Choosing the right Yoga Teacher Training Program for you

If you really intend to teach, then you must find the course that makes the best teacher out of you. Here are some of my humble observations.
Make sure that your school is a registered school, both with Yoga Alliance, and local authorities, if you intend to teach and make the most of your certification.
Know your body. Choose a style that will best help you improve, not necessarily a style that you are already comfortable with. You need to be jogged out of your comfort zone, not feel comfortable.
Time: If its available choose a programme that you can be committed to entirely instead of dedicating only evenings or weekends. If you are unable to offer 100% immersion, you might find yourself more drained and exhausted than you imagined.
Sense of Humour: Find out who the teacher is and try to set up a meeting well before the course. Try and see his or her temperament. If your teacher is only knowledgeable but lacks a sense of humour, you might find that you don’t have the ability to laugh at yourself – a quality you’re going to need more than ever through an intensive programme like this.
Anatomy and Physiology: Make sure you explore thoroughly the aspects of the curriculum covered. Many teacher training programmes focus on asanas and yoga philosophy without giving adequate importance to anatomy and physiology. Difficult as that is, a strong foundation in anatomy and physiology is what will set you apart as a teacher. To plan for a ‘body’s benefit, you must have a thorough knowledge of that body
Asanas: It is not important that you can ‘do’ all the asanas perfectly well; the levels of depth that you might desire may take a while to sink into your body, but you must have the opportunity to recognize the essence of the asanas – their names (omigosh the names J), the alignment, posture, benefits, common mistakes, dhristi, contraindications
Adjustments and Alignments: For a long time in my yoga life I thought a teacher had to look sexy, be able to bend themselves in to a pretzel and say really philosophical things while doing so. I have learnt that the most crucial thing a teacher needs to impart to me is the ability to adjust and to adjust me that I can understand what that last finishing touch can do.
 Health related issues: Discuss your health issues with your teacher before hand. Make sure you are able and can do what is asked of you, and you know what you should avoid. Budget: There generally is an early bird discount. Catch it.
Yoga Philosophy: Explore the yoga philosophy to find out exactly what components are included. You will really benefit from learning the Kriyas (cleansing techniques). It is a vital part of a body performing at optimum Class size: Definitely find out the size of the class. Ideally for one teacher, the class size should be less than ten.
At the risk of sounding soppy…….I must say I’m grateful I was able to find all this during my course at Tirisula………thanks Paalu and Wei Ling