Essential Course Components

Anatomically correct practice

Knoff Yoga focuses on anatomically correct practice. But much more than just alignment, you are taught the unique ‘24 Principles of Practice’ which help you negotiate the multitude of technical points in asana practice. For example, there are over 119 points in Extended Triangle Pose (Utthita Trikonasana), but only 24 principles. The good news is that these 24 principles apply to all the yoga poses, and this is a major emphasis in all of our Courses. Once you understand these principles, you have them for life. The 24 Principles of Practice are covered in great detail in your Teacher Training Course Manual.

Self-responsibility

Our philosophy is ‘if you are going to practice yoga, you should figure out how to get the most benefit from your time and efforts’. Yoga is about working towards full human potential; therefore individual yogis are responsible for their own growth and need to be wary of teachers who want to control them.

Intelligent use of yoga props

A cornerstone of Knoff Yoga is the appropriate use of yoga props (belts, blankets, blocks, bolsters, bricks, chairs, inversion swings, etc.) — using them where they provide a benefit or are necessary, but gradually working towards freedom from the props and the full expression of classical postures in order to develop the full expression of our human potential.

Baked Cake Method

We call the Knoff Yoga intensive approach to training the ‘Baked Cake Method’. If you want to bake a cake and it requires one hour in the oven, you do not remove it every 10 minutes, let it cool down, and then put it back in the oven over and over again. If you do, you end up with an inedible mess! You need the concentrated and powerful cumulative effects of deepening your practice and teaching if you want to be a credible teacher with your own experience and insights. You have to ‘pay your dues, if you want to sing the blues’.

Trained to teach

The yoga teacher training Courses are designed so that you will be properly prepared, trained and certificated to teach the Course levels you have studied — provided that you do the work and pass the tests.

Tried and tested systems

You will be trained in a unique and proven system of 5 class elements: Meditation (non-religious); Pranayama (expansion of the life-force); Asana (anatomically aligned postures); Savasana (yogic relaxation); and Philosophy (how to have a happy life).  You will be shown how to teach these elements in specific class percentages to ensure your students are instructed comprehensively. 

The Knoff Yoga system also provides a weekly theme to make sure your students have sufficient repetition (the first rule of teaching) combined with new material so their interest levels are kept high.

Knoff Yoga Code of Conduct