Two Principles of Stretching
Feel The Stretch and Give Your Muscles Time To Lengthen/Relax
When you feel a muscle stretch you're feeling the resistance of the muscle to lengthen. The muscle is resisting lengthening from its tight and shortened state. The muscle is resisting the influence from going from tight to normal. When you feel this tightness/pulling/resistance, don't try to go further into the stretch. When you feel this tightness, bring your attention to the area, breathe, and give your muscles time to relax and lengthen.

Stretching is coming to the point of feeling the tightness, then breathing and waiting. If you push your body further into the stretch after you feel the tension, your muscles can do the opposite of what you're wanting. With too much pulling/stretching, your muscles may tighten in reaction to the strong pulling force.

The Tightest Fibers In The Muscle Release Last
When you stretch a muscle, the fibers that are least tight lengthen/relax first. The fibers that are most tight take the longest time to relax. The advantage of holding a stretch for a longer period of time is to give the tightest muscle fibers time to relax. In stick-stretching you can be in a stretch for up to three minutes. This gives your tightest muscle fibers time to more fully relax.

Leverage Makes The Stretch Stronger With Less Effort
If you were to chop wood with an ax handle that is six inches long you'd have to work a lot harder than if the handle on the ax is three feet long. The longer ax handle (three feet long) makes the force much stronger than the shorter ax handle (six inches long). You'll be using a six foot or a seven foot stick to help you stretch your muscles. This makes you work a lot less to get a good deep stretch. By using the stick, you'll be able to easily get better stretches in some ways than you can in a yoga class.

Hanging From The Stick
You can change the amount of stretching/pulling on your muscles by changing how you're hanging from the stick. If the stretch is too strong, you can make it easier. If the stretch is not strong enough, you can increase the stretching of the muscles. Also you can change the angle of the stick during the stretch to get a slightly different stretch.

In certain yoga stretches, like warrior pose, you have to hold your arms up by tightening muscles. You can hold your arms up only for short periods of time; a minute or so. When you're stretching your shoulders with the stick, the stick is holding you up. This way you don't have to tighten some muscles as you stretch other muscles. You can hang on the stick for minutes at a time. The only tension needed is to hold the stick with your hand.

A Comparison Of Stick-Stretches and Yoga Stretches
Stick-stretches are done standing. In the class you will be doing different stretches that are specific for your shoulders, upper arms, chest, rib cage, and back. You'll do multiple stretches for each of these different parts of your upper body.

Stretching Your Shoulders and Upper Arms
Stick-stretches are most effective for your shoulders and for your upper arms. Stick-stretches are much better than yoga stretches for your shoulders and upper arms. A yoga instructor has called stick-stretches "the missing link in yoga" because stick-stretches are so great for your shoulders and they're easier to sustain than yoga poses for your shoulders.

Stick-stretches are a very good and a very effective therapy for anyone with tight shoulders. In my opinion, if stick-stretches only stretched your shoulders, I would consider stick-stretches to be great. Stick-stretches do stretch much more than just your shoulders.

Stretching Your Chest and Rib Cage
Stick-stretches and yoga are both good ways to stretch your chest and rib cage. The advantage of stick-stretches is that you can hold some of the stretches more easily than in yoga. Stick-stretches and yoga both offer you different ways to stretch your chest and rib cage.

Stretching Your Neck
Stick-stretches and yoga have less of a direct effect on the muscles in your neck than in your shoulders, arms, ribs, and back. Stick-stretches can loosen your neck muscles indirectly by loosening the muscles in your shoulders and in your upper back. Yoga has some postures where your neck is being more directly affected during the stretch.

Stretching Your Back
Yoga does a more thorough job in stretching your back than stick-stretches. Stick-stretches can easily get specific, sustained stretches in the sides of your low back that are easier to do than yoga stretches.

Stretching Your Hips
Yoga is much better than stick-stretches for stretching your hips.

Stretching Your Legs
Yoga is excellent, and far better than stick-stretching, for stretching your legs.
Stick-stretches are designed for your upper body; not for your legs. I actually don't want you to be doing much stretching in your legs during stick-stretches. I want you to focus on the stretching that is happening in your upper body. If you choose to stretch your legs during stick-stretching, you can vary the stretches so that you'll be stretching your upper body and your legs at the same time.

Conclusion
My opinion is that stick-stretches are much better for your shoulders than yoga. Stick-stretches are great for your rib cage and chest; maybe even better than yoga. Yoga is better at stretching your neck, back, hips, and legs, though some stick-stretches are great for your back.

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