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As a yoga teacher trainer, I’ve lost count of what number of students I’ve taught who already had a 200-hour teaching certificate but felt the necessity to re-train. Almost each student had attended a teacher training that, they tell me, was “great fun” but “I don’t feel able to teach.” Picking the correct destination yoga teacher training or yoga teacher training retreat, as they’re sometimes called, may be daunting. There are such a lot of options, each leading to the identical 200-hour certification. In addition they seem to supply the identical life-changing experience in the identical picture-perfect variety of locations

The truth is that destination YTTs vary dramatically when it comes to standards, content, and quality. I’ve taught at multiple yoga schools in various locations. I’ve also attended dozens of trainings and retreats as a student before establishing my very own school. I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t. From the skin, it might probably be difficult to distinguish among the many trainings as their web sites and social media pages say almost the identical thing. But excellent teaching and excellent marketing are two entirely different and unrelated sets of skills. Repeatedly, I’ve encountered poor quality schools with excellent web sites and vice-versa.

If you should create essentially the most solid foundation for yourself as a yoga teacher, you have to put within the time and research your options. Listed below are among the questions that I find helpful to ask when researching month-long yoga teacher training retreats .

13 Dos and Don’ts of Finding the Best Destination Yoga Teacher Training Retreat for You

1. Do Consider Why You Wish to Take YTT

Start by taking personal inventory. Why do you should take a YTT? Destination yoga teacher training retreats have turn into something of a trend within the last decade and a few travelers are simply in search of a couple of weeks with some yoga and an Instagram pic of their certificate at the tip. I’m all for people doing more yoga! If that is you, then the standard of the education doesn’t have to be your priority and you may be more relaxed about your decision.

Nonetheless, in case your intention is to initiate meaningful change in your life, to explore the authentic teachings of yoga, and to take a meaningful step on the lifelong path of yoga teaching in a supportive and seemingly magical location, then you have to select your destination yoga teacher training fastidiously.

2. Do Select an Established School

It takes years to create, revise, and refine an exceptional yoga teacher training curriculum. Even then, it’s without end evolving based on current science and student feedback.

Throughout the pandemic, many yoga studios, teachers, and retreat centers launched YTTs as a method to proceed teaching and, I think, to support themselves financially during a difficult period. Lots of these courses are greater than adequate. Some are just a little slapdash. I’m not saying that each YTT that popped up during 2020 or afterward is lacking. I’m simply inviting you to contemplate that some schools have less experience in creating, revising, and refining their curriculum.

A part of what makes a wonderful training is the flexibility to reply to students’ needs—and that may only occur with time and experience. If a faculty that you simply’re considering is fairly recent, practice extra diligence as you research it and the teaching team.

3. Don’t Go for a Popular Tourist Destination

Hear me out. A month in Goa, Ubud, or Koh Phangan may be plenty of fun. And there’s nothing incorrect with going out and having fun! Nonetheless, these locations are likely to attract a bigger number of scholars who’re less serious about yoga and more concerned about exploring the local beaches and bars. In consequence, the training can have a more “scattered energy” that’s not supportive for many who wish to immerse themselves within the teachings of yoga.

When you’ve decided to gift yourself this transformative experience, 4 weeks is definitely a very short time to initiate meaningful change. The times go quickly and there’s an amazing amount of data to learn, study, and apply to your practice and your understanding of yourself. When you’re serious about your training, you’ll wish to stay focused, remain committed, and surround yourself with people who find themselves the identical. For 4 weeks, let yourself live, breathe, eat, and dream yoga. It’s a wholly different level of immersion whenever you and your fellow students stay throughout the close confines of the training for no less than six days per week

Search for a more secluded location that is much enough from town that you simply won’t be tempted to party within the evenings, but perhaps close enough so which you could go in once per week in your time off and soak up the local culture. On this environment, you may go deep, face yourself, start to handle unhelpful patterns of behavior, and create positive habits that can last a lifetime. Seriously, it’s only 4 weeks. Give yourself the very best possible probability of initiating and integrating change.

