I have been teaching yoga to a soccer team of 13-year-old girls every other week for one hour. The coach’s goal is to build their core strength, prevent injury, and introduce healthy lifestyle to his budding athletes. The girls have been great fun as we explore poses of yoga and their effects together.
I want to pass on one simple teaching technique that builds a strong class bond, gets the students 100% engaged, and ensures that each student’s yoga experience will have lasting effect. Invite individual students to lead the class on their own.
Here’s how I orchestrated it in my class. After asking them what poses they have been practicing, I learned that a few of them were practicing poses they had learned. That was a good sign that they were interested in yoga. I then taught Sun Salutation with the premise that they could learn ten poses all at once if they learned Sun Salutation. The sequence I taught along with the easy names I called each pose was:
- Mountain Pose
- Mountain Pose with Upward Arms
- Chair Pose
- Standing Forward Bend
- Lunge
- Warrior I
- Downward Dog
- Plank Pose
- Low Plank Pose
- Upward Dog
- Lunge
- Warrior I
- Standing Forward Bend
- Chair Pose
- Mountain Pose with Upward Arms
- Mountain Pose
We did it three times and then I asked if they could remember the sequence for themselves. A few of them nodded emphatically (while giggling, of course). That’s when it occurred to me to invite one of them to lead.
I had one girl who agreed to lead, after my encouragement, take the position at the front of the room where she called out the poses for everyone. They did a Sun Salute round together while I observed, filled in the blanks, and commented on their success. We had three different girls lead which means the class did three additional rounds of Sun Salutations, twice the amount we would have accomplished if it were me leading!
The best part is that they now can practice these 10 poses at home and on their own. They piped in and said that they could even practice it before their soccer games as a warm-up. “Brilliant!”, I commended.
At the end of class, I emphasized how they should congratulate themselves for dedicating this time to yoga and for learning a skill that can help them as they grow up. The coach supported this and followed up with how important it is to take care of yourself as an athlete.
Whenever we can put our students in the spotlight and have them enjoy leadership and friendship with their peers, we do them a service where real learning can occur.
Tags: teacher training, teen teacher training, teen yoga, teen yoga teacher training, teenagers, training, yoga
