Straight Out Of YTT: 5 Tips for New Yoga Teachers

You have completed yoga teacher training- congratulations! You are officially qualified to teach yoga in a professional setting.

However, you might be feeling a little nervous about stepping out into the field. Even the most extroverted yogis have sweaty palms when they first start teaching. These jitters are completely normal and subside with time and experience.

The best way to develop as a yoga teacher is to teach as much as possible.

Yoga is a vast subject with a wide array of practitioners, all in different bodies who practice for various reasons. No matter how excellent your YTT program there is only so much information one can absorb in training. Gaining professional experience is an important, normal, and necessary part of becoming a great teacher.

Here are a few things that I learned in my first year of teaching yoga:

1. Keep it simple. Don’t do 50 poses, rushing from one thing to the next. Instead, aim to teach 15 poses. Let your students linger in each one. Give your students verbal feedback or physical adjustments, if appropriate. Properly teach them the poses. Quality is more important than quantity.

2. Keep a notebook of interesting themes and fun flow combinations. Brainstorm after your own personal practice and write down the combos you enjoy, so you can mix and match and add them to your class. This helps greatly with mental blocks and anxiety, especially when first starting out.

3. Music adds an energetic element to any class, but it’s not as important as you think. Again, keep it simple. Instrumental music works best for yoga since lyrics can take the student out of their body and back into their head. If you like to make really creative playlists, go for it. This will be time-consuming, so aim to do this once a month. Over time, you’ll have plenty of musical content to use. Focus your time more on teaching than creating the perfect playlist.

4. Class size will be inconsistent! One week you will have ten students signed up. The following week, only three. The week after that, twelve. You just never know. There are a variety of reasons for this, that have nothing to do with you. Do not take it personally!

5. Connect with your students. Introduce yourself. Learn their names. Ask questions. Show you are interested in getting to know them. This goes a long way in building community. You don’t want to be a robot yoga teacher. Be human! Talk to your students. Be genuine. Build a relationship.

Don’t take yourself too seriously. As yoga teachers and practitioners, we are always learning, expanding, and growing personally and professionally. Make mistakes, then learn from them. Be humble. Be human. Keep going.

Remember your “why”; why you became a yoga teacher. Most of us who became yoga teachers found so much benefit in our yoga practice that we wanted to dive deeper, learn more, and share the wonderful gifts of yoga with others. So, do it! Share the gifts!

You are qualified. You may not have years of experience under your belt yet, but you have got to start somewhere. Upon completion of your YTT program, you are qualified to teach. Confidently take your seat as teacher. Embody the role. Teach what you know.

Your confidence will build over time as you gain experience. Remember, it is not about you, it is about the students. Keep showing up. Keep offering the gifts of yoga. Be the best teacher you can be. If you can help just one person feel better in body, mind, and spirit, that is a success! That is how we build a better world. One person at a time. One day at a time. Just keep showing up. Believe in yourself and the transformational power of yoga.