Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I bought this yoga deck as an optional deck for my yoga teacher training students for the first round of teaching a new training program, and I am sincerely glad I did not make it a required element to buy. I know Mark's practice as I've attended a few of his vinyasa classes. I was inspired by his teaching and practice but these cards are far too advanced for 200 Hour training students trying to learn how to teach Level 1, 1/2, 2 classes. It reflects the practice he teaches at a Level 2/3, but not what a number of new yoga teachers need to learn for sequencing. While I have enjoyed his classes in the past, I didn't find this deck as helpful for students beginning a new 200 teacher training students. Every time I've interacted with Mark, I still find a sincere lack of mentorship with him and I think this deck reflects some of his weaknesses in reaching new yoga teachers. Much of the deck is far too advanced for teachers learning the beginning alignment and sequencing foundations of Beginner and Intermediate poses. While I was able to garner some deeper ideas of how to explain the essence of class peaks verses sequence peaks in the small book included, some of his work is going esoteric too fast and leaves students behind. I have been teaching teacher trainees even further along in their practice than I am and we couldn't use this deck the fundamentals of much of our sequence and class design training together. There were some cards that were helpful for principles, and a number of cards that make you think about your practice, but there were far too many poses that were way out there for 200 level teacher training students to even be thinking about while creating good solid sequences that both teach alignment and transform. Mark doesn't particularly take guidance and feedback well on these things either and doesn't converse in a way that creates mentorship, so I hesitate recommending a deck of yoga cards to students who may be incorrectly influenced by him. It's a bit too much baggage to carry. My sense is that he takes quite a bit and is a difficult person outside the teaching arena, so as much as I was originally influenced by his work and I wanted to give this a try, I keep coming back to the realization that my students need something different. I teach an essence, flow, and alignment program designed for transformation and I don't think that is about achieving such difficult poses as much as it is about expressing transformation and creativity in fundamental poses and creating a good build to a peak. This yoga deck is meant for a very masculine and advanced student and not as much for those who are feminine and need to build sequences from a different perspective. Many yoga students and teachers would be left out here and oppressed, and that would be a loss.