02-YA-SCHOOL-RYS-200200 Hour Vinyasa Yoga Teacher Training
with Kathy Shirley E-RYT 500

Winter/Spring 2023

Do you…

~  step on your mat and feel a sense of closeness with your higher Self?
~ play with the idea of delving deeper into this ancient practice of yoga?
~ you want to share your experience with others and be an inspiration for change?

Then this Yoga Teacher Training may be for YOU!!

 

“Motivated by the Joy learning brings, you will gradually progress from basic to refined levels of understanding until you attain mastery.” – Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, I-17

Kathy Shirley, Founder, Principal Faculty, E-RYT 500

The training is led by Kathy Shirley E-RYT 500, RCYT, YACEP and owner/founder of Key Largo Yoga LLC. Kathy completed her 200 hour training in 2009 in Costa Rica and then her 500 hour training in the majestic Himalayan Mountains in Rishikesh, India in 2015. She has been teaching yoga for 13 years throughout the upper Keys and Maine. She was a classroom teacher for many years and has a unique ability to assist students in meeting their full potential based on their individual learning styles. Kathy first developed a longing for knowledge and self-discovery as a young woman. Searching for spirituality and always coming up empty handed~until her first yoga class. This early seed blossomed into a lifelong passion and now her daily sadhana and dedication to get on her mat has lead her to owning and operating a beautiful studio in the upper Keys. Kathy has been practicing yoga for more than 15 years  and her practice has supported her during recovery from injuries and several unfortunate family losses.  She has the knowledge and spirit to be a truly inspiring teacher. Her classes are taught from the heart and she challenges her students to take their practice as far as they’re willing to go. Her approach to yoga is accessible and clear, and she recognizes that the mental and spiritual practice of yoga is integrally important to the physical experience.

Jane Hlis, Anatomy Faculty, RYT 200

I completed my yoga teacher training through Key Largo Yoga studio under the guidance of her mentor, Kathy Shirley. I am also a licensed physical therapist and owner of Atlantic Sportcare, Inc, in Key Largo, FL. I have been actively practicing physical therapy 34 years specializing in orthopedics and sports medicine. I received my BS degree, double majoring in biology and physical education and a minor in psychology, from Trinity University, San Antonio, TX, and played Division I scholarship tennis. In addition, I attained my physical therapy degree from Northwestern University, Chicago, IL. My interest in yoga stemmed from my medical and sports background, knowing my body needed much “love” both physically and mentally from competitively pounding the tennis courts for 20 years and realizing it was catching up with me. My physical practice began about 5 years ago and I quickly felt not only the physical benefits, but also the mental and spiritual changes as I found my way of thinking was definitely and naturally changing. I was “sold” on that combination and have never looked back. I look forward to expanding my yoga knowledge and practice while integrating and sharing my technical medical background with the Upper Keys community!!

Teacher Training ClassThis all encompassing 200 hour Vinyasa Yoga Alliance registered teacher training will guide you step by step into this ancient tradition. This training is appropriate for both aspiring teachers and committed yoga practitioners who are looking to deepen their understanding, knowledge and experience of yoga.

The journey from being a yoga student to becoming a yoga teacher can be a powerful step in the transformation of your practice and life itself. This training will empower you to take your practice to a higher level and to live your life from a different perspective, more open, more mindful and authentic, ultimately achieving a deeper connection with yourself and everything around you.

This program will be mentally, physically and emotionally challenging, but it will help each student in the process of being able to step into the role of a teacher if desired. We will teach you to become a serious practitioner and this will allow you to become an inspired, amazing yoga teacher in the safe container we build as a family of yogis.

You will practice asana, chanting, meditation, pranayama and a vegetarian diet and more! These practices will begin to unveil the beautiful teacher that you already are. Your knowledge of yoga theory and yogic history will deepen, and with this knowledge you will begin to understand how a daily Sadhana is necessary to become an inspiring yoga teacher.

