Many people anticipate yoga teacher training for years before they commit to a program. Understandable, It is a big moment in their life. As a result, I suggest a thorough exploration of possible schools and options.  One powerful way to get to know a program is to attend regular classes and consider online yoga teacher training reviews.

Most people will spend time on the school’s website and or attend a few of their regular classes. More than likely, the class instructor of that class attended that studio’s training.  If so, approach them and ask them how it went.  It is likely they will speak well of their experience and you might be surprised by their answer. More seasoned teachers will have studied elsewhere and have a broader understanding of your options. (Here is a list of people who taught DYU’s instructors)

In our digital age, another obvious method to evaluate a program is to turn to online reviews.  This will be the most convenient way to conduct your research, though it does come with limitations.  

I suggest you take online yoga teacher training reviews cun grano saliz

I suggest you take online yoga teacher training reviews cun grano saliz (with a few grains of salt). Sometimes people use the internet as a sounding board to vent anger on others rather than self-reflect on their own shortcomings. It is much easier to blame and criticize others than to cultivate insight, compassion & tolerance.

(As a side note, my own yoga practice led me to speak well of others, rather than disparagingly. It is a dedicated practice and I still have much to learn.)

Negative rants are probably less of an issue in yoga circles but something to be mindful of just the same.  For whatever it may be worth, you can read our particular Google reviews here and testimonials here. Personally I think they are a fair representation of what I aspire towards. And the number of them, over 35, will help you identify particular trends and patterns.

Another thing to consider, online reviews only represent individuals who have an affinity for writing online reviews. For every person who makes the effort to review a yoga teacher training, there are many, many who don’t, for whatever reason.  Maybe they are more introverted?  Maybe they are content with their own experience and feel less inclined to broadcast it? Or maybe they’d rather keep their ego in check rather than complain to the world.

In summary, online yoga teacher training reviews will tell you what to expect in the most general terms from a specific set of people. In my next post, I will discuss how to get a more direct insider view of any yoga teacher training.

How to design a yoga teacher training? A program might have great content but if it is not assembled in an integrated way, you may be in for a rough ride. The design of a programs could be the difference between feeling lost and finding your life’s path.

 It is important that you can assimilate the content you study.  

It takes years of experience to work out the kinks in any training; to integrate theory, practice and pedagogy into a smooth and continuous flow.  Every hour of training is a precious opportunity. You do not want to waste time backtracking or feeling adrift. Imagine a book in which the chapters are in no particular order. Huh?

Imagine a book in which the chapters were in no particular order.

Some programs take the McDonald’s approach and offer many, many homogenized yoga teacher training sessions a year.  It’s a business.  On the upside, the program will be predictable.  They may even have a nice brochure.  On the downside, the presenters may be hemmed in by too many rules and you lose out on the magic of yoga.   It may still be a good experience but not live up to its full potential.

Yoga Training Design

A cohesive and integrated training has three components:

 

  1. The actual content of the training.  Most interviewing students zoom in on this part.  It’s important and there is more you should know.
  2. The quality of the teacher’s knowledge and their ability to present effectively.
  3. The overall architecture of the program (how individual topics fit into the whole).

Denver Yoga Underground takes all of these components into consideration to deliver a cohesive and integrated training.  The architecture supports the students to gradually assimilate the content, and the teachers deliver the content to the student. This combination supports the student’s growth and are essential parts of how to design a yoga teacher training.

 

If you got this far on the site you are probable already sold on yoga.  Maybe you want to take that next quantum step in your practice, maybe even teach, and finally do a YTT.  As you consider your options I’ll share two reasons to do a yoga teacher training.

Reason #1: Find and Live Your Dharma.
Living a dharmic life is a far greater measurement of one’s success at yoga than how long one can hold warrior III.  The word dharma means ‘greater law or order’, it is what gives a particular thing its unique qualities. The dharma of a pumpkin seed is to become a pumpkin, and the dharma of a swallow is to build nests from mud and migrate thousands of miles each year without getting lost.

Because of our capacity for higher reasoning and reflection, human dharma is more dynamic and complicated. Every thought, word, and action can express one’s highest dharma, or not.

women in a yoga training do a twisting posture

Every thought, word, and action can express one’s highest dharma.

Overstimulation, harboring resentment, fantasizing or neglecting one’s responsibilities undermine the ability to live in alignment with higher dharmic virtues.

Yoga helps us to discover and live into our unique dharma.  Yoga allows us to get still and quiet enough to hear the voice of our conscience and make peace with shortcomings. Following the path of dharma gradually leads one down the path of greater fulfillment and meaningful contribution – something everyone wants at their core.

Reason #2: Learn to Teach.  At some point yoga becomes a lifestyle.  It shapes how you eat, who you hang out with, how you think and even how you breath.  Teaching can be a natural extension of your values and your personal relationship to yoga.  It feels good to live congruently.

I consider it to be a blessing for both you and the students.

Many people are searching for some way out of their current working life and feel the need to make a greater contribution. Yoga could potentially be that outlet.  I suggest easing your way into the transition to becoming a full time yoga teacher.  What ever path you choose, there are at least two reasons to do a yoga teacher training.

How to design a yoga teacher training? A program might have great content but if it is disintegrated, you may be in for a rough ride. The design of a programs could be the difference between feeling lost and finding your life’s path.

You need to assimilate the content you study.  

