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Summary: An effective 200-hour yoga teacher training focuses on helping your students to master essential teaching skills rather than covering every possible topic. Prioritize your trainee’s practice, simple teaching skills, and a broad foundation in anatomy and philosophy. Keep learning relevant to the trainees’ own practice and life for best impact.
Teacher trainers, I must confess: when I designed my first 200-hour yoga teacher training curriculum, I included way too much! In my zeal to give my students “everything,” I wound up overwhelming them with information. Does this sound familiar?
When we love teaching yoga, every topic can seem essential to include. And as trainers, it can be hard for us to remember back to the time when we were just starting to teach and it was hard to get the words out.
With more time in the YTT room, I realized something surprising: less is more. Give less information, but incorporate more repetition and practical application so that trainees approach key information from multiple angles. Let’s take a look!
As teacher trainers, we are passionate learners! We’ve stayed with yoga for years because we love it and love to share it. However, not every topic belongs in a 200 hour teacher training. Review your topics and ask: am I sacrificing important time to focus on specialties? A 200 hour needs to be “brass tacks:” focus on helping your trainees excel at the basics.
The yoga tradition is vast and it’s way too easy to spend hours lecturing. However, great teaching is not about lectures and pretty powerpoints; it’s about how well your students can actually use their skills. Take a look over your training topics and lesson plans; if you’ve talked more than 20 minutes without giving the students an opportunity to discuss, practice, or apply skills, it’s likely too long.
Ironically, when we try to cover too much, we sometimes sacrifice time on working the skills that matter most. Also, it is sometimes tempting to layer on way too much info at once. Let’s take cuing for example. It can take students several hours of practice teaching to get the hang of using direct language and getting rid of their “now you’re gonna” crutch words – let alone adding in action cues or other more complex cueing techniques. Allocate plenty of time for repetition, practice, and feedback.
Your trainees are in your training because they want to know how to teach. Strangely, a lot of trainings fall short because – while they may include inspiring practices and “experiences” – they fail to teach foundational teaching skills. While it’s absolutely important to help students develop solid practice skills themselves, don’t skimp on the fundamentals (how to cue, how to sequence, how to stand in the room).
At the end of your training, your students do not need to know a bunch of fancy anatomical terms. However, they DO need to understand how to keep bodies safe in practice. When teaching anatomy, make sure to include plenty of applied examples of the practice. When you’re talking about back bends, study the spine. When you’re talking about hyperextension, look at warrior 3. Instead of learning terms, have them apply concepts meaningfully to asana in both practice and teaching.
No amount of lecture or study of concepts can replace practice teaching. Include practice teaching from the first day of your program. Keep your training time focused on what you want your students to be able to do by the final day: teach yoga.
Learning happens best when students are engaged. Create plenty of opportunities for students to get excited about topics by sharing your passion. Help them relate what they’re doing to their own prior experience. And support them with generosity and positively to step into learning new skills.
At the end of the day, your responsibility as a 200-hour yoga teacher trainer is not to teach everything. (Save that for your 300-hour…and beyond!) The yoga tradition is vast and takes a lifetime to study; we can’t possible do more than explore the tip of the iceberg in 200 hours. Remember that a 200 hour teacher training must instill your trainees with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to safely teach a public yoga class. Along the way, you’ll also certainly help them deepen their practice and passion for this great tradition.
Rachel supports yoga teachers and studios around the world to create transformational education experiences that help them thrive in their business, share their passion, and inspire more people to practice yoga. Her extensive knowledge and experience include: earning two masters degrees, authoring three books, leading 4,000+ hours of TT, building a teacher training college for a national yoga company, and working behind the scenes in yoga studio & teacher management for more than fifteen years. As a writer and speaker, she continually wrestles with the juicy bits of life: relationships, authenticity, and discovering meaning in this crazy, wildish world. E-RYT 500, YACEP, BA, MFA, MSci. Learn more about Rachel.
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