Tips for choosing a Teacher Training
IS 2020 THE YEAR YOU EMBARK ON THIS TRANSFORMATIVE EXPERIENCE?
Stefan Camilleri gives us 5 tips to choosing a Teacher Training thats right for you…
Hi there!
Thinking of completing your yoga teacher training? For many student’s it’s become a question of when and where, rather than if. There’re two reasons students decide to sign up to do a 200hr Training, sometimes to develop their personal practice while most obviously, to become yoga teachers themselves. With a such a huge variety of trainings on offer all over the world, here we hope to give you a few tips and tricks from our experience to help you find the right one.
1. Location Location Location
The first question is where in the world? Luckily in this day and age, you’ve got options. There are trainings close to home, and trainings in remote locations like rural Ecuador or tropical islands like Gili Meno. One very real consideration here is time and money. In heading far from home consider your extra expenses like airline tickets, transfers, insurance, visas, and spending money! An overseas training might seem affordable but you need to factor in the “add ons”. You might of course save money depending on the set up but it’s something to add to the spreadsheet when making the decision. Second is the requirements of your home life, for some it’s a necessity to take time away, but often leaving from your kids or responsibilities can seem impossible, so trainings close to home are a god send. For others, travelling away from home can really help to disconnect from your home life to immerse in the practice.
2. Reviews and experience matter
Avoid new schools, brand new trainers, and anything with negative ratings or reviews (you can check reviews here) and the trainers you choose should come recommended. Some new trainings can be really great but it’s an unknown and not worth the risk in my opinion, it usually takes a few to really get it right anyway and unless you know the teacher personally and their style really resonates, consider other options.
3. What about the price?
This is a fascinating question; the more expensive trainings are not always better, the cheaper are not worse. The price of your training comes from a huge variety of factors, a training in India for example will always be cheaper than one in Europe. The price of course needs to be a consideration but I always suggest to my students to pick a price point you can afford and are comfortable with, then shop around within that and find the best fit. Don’t be tempted too much by those trainings either really expensive or really cheap. I’ll give you an industry secret, the 10k trainings in a luxe resort in Spain is no better than what you get in Perth, and the $1000 trainings in rural India have a tendency to be a letdown. Go for a price you can afford, and then let other factors I mention help you decide on the right one.
4. Base your decision on what you want to get out of it
200hrs is not a huge amount of time to go into detail with all of the many different elements of the yoga practice and to learn how to teach it. Therefore, first pick what you want to get out of the training, be it an understanding of classical yoga & philosophy, or developing a meditation practice or really developing as a teacher that can serve their students etc, and then find a training that focuses on those elements. Generic trainings that are too broad (eg. try to cover too many different styles, or spend the entire first week on philosophy) end up having to drop valuable content elsewhere (usually teaching skills) to fit years of knowledge into 200 hours. For example my trainings focus mainly on two things, 1. functional modern alignment and action in the poses & their movements, and 2. Strong focus on learning to become an effective teacher, everything else (philosophy, pranayama, anatomy etc) we of course cover but these two things are our focus and that needs to be part of the reason why you’ve joined us.
5. Talk to the teachers and the schools
The biggest recommendation I would give you is communicate with your future teachers, ask questions, get answers and see if the vibe suits. The feel is so important, and even if everything else lines up, you need to make sure that the connection is right and the people share your vision for what yoga means.
BONUS
Be conscious of how many people are coming along. The economics of a training mean more people = more profit, and some schools let money rule and you end up 1 of 60 in a room, invisible, and missing out on individual attention & valuable feedback. Try and find a training that is limited to a maximum of 20 people and that the same teachers are consistent through the course. This means you can interact one on one with them to get the most out of your investment.
I hope this little guide helps you choose the right training, and that the journey to develop your practice and maybe become a yoga teacher is a rewarding as it can be. Good luck!
IS 2020 THE YEAR YOU EMBARK ON THIS TRANSFORMATIVE EXPERIENCE?
