New Yoga Teachers, Are You Making These 7 Common Mistakes?

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At last count, there were more than 100,000 yoga teachers in the U.S. and, of course, many others worldwide. As more and more students find their way to the life-altering practice, yoga teachers have an unprecedented platform to help others. Of course, as Winston Churchill once intoned, “with great power comes great responsibility.” Given that millions of people are practicing yoga, there’s a need for teachers who can safely and responsibly introduce the practice to students.

In my 15 years of teaching yoga, I have made many mistakes and also learned from them. Now that I train other yoga instructors, I’ve observed many new teachers make these same mistakes again and again. When we challenge ourselves to evolve as teachers, we are setting the example for our students to open to new possibilities themselves. And in acknowledging what might need to be changed, we are teaching our students that yoga allows us all to be human.

7 Common Mistakes Many New Yoga Teachers Make

1. Attachment to the Lesson Plan

It can be intimidating to be a new teacher standing in front of the class and, of course, we want our classes to feel seamless. We can easily spend hours refining (and perhaps agonizing over) the sequencing, playlists, themes, and poetry that we want to share. But what happens when a student in your class can’t do half of the postures that you’d planned to teach? This happens more often than you may think.

Your sequence, or lesson plan, can act as security in case your mind goes blank when teaching (we all have those days). But if we aren’t tailoring our class to our students because our ego needs to complete the “perfect plan,” then we are showing up for ourselves instead of them.

Watch your students. Respond to what you observe by thinking on your feet and  changing the plan. Become comfortable asking for questions and feedback on how your students felt during class or what they might like to learn about next. It may take practice not to take that feedback personally, but it will help you grow as a teacher and as a person in ways you never imagined.

2. Apologizing

New teachers often assume that they’ll be received better by students if they make sure everyone knows they are new. They may open class by telling students that they recently completed training or apologizing in advance, before class even begins, for being new. When they inevitably make a mistake (yoga teachers are, after all, human), they tend to stop the flow of class to say “oops” or “sorry” before correcting themselves.

What many new teachers don’t realize is that this innocent apologizing actually steals your student’s experience. Remember asteya (non-stealing)! Instead of enjoying their practice, students begin to worry about your comfort and success. We all make mistakes. If you forget to do the pose on the other side, you can ignore it and just keep going. You might also use this as an opportunity to remind your students you are just human and laugh it off as you sneak that pose somewhere else in your sequence.

I have also taught non-attachment when my class is accidentally asymmetrical in this way and asked the question “why do we need to be perfectly balanced when life isn’t?” What a wonderful way to bring yoga philosophy into your classes!

As long as your intentions are pure, your class will stand on its own, regardless of the perceived imperfection of the sequencing or cueing or anything else. In all honesty, I much prefer a teacher who shows they are real than one who seems as if they never make a mistake. It somehow grants me, the student, permission to be real, too, and that is a gift.

3. Speaking in Absolutes

People who are drawn to teach yoga are helpers. They want others to feel the benefits of the practice in the same ways they have. Because of this, new teachers often try to learn absolutely everything they can about the postures and then make sure to share the entirety of what they know every single time they teach a pose. This includes teachers offering more than half a dozen cues for a pose, rattling off lists of “contraindications,” and saying things such as, “If you are pregnant, never…” Once we experience the positive benefits of a practice or posture, we tend to assume that everyone else feels or needs those same benefits.

But what works for you may not necessarily work for someone else. Where you feel the stretch in a pose isn’t necessarily where your students will feel it. And that’s perfectly okay! The practice is still helpful even if someone isn’t experiencing it in the same way as you. Be mindful of the desire to tell students where they will feel a pose or telling students that a practice will “fix” something.

Get comfortable with the word “may.” An example is “you may notice a sensation in your lower legs as you press into the mat here in mountain pose” Allow yourself to invite students to explore. Clue them into some of the possible things they might experience, but then let them have whatever experience they have and validate that all of it is good. Just showing up and practicing is enough.

4. Calling Out Students by Name

I once inherited an entire class of students from another teacher because that teacher had made an “example” of one of them by calling out their name to correct them during the class, thinking she was helping. The student was so mortified to have been called out by name that she left and never returned—and so did all of her friends! They ended up coming to my new yoga studio across town and becoming my most regular group of students.

After hearing the backstory from these students, I made it a point to never use someone in my class as an example. In the past, I have been called out as an “example” due to my flexibility or strength, and it has always made me feel uncomfortable. Whether you’re correcting or praising someone, naming someone in class is usually unwelcome attention. If you need to help someone with a correction for safety, give the cue to the entire class. Everyone will benefit.

