49. Space Management Secrets for Large Yoga Classes

Teaching yoga in a big space with dozens of students can be daunting—how do you connect with everyone and keep the class flowing? In this episode, I share practical strategies for managing large rooms so every student feels included. You’ll learn how to set up your space, move with intention, project your voice, and adapt to challenges without losing your connection to the whole group. These tips will help you feel confident in any teaching setting, whether you’re leading a festival crowd, a sports team, or a packed studio class.

We’ll cover:

• Pre-class space setup for maximum flow and accessibility
• Using voice, movement, and visual cues to connect with the whole room
• Strategies for handling technical issues and distractions
• Creating a sense of intimacy in a large group
• Simple habits to refine your space management skills over time

If you’ve ever wished for a toolkit to make big classes feel intimate and connected, this episode is for you!

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Large Class Management
• 3:03 Setting Up the Space and Equipment
• 6:13 Voice and Communication Strategies
• 9:29 Technical Considerations
• 12:26 Handling Challenges and Disruptions
• 14:43 Closing Thoughts and Community

Transcript

0:05

Can I tell you something? Teaching yoga in a packed room can be intimidating, even for experienced teachers. When you're facing 30, 40, or 50 students spreading across a large space, it's easy to feel like you're losing connection with the people in the middle and in the back corners. But with the right strategies, you can make every single student feel seen, valued, and included, no matter how full the room gets. I remember the first time I taught a workshop with over 50 participants. I was used to my regular classes of 10 to 20 students, and suddenly I found myself scanning a sea of faces, struggling to catch expressions from people in the back row. By the end of that workshop, I realized I'd spent 90% of my time focused on the front third of the room, completely neglecting students in the back corners. That experience taught me that the key to managing a large space effectively isn't just about projecting your voice, it's in consciously distributing your attention and creating systems that help everyone feel included. Since then, I've taught on stage at Wanderlust festivals with thousands of participants. I hope I connected with them. It's your felt to me like I did, and I know you can too. I'm currently teaching the UNC football team in two groups of 55. Offense and defense. No microphone. And while it's challenging, it's also fun and there's nothing like that special moment when everyone's breath syncs in a balance pose or when the players settle into final relaxation. I'm Sage Rountree, and this is Yoga Teacher Confidential Secrets of Becoming a Great Yoga Teacher. On this show, we explore everything you need to teach at the top of your game Today, let's talk about a nice to have problem: dealing with a full room. And if you're thinking,"Sage, I should be so lucky!" please know that much of what I'll share here will apply in every teaching situation. Let's start with how to set yourself up for success before your students even arrive. Effective space management begins with thoughtful setup. If it's your first time in the venue, get there at least 30 minutes before class to thoroughly assess the space, walk the entire room, stand in different corners, and imagine what students will see and hear from those various positions. This gives you valuable perspective on what you're working with. For very large classes. Consider marking the floor with tape to indicate where mats should go. This will maximize your space efficiency and it creates some clear pathways for you to move through the room. Now, if that's not possible, you can play the role of mat traffic controller. As your students arrive, I'll often suggest let's start a new row here, or we can fit another mat in this space. You could also set out some guide mats to indicate where the columns and rows in your room would go. If you're using a microphone, and if possible, you should be for rooms with more than about 30 students in them. Test it thoroughly, practice speaking at different volumes and moving in different ways to hear how it sounds like. Consider how it will sound if you're doing a quick demonstration of child's pose. Develop a backup plan in case of technical difficulties with your mic. Maybe that's having a handheld mic as well as a backup or even using hand signals for common transitions. Sometimes when you're teaching a very large group, it's useful to think of yourself as an orchestra conductor. If you have assistance or teacher trainees helping you, assign them specific zones of the room, brief them beforehand on your sequence and any particular queuing points to watch for. Having eyes and ears throughout the space will dramatically improve your student's experience. Now how students arrive to your full class will set the tone. Don't just stand at the door or at the front of your mat as students arrive, circulate throughout the space, make brief connections with people in all areas of the room. This signals that you're aware of the entire space and of everyone in it. Help new students find appropriate spots Strategically, you might say, if this is your first time with me, you might wanna set up where you can see, well perhaps in the middle section here for students with specific needs. If you have any conditions you're working with, like balance related, I recommend setting up near this wall where I'll be demonstrating modifications. Your movement strategy is to be like a fish, not like a shark. In a large class, your movement pattern matters enormously. Don't be like a coral fixed in