Courtesy and (perhaps) cluelessness
Posted in ashtanga yoga on 10/30/2009 05:26 am by karenJust read this in another blog: “the etiquette when a teacher is adjusting you in Mysore style, is to not do the vinyasa, so that the teacher can adjust you in both sides without having to wait and then move on to another student.”
Comments, cybershala? Is this so? If so, I’ve been inadvertently rude…
10/30/2009 at 5:50 am
I saw the same thing. I have never ever been told that and I’ve practiced with multiple certified and authorized teachers. I’ll have to ask the current teacher, who has been to Mysore a zillion times. I have had a teacher tell me on the spot to skip the vinyasa and just do the other side, when the class was crowded.
10/30/2009 at 6:02 am
Ditto to LI Ashtangini. I’ve also had the same teach first tell me to skip the vinyasa and then with the next later pose adjustment ask me where’s the vinyasa?
10/30/2009 at 6:04 am
I think that’s just Nancy’s thing. Both in Mysore and with Hamish, I’ve always done the vinyasa.
10/30/2009 at 6:56 am
Hi there – my teacher gets us to skip. She’s a Nancy G student herself though (assuming that is who you’re referring to V?) so that might be the reason for it. She’s been my only Ashtanga teacher so I always just thought that was how it’s done until I read this…I don’t think it is rude though DZM, I doubt a mysore teacher would hesitate to ask you to skip if that was their expectation
10/30/2009 at 7:35 am
I’ve always done the vinyasa and extra chop-chop, meaning no extra breaths.
10/30/2009 at 8:35 am
I have never heard of such!
10/30/2009 at 9:03 am
Hi Karen,
I love your blog…great posts!
I’ve always done the vinyasa when in a Mysore class. No one’s ever stopped me…authorized, certified, or otherwise.
Thanks for posting this though…I’ll pay more attention to how other students handle that when visiting an out of town studio!
10/30/2009 at 9:24 am
Alrighty, it looks like the consensus is that this is a Nancy G thing. And as KMB points out, it’s a pretty sure thing that a Mysore teacher’d tell you to knock off the vinyasas if that’s what he/she wanted. LOL!
10/30/2009 at 12:36 pm
AWESOME… passing on one’s own specific experience as if it is universal “etiquette.”
Did anyone see the book-length “etiquette” post on the EZBoard recently?
Yes, I really think that’s what ashtanga needs. A much more clear and complete enunciation of the universal rules. The practice is just so unregulated… we could use a little discipline.
With all those pictures of Heidi Klum dressed for Halloween, and it being Scorpio season, I’m feeling a Rosebud phase coming on. Criminy.
10/30/2009 at 1:22 pm
I can’t begin to tell you how much I miss Rosebud.
10/30/2009 at 1:34 pm
I miss yelling at rosebud.
I’m here because you emailed owl, hi.
I’m beating a dead horse but on the rare occasions when I’m adjusting I actually count on the student’s vinyasa time so that I can use it to take care of someone else.
I think it is good etiquette not to do the vinyasa only if the teacher happens to adjust you on the 2nd side first. Then you quickly switch back to the first side so s/he can tweak that too. If you do the vinyasa then IMO you are telegraphing that you don’t want the first side.
10/30/2009 at 1:44 pm
Um, that last part was a joke btw based on owl’s “personal experience as etiquette” comment. Just realized it might not seem that way, and that even if it did, it might not be funny. It is in fact my personal experience though.
10/30/2009 at 2:27 pm
Do you hear that Rosebuddy? Get down here.
10/30/2009 at 3:00 pm
hahahaha! SOOOOOOO good to see you in webspace Ash!!!!
10/30/2009 at 4:12 pm
I do the vinyasa and no one’s ever said anything. The teacher sometimes adjusts another student in the interim, but not all that often. Our mysore classes are, erm, not too crowded, shall we say. Maybe I’m clueless, too; but isn’t the vinyasa an integral part of the practice?
How much time does it save, really? 20-30 seconds?
Having a chuckle at the notion of ashtanga needing more rules.
10/30/2009 at 4:13 pm
Do the vinyasa chop-chop unless they ask you not to! Simple stuff. I haven’t read that blog, I have to go find it now.
I went off EZboard when it changed to yuku, wouldn’t disply new posts properly. I could probably kill a whole weekend checking back in LOL. Rosebud was fun : )
10/30/2009 at 7:40 pm
I have nothing to add other than reading the comments here was a lot of fun.
Yes, Ashtanga needs more rules. For sure.
heh.
10/30/2009 at 9:12 pm
I have skipped vinaysa once and teacher told me to go back and do them so I don’t skip them anymore.
I also used to try to breathe faster to save teacher’s time and got told I was breathing too quickily.
In my shala, if you need and adjustment and the teacher is busy, you wait. Usually no more than a minute. ( Unless you are waiting to be dropped back, I think it is my teacher’s ploy to get peple doing more drop nacks on their own ).
10/31/2009 at 4:02 am
hi Karen
i never heard that as an etiquette. it would be more in synch with the method for the teacher to wait for you to do the vinyasa, if you’re doing traditional Mysore practice. if you are mindful of the teacher’s time, you can do the vinyasa as quickly as possible. maybe this explains why when a teacher has a full room to handle, he or she might only adjust one side of your asana, since she has to move to the next person.
cheers,
Arturo
10/31/2009 at 4:07 am
i’m clueless about rosebud. but i’m sure i’ll be allright
10/31/2009 at 5:04 am
interesting discussion! in the 8 years w. my certified teach here in nyc, I’ve always skipped the vinyasa when I get help. also did the same in mysore w. guruji + sharath. I think it’s the polite thing to do, and lazy-yogi that I am, welcome the break. I’d say others at my shala are split 60-40%, with more skipping than vinyasa-ing. and yes, I too miss the days of el senior & RB…
10/31/2009 at 6:21 am
Hi Tina! I kind of dislike the implication that it is impolite to do the vinyasa. I’d also dislike to get into teacher upmanship (well, Guruji says…)
LOL, I’m full of dislikes this Saturday!
10/31/2009 at 9:31 am
I’ve never heard of skipping the vinyasa. i agree that the vinyasa is important…if this is a posture with which you are regularly getting help, the teacher would likely want you to reconnect with the breath etc. Plus it is not normally a problem to go and adjust some other nearby practitioner until you are ready for the second side!
10/31/2009 at 6:42 pm
I think the answer is pretty obvious: there is no rule. If you’re new at a shala, you watch, you maybe make some mistakes, it’s yoga so hopefully people are kind and non-judgemental. Bwhahahaha.
Tina, I am really surprised at what you say about skipping the vinyasa at Eddie’s. Also, you were at Yoga Sutra for a while…you never skipped vinyasas with Chris did you? He would never have let you get away with that!!
Finally, can someone please enlighten the ignorant among us about Rosebud? I don’t believe that she was still posting when I joined the Ashtanga EZ Board, although I did see some old posts of hers. She didn’t seem very nice. Am I missing something here?
10/31/2009 at 11:53 pm
You actually had a scrap with her and wrote a nasty post in your blog about her.
There, enlightened.
11/01/2009 at 10:39 pm
Really?? I have no recollection of that, but since she seemed, as I said, not very nice, I can see how that would be.
11/02/2009 at 5:41 am