It takes years of experience to work out the kinks in any training – to integrate yoga theory and practice into a smooth and continuous flow.  Every hour of training is a precious opportunity and you do not want to waste time backtracking or feeling lost. Imagine reading a book in which the chapters were arranged in no particular order?

Imagine reading a book in which the chapters
were arranged in no particular order?

 Some programs take the McDonald’s approach and offer many, many homogenized yoga teacher training sessions a year.  It’s a business.  On the upside, the program will be predictable.  They may even have a nice brochure.  On the downside, the presenters may be hemmed in by too many rules and you lose out on the magic of yoga.   It may still be a good experience but not live up to its full potential.

ven diagram showing the three parts of an integrated yoga teacher training.

A cohesive and integrated training has three components:

  1. The actual content of the training.  Most interviewing students zoom in on this part.  It’s important and there is more you should know.
  2. The quality of the teacher’s knowledge and their ability to present effectively.
  3. The overall architecture of the program (how individual topics fit into the whole).

Denver Yoga Underground takes all of these components into consideration to deliver a cohesive and integrated training.  The architecture supports the students to gradually assimilate the content, and the teachers deliver the content to the student. This combination supports the student’s growth and are essential parts of how to design a yoga teacher training.


A lotus that displays all the aspects of a yoga teacher training.Many trainings have five or more teachers, all with a range of expertise and from different backgrounds. The content of the program may be diffused and the methodologies inconsistent.  Students will still get benefit but they will unknowingly miss out on the power of a more concentrated thread of teachings. How many instructors ought to be in a yoga teacher training?

When taught as an integrated system, the power of yoga practice is much greater than the sum of its parts.  If you just want to know about asana, a singular thread of teaching is less important. However, if you want to study yoga as a holistic practice for physical, mental and spiritual well being, a focused approach helps greatly.

If you just want to know about asana,
a singular thread of teaching is less important.

 

Imagine that yoga is like a flower. Each petal represents a different aspect of practice, together the individual petals have a combined magic effect. Recall the serene image of a lotus…. 

Some programs have just a few petals (asana and student teaching).  Other trainings have more petals but they are disjointed, with no common or integrated shape to the program.  It’s a more “grab bag” approach with an amalgamation of teachers who have studied at various places.

Nonetheless, some people naturally feel more drawn to variety and a wide array of teachers may speak to them. It really comes back to what you want in a training – a more broad approach, a more focused approach, or something in between.

In my experience, two to three teachers should be more than enough to present an integrated training.  Anymore than that and it can become diffused.  Ideally, those teachers have studied under a similar master and have a similar philosophy. To go one step further, it helps if the staff has worked together for at least three years, and had time to hone their message and understanding of one another’s content.  

To assess how many instructors ought to be in a yoga teacher training, reflect on what kind of experience you want to have and how deep you want to go.

Here we are. Just days away from a new year, and edging a little deeper into this fledgling decade. As a new year’s blessing yoga practice, I invite us to pause for a moment of self reflection.

Even as the tide of turmoil from this past year still swirls around, I invite us to pause, gaze over our shoulders, and let loose a satisfying and well deserved exhalation.

For a moment, allow yourself to step out of the momentum of the past and deeper into the inherent grace of the present.  Take a few more breaths into this New Year’s blessing yoga practice. Go inside, acknowledge our most recent passage, bless it for all that it was, and welcome the year to come.

Wishing you Peace,
Derik

I have been in the yoga teacher training trade for almost 20 years.  The first training sessions were nowhere near as polished and the current program.  Still, the students loved the spirit of the training, even with the rough edges.  Initially, practice student teaching was an afterthought and now it is a mainstay.  Yoga teaching language is one of the most important skills we present.

While 65% of people learn visually, 5% kinesthetically, and 30% auditorily, the great majority of yoga instruction happens on the auditory leve.  A teacher projects their presence and voice into the room.  As such, what you say, and how you say is critical and it happens on a variety of levels.

Perhaps you have experienced a class where the teacher gracefully cued you into a pose, offered whimsical metaphors, challenged you, and helped you to feel ‘whole’.  Chances are pretty good that did not happen by accident, there is a method to how they use yoga teaching language.

There is a method to how they use yoga teaching language.

In this series we will look at three principles of yoga teaching language.  For today we will look at Directive Language.

Number One: Directive Language 

Directive language makes up roughly 80% of posture instruction. It is the most base-line aspect of teaching.  The goal of directive language is to provide clear instruction – the teacher is clear in their intent and the student is clear on what to do.

Contrary to directive instruction, is ambiguous speech which consists of filler words such as “umm”, “like”, “sort of”, “kind of”, “now we’re gunna”, or excessive use of gerrings.  

Gerrings are words that end in “ing” and are to be avoided.  It is the difference between “Lifting” and “Lift”;  “Stepping forward” and “Step forward”;  “Opening your top chest” and “Open your top chest”.  Can you hear the distinction?  One is more passive and the other more declarative, which is important if you want to guide a group of people.

Another enemy of Directive Language is to state the overly obvious and or vapid.  Cues such as “feel the stretch” in a forward fold or “feel your back” in cobra pose detract more than they add. After holding warrior three for 45 seconds, why remind people that “this is a hard pose”?

“What does not add subtracts”
– Aristotle

In addition to making instructions clear, directive language moves the class forward.  Every word serves a purpose towards a specific end. The end goal could be a particular posture, a final meditative practice, or to learn a key physical action.

Economize words and learn to cue with brevity.

Directive language is quantitative  You can count, measure or specifically apply the instruction.