Wanna know the best advice I ever got?

“If you want any chance in hell at building your yoga class, don’t listen to your students.”

Shocking right?

The mere thought of preparing your own ideas.

And fighting for your own beliefs.

We’ve all heard this one before, “You’re class is too hard and I felt completely lost in there.”

When really, that’s the nice way of saying…

“Your instruction was horrific and you looked like an idiot in there.”

You think to yourself, “I hope she never comes back.”

But secretly, you just feel dejected.

And guess what?

She comes back.

And this time, you’re sure to hand her a blanket, and a pillow, and you even take a cucumber and put the slices in her water.

Like the spa.

Thinking it’s going to fix the problem.

But it doesn’t.

As yoga teachers, we fear this more than anything:

The opinions of our students.

They haunt us like recurring nightmares.

And if we do the wrong thing, or say the wrong word, or pick the wrong pose…

Our students will *instantly* transform into bloodthirsty, robotic scarecrows.

March together down the corn field, equipped with pitchforks, chainsaws, and baseball bats.

Looking for little old you, hiding in the corner of the barn.

Ready to batter you, then cut your head off the first chance they get.

Ok, you can wake up from your dream now.

You alive?

Some Other Little Things We Fear

As yoga teachers, we fear inadequacy.

And we fear being boring. And we fear being invisible.

One way to inject a little creativity into your teaching is to sprinkle an advanced asana or two throughout your class.

I’m the Co-Director of Avalon International Inc., in Palo Alto, and I lead its Teacher Training Program.

With every group of students, this always becomes an interesting topic:

How to effectively add “advanced” asanas to your yoga class without murdering your students.

There’s a big difference.

Integrating advanced asanas into class is different from making a class difficult.

What is an Advanced Asana?

This is important. And it’s important because when students & teachers hear the word “advanced” they immediately think difficult.

However, that’s not the case.

Advanced is relative.

Take me as an example, I’m an extreme case, but I’m illustrating a point. I don’t find a single arm balance on two hands difficult and that’s including handstand. I wouldn’t need very much instruction.

Here is my definition of an Advanced Asana:

Any pose where students need a step-by-step “how to” breakdown.

Also, there’s a difference between queueing a pose and giving step-by-step instruction.

Have you thought about that?

Teachers are afraid to introduce these asanas into their classes, and contrary to what you might think, it’s completely okay to do that. Your students will actually appreciate seeing something that’s slightly above their level.

But listen, only if you do it right.

Here’s what not to do (this happens a whole lot more than you think):

Assuming a MSAL (Mixed Styles All Levels) class, a teacher will just randomly shout out at the end of a sequence Eka Pada Koundinyasana 2.

And of course, there will be a few students who can do it.

With no instruction from the teacher, they set the tone.

The classroom is a more competitive environment than you think.

And let me let you in on a little secret, because it’s so easy to become a yoga teacher, the standard of yoga teaching is poor.

Ok, I’ll admit it here.

I go to classes under cover and pretend like I don’t know anything and fire away at the teacher to see what he/she knows. Unfortunately, it’s pitiful most of the time.

Asking most yoga teachers for basic instruction is like asking a grocery store clerk to manage your finances.

Let’s use Eka Pada Koundinyasana 2 (I like this pose) as an example because I’ve watched a lot of students in a lot of classes get injured in this pose by simply trying to force-straighten their front leg.

Your objective as a yoga teacher is to provide value to your students.

You can do that by slightly altering your language, but it takes a little bit of ground work.

Pose Trees

Pose Tress are like mind maps for more advanced yoga poses.

Not only are they great for teachers but, they are great for aspiring practitioners.

Let’s continue with our Koudinyasana 2 example.

Can you think of all the components necessary to do this pose?

There’re lot’s of them, let’s make a list:

• Hip flexor flexibility
• Hamstring flexibility
• Arm strength
• Wrist strength
• Core Strength
• Balance

Now what to do once you have all of these components listed and mapped out?

Underneath these components make two sub-categories, one for any general stretches (this will unlock your own creativity) and another for yoga poses.

Using the first two as an example, many students don’t have the hip flexor mobility to actually lift the back leg nor do they have the hamstring flexibility to fully straighten the front leg.

Now think of specific stretches or yoga poses you can do to increase your hip flexor mobility and your hamstring flexibility.

