Rocket Training with Amber Jean

April 09, 2018 • Ashtanga Training • Cincinnati Yoga • International Rocket Yoga Training • Rocket Certifaction • Rocket Girl Yoga • Rocket Retreats • Rocket Yoga London • Rocket Yoga UK • Yoga Blog •Yoga Cincinnati • Yoga Kentucky • Yoga Retreats

None of us can escape time, time teaches us to love and teaches us about sorrow and grief. When Larry Schultz left his body, his beloved students were at a loss of what to do. It has been such a delicate subject since Larry’s gone because he was our alpha and could gently and sometimes not so gently allow the Rocket to grow as he saw fit if he didn’t like the way you were presenting the Rocket he would say “shut it down”.

Now 7 years later Rocket Girl sees more yogis using the name the Rocket more freely which is good and also not good sometimes because before Larry passed he only authorized a few of his students to lead the Rocket trainings and use the name the Rocket so some Rocket trainings out there are not being lead by his original students therefore the representation of the Rocket could be questioned.

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Rocket Girl has always said yoga and the Rocket is organic so naturally little parts and interpretations change over time, however in Rocket Girls eyes there are only a few students that carry on the way that Larry instructed it. First of all the Rocket is a system of 140 poses a week therefore to practice the system you must practice Rocket 1, 2 and 3 thruout the week. The Bottle Rocket which Rocket Girl Amber Gean developed is greaed towards to beginners and for those of you who may only have a limited time to practice because a full Bottle Rocket can be completed in 50 minutes. Also, a big part of Larry’s philosophy is that we only use “two finger” adjustments. This is the area that when you are prcaticing the Rocket and learning it you have to ask yourself are these Mysore adjustments or is the instuctor staying more true to the philosophy of being more gently guided in and out of asanas. The reason for the two finger adjustments is not only to prevent the student from being injured but also as a means of empowering the inner teacher.

The Rocket itself is meant to be a holistic approach to Ashtanga yoga. As time goes by Rocket Girls mission is to continue to share the Rocket in the light that Larry Schultz instructed it. Rocket Girls Trainings are special and unique.... because Rocket Girl studied with Larry for 11 years ... stay tuned more trainings will be announced “soony soony” like Larry would say! 🚀💛🚀💛🚀🚀💛🚀💛🚀💛🚀🚀

18 Years Of Rocket Reflextion

May 18, 2018 • Amber Gean • ashtanga • International Rocket Yoga Training • Larry Schultz • New Mexico Rocket Yoga • Rocket 2 • Rocket Routines • Rocket Vinyasa Yoga • Rocket Yoga Training • Rocket Yoga UK • Rocketyogatraining • StockholmRocket • The Rocket • Yoga ah • Yoga and Surf • Yoga Retreats • Yogaretreats

At the beginning of May 2000 I stepped into It’s Yoga San Francisco for the first time. My time had come to take a formal month long yoga training. Larry was not at the studio yet so I sat down and observed the noon class. It had at least 20 students all looking very eager and capable and a very tall man with dread locks was leading the class, somehow he looked like yoga to me, as if I knew “what yoga looked like”. I felt a presence in that room that I had never felt before and it made my eyes bright and excited for the journey ahead.

A few hours later it was time for Larry to lead the Rocket practice that began at 4:30pm. I decided to put my things in a corner take the class. There was a lot going on in the room and I was soon to find out that the constant flow of people in and out was the norm. The class was fun and challenging and offered lots of movement. It was amazing for me to so many yogis that could actually do the poses and later found out that they were in my teacher training. So naturally I questioned myself if I was in the right place, and later I discovered I was exactly where I needed to be.

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After class I saw Larry perched on a stool and walked over to him and thought to myself, “well this is him, and him doesn't look like what I thought he would,” but I was sure in that instance IT WAS HIM, my teacher. That feeling allowed my heart to open and for the following 11 years I was by his side as much as my schedule and home life in Cincinati would allow. When you find your teacher your heart opens up and you want to do things for them, like make them tea or rub their feet. It’s a very very special relationship and its hard to decribe it in words, sometimes when its happening you don't even realize that it is until a much later reflection. There are laws in the universe that bring people together and match nice souls. It’s all very interesting, as I fondly remember Larry saying.

Larry taught us about creating a routine for our day, our week, our month and our years and how by establishing yourself in a consistent yoga practice will only bring positive changes into your life. Larry taught us to believe in the practice and more importantly believe in ourselves as our most powerful teacher. He showed us that living in the unknown is ok as long as we relax and breathe and go with the flow. He took care of his students and was known for his generosity. Sometimes he was criticized for his methods because he was so unaffected by what other people thought.

Since my yoga training in San Francisco I have kept up with my Rocket practice and have found it to be truly sustainable, therapeutic, and healing. Is my practice changing all the time? Sure it is, Iv’e carried 2 children, loved, experienced loss, grief, joy, sickness and health the whole while coming back to the mat beginning with sun salutations and going into Rocket  sequences day after day week after week. Sometimes less is more sometimes more is more. The lifestyle begins to permeate itself into your whole being and everything becomes yoga. Every choice you make you notice how it affects your energy does it give or does it take and once you understand that, thats how you can really begin to change your life thru yoga 

Larry gave me the Rocket and that was one of the greatest gifts I could of ever received. But you must BELEVIE in the power and the magic. It’s all really about the magic thats what I’ve learned in 18 years. Only what you see with your eyes is real and everything else in make believe. BOM SHIVA!!!