You will learn to teach others while also immersing yourself in deep study, reflection and growth. We invite you to accelerate your practice with other like-minded students to gain fundamental insights by delving into the ancient science of yoga. Tap into the unlimited creativity, energetic principles and aesthetics of Vinyasa Yoga.

Although our main focus is Vinyasa, we will bridge the gap between other yoga styles and help you find a voice no matter what style of yoga you practice or want to teach. We will explore over 100 poses and learn the Sanskrit name for each, learn how to cue students verbally, practice safe hands on assists and create a safe and fun setting for your students to grow!

Find the voice of the teacher within you, and get ready to inspire others to shine! The beauty of a Vinyasa Yoga practice is found in the rhythm with which alignment and sequencing merge together to create a balance of breath, strength and movement. Although there is a strong focus on alignment and sequencing, moving with the breath can also be a powerful meditative action. Anchored in the unseen aspects of an asana class, Vinyasa Yoga uniquely accommodates to the evolution of a teacher, allowing new teachers to bring all that they have learned and all that they are into the studio. The result is a class that is consistent and inspired.

WHY choose Key Largo Yoga instead of the hundreds of other Yoga Teacher Trainings offered? I only allow a maximum of 14 participants in a group. This means that you will receive an individualized training to meet your needs. I will be here to sit with you directly and answer your questions and guide your practice and your growth. Join us~you are one step away from a new beginning!

Visit us here for testimonials of former YTT students. Visit us here for the class of 2015’s recap of YTT FUN!

I look forward to supporting each of you in your journey to deepen your practice and to find your inner teaching voice as a yoga teacher!

Namasté, Kathy

Our 200-Hour Teacher Curriculum follows the Yoga Alliance Guidelines outlined below:

Technique: Asana, Pranayama, Bandhas, Meditation, Mudras, Mantras
Teaching Methodology
Anatomy and Physiology
Yoga Philosophy, Lifestyle and Ethics
Practicum: Observing, Assisting, Teaching

The essential components of asana, anatomy and sequencing are keys to the structure of this training. The curriculum is put together as a four month intensive learning experience. It is delivered in a  hands-on, very personalized approach that will  encourage and support you in developing both your personal practice and your teaching skills. The training is specifically designed to help you:

  • Increase your study of postures
  • Understand the principles of anatomy and body mechanics within the asanas
  • Learn a variety of hands-on assists and adjustments
  • Develop the skills necessary to develop skillfully sequenced classes
  • Visually observe and interpret how energy moves within the body
  • Explore the use props to support or modify a posture
  • Begin to cultivate your unique teaching voice
  • Build confidence through regular practice teaching sessions
  • Gain a broader understanding of yoga history and philosophy
  • Learn and define the Sanskrit names of postures and other important yogic terms

Deepen your personal practice, learn to teach yoga in a safe, non~competitive atmosphere, make lifetime connections and have the experience of a lifetime!!

Right away you will start to teach during your training, but the goal is only to help you internalize what you’ve learned. It builds tremendous self-confidence to begin to teach right away. In my personal training we only taught for a total of 1 hour 15 minutes before we were set free to be teachers. I believe teaching is a growing process and finding your own voice takes time. I encourage students to begin teaching each other right away in small groups. Many hours spent teaching each other creates a strong foundation to take on a class of your own! Whether or not you choose to teach as a professional is irrelevant. You might share with friends or family, or volunteer at your church, school or community center. It does not matter if you are determined to be a teacher or hope to simply evolve your own practice — Key Largo Yoga is a good place to land.

Key Largo Yoga is a registered yoga school (RYS) with Yoga Alliance who has set a widely accepted international standard for Yoga Teacher Training (YTT) programs. These standards describe Yoga Alliance’s requirements for a Registered Yoga School that offers a 200-hour program. Topics for a RYS teacher training must be relevant to Yoga Alliance’s five educational categories as defined below. RYSs must provide a minimum number of hours of study in each educational category, and to make up the total 200 required hours (180 minimum contact hours), must also provide additional hours of study relevant to these categories. Here is how Key Largo Yoga School has chosen to explore these educational categories in our 200 YTT program.

