Recently, I had the fortune of being the only student in a yoga class; of course, this was fortune for me, not so much for the studio trying to make money. Either way, it was an excellent experience. What was also fantastic about this class was that a teacher trainee was in attendance as well. I was intimidated at first – who wants to be the only student in a yoga class? But that intimidation was quickly overcome when I realized what a learning experience this would be, for both me and the teachers.
I found the instruction incredibly more in-depth, and we even had the chance to work on some issues that never usually get covered in a larger class (such as, my knee over-extension issues). I realize that teachers always try the best they can to pay attention to everyone, but this can be very difficult as the class sizes get bigger. I also got to learn some teaching cues and adjustments as the teacher was demonstrating to the trainee, so of course, this was beneficial for my own training as well. Working on some of the most basic poses (ie., Triangle/Trikonasana), with different adjustments can bring a whole new outlook on the pose and definitely make it not so basic. I also enjoyed the discussion about the class plan and ideas for helping beginner students with their poses.
In the end, I left this class feeling amazing and optimistic. A chance like this is so rare, or you have to pay $100 an hour for this type of instruction, so I feel lucky to have had this experience. If this opportunity should arise again in the future, I definitely will not be intimidated and will actually look forward to this experience again! ॐ
Yogi Crystal Runs 
wow- very lucky! and very cool! I felt ‘some’ of this when I attended a Mysore class and no one else was there yet for the first 45 minutes. Although Ashtanga isn’t usually my thing, I learned so much from the one-one time. It was fantastic. 🙂
(found you through twitter- I’m CoffeeAndYoga, fellow Maritimer!)
Blessings 🙂
Lisa