New/Upcoming Release Yoga Journal - Advance Your Practice & Complete Home Practice

[SharonNYC]

Originally Posted by Eibhinn

I'm very interested to hear more about Advance Your Practice. I've actually been thinking for several years now that was a notable gap in the home yoga DVD market - truly intermediate and PROGRESSIVE yoga instruction to help people progress. There are DVDs with very basic instruction and DVDs with very advanced poses but - IMO, please correct me if I'm wrong - not a lot in between and almost nothing showing how one might gradually progress from one to the other (I realize consistency of practice brings progress, but not warrior pose to splits progress). This gap struck me once when using Erich Schiffman's LIVE #2, where he uses a strap to gradually stretch further and further into a more advanced pose, suggesting people stop whereever they get and I thought - "So THAT is how people work up to those difficult poses!" I realize truly advancing is best done in a class, but it's nice to have a DVD alternative since classes aren't a convenient option for many people for many reasons.

Oh, and I found Advance Your Practice listed on a non-YJ website somewhere with a release date in September - the 13th or 14th, I think. Will definitely be looking out for reviews and clips.

Yogaglo.com does a great job, in my opinion, of filling in the blanks left by current DVD market. Of course it's a subscription site, but it has practices by level, just the way real classes are listed.

Yoni, thanks for the heads up. I'm anxiously awaiting more information.

[Eibhinn]

Originally Posted by SharonNYC

Yogaglo.com does a great job, in my opinion, of filling in the blanks left by current DVD market. Of course it's a subscription site, but it has practices by level, just the way real classes are listed.

Thanks for the hint, Sharon. I'll have to check out Yogaglo!

[KathAL79]

OK, after watching the clip and reading the cover info I'm interested in the Complete Home Practice one. If I read the info Mary has (which I believe is off the cover and YJ press release), there are 9 practices, so with a total of 180 minutes that should mean approximately 20-minute practices.

I'm not advanced enough yet to advance my practice with the other. Watching it brought to mind one of Eoin Finn's favorite sayings when he provides an option to move into the more advanced variation or pose: "Have a clear reason why." Right now I don't have that clear reason. But I'll still be keeping an eye on reviews of this.

[herya]

Originally Posted by Eibhinn

I'm curious about the instructor as well. On the case for advance your practice, it says "learn from world renowned instructors," but the seven minute clip, which appears to be from a variety of practices, has the same voice throughout. I'm guessing the use of the plural refers to the practices being designed or narration written by different instructors? Who knows. In interested in these - they look good - but I'm not sure why Yoga Journal has such vague descriptions. I'm sure I would buy these in an instant if I knew exactly what they were....

I can only guess but since they refer to YogaJournal columns in one of the descriptions it might be that the practices follow the column format, which is that a master instructor writes the column narration and a model (the instructor her/himself, another instructor or a model) performs the poses for the photoshoot.

Originally Posted by toaster

I agree that the clips look interesting. My problem with the past YJ stuff is that it just tend to be so, well, clinical. I do want to work on taking my practice to the next level, but I don't want to be bored to death while doing it! I think that a live instructor (i.e., rather than voiceover) might have worked better (although, on the other hand, that's how they did "Yoga Step-by-Step," and I found those rather clinical too ).

This is very apt Beth, in my own thinking I've always used the word "sanitized" to describe their style

[yoni]

Originally Posted by KathAL79

OK, after watching the clip and reading the cover info I'm interested in the Complete Home Practice one. If I read the info Mary has (which I believe is off the cover and YJ press release), there are 9 practices, so with a total of 180 minutes that should mean approximately 20-minute practices.
.

Kath, if you get it before me, tell us how the practices are. I'm tempted to buy it as well, the sequences look interesting in the clip but it also has a very dry voiceover, no music and a boring set. the other one at least might help me advance my poses.

[KathAL79]

Yoni, I don't know how tempted I am to rush to get the Daily Practice one, but I will post back when (if?) I do get it.
I can live with a boring set and no music, which I'd much rather over bad music, and I'm OK with voiceover. I even like the use of props. But I still want a little more info on who the instructor is and how YJ envisions someone using this DVD. Are you supposed to rotate through them? Pair them up? Work through one at a time? Use them as gateways to your own practice (meaning start with one and then proceed with your own sequence)? Is there a savasana and/or meditation included, or do you provide that on your own? Most importantly, are these follow-alongs (which they appear to be), or are they meant more as demos? I think this latter question is one that really applies to the Advance Your Practice one, too.

[toaster]

Marta, "sanitized" is definitely another good way to put it! I think it's possible to create more advanced instructional practices that have a bit more warmth to them; one that comes to mind is Betsey Downing's Handstand: From Baby Steps to Breakthroughs.

[herya]

Precisely! And on the topic of Betsy's handstand practice, do I remember correctly that it used to be possible to purchase a download of it? I seem to remember you mentioning it Beth but I may have gotten it wrong!

[toaster]

Marta, Betsy's practice used to be available through ihanuman.com, but I don't think it is anymore (she has a Handstand Workshop that is still there, but it's different; plus it's audio, not video like the other). I believe that now you can only get "Baby Steps" through the Anusara web site.

[herya]

Thank you Beth! I was hoping for an alternative to having the DVD shipped over but it's this or nothing I guess