![]() ![]() My ego slightly bruised, I responded with something like “You’re right, that was ridiculous,” and resolved to teach the poses the way I would if I were explaining them to my sister or my best friend-simply, casually, and in the common vernacular. But nonetheless, I really wanted to show the three students standing in front of me that yoga didn’t completely suck (even if my cueing did in that moment). I figured I had totally bombed the class, and was sure I’d be forever blacklisted from teaching in this space again. However, since I seem to be genetically predisposed to laughing at inappropriate moments, I started laughing instead (I think it may have had something to do with realizing how ridiculous my instructions to “puff the kidneys” or “breath into your right hip crease” actually were). ![]() Eventually, one student raised her hand and said, “Excuse me, but I don’t think we understand what you’re talking about.” By then my nerves were rattled, my confidence was shot, and I felt like I wanted to cry. I demoed poses (which helped) I spouted off everything I’d ever heard about tadasana (which did not help) and I tried REALLY hard to sound like I knew what I was talking about. These are skills that generally take some time and experience to develop!ĭespite having a bit of experience teaching mixed-level asana, when I first started teaching yoga for beginners (almost certainly way sooner than I should have!), it felt somewhat akin to learning how to swim by being stripped of my water wings, tossed off a dock, and told to “go for it!” I vaguely remember standing at the top of my mat and rattling off some yoga-speak, which was met with blank stares and confused glances. Breaking down poses step by step without relying on yoga-jargon, answering questions on the spot, and offering optimal pose variations for brand new students with a variety of body types, abilities, and reasons for coming to class for the first time requires a teacher to be really comfortable with and knowledgeable about the asanas they’re teaching. And making that selfsame downdog interesting, accessible, and sufficiently challenging for all of your students? It’s harder than it looks. Sure, the poses you’ll offer in beginner classes will probably be fairly simple, but teaching a downdog from scratch is a lot trickier than simply cueing “downdog” and then offering a few alignment cues and refinements the way you might in a mixed-level or level 1, 2, or 3 class. They can also be some of the most fun and rewarding classes to teach (don’t worry, I’ll get to that too). The truth is, beginner classes can be some of the most challenging classes to teach. Because beginner = “easy,” right? Not so much if you’re the teacher. Teaching a yoga sequence for beginners might initially sound simple (I know, I know, this is where all of you who actually have taught and do teach beginning yoga classes chime in with “ha!” or “yeah, right!” Don’t worry, I’m getting to that.) It’s for this reason that new yoga teachers are often given beginner-level classes. ![]()
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