Top 10 Yoga Teaching Tips

A good student experience = good attendance

 

1. Greet students with a warm smile and use their name. If you don't know their name then it is a good time to ask and shake their hand. ~ Yes, it sounds simple, but goes a long way; esp for people new to yoga or new to your studio and, therefore, already feel uncomfortable and out of place.

2. Don't spend more than a minute on centering/grounding or setting an intention. But most importantly, don't spend more than minute chit chatting.  Sure, 1 or 2 people might like it or even want to do it the whole time; but there will be others making a mental note to attend a class such as this again. However there may be many who want to moan and complain about their day, but this is not healthy chit chat; and the others who want to de-stress certainly don't want to hear it. In this busy world most people want to get on with the practice, they have a lot to do and so they are far too agitated to actually center and ground when they first come in anyway. Sure, we want to pull them out of that mode, but the poses, however, will get them there more effectively than forcing them to ground for more than 2 min when they first get there. However you can (and should) start with easy grounding poses anyway.

3. If you have a reading, save it for shavasana. You wont have to rush it and their ancy-ness will be quelled. In other words, they will be much more open and receptive.

4. The best attended classes always have a very good and well thought out music playlist. However lyrics activate the mind and we want to get them into their body. Also, pianos are not tuned to the natural overall human vibration and, therefore, not as conducive to harmony. (This is why rarely, if ever, one hears any piano music coming out of India). (Also avoid saxophone and any other types of instruments -including voices- that have a distorted sound.)

5. Don't play the music so loud that your own voice has to compete with it. Often teachers do this because they love the music so much themselves that they want their students to appreciated as much as they do. However, this is too much for the student to handle on top of concentrating on the following your guidance thru the poses. Nevertheless, music shouldn't just be background noise. It should be yoked into the sequence in a supportive manner.

6. Do not talk too much! This is the number one complaint I get about teachers. The only time a lot of talking is permissible is when the teacher is leading a more vigorous class where their volume, tone and word choice supports the students to reach deeper and persevere when needed. 

7. Make sure the lighting fits the class or class segment. Bright lights at the beginning of a vigorous/firey class are fine, but must be turned down or off during cool down and shavasana. Gentle classes like yin should always use low lighting.

8. Make sure your class is there for the students and not the other way around. From traffic to wrestling with an uncooperative child, we don't know what problems people face on the way to class. I've known of people to break down crying when arriving at a class only to find the door locked; or if they know the teacher will be scolding towards them; even though they may not say anything, a student can feel it. We want to welcome and encourage everyone to make it to class and maybe even cheer them for the succeeding.  We are here to help, support and serve the students, not to please the ego's of our teachers. 

9 and 10 are coming.

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