How to empower your students in your yoga class?

When we train as yoga teachers it suddenly becomes very apparent that the way in which we communicate with our students is as important as the class we’re teaching.

Having a beautifully prepared plan full of memorable quotes, breath work and a seamlessly sequenced selection of asanas, is essentially irrelevant if we leave students feeling deflated, confused or unable, due to our choice in words.

Offer Variations through Your Practice

We should consider our different learning styles in the room, and ensure we offer variations so students who might not resonate with one cue, can find it in another - some students may just not get you, if you use the same cue’s all the time or if you rarely demonstrate.

If you’re constantly saying to them to flatten their backs in Half Way Lift for example, and they’re still not doing it, find another way of creating the same movement, some options below:

-Broaden through the collarbones
-Draw the shoulder blades a little closer together across the back
-Open the chest towards the mat

..or jump on the mat next to them and demo.

Something else to consider is what kind of language you want to use as a teacher, but more in terms of how you’re describing things, for example when we talk about the mat, we can also talk about the ground, the earth or the floor.

Same for looking up, we can also look to the sky, to the ceiling, up high, or to the roof. When we hinge forward for Deep Forward Fold, we can, hinge forward from the hips, or we can fold in two at the hips like a lego man, or even swan diving forward letting the chest cascade down towards the thighs.

Finding variations in your teaching style will allow different students to resonate with you, to understand you, but more importantly to understand their practice better!


What Language to Use When Teaching

Yoga IS for everybody and we need to remember that when we’re teaching. What a pose looks like for us, is not necessarily what it looks like for everyone, and we have to appreciate that when we’re cuing postures to our students.

For example, have a look at the two cues into Deep Forward Fold below:

Cue 1 - “Hinge from the hips, bring the hands to the mat. If your hamstrings are tight you can soften the knees, and if you can’t touch the floor grab you blocks.”

Cue 2 - “Hinge from the hips, soften through the knees, bring the hands to the mat or blocks, fingers in line with the toes.”

It’s really important that through the language we use and the way in which we offer modifications and props, that students understand that ‘Type A’ for this pose is not the only type, you can be in that pose and practice yoga and it can look completely different from your neighbour on the next mat - and that’s OK!

As teachers we should make a concerted effort to offer props for advancing postures, to show students that actually it’s not just when we need to modify a posture, it’s also when we want to move on with a posture and find a new space within it.

It’s so very important that our students feel confident to pick up a block or a strap to aid them in whichever way they need it to, and not to feel like they’re having to use it because they can’t do something.

The same can be said for small modifications like a bend in the knee, or lowering the knee(s) - we know when we practice ourselves that it can feel totally different from one day to the next, because we’ve had a different day. Perhaps we’ve eaten different things or we’ve drank more or less water, so we can’t expect that each time we practice it’s going to feel or be exactly the same as the last time. So why would we want students to feel like dropping the knees in Plank because they skipped lunch, and then ran 5km the night before so they’re exhausted, is actually because Plank is ‘too strong’ for them. 

Again have a look below at the two cues for coming to Plank from a Half Way Lift:

Cue 1 - “Plant the hands framing the feet, stepping back into Plank and lowering the knees if this is too strong.”

Cue 2 - “Soften the knees to plant the hands framing the feet, stepping back into Plank with an option to keep the knees lifted or gently lower to the mat.”

The reason we call the physical side to yoga, the asanas, a practice is because that is what it is. It’s a practice, that you will never truly perfect. It’s a life long journey, and the asanas we practice on the mat should be our escape, not a prison where students are pushing themselves, but simply being in it, with bent knees and blocks, or nothing at all - either is yoga and both is OK, if the right intention is behind it.

Instead of practicing for a feeling of ‘I did Chaturanga off my knees today!’, practice for a feeling of ‘I practiced today!” Instil this in your students - that it really isn’t about the asanas individually and what they look like, it’s the practice itself, it’s breathing, it’s movement and it’s it’s holding some space for yourself.

Want to know more?

If teaching Yoga is something you’ve been thinking of doing, but have always come across stumbling blocks in terms of time, please have a look over our fully online courses on the courses section of our website, that you can do in your own time, at your own pace over the space of one whole year.

www.yogacourse.com