Sam found his way to the practice of asana through his meditation practice. When he was young, he found that he didn't have to strength necessary to sit in meditation postures for the duration necessary to make full use of them. As a result, he began to do asana practice, as he had heard that it would allow him to keep steady and still for longer periods of time. It turned out to be true.

Later, in his late teens and early twenties, Sam studied philosophy and world religions with an emphasis on Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism. This led him to a deep appreciation and love of the religious traditions of India, China, and South Asia, and a desire to directly experience these traditions first hand in their original cultural context. After he graduated college he began to practice Ashtanga yoga in the traditional way - waking early and practicing 'Mysore style', a self directed practice following the traditional Ashtanga yoga sequence and guided by his teacher, Kate O'Donnell. He began travelling regularly to India to study with his teacher Sharath Jois of Mysore, India. After six trips to India and four extended periods of study in Mysore, Sam was authorized to teach the traditional Ashtanga yoga method in the lineage of K. Pattabhi Jois.

Sam's teaching attempts to convey the internal elements of meditative and ascetic practice along with the external asana practice. His hope is to transmit to others the experiences made possible by this tradition which he has been so fortunate to participate in. Sam continues to travel to India whenever the opportunity becomes available to him and the time is right, and hopes to be a conduit for the energetic qualities of that place to express themselves at home. If he can give you even a small taste of the fresh tropical air around sunrise in Mysore, he feels he will have done something correctly.