DId you read Emma’s post about things not often mentioned during Yoga Teacher Training? It’s so true – you will enjoy it whether you are a student or a teacher!
I’ve learnt an awful lot about yoga at the various yoga teacher trainings I’ve done. And quite a bit about human biomechanics, and yoga philosophy, and modifying yoga poses for various conditions.
What I didn’t really learn was teaching theory, and teaching skills. Stuff you would learn if you did a teaching degree at uni. I had to learn these things by feel, and practice, and experience.
Things like: different people have different learning styles. Some learn primarily by hearing, some by seeing, and some by feeling. You need to communicate in all channels to be an effective teacher.
I was taught, during my initial teacher training, to demonstrate as little as possible, so that people are not tempted to imitate the shape your body makes, but rather find the shape from inside their own bodies. Many senior teachers, including Mark Whitwell, hold this view too. It’s the party line, in my experience.
It’s also my experience that many people, especially beginning yoga students, learn better if they have a visual cue. So I demonstrate, and I talk, and I walk around the room and give physical adjustments. I communicate in all three channels.
Another thing I have learnt is that certain poses and sequences are more effective at bringing people’s full attention to their bodies (which is, effectively, the union experience of yoga).
These sequences very often involve cross-patterning. Eh, you say. What’s cross patterning?
It’s a motor skill: the ability to move left and right sides of the body in balance at the same time. To do this, both sides of your brain have to be engaged. You see how this would encourage the experience of yoga, or union, or connection, yes?
The first cross-patterning exercise most of us perform is crawling. It’s one of those vital developmental things. Not just for walking, but for reading and writing too.
I could wax on about it at boring length, but I won’t (unless you encourage me). Suffice to say most adults have lost their ability to to left-right things with ease, and so simple exercises like resting on hands and knees, then bringing the left elbow and right knee together, are more challenging than you would expect them to be.
I love those kinds of postures, and fancy sun salutes that involve swapping legs…
Stand in tadasana (mountain pose)
Inhale arms up overhead
Exhale, fold forward, left leg in the air (standing split)
Inhale warrior 1 with the left leg back
Exhale down dog with the right leg up
Inhale up dog with the right leg up
Exhale (if you are strong enough) chaturanga with the right leg still up in the air
Then go back the way you came, and repeat on the other side. Because it’s a palindrome, ie symmetrical on both ends, you can leave out bits in the middle and not miss them, they aren’t essential to getting you back to standing.
Ah, yoga, my love.
I’m not sure my students love these things as much as I do, but they are useful. They are challenging without being impossible (or perceived to be impossible) and they connect body and brain in a way that few other things do.
Bring on the pedagoguery! There’s some useful stuff in all that teaching theory.
so agree especially about the way the body learns and then remembers how to do things like cross patterning. The body is just so amazing, I love it’s initial simplicity and ultimate complexity.
I am in the first semester of going back to school for a teaching certificate in high school biology. I love how much everything I’m learning right now applies to yoga. Esp. the methodology stuff. You’re right–that is just as pertinent, and usually doesn’t get touched in YTTs. Interesting. Curious.
wonderful and insightful post, nadine – as a relatively new yoga teacher (2 years) i have gone back and forth – do i exclusively queue verbally or do i practice alongside my students? i think, if you know how to read people that you do what is appropriate, although sometimes i feel like if i am actually doing the asana, i can feel what/how i should be instructing. so, i typically do both depending on the circumstance and my confidence level that day. and with regard to cross-patterning, isn’t that basically what hatha yoga is? from my understanding and education (which happens everyday!) ha = sun tha = moon, which are opposites and define the asanas. each pose invites the action engaging the two – sun/moon. root to rise, lengthen and deepen, push/pull and the most important – inhale/exhale.
anyway, that’s my response to your thought provoking words. thank you so much for sharing your experiences with us, your faithful readers. i always look forward to hearing and considering your contemplations.
I too am a great believer in the not demonstrating thing. Nobody wants to emulate me, they will be all wonky for a start. Plus demonstrating (especially as most of us have a tendency to do it on one side only) in class after class after class can be rather wearing on the poor old body.
Actually Emma’s post and yours are highly interesting for me, currently in training. I do believe the training I chose is pretty much well rounded and covers a lot of stuff, though of course I might be biased, but I also believe that what you’re writing here is stuff you learn by experience in teaching.
So thanks a lot for sharing with us! My comment to Emma was that her post was part of my teacher training, I can say the same about yours
Ditto re: the not learning pedagogy in YTT. In fact, I didn’t even know that was a word til one of my recent contract day jobs. I appreciate every opportunity I have to gain feedback from other teachers, even if it sometimes makes me nervous to have them in the room!
I was actually taught in my training to demonstrate, and keep adjustments to a minimum. And although it was encouraged, I’ve found walking around the room to be quite challenging for me. But I’m getting there. And now I’m demonstrating less, certainly still keeping adjustments to a minimum as well as wandering around the room (with a purpose).
Also, something I really appreciate and which all of my favourite yoga teachers do – is a fair bit of talking. Not all the time, but in the right moments. And not just about the poses, but about yoga. Sharing that broader yoga knowledge, the things that made me fall in love with yoga and understand it better… that’s something I’m working with right now.