4. Do Ask Former Students About Their Experience

Go to the Google and Facebook pages for the yoga teacher training retreats that you simply’re considering and scroll through the reviews to learn what graduates say about their experience. Unlike the reviews that appear on a faculty’s website, these are uncurated and offer an unfiltered sense of what former students think. Then reach out to among the reviewers and inquire in the event that they could be willing to share their experience with you. I’ve all the time found no less than one helpful one who is willing to talk.

If possible, speak to a graduate who has been teaching for no less than a 12 months or two. Often people had an incredible time during YTT but don’t have any point of reference. It’s only after they’ve been teaching for a while, and maybe experienced one other training or interacted with graduates from other schools, that they will accurately assess the standard of their education.

5. Do Pick a Training That Has a Lead Facilitator

It’s not unusual for destination YTTs to employ an array of local teachers to show individual modules and not using a lead facilitator to mentor students throughout the training. As such, the coursework in these trainings can feel disjointed and the scholars often feel a scarcity of support.

What’s going to profit you most is individual attention from a lead trainer who’s present throughout this system to witness your progress and supply stability. Your lead trainer’s role is to tie all the pieces together, assess your needs, and meet you where you might be at with yoga.

In my experience, the very best YTTs have one to 2 lead trainers. They’re sometimes supported by a small variety of other teachers who lead modules or workshops on specific topics. But your primary instructor should remain present for many of your training, even when a guest teacher is instructing.

6. Do Research the Teaching Team

Study your lead trainer. You’re committing to a whole month of absorbing this person’s knowledge of yoga and perspective on life. You’ll wish to be certain it’s someone who you resonate with—and I don’t just mean that you simply like their Instagram feed.

Take a look at the lead trainer’s website. Practice no less than one class with them, whether in-person or online. Request a Zoom call in case you can’t meet them in person. And make sure that they’ll be present for nearly all of your training hours. Ask your lead trainer:

“What number of hours of the training will you be present for?”
“What number of hours will each of the opposite teachers be present for?”

If you have got any hesitation after your conversation or if the college cannot give you access to the teachers, consider that a red flag.

7. Do Select a YTT Where the Trainers Live On-Site

It could be a profoundly powerful experience when the teachers move into the venue exclusively on your training and make themselves available to students for all the month. It’s an unparalleled dedication to your experience and your education.

You’ll have that continuity and support throughout the month together with much more opportunity to learn out of your teachers and cultivate a relationship with them. You may also ask questions one-on-one that you simply wouldn’t feel comfortable asking in a gaggle or that didn’t occur to you in school.

By comparison, when local teachers commute to show occasional classes, they are sometimes paid by the hour, which may result in a really different level of commitment. Students who’ve experienced this kind of YTT have expressed to me that they felt like they were on a “conveyor belt” of trainees.

This distinction can result in a wildly different YTT experience.

8. Do Consider Student-to-Teacher Ratio

4 weeks is definitely not a really very long time to ascertain a relationship together with your teacher. Constructing trust takes time. So does working through your blind spots and layers of resistance. If the group size is simply too large, the teacher will probably be unable to give you as much individual time and a focus.

In my experience, the very best yoga teacher training retreats on the 200-hour level occur in small, intimate groups. I find that a team of two lead teachers can adequately support a gaggle of 14 or perhaps 16 students. When the group size is larger, there must be additional teachers to guide students through the training.

Teacher-to-student ratio may be tricky to discern because a faculty might claim to have 10 teachers on their staff when really eight of them are guest teachers who show up for an hour or two during all the training. Some trainings enroll 20 or more students with just one teacher. This may be the one method to access a Rockstar Yoga Teacher. These trainings can still be incredible. (I’ve been a student of loads of great trainings like this!) Nonetheless, likelihood is that the quantity of non-public attention you’ll receive will probably be low.

I like to recommend that on your first training, you choose a faculty that gives a more intimate group size so which you could experience maximum support as you are taking your first steps. Also, a teacher training should include practice teaching under the statement of a trainer who gives you feedback. With too many students, this may’t be done well. Then, once you have got some experience and just a little more confidence, you may explore other kinds of teacher training and see what works for you.

9. Don’t Make Your Decision Based Only on Cost

Just last week, a student told me that she selected a yoga teacher training since it was “shorter and cheaper and the identical qualification.” Well…sure. It’s shorter and cheaper because a bit of it’s pre-recorded and through that section there is likely to be no practice teaching or feedback or personal attention or Q&A. You get what you pay for.

