Yoga Teacher Confidential: Secrets of Becoming a Great Yoga Teacher
Yoga Teacher Confidential is your backstage pass to the unspoken truths of being a yoga teacher. Sage Rountree, PhD, E-RYT500, dives into the real challenges and rewards of teaching yoga, offering expert advice and secrets to help you build confidence, connect with your students, and teach with authenticity. Sage draws on her two decades of experience teaching yoga, running a studio, and training teachers to share practical insights you can use right away. You'll also hear advice from her books, including Teaching Yoga Beyond the Poses, The Art of Yoga Sequencing, and The Professional Yoga Teacher's Handbook. Whether you’re navigating imposter syndrome, mastering classroom presence, or refining your skills to teach specialized niches like athletes, this podcast empowers you to lead your classes with clarity, grace, and ease.
Yoga Teacher Confidential: Secrets of Becoming a Great Yoga Teacher
How to Start Class with Confidence: The First Five Minutes Matter Most
The way you begin your yoga class determines everything that follows. In this episode, I break down how to create a welcoming environment, set clear expectations, and guide students into a focused and engaged practice. From greeting students to setting the tone with your voice, presence, and language, I’ll share practical strategies to ensure your class starts with confidence and ease.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
• Why the first five minutes are the most important
• How to create a welcoming environment before students arrive
• What to say (and what NOT to say) when greeting students
• The importance of setting clear expectations with the “five W’s and one H”
• How to guide an intentional class opening that transitions students into practice
• Common mistakes to avoid when starting class
• How to adapt your class opening for different audiences
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Can I tell you something? The first five minutes of your yoga class might be the most important part of the entire experience. How you welcome your students, how you set expectations, and how you create a container for practice can make or break their experience and yours. Those initial moments when students arrive and class begins determine so much. They establish whether your students feel welcomed. They set clear expectations for what will happen, and they help everyone transition from the outside world into the space of practice, connection, and union. I'm Sage Rountree, and this is Yoga Teacher Confidential, Secrets of Becoming a Great Yoga Teacher. Think about your favorite restaurants. What's the first thing that happens when you walk in? You're greeted warmly, shown to your table, offered a drink, given a menu. There's a systematic process that helps you settle in and prepare for the experience to come, your dining experience. Your yoga class should have the same thoughtful introduction. I've taught yoga for over 20 years, and I have learned that a solid, consistent opening ritual creates a sense of safety and belonging that allows your students to fully engage with the practice. Remember that your students are arriving from all kinds of circumstances. Some are rushed from work, others are dealing with personal challenges, and everyone is caught up in the whirlwind of daily life. Your job is to help them land in the room. In their bodies, in the present moment. The first step to a good class opening happens before the students even arrive. You need to be there early, centered, and prepared. I recommend arriving at least 15 or 20 minutes before class starts. This gives you time to do several things. You can set up the physical space, adjust the lighting, the temperature, maybe arrange the props. If you use props, and I suggest you do, it's really nice for students when they arrive and the props are already set out for them. It makes them feel like expected and welcomed guests. Arriving early gives you time to review your lesson plan and get clear on your intentions for the class. It lets you take a few moments to center yourself so you aren't that teacher wrapped up in the blanket in Shavasana that I referenced in one of the early episodes of this season. It allows you to be present for your students with really welcoming host energy and be ready to have happy eye contact with them and greet students as they arrive. If instead you're rushing in at the last minute already flustered, that energy will transmit to your students. Remember what we covered in Season 1, Episode 11 about nerves? It's normal to feel a little nervous before teaching, and those nerves mean you care. But giving yourself enough time to ground yourself before your students arrive will help you channel that nervous energy productively. As students enter, be the welcoming host. Greet them warmly. Learn their names if you don't know them already, or use the approaches we discussed in episode 4 about learning students names. For new students, remember that simple phrase, Are you a new face for me? That helps you to determine whether they're new to yoga, new to your class, or just new to you. This small gesture of recognition can make a tremendous difference in how safe and seen your students feel. If you're at a studio like mine that requires pre registration, take a moment to review the roster before class starts. This helps you begin matching names to faces, and shows students that you care enough to know who's in the room. It's nice to check in with your students before class starts, and a simple anything I should know about today or what do you need from