“Knowing how to do something and knowing how to explain it are two very different skills.”
You may know your sequence.
You can get alignment.
You may even be able to demonstrate the whole class without thinking too much.
Then someone sits down in front of you and asks:
“Why are we doing this?”
Suddenly, knowing the answer in your own head isn’t enough.
You have to tell it.
This is one of the first times the Yoga Teacher Training in Rishikesh begins to feel less like personal practice and more like actual teaching.
The First Time You Explain A Pose
You may over-explain things at first.
You want to tell the student all you know.
Where the feet go.
What the knees should do.
How to breathe
What the posture represents.
Five instructions later, your student looks more confused than when they started.
You learn something useful.
Teaching is not about pouring out all that you know.
It’s knowing what the person in front of you needs to hear right now.
That’s a whole different skill.
You May Forget Words You Knew Perfectly Well
This also happens.
You are standing in front of your classmates.
Your instructions have been rehearsed.
You know what happens next.
Then everybody looks at you.
And all of a sudden your mind goes blank.
You might say something like:
“Okay… now we are going to…
And for two seconds you just can’t remember.
It can be embarrassing.
But it teaches you something useful, too.
You begin to prepare differently.
You give up trying to memorise every sentence.
You learn the sequence well enough to carry on, even when the actual words fade.
That confidence comes from practice.
Your Voice Becomes Part Of The Practice
You might find yourself speaking too fast while giving instructions.
Maybe your orders are so gentle no one knows when to move.
You may sound much more serious when you are teaching than you do when you are speaking normally.
It’s hard to hear these things when you’re practising alone.
They can be noticed by others immediately.
This is why the practical side of teaching is so important to Yoga Teacher Training in India.
You need people to tell you what they actually hear when you teach.
Then You Start Watching Students Instead Of Yourself
In your own practice, you’re typically thinking about your body.
Am I doing this right?
Can we go deeper?
Does this look correct?
Teaching gradually turns your attention outward.
You observe that one of the students is holding his breath.
Someone else is in a hurry.
Some other person is trying to keep their balance.
One student got your instruction right away.
One obviously didn’t.
Now your task is not to do the posture.
Your job is to see the people who are doing it.
That takes time.
Teaching Can Change Your Own Practice
You may find that after you start teaching, something unexpected will happen.
You might become more patient in your practice.
When you tell someone that a pose doesn’t have to look the same in every body, you may finally stop measuring your own body against someone else’s.
When you teach breathing, you often end up watching your own breathing more carefully.
As you teach the importance of consistency, you may notice your own tendency to skip practice when you’re tired.
Teaching can send you back to your own mat with different questions.
Your First Class Does Not Have To Be Impressive
There is a strange expectation about first teaching experiences.
People think they should walk into their first class sounding all confident.
It rarely feels that way.
Your first class may be a little weird.
You may give too much instructions.
You may neglect to leave sufficient silence.
You might be finished sooner than you think.
Then you may find out afterwards that you had totally forgotten one thing you wanted to teach.
You’re not a bad teacher.
It means you have taught your first class.
The second one will already be different.
You Also Learn That Not Everyone Needs The Same Explanation
Imagine you’re teaching a beginner.
You say:
“Be neutral in the spine”
They stare at you.
They don’t know what that means.
Then you change your words.
You show it.
You take an easy example.
They understand.
That little moment teaches you more about teaching than knowing a complicated definition.
A good teacher learns to change the explanation, but not the purpose.
That is one reason training should include plenty of opportunities to teach different people
Your First Teacher Version Will Not Be Your Final One
When you start your Yoga Teacher Training in Rishikesh, you might have an idea of the teacher you want to be.
Maybe cool.
Maybe serious.
Perhaps very well informed.
Probably inspiring.
But your real teaching style will change as you get more experience.
You will discover what comes easy to you, what you need to work on and what kind of teacher your students respond to.
Nirvana Yoga School gives students the space to practice teaching, instead of expecting them to become perfect teachers overnight.
Because the first class is not about proving you are ready.
It is meant to show you what you still have to learn
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