For those who have already understood the value of AcroYoga:
Do you want to become an AcroYoga teacher and Organise your own high quality courses and seminars?
Here you have it, teacher training “Made in Italy” with a national reputation
That will bring you to Teacher Level in a reasonable time!
7-23 July 2017 - in Tuscany
Have you noticed that more and more people want to do AcroYoga?
If you often feel the urge to make your friends or your students fly and you’d like to teach them this practice it’s probably the right time to attend the training course which provide you the tools to start serious and well organized classes and events to help enthusiasts to learn correctly!
This course is designed to meet the desires of those who are already AcroYoga enthusiasts and want to start to teach it in a professional manner (ie with a certificate) training their students and pupils in the experience of AcroYoga avoiding the common mistakes (that are inevitably made by all self taught in the beginning) offering well-structured and interesting lessons which immediately transmit the passion to practice and maintain the yogic spirit that often tends to be lost playing with acrobatics.
We have in fact structured this course so that it provides all the tools necessary to teach right setting, in other words how to practice AcroYoga avoiding fatigue, injuries and how to get the maximum benefit from the positions and the sequences.
Obviously there are some basic prerequisites to follow the course successfully, but read on and you will find that they are all within your reach, and probably you already have many of them!
A little bit of history
(By Jacopo)
In 2008, while looking for Yoga inversion hammocks to fix a back issue, I came across a series of photos of AcroYoga. I was immediately captivated by the beautiful figures that emerged and the sense of vitality that they transmitted. It had been fifteen years that I been teaching Yoga but I had never seen anything like this and being an athlete, I decided I had to try it right away! Unfortunately, in Italy there were no teachers ... nothing, not even a workshop! I quickly found the nearest course that was in Spain and made arrangements to attend.
I quickly realized that in order to seriously teach it would be necessary to undergo training and started to work hard for the requisits. Acrobatic courses, Thai massage courses, long hours of studying, expensive trips to America to follow full immersions ... finally in 2010 I was able to follow the training course with Jason and Jenny and as I returned to Italy I began to spread the teachings in Yoga Festivals and AcroYoga workshops organized across the country. A great effort ... but also lots of satisfaction! I had many requests for courses but in the meantime the School of Yoga Teacher Training that I founded in Florence grew and the time to travel was less and less. Sacrifying every moment of my spare time I have continues to this day to combine my commitment in the training school with a passion for AcroYoga making it known to many more people. Slowly other qualified teachers arrived but we are still very few.
Today finally the AcroYoga has become a viral phenomenon in Italy and can be seen in parks, on beaches and in some yoga centers. To meet the growing request of those who want to learn we need new Certified Teachers!
So after many years dedicated to continually spread the AcroYoga in Italy through workshops and seminars, more than a decade of experience in the field of Yoga teacher training and having many requests from students, I decided to start this Training Course for AcroYoga Teachers to give Italy competent instructors that can continue to spread the practice correctly and professionally.
Aware that investing time and money to obtain a certification today involves great sacrifices, I decided to use all the experience that I have gained conducting intensive courses for Yoga teachers over many years, in order to create a learning path that is comprehensive, efficient with no frills. Working twelve (12) hours a day and harmoniously alternating between theory and a lot of practice, you can discover all the elements necessary to become a well-trained teacher who knows how to stand out for competence and sensitivity.
In what way is this course different from others?
First of all it’s the first course in Italy intended for the formation ot teachers of AcroYoga :-)
...and as everybody knows Italians love to be together, sing and play...
Watch the video to see the atmosphere we create in this course.
Unlike others which require many prerequisites that often necessitate travel and attendance of preliminary courses investing a lot of time and money, this teacher training is complete and provides you with all the elements necessary to become a competent AcroYoga instructor.
The approach to AcroYoga we teach is influenced by the principles and the teaching method of Yoga Anukalana that allow you to practice without feeling fatigue while the level of the physical and mental experience is very deep and interesting .
For us in the term AcroYoga, the word Yoga is the most important. The Acrobatics is integrated with Yoga but does not take over and indeed It allows you to achieve high-level positions while remaining centered on the fundamental aspects of yoga: bodily and mental awareness, breath and a gentle way of moving, relaxed, searching for stretches and alignments that respect the joints and the body.
In this course we aim to achieve the ability to practice real yogic sequences as in the Vinyasa, without ever losing touch with the breath, and all other important elements of Yoga as global body awareness, concentration and a state of internal silence and relaxation.
