Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)The only people buying this book ought to be certified yoga teachers, so the question is: does this $30 book add anything significant beyond what was covered in your training and continuing education?
I bought the book because I was a new teacher and was dealing with all the attending insecurities, and so this book was basically an expensive confidence boost--I was amazed that I knew just about everything worth knowing for my teaching in here. There were new and different assists I had never seen, but I just don't see the point for many of these. Example: why squat behind someone and have them sit on your knees or thighs in utkatasana and eagle? Instead of the student supporting their own weight and strengthening their quadriceps, you are doing the work for them, with the result that you build strength rather than the student. What's the point when these poses have a built-in way to ease into them for less strong students, i.e., not squatting so deeply?
Are you ever going to pull someone's arm forward while pressing back on their hip crease with your foot to get them to lengthen before dropping their hand into triangle? Fancy crawling underneath a student in camel and pushing up on their shoulder blades with your foot? Creative, sure. Useful? No.
The first section, "Getting started," is good, but it's only 14 pages, in a huge font with lots of white space and photos. She tells you to approach students directly as if opening the refrigerator, not awkwardly from odd angles, and to correct the most unsafe misalignments first. Fine advice, but I sure hope you learned that in your training.
What this book fails to cover is the practical side of diagnosing problems in poses and how to correct them. The problem is that trainees and the people in this book (all teachers at her studio) mostly know what they're doing. When I started teaching, however, I'd have people that had never done yoga before, and they'd do crazy, crazy stuff and their asanas and vinyasas would be almost unrecognizable.
I'd find myself thinking, "What the hell do I do with a downward dog that looks like THAT?" No help in this book. She doesn't give you any indication of how to correct the most unsafe misalignments, what they might be, who might benefit from a certain assist, etc. It would be helpful just to add, this is good for people with tight shoulders, or, don't bother doing this for someone whose shoulders are really tight--instead, do this.... And it would be really great if she had a photo of a completely messed up revolved triangle and showed you how to go about getting the student into a decent, safe form. But there's none of that kind of real-life practical advice here. There are, however, pointless random quotations from unknown people. "'For me yoga is the most satisfying type of exercise imaginable.' -- Amy X, Yoga Student."
If your training was really poor in this department then you might find enough here to justify the cost. And, for the record, this is the cheapest, ugliest, and most poorly produced $30 book I have ever seen; I can only imagine that this is because it is "published on-demand," which "takes advantage of internet marketing." Hmmm, so the publisher refused to mass-produce the book in the normal way, which yields higher quality at a greatly-reduced cost, so that they could save money on warehousing and charge far more for the book? Fantastic. It would have been a good book for $12.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Yoga Posture Adjustments and Assisting: An Insightful Guide for Yoga Teachers and Students
This is the first comprehensive guide for yoga teachers and yoga students providing all the details on how to adjust or assist someone while they are performing a yoga posture. With yoga's recent worldwide popularity, this book is invaluable to millions who teach or practice yoga. The book goes beyond just the physical aspects of yoga - it deals honestly with some touchy matters that affect yoga teachers and students alike. The book's clear instructions and generous supply of photos make it easy for yoga teachers to learn how to adjust or assist their students. Yoga students can use this book to enhance their personal practice by working with a partner. Yoga Posture Adjustments and Assisting: An Insightful Guide for Yoga Teachers and Students demonstrates and explains adjusting techniques for over 65 postures and contains over 200 photos. You can learn:'How to adjust or assist someone who is performing a yoga posture'How to perform the yoga adjustments using effective body mechanics and leverage'Multiple variations for adjusting a posture 'How to use yoga props'Verbal cues to help your yoga student or partner'Ways to accommodate different body types'How to safely take your students deeper into the yoga posturesThe book also features a thought provoking section on how to navigate the physical, mental, and emotional challenges of being a yoga teacher or yoga student. It candidly discusses topics such as:'Dealing with difficult emotions before, during, or after class'Coping with thoughts that can surface during yoga class or home practice'Managing expectations and judgments about ourselves, our teachers, and our students'Dealing with unusual situations in the classroom'Handling competitiveness, jealousy, nervousnessThe international yoga community will greatly benefit from this book.
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