Your yoga teacher training will not be about obtaining a certificate. It’s about exploring an ancient tradition to which you’re drawn. You’ll be best supported in your teaching by finding a training that gives dedicated and experienced trainers, a focused and supportive environment, and a track record of satisfied graduates.

10. Do Think Twice About A Training That’s Less Than 27 Days

A 200-hour YTT is purported to be, well, 200 hours. That works out to roughly 50 hours per week, not including the time you spend studying or preparing for practicums. Unless you’re enrolled in a hybrid yoga teacher training, which implies a mix of in-person and online content, it isn’t realistically possible to cram 200 hours into lower than 27 days.

Even in a 27-day course, there are only 23 days of coaching whenever you subtract your days off and your arrival and departure days. Meaning you’ll be learning for eight or nine hours a day, which is loads. I find that the majority YTTs which can be shorter than 27 days either teach fewer in-person hours than required or demand extraordinarily long days.

Take a look at the schedule and calculate the hours to be sure that you’re getting the 200 hours which can be promised. I find that 27 days is the minimum period of time you may do it without running into exhaustion and overwhelm.

11. Do Get Clarity In regards to the Curriculum

The word “yoga” covers a large number of lineages, styles, approaches, and systems that span millenia. There will probably be some 200-hour courses which have almost zero overlap. I used to be already a YTT trainer when I made a decision to take Max Strom’s 200-hour training, which was entirely dedicated to fascinating content that I had little knowledge of from my prior studies.

Ask to see the college’s curriculum and be certain it’s what you’re searching for. Some will probably be more anatomy-based while others will probably be more mystical and philosophical. Some could have a robust emphasis on teaching skills and practice teaching and others will focus more in your personal practice and self development.

There isn’t a “best” syllabus. There are a selection of courses with differing intentions that can suit different learners and aspirants.

12. Do Your Part

It’s your commitment to the training, in tandem with the standard of education and environment, that’s the muse for becoming more knowledgeable about yoga. Select your training correctly but additionally don’t forget to carry yourself accountable as you embrace the infinite possibilities that lie inside you.

13. Don’t Expect to Teach Right Away

An informative 200-hour yoga teacher training is usually a solid foundation upon which you may construct. But nobody should expect to be an authority on anything after just 200 hours.  For teachers who’re serious about their craft, the educational never stops. The breadth of yogic wisdom is so expansive that no individual could ever learn all of it in a single lifetime so you need to not feel pressured to comprehend it all after a single month.

Being an incredible teacher takes experience, and getting experience takes time. An old teacher of mine used to inform us, “the educational is within the doing.” Although some YTT graduates immediately begin to teach yoga, that will not be the norm. And plenty of yoga students enroll in a yoga teacher training retreat with none intention of teaching and are available simply to deepen their practice and understanding. I believe that’s a fantastic thing.

The Last Thing To Consider With a Destination Yoga Teacher Training

There are other valid ways to coach as a teacher or to explore the practice and tradition of yoga beyond destination yoga teacher trainings. That features online options or an in-person training at a neighborhood studio. You may also learn more in regards to the practice without taking yoga teacher training by exploring workshops, books, and podcasts on your individual. Each approach has its pros and cons.

Ultimately, whenever you’re making the choice about who to check with and where, return to what we mentioned on the outset: ask yourself why you should take yoga teacher training. After you have got clarity around your intentions, then inquire in regards to the lead trainer’s intentions. If those two align, then likelihood is you have got a robust foundation as you proceed on the trail of yoga.

About Our Contributor
James French was born in London and first practiced yoga in 2003. He spent several years exploring his practice in India and taught for greater than a decade. In 2017 he founded a yoga school. His influences include his guru, Sri Prem Baba, in addition to Yogrishi Vishvketu, Donna Farhi, Max Strom, Jason Crandell, and Clive Sheridan. He’s enthusiastic about the art and science of teaching. The culmination of his studies is his level-2 300-hour course which is concentrated on inquiry, inviting students to query all the pieces, and to deeply explore what intentions lie behind their selections on the mat, selections of their teaching and selections of their lives. He recently retired from teaching yoga to deal with being a yogi. The courses and curriculums that he designed proceed to evolve at Path of Yoga.