your practice today can open that door. But remember, be clear about your scope of practice. You are not there to diagnose or to treat, just to offer options and empower your students to make choices that work for their bodies. There's no need to ask about injuries. That's beyond your scope of practice. Your job is just to empower students to make their own decisions. Once everyone is settled on their mats, it's time for the official opening of class. This is your moment to build the container that will hold the experience for your students. First, introduce yourself by name, even to a room of regulars. Hi everyone, I'm Sage, and this is yoga for athletic balance. It sounds simple, but it's both polite, it's good manners, and it establishes you as the guide for this journey. You can then use the five W's and one H that journalists use. Who, what, where, why, when, how. Who, I'm Sage and I'm excited to guide your practice today. What and when, this is a 75 minute flow class. We'll end at 715 with a nice long final relaxation. Where can be an orientation to the space. If you need to step out during class, please use the door to your right. The panels slide left and right and the bathrooms are just around the corner. Why? Today we'll be working on building balance in many planes, front to back, top to bottom, and left to right. curiosity rather than striving. Notice how each pose feels in your body and make choices that support what you need today. All of this takes about one minute, but it provides a really crucial orientation. Your students, once they hear it, are already starting to understand what to expect, which helps them to relax and to be present. The tone you set at the beginning of class ripples throughout the entire class. If you're frantic and rushed, your students will feel unsettled. If you're grounded and present, they'll feel permission to settle in. Consider these elements of tone setting. First, your voice. Notice its pace, volume, and quality. At the start of class, speak slightly slower than your natural conversational pace. This helps students transition from the often rushed pace of daily life and whatever it took to get them onto the mats. Your voice should be warm but clear. Audible to everyone in the room without shouting. There's no need to adopt an exaggerated yoga voice. Just go for something one beat slower than usual. Second, your physical presence, how you hold yourself matters. Stand or sit with intention. Make eye contact. Your students are coming to class because they want to be seen. If they didn't want to be seen, they could follow along with a video at home. Try to be in your body fully, modeling the presence that you are inviting your students to find. Finally, consider your language. Use inclusive, accessible wording. You don't need to say, Hey guys! or Hello ladies! Hi everyone! Hi gang! is more inclusive. Avoid rigid commands in favor of invitations. Like, I invite you to find a comfortable place to relax will be better than everyone must sit cross legged every time. By the way, I virtually never start class sitting and I instead have my students begin on their backs or their bellies or their sides or wherever they prefer. After your verbal introduction, guide your students into the first physical or breathing practice of the class. This initial activity should accomplish several things. It'll help students transition into their bodies. It will develop your students self awareness. It will help them begin connecting movement with breath, starting with the gentle movement of the breath. It will set an energetic tone for what's to come. It will be accessible to everyone in the room. Something simple. For most classes, this simple centering is appropriate. It might involve reclining positioning, either supine on the spine or prone on the belly, attention to the breath, a body scan or some kind of grounding visualization, and perhaps a brief intention setting. Many teachers begin with um, or another shared sound. This can be a beautiful way to unite the room's energy, but always make it optional. If you'd like to join, we'll begin with three rounds of um, or you can simply listen and receive the vibration. The beauty of starting with a collective sound is that it literally, if it's done right, harmonizes the group. Individual voices come together to create something Nanka create alone. And that's a perfect metaphor for the communal yet individual nature of a yoga class. Let me share a few common mistakes. I see teachers make an opening class. First mistake, apologizing. Sorry, the room is a little cold or sorry, I'm running a few minutes late. Remember what we talked about in episode two of this season? You don't need to apologize for not being Brian and you don't need to draw attention to your perceived faults. Acknowledge any major challenges directly if you need to, but without undermining your authority. Second, watch out for information overload, a dump of a huge volume of words. Some teachers try to share everything about the class in the first five minutes. This can overwhelm students when they need to be settling in. Keep your opening concise and share only what's immediately relevant. Third mistake, failing to establish logistics. Make sure students know what to do if they need a break, where props are located, and how long the class will last. This practical information helps them feel secure. Have you ever been in a class where there was a sub, but they didn't mention their own name? It's not great. Fourth, look out for inconsistency. Your opening ritual should be relatively consistent from class to class. That predictability