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 Lessons LearnedModerators: Moderators Jump to page : 1 Now viewing page 1 [25 messages per page] | View previous thread :: View next thread |
| Yoga -> Yoga Teachers | Message format |
nucleareggset |
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| I'm a little less than half way through my teacher training, and I've done four practice 'classes' with friends (who are all kept well informed of where I am in my training and know that this is practice teaching!) so far. I've learned gobs of things. But I've just realized on thing that's kind of big: I need to lower my expectations. (That's kind of a theme in my life, really.  ) My friends are providing feedback after every class, and last night, one thing was that they expected to feel more sore, that they should have gotten more of a muscle workout, instead of just the stretch they got. We spent a lot of time focusing on spinal elongation, and working smaller muscles, and trying to build awareness of the body, and I know these more detailed things take time, but they were expecting something more... like an exercise class. I admit I was frustrated with that. I will take it into consideration, and I will use their feedback to try to build a class that people want to come back to (without sacrificing the heart of what I love to teach). But I think that my - in all honesty - disappointment that they just want to feel the burn is going to be my biggest work at the moment. It's not terribly fair for me to have any particular such expectations on them, other than that they participate, but it's a hard one to let go of. Any advice, stories from your past, or questions/things I should think on this topic about would be lovely to hear.  | |||
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| OrangeMat |
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| kulkarnn |
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| Well. The only thing I shall say at this stage is that you need to form the definition of Yoga Class for you that you want to teach. That definition shall tell you what you should do. nuclear_eggset - 2008-03-21 3:27 PM I'm a little less than half way through my teacher training, and I've done four practice 'classes' with friends (who are all kept well informed of where I am in my training and know that this is practice teaching!) so far. I've learned gobs of things. But I've just realized on thing that's kind of big: I need to lower my expectations. (That's kind of a theme in my life, really. ) My friends are providing feedback after every class, and last night, one thing was that they expected to feel more sore, that they should have gotten more of a muscle workout, instead of just the stretch they got. We spent a lot of time focusing on spinal elongation, and working smaller muscles, and trying to build awareness of the body, and I know these more detailed things take time, but they were expecting something more... like an exercise class. I admit I was frustrated with that. I will take it into consideration, and I will use their feedback to try to build a class that people want to come back to (without sacrificing the heart of what I love to teach). But I think that my - in all honesty - disappointment that they just want to feel the burn is going to be my biggest work at the moment. It's not terribly fair for me to have any particular such expectations on them, other than that they participate, but it's a hard one to let go of. Any advice, stories from your past, or questions/things I should think on this topic about would be lovely to hear. | |||
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| tourist |
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Expert Yogi Posts: 8442      | One of the things that kept me coming back to my early yoga classes was the fact that I did NOT get sore muscles and feel the "burn." I still can't really figure that out, because I was going from very, very little physical activity to tons of standing poses with an energetic Iyengar teacher. But there you go. OTOH, even though that was only 11 or 12 years ago, there was no expectation "way back then" of a yoga class being anything like a sweaty aerobics class. That concept is very, very new as far as general public perception goes. My suggestion is that you keep your expectations high and expect MORE from your students. Help them understand that yoga (asana) is not necessarily going to feel like hard exercise because you are working on much subtler concepts. More about lengthening and opening than grunting and sweating. Learning to align and release the muscles rather than bunch them up. Finding out how to create space within the cells of the body rather than pounding them into submission. My DH is an ex triathlete and adventure racer and he is (finally!) in my class on a regular basis. Asana practice is very challenging for him in some ways but in no way as "hard" as his 5 hour bike rides over mountains or 8 hour treks. He sweats more at our ballroom dance practices than he does in my class. Pranayama is "boring" and he feels like he should be "doing more." But because a) he is finally old enough (54) to realize that continuing to push his body beyond it's physical limits the way he used to is not going to serve him well into his next few decades and b) he has been educated both by me explaining and seeing the results in my body and emotional state to know that he has to let go of his exercise mind-set and learn to understand the subtleties of yoga. So I am saying to stick to teaching yoga. You don't want to end up being a bored and disillusioned pseudo aerobics teacher as some others on this board have complained of being.  | ||
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| nucleareggset |
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| I suppose what I'm looking for is that balance. The 'class' I taught the previous week some enjoyed more, as it came closer to meeting their strength building expectations, though I still taught it the way I wanted to. The only reason they felt more 'burn' in the muscle was because I was having them hold the poses for a long time! Part of my goal, I suppose, is to give them just enough of what they're looking for that they don't get so bored as to leave too soon, before they can come to learn and feel the more subtle aspects, even if just physically. For instance, we did backbends last week, and I kept them simple, but reiterated spinal elongation over and over, from our earliest opening poses when we were just sitting, to our standing poses, all the way through to setu bandha. Most of them are new enough that they don't know how to do it. I came around for a few adjustments to help them with that, particularly during the standing poses, but it's going to take them time to build that, and while I know it, they are looking for faster progress. So I'm trying to figure out what sort of layers I can have here. For the new students who are just coming to asana practice from the very Western mindset, who are still thinking of it as an aerobics class, I *want* to 'wean' them into an asana practice in a way that gives them a fighting chance to enjoy it. I can already see that some of my friends who are helping me are the sort who might have bailed after a first class, but may well come around, and these are the sort of people with whom I want to share my passion for yoga (all of it, but quite frankly, it's generally going to start with an asana practice). (Ok, caveat on that statement - I'm a total newbie... this is what I think I want to do, as far as teaching goes. I may well change my tune after some experience. ) | |||
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| yup, basically what jimg said. it's very true. i am constantly adapting, and constantly adapting the teaching/process/whatever to the students, but the core of how i teach, my perspective/etc pretty much is "the same" if you KWIM. that is, i don't really teach like my friend susan. she's an awesome teacher, and has this unique "style" that is authentic to her and her personality. some of her classes are "very hard" from a physical stand piont, and some are "very soft" in the sense that you don't feel the muscle bit, but there has definitely been work/change. but, either way, she's still teaching "like susan." and my classes are similar, but i still teach "like me." | |||
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