This course will particularly focus on the deeper aspects of this discipline. In our experience and opinion of AcroYoga it’s Yoga which embodies the Acrobatic (and not the other way around) that creates an intriguing, enjoyable discipline and that is at the same time deep allowing the individual and the community to evolve.
In fact, it is when you maintain a yogic attitude progressing to higher levels of practice, including elements of advanced acrobatics that this discipline gives its full potential!
Many other training courses are often organized by teachers who have mainly acrobatic experience, here we also invest more than twenty years of experience in Yoga and Meditation as a foundation to really make this a yogic discipline.
Here too were aiming to fly high, but without fatigue and hesitation, in a real state of union with your partner and above all in safety :-)
Look at what people have already followed this training say:
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Read all testimonials |
The role of Acrobatics in AcroYoga
Acrobatics is a discipline that has always been linked to performance art or sport and it's natural that competition stimulates the development of a strong self-esteem. It also helps to strengthen the ego, the same ego that, although it has a fundamental existential role (ahamkara is a function / level of manta rays), each yogi tries to tame and control.
Over the years AcroYoga has been often spread by practitioners who give al lot of emphasis to that acrobatic aspect rather than Yogic one. This is also normal when you think of how many people thanks to AcroYoga have experienced for the first time the acrobatic and inverse positions.
While this has created a lot of excitement on the other hand it has also contributed to spread a competitive attitude that although in some cases can be beneficial, it too often pushes practitioners to try to do new things, more and more demanding things, difficult, spectacular and advanced (perhaps forgetting to breathe ...).
But as everyone knows a tall skyscraper must have a good foundation for long-term durability to the geological and environmental stimuli.
This training course is so different from the others particularly for two fundamental aspects:
- During the training you’ll be taken on a journey of personal growth, playing in pairs and in groups through which you can evolve according to the principles of Yoga’s healing aspects related to communication, relationship and the proper attitude to develop your mind deeply. If you practice AcroYoga you know that it can be easy to experiment a competitive spirit leading to different emotional states: When you succed in something (a transition or a difficult position for example) you immediately feel joy, your self-esteem grows quickly and you may forget the ‘less talented friends’ on their mat only to play with the more experienced ones. When it seems that you are unable to perform difficult positions you may experience frustration and your self-esteem drops suddenly bringing demotivation and less desire to practice (often to avoid do confront the failure). As a teacher you want to bring your students beyond these ups and downs allowing them to follow a healthy compromise where acrobatics increases self-esteem but not the ego while Yoga invites collaboration, unity and team spirit. In this course we will put all our knowledge in the field of counselling and training services to coaching to make you a sensitive teacher. You will be able to recognize the competitive attitudes and transform them into collaborative attitudes by evolving your students as people. This in our opinion is one of the highest services that a practice linked to Yoga can offer: to help people to grow inside.
- During the course we will explain in detail, well-organized, methodical technics and biomechanical principles that when acquired properly the first time will allow you to get to advanced levels easily without having to study each new transition in detail. In the course of our experience we have in fact classified thoroughly all the elements that form the basis of each position, transition and alignment to make teaching more quickly and effectively. As a teacher, using these principles, you'll see your students progress quickly with the right setting and return more and more willingly to your classes and seminars. We also experienced what is the precise order to teach these principles to avoid wasting time having to constantly go back on the basics every time it faces a new transition or a new location. The teaching is developed well through preparatory practices that allow you to assimilate these principles and make them healthy habits. It is especially the Anukalana approach that favors a process of integration whereby, movement, positioning and alignment occur naturally with the right setting without you having to think about it. In fact, we love that this school takes the time for technical details that are too often overlooked in haste so as to lead practitioners immediately towards high levels of Acrobatics, thus making them inevitably leave out important elements especially on the yogic plane. A technical detail is not acquired just because you've got ... lt is to be understood, then practiced and applied over and over again in different situations to be able to say that you have really assimilated it!
Thus our motto is:
"It does not matter how high you go...
It matters how deeply you do it!"
AcroYoga as therapy
By integrating elements of Thai Yoga Massage with Yoga and Acrobatics you create the "Thrapeutic Flight", an important part of the training that we will study together with "Acrobatic Yoga".
We emphasize that when acrobatic yoga is practiced in a fluid, soft way and with consciousness it already has a therapeutic function.