helps regular students transition more effectively, knowing what to expect. Finally, don't rush. Many teachers hurry through the opening, eager to get to the real practice, but the opening is practice. It deserves spaciousness and attention. Your opening should change based on your audience and the setting. Here's some variations to consider. For beginners, offer more explicit guidance. Explain the terminology, demonstrate basic positions, watch out for jargon, and provide more context for what's to come. At the other end of the spectrum, for experienced practitioners, you might reference more subtle aspects of practice, but the structure remains similar. For corporate or workplace classes, acknowledge that there is a transition your students are making out of work mode and into yoga mode. You could say something like, let's take a moment to set aside the emails and meetings, giving ourselves permission to be fully present for the next hour. For early morning classes, your opening might be gentler, helping students gradually awaken, but it also might start standing, as lying down can feel too much like going back to bed. For evening classes, focus on letting go of the day's accumulation. And for trauma sensitive classes, emphasize choice and agency. This works for all classes. Everything I offer is an invitation. You are welcome to adapt or even skip anything that doesn't work for you today. The specifics may change, but the purpose remains the same. To create a thoughtful transition from everyday life into yoga practice. My own class opening has evolved significantly over the years. When I first started teaching, I would overdo the centering. I remember once realizing 20 minutes had gone by while I was cuing some random diagonal awareness of the breath. I now understand that was meeting my needs as a teacher, not my students needs. Students need to center, but they also need to move pretty soon after arriving at a 6pm class like the one I teach. Today, my opening of class is more expeditious. I greet each student personally as they arrive, as I am doing the check in. Everyone pre registers, so this is a piece of cake, and it lets me use names. Once everyone is settled, I welcome the group, offer an orientation, last 20 seconds or so, and guide just a few minutes of centering and breath awareness. Never more than five minutes, and certainly not 20 like I used to do. This development didn't happen overnight, it evolved through observation, both by watching skilled teachers and noticing what worked best for my students. I encourage you to be intentional about developing your own opening ritual, so that you land on one that authentically reflects your teaching style while serving your students' needs. Let me share a sample opening script you might adapt for your own teaching. Hello friends. I'm Sage Rountree and I'll be guiding your practice today. This is a 60 minute yoga for athletic balance class. As the regulars are demonstrating, we usually start on our backs, but you are welcome to flip to your belly, curl up on your side, or begin wherever you like best. If you need anything during class, like a bathroom break, water, or just a moment to rest, please feel free to take it. Everything is optional. Just like being here is optional. In this class, we work balance in many planes. Definitely we work balance of the body and space, and we'll do that tonight with some fun single leg standing balance poses. But we also work balance within the body, top to bottom, front to back, and left to right. This kind of balance is really critical to keep you healthy as you engage in whatever sports you love. And then the most important balance that we work in here is the balance between work and rest. We're starting with some rest, we'll get into some work, and eventually we'll ease back into rest. Then I would go on and cue some breath awareness, awareness of the breath in time, awareness of the breath in space. I'd cue a physical scan with special attention to the places of the body that might need some extra care and special attention to the places in the body that actually feel pretty decent already. I'd cue an energy check, and I would guide students toward setting an intention based on everything they had seen about their breath, their body, their energy, and what they know about their needs from practice. The way you open your class sets the foundation for everything that follows. A thoughtful, consistent opening helps students transition from the outside world into the practice, establishes you as a trustworthy guide for your student heroes, and creates the container that will hold the entire experience. Remember that your opening directly supports your student's practice. It's not a performance, it's a service. Approach it with intention, refine it over time, and notice how it affects the energy of your entire class. Here's an affirmation to help you remember. I create a welcoming space where transformation can happen. I create a welcoming space where transformation can happen. In the next episode, we'll talk about the other end of yoga class, how to end class so people remember you and how your students leave feeling connected, calm, and free. For more insights on creating an effective class structure, check out my book, The Art of Yoga Sequencing and visit me at sagerountree.Com. I'd love to have you join our discussion in the zone, my free community for yoga teachers by clicking the link in the show notes. It's at my virtual studio focused on teacher development comfort zone yoga. Thank you for listening to Yoga Teacher Confidential. I'm Sage Rountree, and I'll see you next time.
