth earlier).
Not only that, but it also seems that the rate of teacher authorizations is increasing.
Number of teachers authorized or certified by AYRI
Do you detect a trend?
This data comes from which publishes new teachers names every month - we looked at all the newsletters from March 2002 until December 2006.
The total number of authorized Ashtanga teachers was 176 (including 34 certified teachers) as of December 29, 2006.
Since early 2002, a total of 113 new teacher authorizations have been announced on Ashtanga.com.
in Toronto, Canada
(We can t have only graphs in this post.
Boring!)
Women and men teachers are equally represented. As of December 2006, 53% of teachers were women, and since early 2002, 63% of newly authorized teachers were women.
But wait! Only 10% of female teachers are certified, while 29% of the men are.
Ashtanga.
com, by the way, gives .
We had to make some assumptions to come up with these fascinating tidbits (especially those in the next graph). If you want the gory details about the assumptions, email me at yogini @ ashtanganews.
com.
And finally, thanks to Ashtanga.com for continually keeping everyone up to date on Ashtanga yoga as taught by Sri K.
Pattabhi Jois, and without which, neither of our geeky numbers posts would have been possible. Also, all are authorized to teach Ashtanga yoga by AYRI. Posted by lisa on December 21, 2006 @ 10:46 pm we talked about Lisa Hill from Chicago who is currently teaching in Tokyo.
Here is an interview of some of her students and co-teachers from the Tokyo Yoga studio in Shibuya.
What do you think about yoga students in Tokyo?
It s becoming more competitive.
Everyone is too strict, too serious. Most people are doing only two things: yoga and work. They should enjoy doing some other stuff.
Girls, especially, need to make time to find a boyfriend. Most serious practitioners are not even dating.
What do you get out of Ashtanga?
Makes my creativity sharp, and gives me power to work. If I don t practice Ashtanga, I am not inspired to do anything but sleep. It is a source of energy.
Sometimes physically, it makes me tired, but whenever I practice, my mind and heart get more energy. Ashtanga can make me exhausted. It’s hard to get heat.
Practicing brings results, bringing self confidence.
How is Lisa s teaching different from yours?
I can understand her philosophy about Ashtanga, which is the same for me.
I like it, because she teaches calmly. She feels very settled in my classes. Her style is traditional, not allowing people to skip what they don t like and adjusting so frequently is hard.
She has lots of experience teaching Mysore class and we can learn a lot. We are open to teachers coming in as long as it s traditional.
How do you (Lisa) teach Mysore-style to someone who does not speak the same language?
It must challenging dealing with injuries, problem students who push too much, new postures, etc.
That could be a whole article in and of itself. I don t speak in American classes much, so language is not much of a problem.
Japanese students are very tolerant. They never say it hurts as if they trying to keep feeling in. They can be not very honest in that sense.
Sometimes maybe they should tell the teacher, “your adjustment is too hard”. Japanese students are too modest, so they hesitate to say it s not good . Knowing this, I ve been adjusting very gently, working with their own breath, not pushing them.
I can tell if there is pain by looking at the student and how they are practicing. Sometimes I need a translator, but some teachers have decent English, so they can help with that. So far it has not been much of an issue.
Pushing too hard, there are a couple, but they refused to listen long before I came into the scene.
Are there any written materials or websites about Ashtanga practice and technique?
Yoga Mala, John Scott, Ashtanga Yoga for Women, yoga sutras websites in Japanese - there aren t any websites for Ashtanga in Japanese.
Except for Mindy s blog, which gives them knowledge from some of the scene in Chicago.
What is the workshop scene like in Tokyo (or Japan)?
Very good.
We have many good teachers who visit. Rolf Naujokat, David Swenson, John Scott, David Roche, Danny Paradise, Nancy Gilgoff, Govinda Kai, Mark Darby, Sharath, Petri Raisanen, Anthony Carlisi, Shankra Darby, Natalia Paison, Louisa Sears.