You may be confused so:

Mobility Vs. Flexibility

Flexibility is simply your body’s capacity to move into a specific stretch or position. Mobility is using your flexibility to move through a specific range-of-motion or exercise. One is static and one is dynamic.

Lizard pose is a good example of how to stretch the hip flexors. Supine splits or half splits is a good was to stretch the hamstrings.

This is what we created in class:

It’s much easier to see what’s going on once you take a quick look at the picture.

So you can see on this “tree” that I’ve got Koundinyasana 2 and then below I wrote a couple of the components (didn’t write all of them because I was constrained by the space on the whiteboard).

Below the components I chose 3 poses or stretches that would address each of the individual components.

Creating these pose trees will give you an ironclad approach for handling advanced asanas.

Once you have a method for handling advanced asanas, it becomes a lot easier for you to learn them yourself. If you honestly address your weaknesses from the components, you can make a concerted effort toward learning the pose by focusing on the stretches/poses that sit below the components.

What’s that little box below?

That’s a self-practice box.

I designed a simple self-practice routine that can be done in 15 minutes per day. Breaking poses down and working on them consistently is the tried-and-true method for learning them.

On Custom Practice Design

Pose trees are an extremely powerful way to get results. People always misinterpret this. Yoga isn’t just about getting results but, learning new poses keeps people coming back.

Yoga has no endgame.

That aside, I use these pose trees and design programs based off these trees with every single one of my clients.

They get results.

As a teacher, it quantifies what needs to be learned and in which order. As a student, it accomplishes the same thing.

My self-practice is based off these trees. They’re powerful.

How to Apply Pose Trees to Your Class

Simple shifts in language make the world of difference for students.

For example, let’s say you want to introduce Koundinyasana 2 to your MSAL class.

Here’s some specific language to use:

Always think outside-the-box modifications.

1. “If you want to try Eka Pada Koundinyasana 2, you can do that now. Or, if you have a hard time lifting the back leg off the floor, try lizard pose (demonstrate it), it mimics the back leg in this arm balance.”

2. “If you want to try Eka Pada Koundinyasana 2, you can do that now. Or, if you have a hard time straightening out the front leg, try this half-splits stretch to condition the front to start extending in the arm balance.”

3. “If you want to try Eka Pada Koundinyasana 2, you can do that now. Or, if your arms are collapsing, try this version of chaturanga with blocks, it will help you to develop the arm strength to hold yourself in this pose.”

Then, in addition to these modifications, show actual Koundinyasana 2 modifications. Approaching poses this way will quantify what needs to be learned for your students.

The more pose trees you create, the faster you’ll get at id’ing the poses that will directly impact the pose you want to learn (and as an extension teach).

3 Ways to Provide Value to Your Students

1. Make Pose Trees for poses that your students find difficult.

Can I say enough about these Pose Trees? They’re just a win-win for everyone, you as a teacher, and for your students.

2. Provide insight by connecting the simpler poses to the more complicated ones.

Connect the dots every opportunity you get. It’s helps your students to understand fundamentally how their bodies work better.

For example, when teaching Warrior 1 to my students, I say something like this:

“Ground through the edge of your back foot and roll your back thigh slightly in and down. This action in your back leg, to help square the hip, is the same action in both of your legs in handstand.”

Bam. All of a sudden, the students ears perk up.

3. Motivate your students to come back by teaching advanced asanas in parts.

This concept is hard for the type-a yoga teacher to grasp. You do not have to teach your students every pose in every class. Rather teach more difficult things in bits and pieces and encourage them to come back.

Say something like this:

“Over the next 2 months I’m going to introduce headstand to the class. I’m not going to show you the entire thing today, but, over the next 8 weeks I’m going to show you parts of the setup and effective prep poses to help you learn it safely and correctly.”

It’s Time to Give Your Students What They Deserve

I have faith in you.

Because really, as a yoga teacher, how many times have you asked yourself,

“Do my students like what I’m teaching?”

“Are they bored?”

“Do they like me?”

Rather than running to the corner of the barn. And hiding from your students and the pitchforks and the chainsaws.

Now you can give them something they enjoy.

And you enjoy.

Now you have a blueprint, in the pose trees.

To take control of your class. And quench the intellectual thirst of your students.

Who all along, have secretly wanted more, but were searching for a leader to take them there.

They’ve been looking for someone to love, and adore, and to repeatedly shower with praise.

And now they have you.

So what are you waiting for?

Get out there and go teach.

Your students are waiting for you.

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