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| Hello! I teach at a large gym and teach large classes which sometimes will scare off budding yogis. I am going to teach a basics class for the month of January (5 Saturdays) to provide a safe haven of sorts for people who are new to the gym, or want to jump start their health plan. You know how gyms get really crowded in January. I plan to teach it more workshop style with lots of instruction, talking back an forth and walking around and getting in and out of poses not necessarily in a vinyasa style. (All of our classes currently at the gym have 30-50 people, and are taught vinyasa style.) The idea of the classes are to get them comfortable with some basics so that they feel more comfortable joining our regularly scheduled classes.
I am thinking of focusing on the basics of pranayama and teach awareness of the breath and 1:2 ratio breath. I also want to teach the basics of a sun salutation and modifications & a nice down dog while talking about how the wrists really do get stronger. I will go into proper alignment in any pose and safety for the back and neck in poses. Also bandhas (the treya bandhas). I will teach them to go into child's to rest. I will hit vira 1 & 2 and side angle. I will also go into the importance of savasana. I will emphasis honoring the body and how we all look differnet on the mat from each other and how our practice will grow and change in time.
Is there anything you can think of that I should make sure to teach these new students? The new people almost always have trouble with wrists and ego. And new gym people almost never like savasana and want to leave early. ;)
Thanks for any tips. I want this to be a good experience for the people at my gym.
PS-for those who recognize me and my yoga journey/training, I will continue my yoga training with a 500 hr RYT program in February at a local studio that I call home to my practice. Well, second home-I also practice at my actual home! I will so appreciate having a local mentor/guru. (Yes, I said guru...I used to say I didn't need a guru. So immature.)
Edited by Kym 2008-12-13 12:16 PM
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| Kim,
Sounds like a great plan !
Jim
PS Needing or not needing a guru is not being mature or immature. Recognizing your own unique needs at this time and then acting based on that self knowledge is being mature.
Edited by jimg 2008-12-13 1:15 PM
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| Jim-yeah. |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
    
| Kym - I also think your class is a great idea. Watch out though - some people might like it so much you will have to keep teaching it the rest of the year! 
As far as what to teach goes, I think it is really important to teach a lot of tadasana. It is a bit like "everything you need to know, you learned in kindergarten" in that everything we need to know (almost) is in tadasana. It seems to me that, no matter what my theme for the week is (backbends, forward bends, inversions or whatever - even pranayama) I can find ways to link to tadasana.
And re: those savasana haters. You have to get tough with them! Tell them they can leave after they have learned the alignment of the pose and then spend a full 5 minutes teaching how to get the tailbone tucked in, shoulder blades into the back, etc. Don't use the yoga teacher-y savasana voice (I'm not saying you do because I don't know. But as a general rule...). Use your best "my way or the highway" Iyengar teacher voice.  Oh - and learn some adjustments for those who may be uncomfortable in the pose but don't want to say so. Lower legs up on a chair really helps and the best prop-less modification is knees bent, feet on the edges of the mat and knees fall together. And you can always remind them that savasana is considered the most challenging pose to perfect by many. Inject some competitive spirit in them and they may at least try it a few times.
Good luck with the classes! |
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| Thanks! Yes, when I notice people starting to leave, I go into my lecture about savasana being the most difficult yoga pose of all. It comes and goes in phases. I get it a lot during the holidays where people are ansty to move on to the next task (so sad!) or typical times of new members, which is summer and January and spring (bathing suit time). At those times, I give a brief overview of what to expect for class as we are beginning, and I give the savasana lecture. I have no problem shaming them into staying. It's for their own good. ;)
I like what you said about tadasana. It's an excellent place to teach the bandhas as well. And, knowing the aligngment, balance on the feet, etc, is a boon of information. Thank for reminding me of that.
Curious-do you like to teach Tadasana with feet seperated, or more with feet together? My understaning is that it's generally called samasthiti (sp) when it's feet together.
I would love for a gentle, intro, class to stick at our gym. Time will tell. Of course, I won't be able to teach it starting in Feb due to my training, but I'll be happy to be the catalyst for this class.
Edited by Kym 2008-12-14 12:44 PM
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| i go into a lot of description, like tourist says, for savasana. i describe it's importance and then go through and do the alignment in depth.
when i teach a intro class, and if i only had five hours in which to teach (i assume they are five, one-hour classes), i usually pick the postures that are done most frequently in *all* of the classes. for example, in one studio, it's sun salutations over two classes (tadasana, forward bend/upward forward bend, then chaturanga, up dog, down dog, and then a third class of utkatasana, warrior I, and transitions). then, i would spend 3 classes on the "main" postures practiced such as warrior II, side angle, a couple of back bends such as camel or bridge, and so on. each class would have a 'warm up' and a 'cool down' aspect--cool down including savasana, warm up including breathing exercises.
i teach tadasana with feet together. the connection of the toes is hard for some people (assuming they don't have an anatomical situation that would not allow it). i'm always surprised by how people have no clue where their feet are and when you say "bring your feet all the way together" they bring them 2-3 inches apart. if you say "touching" it's 1-3 inches apart and they stare at you as if you're crazy because of course their feet are together! but when you say "look at your feet, are your toes touching?" then they blush because they seriously *thought* that their feet were together. |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
| I teach feet together, feet apart and toes touching, heels apart depending on what I'm going for. This week I am teaching the whole class by doing the classic pose, then doing a variation, then back to the classic pose. For tadasana this week the variation is supta so they can get an assist from gravity and feel the back body better, last week it was with a wood block between the thighs to learn the inward roll of the thighs. So this week it is feet together, last week mostly apart.
We use tadasana and samsthiti interchangeably and not related to which version we use. But if I were going to divide them up, I think the way you say is good. Samasthiti (in my understanding) means "same state" and refers to steadiness. Feet apart is indeed more steady for most, especially for beginners.
I am SO ready for a break, I really don't want to think about January yet...  |
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| ...I'd also recommend highlighting the importance of even weight distribution on your foundation (points of contact with the floor), no matter what the asana. Students can tend to put more weight on a favoured point of contact (ie: front leg in virabadrasana). Over time that can cause injury (never mind the impact on the posture). I also found the general guidance of "as you move into the pose breath in, as you move out, breath out" helpful with respect to focus on breath and ujaii breathing (if you're not always going to be provide breathing cues). |
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advice on basics yoga class for January