My favorite part of a yoga class is the anonymity I have and the space it provides to be on my own mat, in my own body, with my own thoughts, allowing everything and everyone else to fade away. The purpose of the practice of yoga isn’t to compare. It is to explore and grow in self awareness.

5. Judging Modifications

You’ve probably heard something like this before: “If you can’t do A, then grab a block and do B” or the infamous “If you want MORE…” This kind of language implies that there is a better and a worse way to practice yoga. This is simply not true.

Because every body is different, every pose will look and feel different to every student. If you want to incorporate modifications and options (as I highly encourage you to do), try giving them randomly, or what I call “popcorn style,” so your students can decide based on what feels right for them instead of what option is the “hardest” or “best.” One example might be “If you like, you can place your hands on your hips or reach them up to the sky or perhaps it’s more comfortable to rest your hands on your shoulders instead today.”

This helps create an environment where students are truly listening to their body in the moment and learning more about what works for them on that day at that time. Svadhyaya (self-study) is the goal of yoga. Try using modifications to encourage more of this instead of promoting an arbitrary ideal. Your students’ mental health will flourish.

6. Offering Props Without Context

I am guilty of playing devil’s advocate on this one. If I am in a class and the teacher says “if you want, you can grab your blocks here.” I will almost always ask aloud “What do we do with them?” That’s perhaps distracting (here I go, showing that I am human) but honestly, I have seen so many brand new students completely lost in a class who could have benefited greatly from props if they had only known how to use them.

Luckily, since I first started teaching, we have seen a shift in the industry to more acceptance of props, and I no longer experience pushback from students when I offer them. In fact, I’ve made it my goal to incorporate props for everyone in the class and then offer the option to “use them or lose them.” I find that this invites students to explore poses in ways they might not have otherwise.

If you can, try using the props to make the practice more difficult as well. This reframes the relationship to the prop and makes everyone feel more comfortable using them. The more explicit we can be in the way we use the prop (the angle, position, the where, how, and why) the more we empower our students in future classes where we are not teaching. This keeps them safe and gives them options no matter the current state of their body.

7. Not Enough Silence in Savasana

This one depends on the clientele. I don’t feel the need to leave a lot of silence in my chair yoga classes with older students, who may use the class as a social experience. They already have a lot of silence in their life at home.

However, the average age of most yoga students is between 30 and 45 years old. Culturally, this means that your average student is coming from a life inundated with noise and stimulation. Work, social media, television, family, partners, children, traveling, online shopping, doing…it never ends. All day long there is noise and color and multitasking. The nervous system of these students is in hyperdrive. They need sensory deprivation. Silence. A reminder of how to just be rather than always doing.

So take up to a few minutes to read your poem, adjust their shoulders if you like, but then leave them alone. Give your students the gift of silence, even if only for 5 minutes. Their nervous systems will benefit and they’ll get a little taste of the magic that yoga and meditation have to offer.

In a 75-minute class, shoot for eight minutes minimum of Savasana and in a 60-minute class, shoot for a minimum of five minutes. If you need to “sell it,” be ready with a list of benefits, whether scientifically proven, research-backed facts such as reduced stress hormones and better digestion, or being able to settle into stillness and increase bodily awareness, or connecting with the earth element. Whichever option connects more directly with your population of student, use that. Once our students have bought into the why, they will be more likely to try it and feel the why for themselves. And that makes for lifelong practitioners.

As You Teach, Remain a Student

As we grow and expand as teachers, it is common for our own practice and beliefs to evolve. Learning new things, changing our approach, and correcting past mistakes or lapses of awareness indicate that we are not only teaching yoga but living it as well.

No matter where you are in your teaching journey, the more you learn the less you know. This is a beautiful thing. The simple act of showing up and sharing this practice with intention and love means that  you are already a good teacher. My hope is you continue to sit with new information such as this and question how you teach forever. This is what keeps us growing and learning and living our yoga and inspiring our students to do the same. Keep sharing, keep practicing. The world needs you. Thank you.

About Our Contributor
Denver Clark, ERYT-500, C-IAYT, LMT, is the program director for the Yoga Therapy school at Heartwood Yoga Institute in Bradenton, Florida. She’s been teaching and training teachers for over 15 years. She is an anatomy and physiology teacher and licensed massage therapist and specializes in yoga therapy for anxiety, depression and body image, all of which she has personal experience with. Denver lives in Florida with her Husband and two amazing daughters and she strives to incorporate mindful awareness into her family life as well as self-acceptance when she isn’t perfect, which she has found to be the most difficult yoga practice yet.