The sequences that we will study wont’ be created only to be ‘spectacular’, even if they will look like performaces as there will also be advanced and beautiful positions. They will be balanced to offer counter positions and to be real sequencies of asanas aiming at maintaining a healthy and open body.
When we talk about Yoga, we talk about something healthy. We don’t want you to feel too tired after a hard working day!
We broke the rule that considered the therapeutic flying as separated form the acrobatic one in the creation of sequences that alternate difficult positions with passive asanas. The result is fantastic, just try and see!
A chance to grow together
Just like all the other Yoga teacher trainings organized by us this AcroYoga Teacher Training is based on the creation of a strong group feeling that won’t leave space for competition, inviting insetad a collaborative attitude that will help you to grow both technically and as a human.
We guarantee that we developed our vast technical experience by making tens and tens of people fly for their first time… it is working with the less experienced that you become a great acroyogi!
We love to play and have fun, we love creativity and we use it a lot in our lessons to create new tools and paths to improve learning and to consolidate the necessary qualities for a complete practice.
Summing up everything….
- We give great importance to the yogic and meditative aspect of the practice
- We work a lot on breathing
- We use the Anukalana soft approach to make the practice lighter
- We give importance to harmony and not to the performance
- We dedicate time to personal growth
- We work a lot on communication, listening and the relationship between participants
- Deep work of empowerment preparing you to be a real coach
- We work on how to create team spirit and sense of community
- We work in a cooperative climate rather than a competitive one
- We learn how to control our egos as we discover how to lead students’ perspective away from egocentrism and competition
- We learn specific meditation techniques for acroyoga
- In this first level we learn all the acrobatic integrated with yoga
What will we go trough in the training?
We have prepared a program that will include theoretical, philosophical and scientific aspects intended to provide a deeper understanding of how and why practicing AcroYoga. The practice will naturally be the cornerstone of teacher training but we will also have a series of interesting lectures on how to create a sequence of asanas in flight, a therapeutic flying, activate a study group, set up a regular course, a program of seminars, etc. These will be the foundation of a training that will provide you with all the elements to carry out an high-level teaching practice of this discipline.
Of course there will be a large section dedicated to Flight Therapeutic where we will also see how we can offer individual sessions of this practice, opening new doors and job opportunities.
Progressive didactics
The AcroYoga requires to be learned through a teaching that leads from the basics to the most advanced elements (positions, transitions, etc.) gradually and intelligently. It does not in fact make much sense to try to do right away the intermediate or advanced positions neglecting the basics. But often we tend to do this for "more fun."
In this training you will find that by following a precise order in the study of the various elements, it will be infinitely easier to reach the most demanding positions and keep them in a harmonious way. We worked hard to define what is basic, intermediate and advanced stuff among a thousand items of acroyoga but above all, we defined a "smart" teaching sequence that saves time and set method and order.
The result is that in a shorter time students will reach better stability in the positions and transitions as they develop the pleasure and enjoyment in practicing the "fundamentals" also finding out a lot of hidden details that are usually not noticed.
What will you learn to practice?
At the end of this training you will have learned how to practice and teach with the right setting, without unnecessary effort and secure the foundations:
- Exercises and preparatory practices
- Asana sequences to prepare the body for the practice
- Positions and classical figures of AcroYoga
- All entrances and exits
- A multitude of Transitions
- Educational and preparatory Vinyasa (washing machines and sequences)
- Beautiful acrobatic sequences and their special benefits
- Basic elements of Thai Yoga Massage
- Maneuvers of Therapeutic flight
- Complete sequences of therapeutic flight
- All alignment Principles
- All motion Principles
- All sequencing Principles
- All contact Principles
These items will be divided by levels: basic, intermediate and advanced to allow you to create then acroyoga lessons suitable for various types of practitioners.
What will you learn to manage?
This training contains an important logistics part that will teach you to:
- Organize and manage an AcroYoga course
- How to develope a program thats integrates different levels
- How to organize and manage AcroYoga workshops and seminars
- How to manage particular situations during classes and jams
- Deontology and ethics of teaching
- Basic marketing
What teaching skills will you develop?
