There has been a lot of arguments regarding the advantages and disadvantages of 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training Courses.
Can someone teach Yoga after 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training? Yoga is such a vast knowledge with a tradition of thousands of years and does four weeks of training make someone a yoga teacher?
First of all, no Yoga Teacher Training School serious about creating refined Yoga Teachers claims that you can teach after one month of training.
It’s the beginning of a new life as a Yoga Teacher.
Yoga Teacher Training is not a foundation for the practice. Instead, after a sufficient practice of Yoga, the one who wants to learn how to share the practice should undertake the teacher training.
A good Yoga Teacher Training will have the following aspects in the course.
FOCUS ON HOW TO TEACH
The students of Yoga Teacher Training should get the opportunity to teach in small groups every day.
The lead teachers of the training should supervise and give feedback on the teaching aspects.
The students should be trained on how to teach a particular asana, important factors involved in teaching a specific posture etc. should be dealt with in detail.
As a teacher how to position yourself, how to use your voice for different types of postures, how to prioritize the instructions, how to begin the class, and conclude the class is among the important factors to understand.
ART OF HANDS ON ADJUSTMENTS
The training should emphasize the art of hands-on adjustments.
Art of Adjustments makes the students understand the alignments of asanas, the differences in the body types, the abilities, and limitations of an individual in the practice on the mat, etc.
Sessions on the art of adjustments every day and opportunity for the students to implement the adjustments under the supervision of the lead teachers will help them understand the asanas in a deeper way.
YOGA CLASS SEQUENCING
Sessions on how to sequence a Yoga Class and allowing the students to design their own Yoga Class under the supervision of the lead teachers give students a proper understanding as to-be teachers.
If they get the opportunities to teach longer classes in which the students understand how to modify, offer variations, balance the class design, adapt to different situations, the students will be better refined to teach Yoga.
BABY STEPS AS A YOGA TEACHER
One can not teach in a Yoga studio right after the Yoga Teacher Training Course unless they have been teaching Yoga already.
Hence the students should find all the offers to teach the friends, families, donation-based classes and etc. to get a real-time experience so that they can implement what they have learned in the Yoga Teacher Training.
As and when they are confident enough to teach the open classes, the students start transforming slowly and steadily as Yoga Teachers.
TEACHING YOGA: AN INCOMPARABLE PASSION
Teaching Yoga is not like any other profession.
One can not compare Yoga Practice and teach with medicine or any other profession. It should be driven by passion.
A student of Yoga with very good knowledge does not necessarily make a good yoga teacher.
Teaching Yoga is a skill, an art, an individual blossoming, and an opportunity to learn through teaching.
Teaching Yoga in the reality is learning through teaching.
Your students offer to help you learn deeper by being as students. Every student is a gift in enhancing your knowledge.
Your understanding of Yoga gets deeper with every class you teach.
Hence one might be a very good teacher after a Yoga Teacher Training or often one might not be able to teach even after years of practice.
If you are passionate, driven by the ethics of Yoga, and able to create positive ripples in the minds through your teaching, you are a good teacher having an opportunity to get better every passing day.