Mysore classes at the yoga workshop are not as traditional as some other studios, why? From Richard Freeman's Yoga Workshop FAQ

After Richard Freeman's workshop last week I was wondering what Mysore self practice was like at his home shala The Yoga Workshop, to what extend were you given the freedome to explore the practice beyond the traditional sequence and approach. This FAQ gives an idea perhaps, especially the last line.

"Students are encouraged to inquire with the teachers when they have questions or if they want to begin doing new and different poses".

"Finding the appropriate practice for you is at the root of the ashtanga system” and Ropes; “Work with props sometimes helps when warming up before practice.” and Billy Goofy; “Most of all, enjoy yourself!"

"Mysore classes at the yoga workshop are not as traditional as some other studios, why?

At our studio Mysore classes are slightly different for a few reasons. First, we have a number of Mysore teachers (some studios have only one or maximum two teachers). We like this for two main reasons; first by alternating teachers all of our teachers have ample time to practice fully each day and this means our teachers don’t burn out or get injured themselves through an imbalanced practice.

Having multiple teachers means that students don’t always work with the same teacher every time they practice which is less traditional. However we find that this helps students become more self dependent and responsible for their own practice.

In some studios students are “given” the next posture by their teacher, and may not practice a series beyond the most recent posture they have been given. Partly due to having more than one teacher and partly because we wish to give the responsibility of the practice to each students, we are less strict with this than some studios. However we do not encourage students to practice beyond their capability of focus, strength and flexibility. We encourage students to stop when they have reached their limit in a series, but also we sometimes work with students to intelligently go beyond a challenging posture which can, in the end, help with the challenging posture that is causing a block. We never encourage students to breeze through a series or skip postures they cannot do.

Our Mysore teachers meet as a group on a regular basis in order to help us as teachers to be able to offer a coordinated approach for students. At our Mysore meetings we discuss difficulties students might be having with particular postures as well as thoughts and insights we as teachers have into how to teach certain poses. So we try to keep abreast of what each student’s needs are so that we can help the students from our own experience as well as with the group effort.

Students are encouraged to inquire with the teachers when they have questions or if they want to begin doing new and different poses".

from Yoga Workshop FAQ