As opposed to seminars and immersions where the only thing you learn is to practice, in this training you’ll learn:
- How to divide people in groups depending on their phisical constitutions and the level of their experience
- To give personalized exercises to facilitate learning depending on the students’ bodies
- How to teach calibration exercises
- How to lead an effective demo
- Starting and closing circles with self confidence
- How to create a real sense of community
- What are the details to be taught first and which ones are to study later
- How to use AcroYoga language to facilitate learning
- How to create educational sequencies
- How to develop new bodyfigures
Other topics
Theory and practice will alternate covering these topics:
- History of AcroYoga and its possible future evolution
- Anatomy applied to AcroYoga
- Biomechanical principles
- Tipologies of studens (acrotypes), teachers personalities (psichology of acroyoga)
- Foto shooting for fun and to achieve pictures for our brochure
With this training:
- You’ll become and AcroYoga teacher in short time and at a reasonable cost
- You’ll become Partner Yoga teacher
- You don’t need thousands of qualifications to be ready to access AY training
- You can study in Italy, in the wonderfull hills of Tuscany in an ancient Villa
- You’ll study in a non competitive environment
- You’ll get to know how to statisfy all the people who want to learn acroyoga
- You can decide to travel teaching abroad
- Your practice will reach an excellent level
- You’ll improve inversions and handstands
- You’ll be able to lead your studens with kindness and authority at the same time
Thanks to the personal growth path:
- Your true self will come out, your own personality will distinguish you and you won’t become anybodies clone
- You’ll overcome many of your fears and develop self esteem and courage
- Youl become authoritative and carismatic
- You’ll discover how to use acroyoga to develop calmness and interior peace and transfer these qualities to your students
Who are the teachers?
This Teacher Training will be led by Italian Yoga and AcroYoga certificated and experienced teachers: among them Jacopo Ceccarelli, first certified AY Italian teacher who officially introduced this practice in Italy in 2010. Katia Gargiulo, experienced Yoga and AcroYoga Teacher form Rome. Celeste Pandolfini, AcroYoga Teacher and Aerial Yoga Teacher as well as PluriSpecialized Yoga Teacher. Thai Massage classes will be led by Laura Mencherini, Yoga Teacher with great experience in Prenatal Yoga and second certified AY Italian teacher who got her Thai Massage certification in Thailand.
Progress of the training:
Theory and practice (of AcroYoga, or Yoga Teaching and exercises Personal Growth) will alternate to make everything easy to follow and engaging. The course has an impressive 200 hours and we work about 12 hours a day :-)
Click here to see the daily shcedule
Location of the training
Villa Vrindavana, is Bhakti Yoga Ashram in the Tuscany hillside, close to Florence, is the setting for amazing experiences...
On a national level this training is recognized by:
C.S.E.N.
At the end of the training, on the basis of the diploma we will issue, you can also ask C.S.E.N. for its AcroToga teacher certificate (Diploma).
Ok, now, what prerequisites are needed to be admitted in this training?
Knowledge of Yoga is fundamental and the most important requisite is to have a 200 hrs teacher training as Yoga Instructor.
It is important that you have been practicing AcroYoga reaching familiarity with basic positions and transitions. You can watch the videos published on our web site helping you to develope these basic transitions. Studying them will allow you to arrive prepared for the training.
The best thing you can do is to take participation in workshops, seminars, group studies organized by certified teachers. We really want to get to know future teachers.
As you already know AcroYoga is only complete with an important therapeutic section based on Traitional Thai Massage. It would be advisable for you to study the basic sequences of Thai massage or similar.
We want to make it clear that your motivation is more important than your previous experiencs. Trusting in our experience in training we are sure to make you develop all the skills to become an excellent AY teacher.
If you are not a Yoga teacher please take a look at: www.formazioneyoga.it
If you have no experiences of Thai Yoga Massage please look here:
www.formazioneyoga.it and www.yogafirenze.it as we offer these workshops too.
the next step is to see if you have the right prequisites
This training is not for you if:
- You aim at becoming only an acrobat.
- You want to practice acroyoga to exalt your ego
- You like competition
- You think Yoga is mostly for fitness
What if I don’t like the training?
If you don’t like the training we will refund the paid price
If, whithin the first 3 days of training (first Sunday night) you decide to leave the training, we will refund you the whole amount paid with exception for room and board.
You will not required to give us any explanation, you just tell us that you want to leave and will be refunded.
We are well aware that such a commitment entails enormous sacrifices and that's why we tried to focus the training on the essentials without losing time in practices that have no real value in training. We believe that such a guarantee can make more serene your choice to subscribe.
So… are you ready to make the whole world fly?
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