Sky Rocket into Spring
Since leaving the studio in the middle of March, I’ve spend an invigorating few weeks focusing on my own practice. At the start of April, I travelled to London and had the privilege of training under Kathy Ran at her Black Lotus studio, and I’m delighted to have now returned to Zürich as a fully fledged Rocket Yoga teacher! Kathy is truly one of a kind, with some 30 years’ experience teaching yoga, having learnt her craft under a glittering panoply of famous teachers including Iyengar, Bikram, and Larry Schultz (the founder of Rocket).
For those that don’t know about Rocket Yoga, it’s a more accessible, modern elaboration of the traditional Ashtanga series. Blending standing and groundwork in a fixed sequence across three difference series of increasing difficulty, like Ashtanga, Rocket Yoga really allows you to ‘watch’ your progress over time when practised regularly. Having been quite free flowing in my teaching and practise of late, it’s nice to return to more discipline and structure, and really keep track of what’s happening to my body and mind in detail.
What I especially love about Rocket is the emphasis on core strength and balance, including plenty of inversions! Whilst this can sound daunting, Kathy’s training included plenty of accessible drills to practise, building up coordination, strength, and balance in a playful way. Pushing to one side the elitism of Ashtanga, the Rocket method allows you to have a lot of fun from day one, and even includes a 20 minute Bottle Rocket sequence, for those days when you (realistically) don’t have time for a full practice.
Seamlessly weaving her wisdom into her bright and joyous way of teaching, Kathy has been nothing short of a rocket of inspiration to me since I first attended a class with her back on 21 April 2023. Almost a year on, I’m delighted and proud to have completed this next phase of my development as a teacher under her guidance, bringing a sackful of ‘golden nuggets’ of knowledge back with me to supercharge not only my own practice but my teaching too. I’m already eyeing up her advanced Master Teacher Training from January 2025!
But before any of that, as with anything new, it’s time to consolidate and digest what I’ve come across. As I launch my Outdoor Yoga series in Hornanlage, Küsnacht this week, I will be putting feelers out for interest in Rocket Yoga amongst the yogins. So, if anyone would like to see this pop up, please drop me a line to let me know.
The Zero Gravitas Yoga Studio in Küsnacht seems to be edging ever closer… Here’s to more yoga for lighter life!