Empower Your Students

A couple weeks ago I encountered a new student. Her friend, a regular student of mine, encouraged her to try this yoga thing and finally got her to come to the studio. Her first class was with another instructor. I happened to be in the studio lobby while this woman was in her first class. Within the first 20 minutes she walked out of the studio. While panting she asked, "How much longer is this class?" Now the class she was taking was a rather intense, more fitness based yoga class that is done with weights, but this poor lady was just destroyed. I responded with, "There's still 40 minutes left". Completely defeated, the lady dragged herself back into the hot and sweaty room.

Two days later, this new student returned to take my class. Her friend forced her to return and take the same class, but encouraged her to take my class. The new student said she had doubted this whole yoga thing. She thought it was for wimps and it would be a piece of cake. But two days prior she realized how wrong she was. (Granted this specific class format is not your gentle yoga class with lots of Wah! and MC Yogi softly playing in the background. Instead it's Crescent Lunge and Warrior II with bicep curls and military presses all while sweating the calories away to Rihanna.) After reassuring her that she'd be just fine in that day's class, she slowly walked into the studio and rolled out her mat. Her friend pulled me aside and told me to really talk about form and technique in that day's class so that her friend could understand what was going on. I assured her I would. Shortly after I walked into the studio to make sure everything was set up for class, the new student grabbed me. She looked at me and without hesitation said, "I need your help. I don't know what chow-a-bunga is". Of course I couldn't help but chuckle to myself. Of course she meant chaturanga (hi to low plank), but she honestly thought she was hearing the instructor say "chow-a-bunga" during her first yoga class.

After the humor passed, I suddenly felt compassion for this student. With zero knowledge of yoga postures, technique, or alignment, this new student was completely lost. Now of course I do not necessarily blame the instructor that taught the first class this woman took. Unfortunately, with the type of class this student had walked into on her first day, there's this mentality to push yourself to the limit. There's also the assumption that students already have a foundation of basic yoga postures before taking this class. However, there's always new students who just want a killer workout and jump right into these classes. What is an instructor to do when over half of your students want to get drilled into their mats for 60 minutes while only a few students don't even know how to set up a Low Lunge?

After my interaction with this new student, I realized I need to be held accountable for what I do as a yoga instructor. It's my job to keep my students safe. It's my job to make my students feel successful in the classes they take. For a while I was running with the mentality that when I teach an advanced level class, I'm only going to teach "advanced" level postures (whatever that means). For those who can't keep up, too bad for them. How un-yogic is that?! I never want a student of mine to leave my class feeling defeated, unsuccessful, or confused. Yoga is meant to be accessible. As Darren Main suggested in the Skype session I posted about a while back, give all of your students something to do. If they're more advanced physically, give them the option of binds/wraps, arm balances, and inversions. If you're faced with a beginner or a student looking for a more basic or foundation based class, then give them simple alignment to focus on and continue to offer modifications. Similar to the famous military quote: No yogi should be left behind!

So here's my request to all teachers: Empower your students. It doesn't matter if you teach  elementary school students, knitting, college level biology, photography classes, brick laying, the Russian language or yoga. Empower your students with the knowledge they need to be successful. Isn't that your job as a teacher?