What You Need to Become a Yoga Teacher
If you love yoga, and the only thing getting in the way is work, why not start a career teaching yoga? Here are some things you will need to become a yoga teacher and launch a successful career.
Training
Whether you need to brush up on your yoga knowledge or take specific training to qualify you to teach others, there are lots of courses available. Yoga Body has several which are taught live, and remotely. But is online yoga teacher training worth it? It can be if you choose the right course. Rather than waste money on some other courses which are no more than a handful of videos, with little or no real interaction, you could choose Yoga Body and learn more from live training, online support groups and personalised teaching notes. Remote courses allow you to learn in the comfort of your own home, with the support of qualified professionals. So you get the best of both worlds and cut down on travel time and costs.
People skills
As a yoga teacher, you will be expected to have great people skills. You will work with different people and should be able to put those at ease who are nervous about exercising in public. Being able to engage with people of all capabilities and levels of yoga experience will make all the difference between the number of learners who return or recommend you to their friends.
Leadership skills
Having leadership skills will help too. You should have the confidence to lead a yoga class, and give individual and group feedback in a way that encourages but also aids improvement. If you feel unable to do this, your students won’t know where they need to improve. More importantly, they could be doing the techniques wrong, and this might lead to injuries.
Marketing knowledge
When working as a yoga teacher, either for a sports centre or gym or within your own business, you will need to do at least some marketing to attract new students. Even after getting enough interest for a class, some of these will try yoga once and give up. While this isn’t your fault, you need to have a steady number of new students to replace them.
Computer skills
You will also need computer skills. Many marketing methods involve reaching people online, and social media is one of the main ways of helping potential students find you. Unless you’re creating posters for marketing, which can be easily done on Canva, you shouldn’t need much or any technical knowledge. A basic I.T. skills course and an introduction to social media could be enough if you don’t already have these skills. You could also start your own blog to help you reach people further afield and offer yoga classes online.
Becoming a yoga teacher requires more skills than simply being good at yoga. However, if you think you have the right skills and can learn or improve in areas where your knowledge is a little thin, you could create a successful career for yourself.