The RYS Educational Categories are:

  • Techniques, Training and Practice
  • Teaching Methodology
  • Anatomy & Physiology
  • Yoga Philosophy/Ethics/Lifestyle
  • Practicum

Techniques, Training and Practice

Contact Hours: 100

In this category we will explore techniques as well as practice and teach: asanas, pranayamas, kriyas, chanting, mantra, meditation and other traditional yoga practices. We will emphasis both guided practice of the techniques themselves as well as analytical training in how to teach and practice the techniques.

Asana:  Trainees will deepen their knowledge of poses including beginner and more advanced variations. Benefits, risks and contraindications will be explored as well as safe transitions, intelligent sequencing, alignment and hands on assists. The five main categories of poses will be covered including standing/ balancing poses, forward bends, backbends, twists and inversions.

Pranayama: Students will practice, experience and learn how to guide several pranayama techniques. They will learn the benefits and effects of such practices as well as how and when to incorporate them into a class. Pranayamas covered in depth will include: abdominal breathing, three-part yogic breath, ujjai pranayama, nadi shodhana, anuloma viloma, and kapalabhati.

Kriyas: Yogic cleansing and purification techniques will be taught and practiced in the form of Jal neti, kapalabhati, agni sara, and tratak. Trainees will be guided on the benefits and how to incorporate these techniques  into their personal practice.

ChantingMantra: We explore mantra as a path to connection, to invoke spirit and to create sacred space. Trainees will experience, practice and learn mantras to share in class such as Om, the Gayatri Mantra, the Bija mantras for chakra clearing and others.

Meditation: Various forms of guided meditation will be shared including breath focus, sensory withdrawal, visualization, mantra and chakra. Emphasis will be on quieting the mind and experiencing divine union on this path of yoga.

Teaching Methodology:

Contact Hours: 25

In this category, we will share how to refine and apply your skills as a teacher. We will discuss the principles of demonstrating asanas as well as how to effectively observe, use verbal cues and incorporate hands on assist in a class.

We will explore the use of language and voice: active vs. passive language and the effective use of each; positive and conscious communication, and habitual speech and communication patterns. This category will prepare trainees to be transformational spaceholders.

Topics in this category will include:

  • Communication skills such as group dynamics, time management, and the establishment of priorities and boundaries
  • How to address the specific needs of individuals and special populations, to the degree possible in a group setting
  • Principles of demonstration, observation, assisting and correcting
  • Teaching styles
  • Qualities of a teacher
  • The student learning process
  • Business aspects of teaching yoga (including marketing and legal)
  • Teacher/ Student relationship and teacher ethics

Anatomy and Physiology:

Contact Hours: 20

Topics in this category will include anatomical terms and basic overview of the physical body,  classes and discussion on the skeletal, muscular and nervous systems as well as how these systems are benefited by  yoga. Trainees will gain knowledge of the cardiovascular system and the heart and the digestive system and the yogic diet.

This category will also include subtle energetic anatomy and physiology, including studies on the chakras and nadis. Trainees will be guided in studying both anatomy/ physiology along with its application to the yoga practice including benefits, contraindications, healthy movement patterns, etc.

Yoga Philosophy, Lifestyle and Ethics for Yoga Teachers

Contact Hours: 40

This program emphasizes a whole lifestyle approach to yoga as a practice and offers guidance on how to live this practice on and off the mat. In this category, we will cover the study of yoga philosophies and traditional texts, in particularly Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. We will explore this 8-fold path as a means to quieting the mind to reach liberation. This study will include group-work, discussion and application to our practice and daily life. This category will also include the transformational framework in which trainees can practice self-inquiry and develop themselves as embodied practitioners and embodied guides.

Practicum

Contact Hours: 15

In this category, trainees will actively practice teaching as the lead instructor. They will also observe others teaching, receive and give feedback and assist students while someone else is teaching. Trainees will begin peer teaching from day one as they gradually learn and practice teaching the poses and mini sequences. Trainees will begin to create short flows to teach to peers and eventually students will create their own full sequence from the tools provided, share a 60 minute class through peer teaching and receive feedback from their peers and facilitators.