Pura Vida Rocket May 2018

June 30, 2018 • ashtanga • Cannabis Clubs • Cincinnati Yoga • Costa Rica Retreats • Larry Schultz •Nasa and The Rocket • Nauliland • Rocket Certifaction • Rocket Routines • Rocket Yoga Sequences •Rocket Yoga Tribe • The Rocket • Yoga • Yoga People • Yoga Retreats • Yoga Training • Yogis

The Dharma Bums

 “ There’s nothing wrong with you Ray, your only trouble is you never learned to get out to spots like this, you’ve let the world drown you in its horseshoe and you’ve been vexed” 

The power of the Rocket never ceases to amaze me. After 18 years of practice, I find myself in Costa Rica in a beach house with 12 other Rocket yogis. This happened in part because I met another Rocket yogi named Johanna in Nicaragua. She attended my training there and we had a nice connection. She lives in Costa Rica and runs a surf camp, so we felt that it was the perfect marrying.

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When you are in the experience, you are just that; “in it”. It takes time to reflect on everything at the retreat. I compare any training to giving birth, in this case, one full year of planning. Everyone except 2 yogis from Sweden were from the US so everyone was out of “their” country and, therefore out of their comfort zone. This allowed everyone to explore in a more free environment, while being supported with two lead Rocket classes a day, as well as some teacher training. After all, we were in Costa Rica. Even though it was a training, it also felt like a very special Rocket vacation we all got to go on. We had private surf lessons and homemade food straight from the ocean to the table. Wow, we ate good, thanks to Johanna and her mother Kiki who came all the way from Sweden to help support the training.

Some students chose to detox and avoid any alcohol , while some students chose to have a couple cocktails. The whole idea is that there is no right or wrong, everything is teaching us, we just have to be open to what the message is. The Rocket is about being adaptable to the environment that you find yourself in and knowing how to be self responsible for your inner peace. It’s about self love and respect. Respect for ourselves, respect for each other and all the energy that each person brings when a Rocket event like this occurs.

During the retreat you don’t always know where you are going. We are all in a new country and in the unknown. The whole idea is to get out of your day to day environment so you can see yourself differently.It reminds me of the trainings in San Francisco where most of us were in a new environment and that brought out different qualities in each of us. Larry would encourage all of us to transform from within, using the Rocket as a vehicle to study the self.

Sometimes you see how strong you are and sometimes you see what changes you need to make in your life.

"Over time the Rocket is a lot less about the poses but the healing work we all are doing". Larry Schultz 

 

Onward and upward Rocket Yogis! I love you all so much, lets keep it all going!

Love,

Rocket Girl

London Rocket Yoga Testimonial

This is something one of the students that attended the training wrote.

I was already convinced of how awesome the Rocket was during our time together, but since then I've experienced even more of its transformative power and it's forever going to change the way I practise and teach. Yesterday in one of my corporate classes, we were practising on carpet and I practically slid into the splits – I was about an inch off the floor and I couldn't believe what was happening! I've been working on that pose for many years. Also I've been digging that Headstand to Elbowstand transition you showed us ☺️ So grateful for the experience we had at Chroma – I'll never forget it 🚀💖✨

Big love,

AnouskaAnouska Shenn / Yoga Teacher

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The Current State Of Yoga

What is going on with the current state of yoga? What I see with my eyes in our current yoga state is that there are not as many traditional Ashtanga yoga instructors now as there were when I first started practicing in 1999. When I took my teacher training in 2000, I was already exposed to Primary series of Ashtanga and when I first started facilitating yoga teacher trainings so were the students in attendance. Back in the early 2000’s Pattabi Jois was still alive and most of us had a basic understanding of what Ashtanga yoga was, these days the students coming into the trainings don’t even know who Pattabi Jois was!

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What happened to me early on in my yoga practice has definitely shaped the kind of teacher that I am today. One of my favorite corrections to a new student is to tell them NOT to push as hard in their backbends and take their time by using a wall to create strength in their core and back and the flexibility comes over time! When new students come into a teacher training with me I teach them a lot about the history of Ashtanga and show them how we are varying from the tradition to keep our teaching safe and accessible. Some call me the Rocket Girl but really I’m just a person who has been practicing and studying yoga for a fairly long time, I just happen to be a big believer in the Rocket as a system that allows the practitioner to practice for a very long, long, long time!! Krishnamychara said “ a good yoga instructor can teach anyone” and thats what I like to show people how to do. How to teach anyone.
There are too many hodge poge of yoga styles these days. From yoga practiced in extreme heat to vinyasa yoga that has a whole bunch of stuff thrown in for no reason and too many instagrammers that are demoing dance moves instead of real yoga. So what is it? It’s confusing for a new practitioner to see what is what. However I do attract yogis that really want to learn about real yoga and how really what we are doing is accumulating prana or life force energy. Also a big part of what I do is show people how to lead safe, accessible Ashtanga classes. This practice is a blessing and the more you do it and share it the better you feel! So start today!! and as always be inspired~

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