I'm curious as to what type of students different yoga teachers are drawn to teaching, if any at all. I've been finding that I'm more drawn to beginners, which may or may not have anything to do with the people I currently work with privately. Would you say that for a beginning teacher, it's "safer" to work with beginners, because the teacher him/herself still doesn't know that much? I don't know if I totally agree with that. I think teaching beginners is just as challenging, if not more so, but for obviously different reasons than teaching more experienced students.

Another question: what would you say makes the difference between Level I and Mixed Level or Level II classes? Obviously the physical complexity of the poses, but that can't be all of it. Is it the expectation of the students to understand certain cues? And so how do you determine what's too much of an expectation of body awareness from them? Cues such as "tuck the tailbone" I expect to be widely understood, especially after a couple examples of techniques to teach the feeling. But what about something such as "lengthen the inner thighs"? This is my problem, since body awareness has always come so easily for me, even before I ever knew what a downward dog was. How much can I expect them to understand?

As my final presentation in my teacher training, I've chosen to teach a Level I class, as opposed to the majority of Mixed Level classes my fellow trainees are offering for our charity teaching weekend. I would like to go with a concept such as the inner thigh lengthening to build symmetry, strength and stability in standing poses as the physical part of the theme of my class. To me that seems like second nature, but I'm concerned that I'll lose everyone. Anyone have any thoughts and/or experience related in this vein? Thanks!

Thanks tourist, I had a feeling that was the answer, that it's really much harder to teach beginners. I just wanted some seasoned teachers' opinions on that, to confirm what I thought. I really ought to trust my gut more!

I'm still going to go ahead with my plan to teach a level 1 class, but probably rethink the theme. I've been observing classes at my studio, but haven't been able to get to enough beginner classes. Our charity weekend is a month away. I should have a clearer picture of the level of cuing detail by then.

I like your analogy, the nearsighted leading the blind. What makes it worse is when the nearsighted has a knack for finding her way, but has no clue as to how she got there.

"More than the poses taught or the complexity of the instruction, a Level II or higher class to me is about the students having more body awareness." I really wish this point was stressed more in our training. Going into it back in September, that was my question: what distinguishes the levels of class? I see now, almost seven months later, I'm still not sure of the answer.

Most of the classes at my studio are mixed level, meaning levels I and II, so it's been very difficult for me to discern what is being understood by the students who are more on the Level I end of the spectrum, both when I've attended class as well as observed. There is no qualification period at my studio, which I suppose is unfortunate, so anyone can attend any class at any time. And in a mixed level class the teacher might very well have as the theme to lengthen the inner thighs, so this is exactly why I was concerned about losing people. Granted, the entire class gets focused on learning the awareness of that body part, workshopping it, I supposed that what it's called, but still, I personally could see it being over someone's head if they've never considered how their body feels to them ever before (Mish, did that explain that better? I hope so!).

Thanks again for your candid response, tourist. If you have more opinions or advice, I do welcome it.

Hi Mish, thanks for the vote of confidence! My complete theme is probably going to be something about left and right balance, moon and sun, so I was hoping to take it a little deeper by pointing out how the inner legs provide support and stability in asymetric poses (lunges and such), since the average tendency is to only rely on the outer leg muscles. Not too deep, right?

You should come! First weekend in May, classes Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday from noon on. All 16 of us trainees will be teaching, 45 minute classes on the hour, wide variety of classes and all proceeds will be going to an orphanage in Ecuador. What, you're like 2 or 3 hours away? Piece of cake!

ShalamOM, I see what you mean about the empty-nester syndrome, but I don't believe that's the only reason out there that beginners only progress so far with a particular teacher. Sometimes the student is just too afraid to take that next step themselves, to trust themselves to be able to do it (whatever that "it" might be). No amount of training or coaxing or prodding or coddling by a teacher can make this student take that next step of conquering their own fears. You can give them all the tools, but ultimately it's up to them to use them.

"Those who enjoy teaching only advanced students are the other side of the coin, but I won't get into that personality here."

And why not? This is why I asked the question in the first place. I don't personally feel driven to work with a student like that, especially since I have no experience there. If you have some insight, please do tell.

Purna, thank you for your input. I was working with one of my private clients yesterday (longtime client of mine, but very new to yoga). We got to bridge pose and she always has issues there with clenching her glutes and then complaining that her thighs hurt. Tucking the tailbone, lengthening the lower back, all that mechanical stuff that makes sense to me just doesn't register to her, so I tried the cue of "move the inner knees away from you as you lift your hips". I could tell from all aspects (body position, facial expression, breathing, etc.) that she "got it". So that cue works, yet the other ones don't, yet for me personally, they've all worked from day one, so I find it tough to know which ones to use. Of course I try a million different ways to say it, show it, guide it in their bodies, etc., but I find it a painstaking process, especially since every indivudal processes information like that differently. All part of the learning process for me, for sure, just something I'm guessing that isn't common for most budding teachers.

Observing how the students react to my instructions obviously what should be done, which I do do automatically, since most of my experience has been with working one-on-one. In training we all practice teaching each other, as well as adjusting our mentors when they take class, but personally I don't think this is enough of an exercise for us, since we are all experienced students ourselves. Yes, we're encouraged to find ourselves some beginners and practice teaching them, but nothing formal in the training such as when we have our mentors adjustment nights. Also, I don't believe there is any apprentice type of program in our training, which I personally would want to take part in, once the formal nine months end (in June). Basically for all that I've been learning, I'm finding there's more and more that I don't know. That's a good thing, I know, but still, I'd like to work on addressing that!

Just reread your reply and wanted to address one more point you made: "Root the inner heels into the mat. Lift the quadriceps...but frankly I don't think lenghening the inner thighs is an appropriate concept for a raw beginner. They simple can't find it."

OK, so in my mind (and my body's mind), I find NO DIFFERENCE in understanding any of the cues you mentioned compared to the one I gave as my example. How is it that a beginner knows where their quadriceps are but not their inner thighs? Why is one body part more accessible than another? In my fitness classes I go through the dialog of saying we all know how to contract our biceps, we do that when we make a fist, etc. I tell them this so they don't stress out about not understanding what it means physically to engage certain body parts, and just send thoughts (i.e. awareness and breath) to those areas, eventually it will click. I've always taught that way, form over function, from the inside out. I didn't know there was any other way.

I think I may have skimmed this response too quickly when I first read it. Instructions that they can literally see on themselves, wow. Am I the only one that hasn't thought of this as an obvious way to approach teaching beginners? This is such a huge missing piece for me. Did everyone else, when they first started out, need to receive information like this? I'm serious, this is really shedding a lot of light for me on my teaching frustrations, thanks.

My beginner class is next weekend. A one-shot deal, drop-in class, so I have no clue who might end up being there. Could be all experienced beginners, so then I'll be fine. Or could be people who have never done a single downward dog and will end up looking at me with that accusing eye that my clients give me that says "oh come on, you KNOW I can't do that!". Hopefully, because it's yoga and not fitness, they'll be coming in wanting to trust and learn instead of judging and looking to be entertained, as it's been the case with me for so long.

I keep turning back to a quote our teacher gave us that ended up being a question on our written test a couple weeks ago: "You must be willing to show up and suck, before you show up and shine." OK, so I get what that means conceptually, but still, it sure is scary to risk actually doing that!