What are the differences you noticed between Ashtanga in Japan and the teachers who come from other parts of the world?
No difference. They just teach traditional Ashtanga system. We can learn lots of things from experienced teachers.
We enjoy studying with the teachers. It s very good to be taught by someone experienced. Sharing their experience is very good, but we are always looking for our Ashtanga.
Wendy Spies, author of one of our most popular posts - - recently started a about yoga.
(Yes, that s a link to Wikipedia, which you can reach easiest by typing wiki wiki into Google, which is kind of funny if you ve taken an interisland flight out of Honolulu.)
The logo on Ompedia says it all.
Back to Wendy s project, it s called . The idea is that people - like us - contribute to it. So, take a look, write something and let s see if we can help Ompedia gain some traction.
There isn t going to be much there unless you put it there.
For something sort of funny, check out the link on Ompedia. The other pages (so far) on Ompedia are:
I think this could be the most interesting section.
And even though Wendy s made suggestions as to what each page should cover, what it actually covers depends on what you, the writers, write on there.
So rather than wading through a million responses on (which is great for public discussion), on Ompedia, all the information about a subject would be in one spot.
Another thing is that with Ompedia (or any wiki, for that matter) you can see the changes that have been made to that page using the History tab.
Say, you make a change and then it disappears. You can see what replaced it and when. You can even register, so people can see what you ve said and contact you (if you and they like).
I think what differentiates from is that Ompedia is more personal and opinion-oriented while Wikipedia tends to be more Encyclopia Britannica-like.
But neither Ompedia or Wikipedia would be useful without contributions from readers like you. 
Welcome to Tokyo!
Lisa Hill - a contributor to AshtangaNews through her from Chicago, Illinois - is teaching at for three months, and kindly shared her blog, , and with us.
What struck me about Lisa s blog - and if you like Japan at all, you will really enjoy reading about her daily adventures living there - is the similarity between what she says about Ashtanga students in Japan, which echoed what Govinda Kai said in his post, . From Lisa:
I have been impressed with the yoga students here in Japan.
More than anywhere else I have taught, there is a natural humility and a deep respect for whoever is teaching This quality makes the process of learning very special, both for the student and for the teacher.
Additionally, I have been impressed by the level of dedication, passion and work ethic that is present in a large number of Japanese yoga students It is clear to me that the deepest levels of yearning for the fruits of yoga practice (truth, expansion and liberation) are very high.
Lisa and Mindy,
who introduced her to Tokyo Yoga
Stay tuned; more to come Lisa s agreed to do an , and we are looking forward to it.
so if you like new york, you will love tokyo. its the same, only it s japan. -
Have any of you practiced Ashtanga in Japan?
Please comment! Posted by tracy on December 3, 2006 @ 10:40 pm I was perusing the Ashtanga blogs on and saw that someone noted the lack of Ashtangi jokes out there. Other than , I really haven t heard any Ashtanga jokes.
The following is not really a joke, but I think it s funny. Somebody called wrote this post. From his blog, it appears that he is in medical school.
Maybe an Ashtangi neurologist (to be).
Dracula, finish up Savasana
from
Just want to share an amusing interaction that I had the other day with my friend dave.
me: I’m tired.
Got up at 4:30 again this morning to practice yoga.
Dave: where do you practice?
me: midtown.
sort of near Bryant park.
Dave: so what exactly do you do at 4:30 in the morning. Is there a class that you go to?
Like vampire yoga?
me: No. I just go there and do my own thing.
Dave: so why don’t you practice at home? is there like special equipment that you use?
me: no, you just need a yoga mat.
and you don’t even really need that.
Dave: so, what you are telling me is that you commute an hour a day just to use their floor?
me: uh, i guess.
Dave: then you deserve to be tired.
Thanks, Sweatybrain, whoever you are!
Readers, please share your Ashtanga jokes in the Comments.
Thanks!
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