How To Teach a Yoga Class For Beginners

As a yoga instructor, it is your duty to approach a beginner class in the best possible way, anticipating and addressing their needs. It’s normal that not everyone may find resonance in your distinctive teaching style. However, the following insights might direct your strategy and assist you in providing better assistance for novices as they begin practicing yoga.

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Tips for Teaching Yoga to Beginners

Explain what to expect

The uncertainty is one of the most common causes of worry when starting something new. Those who are new to your class may be wondering what on earth they are getting themselves into when they try yoga. If you only let them know what to expect, you can ease some of their anxiety.

As the students settle upon their mats at the beginning of class, introduce yourself. You may want to go over the class’s trajectory. For instance, instruct them to warm up with stretches while seated, transition into standing positions, return to the mat for a cool-down, and conclude with a relaxing repose.

Make them realize that they belong here

The most important lesson you could teach to students who are anxious is probably that yoga is for everyone.
Give them a quick introduction and reassure them that they are capable of performing the yoga. However, this is insufficient to ensure students that they can practise yoga. It is your duty to demonstrate to students how to perform yoga poses with their bodies. You accomplish this by being ready to provide alternatives, managing the pace of the lesson so that it is suitable for each student, and maintaining your composure regardless of the age or physique of the person entering the room.

Beginner sessions are generally offered by new yoga teachers with little experience. However, the classes that gain the most from having a teacher with years of training and expertise in the field are these ones. In spite of your lack of expertise, you must be able to adapt your lesson plan to best meet the requirements of your pupils, even if it means going against your initial plan of instruction. You can always enrol in beginning classes yourself to see how other educators teach.

Encourage Questions

Newcomers have a lot of inquiries. Reassure students that they are welcome to ask you any questions throughout the lesson. During class, take occasional breaks to give someone the confidence to ask a question. You may even think of possible questions beforehand.
Remain patient and concentrated on answering the exact question. Though you might be tempted to elaborate on something you’ve recently learned or provide an anatomical explanation, resist the urge and stick to the topic at hand. Don’t be afraid to admit when you don’t know the solution to a question. Knowing that what you find out will help both of you, you could even offer to do some study on it and bring more information to your next class.

Go slow

Give them plenty of time to experiment with the positions and your body cues. Your pupils will notice if you speak and act hurriedly, and the strain will become ingrained in their practice. Reduce the speed of your speech and your thinking.

Make your Instructions and Classes Simple

During the first several months, if not years, of practicing yoga, there is an overwhelming amount of material and coordination to acquire. Use as little words as possible and stick to simple stances and transitions. When using a Sanskrit phrase, make sure to always translate it into English thereafter.

Remember that silence is also a teacher. Give your students time to process and analyse the cues you do share by leaving gaps between your sentences.

Demonstrate the Poses

Prepare to demonstrate what you teach in a beginners’ class. Even if you craft your verbal cues with great care, nothing beats seeing someone perform a position.

Don’t be afraid to strike a stance if you’re apprehensive about not being “perfect.” It does not reflect poorly on you as a teacher when you stagger or trip. It helps students understand that yoga is for everyone and that there is no room for “perfection.” It also helps you become a more relatable person to them.

Be Flexible

Perhaps you spent hours organising a session you believed would be perfect for novices, but because you took time to respond to queries, you were only able to complete half of it. Alternatively, maybe you had planned to concentrate on shoulders, but you observed that a number of pupils had hamstring tightness.

Continue to be adaptable in your teaching. Taking care of the needs of the kids in front of you, not the ones you had in mind when you planned the lesson, is the most important part of your job as a teacher.

Avoid Correcting your Students Too Much

It is your responsibility to assist beginner students in learning how to move and coordinate in ways that they have never done before. Recognise the time it takes and the inherent learning curve. Instead of requiring exact alignment or even putting it up to be the ideal, you want to assist children in discovering the general contour of a posture.

Don’t Criticize Individuals in Particular

When someone is trying something new, the last thing they want is to be called out definitely not for doing it “wrong,” but also for striking a posture “correctly.”

Avoid calling out specific individuals by name or by their description, such as “the person in the flowered leggings.” Try giving the class as a whole a broad reminder if you wish to “correct” someone. Should that prove ineffective, you could approach a student and repeat the message.

Similarly, if someone loses their balance or needs some time to find alignment in a pose, do not draw unnecessary attention to it by loudly asking if the student is okay. Go over to their mat and discreetly check in if you have any cause for concern.

Listen to your Students

After class, beginners frequently want to talk to you about their experiences or get approval. Make an effort to include some time in your calendar for this. Transfer the talk somewhere where other classes can’t hear it, like the lobby or a hallway.

But conversing with students after class can easily turn into a situation where you have to exercise self control over how much time you spend and what you talk about. Being a personal coach, therapist, doctor, or companion is not your job. When necessary, draw the line with grace but firmness.

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Conclusion

Remember, by introducing these students to the wonderful practice of Yoga, you may be helping them live happier, healthier lives. While instructing a class of experts can be intellectually and physically taxing, the real satisfaction of teaching yoga comes from inspiring people who have never practiced it to share your passion for it.

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