My goal is to provide a training that will have you leaving confident, totally in your authentic voice, and ready to teach. I highly value the coaching relationship and believe it is necessary to commit to each and every student to support their personal journey. I look forward to being your teacher for many years to come!

Training Dates and Times:  Friday evening 6-9pm, Saturday and Sunday 6:00am-5:00pm

* January 13th, 14th and 15th
* January 27th, 28th and 29th
* February 10th, 11th and 12th
* February 24th, 25th and 26th
* March 10th, 11th and 12th
* March 31st, April 1st and 2nd
* April 7th, 8th and 9th

SAMPLE DAILY SCHEDULE SAT AND SUN:

  • 6:00 – 07:50 Meditation/Pranayama/Chanting
  • 7:50 – 09:00 Practice
  • 9:00 – 9:30 Discussion
  • 9:50 -11:05 Brunch
  • 11:15-1:00 Philosophy/History/Anatomy
  • 1:00 – 5:00 Asana clinic / Teaching Lab /Practice Teaching

The schedule of the Key Largo Yoga Teacher Training Program is designed to provide an intensive, experiential exploration of yoga philosophy, practice, and teaching techniques. Given Yoga Alliance requirements, all students are required to attend all sessions, without exception.

Program sessions will include techniques for postures and pranayama; teaching methodology for leading a Yoga class, assisting students in postures; exposure to yogic philosophy; anatomy and physiology; and practice to support your emerging skills as a teacher.

There will be homework and practicum hours. Students are required to practice at the studio with Lead Teacher during the entirety of the training. See studio schedule for Lead Teacher classes.

* Additional hours will be required during your training. This will consist of at evening study and service to the community.

 

* The Key Muscles of Yoga: Scientific Keys, Volume 1 by Ray Long and Chris Macivor
* Teaching Yoga: Mark Stephens
* Yoga Adjustments: Mark Stephens
* Yoga: The Spirit and Practice of Moving into Stillness, by Erich Schiffman
* Heart of Yoga, by Desikachar
* Bahgavad Gita: Eknath Easwaran
* Inside the Yoga Sutras: Reverend Jaganath Carrerra (please read before the first YTT session)

 

This 200-hour program is completed over the course of 4 months. Completion of the full program is intended to satisfy the requirements for Yoga Alliance certification at the 200-hour level. The program is open to students who wish to deepen their practice, to those who want to learn to teach yoga, and to teachers who are looking to expand their knowledge and satisfy continuing education requirements. The full program requires a significant time commitment so please consider your availability before registering.

• A minimum of 1 year of consistent yoga practice  is required to be accepted into the training program (if you live away please contact me so I can contact your home studio for a practice log).

• To meet Yoga Alliance’s requirements for a 200-hour Registration, attendance at ALL sessions is mandatory.

• Prior to acceptance into the program, each applicant will be required to complete an application (see below).

• All written assignments, exams and projects must be completed to receive certification.

Policies:

• Credit will not be given for partial attendance.

• A certificate will be issued once all requirements have been met: Successful completion of all courses and all assignments in their entirety, and full payment of tuition.

Investment:

Full tuition for the Teacher Training  is $2,975.00

Payment Schedule as follows:

• $200 non-refundable deposit upon acceptance to the program.  There will be absolutely no refunds on the deposit, so please be sure you are ready to commit to this training before you send your application and fees. See below for link to application. (DEPOSIT WILL BE RETURNED SHOULD TRAINING BE CANCELLED FOR ANY REASON)

• Remaining Payments due no later than January 1st.

READY to enroll? Click HERE

Early Bird CASH Discount: $2,775

NOTE:
Tuition does not cover the cost of a small number of books that are required reading.  It does include all training sessions, teacher manuals and study materials.

EASY! Click HERE to fill out application. Submit application with your application fee.