one place that you never leave, or your students in distant corners will feel forgotten. But also don't be like a caged tiger or a shark constantly circling. This can create anxiety and it never gives your students a still point of focus. Instead, be like a fish in a school. Move some pause, some glide to different areas of the room, then stay still while you offer a sequence of cues. This balanced approach lets you connect with all areas in the room while maintaining an overall sense of calm. I use what I call the five point room system. Mentally divide the room into five points. Center front, right front, left, back, right, and back left throughout class. Consciously rotate your attention through these five points. This ensures that you're not unconsciously favoring certain areas. During standing sequences, I aim to teach at least one pose from each of these five points. Like I'll demonstrate triangle poses from the back left corner, and warrior two from the center and so on. This rotation can help everyone feel like home base is sometimes near them. When you're teaching a large group or in a large room, your voice is your superpower. Even with a microphone. How you project matters, direct your voice to different areas of the room. Sometimes, literally turning your body to face the back corners will be useful. When you give important instructions. Use phrases like, especially for those of you in the back row, or I'm looking at this side of the room now, to signal your awareness of the entire space. In a large room right and left can get confusing, especially if you are moving around. Instead, use landmark language face toward the windows or reach toward the blue wall. This gives everyone clear directional cues regardless of where they're positioned in the room. Now I've taught teams out on playing fields where inevitably the grounds crew would decide it's time to mow and where my voice would seem to get blown off into the ether. Your demonstration is critical in such class settings. This isn't the time to decide, not to show folks what you're suggesting for them in situations like this and in so many teaching situations, repetition is your friend do a movement several times before layering in a new one or repeat a flow over and over. That gives you a chance to stop demonstrating and get your eyes on your students, and it has the added benefit of helping your students land more fully in their bodies because they aren't thinking extra hard about what comes next. While also straining to hear you. Let's talk about visual management that actually works. Develop what we could call the teacher gaze, the ability to scan the entire room while also appearing to make individual connections rather than darting your eyes quickly, practice slower, more deliberate scanning. Make brief eye contact with students in different zones of the room. When you demonstrate poses, position yourself for maximum visibility. Sometimes this means getting up higher, standing on blocks even, or using a platform for floor poses. Consider demonstrating them first while standing. Then get down on the mat. Always verbally describe what you're showing for those who might not be able to see clearly. With their permission, you could occasionally use students as demonstration models. For example, Sarah on the left side in the orange shirt is showing how this pose might look. If you can see her. Notice how she's exploring the shape in her own way. This distributes focus throughout the room and it can help everyone feel included in your teaching. Seek to create connection despite the distance and the crowd. If you know them. Make a point of using student names from all areas of the room during class. Thank you for being here, Marco, to someone in the back corner, then I see you working mindfully, Lisa, to someone up front. This signals that you see everyone, not just those closest to you. Periodically bring everyone back to unified breathing. Let's take three breaths together as a full room. Creates a powerful sense of community, even among strangers spread across a large space. Now, some technical stuff to consider. For very large classes, technical support can become crucial. If you're using a sound system, place the speaker strategically so that sound distributes evenly. Test your music volume from different parts of the room. Remember that what sounds perfect at the front might be an audible or overwhelming in other regions in the room. Large rooms with many bodies could heat up unevenly, so be aware of and monitor temperature throughout the class. Adjust as needed if you can. Sometimes opening different doors or windows will create better air circulation in specific areas of the room. Be aware of how lighting affects different parts of the room. Whenever possible, avoid positioning yourself with a bright light or the sun behind you that makes you difficult to see from a distance. Consider how lighting might change during a longer class as the sun moves. Your final relaxation presents unique challenges in large classes. If you offer assists during final relaxation, create a system. I generally think that assists during final relaxation are all or nothing. Either they're offered to everyone along with a clear direction of how to opt in, not out, or no one gets them, but you might choose to mentally divide the room into quadrants and work through one quadrant per week, ensuring everyone gets personal attention eventually. Always be transparent with the choices that you make. So if you're only doing a quarter of the room, you might say something like, I'll be offering gentle assists to this section of the room today. If you want one, please place a hand on your belly so I know you opt in. Then when you do a shoulder press, neck pull, little head rub. The arm naturally falls open. If you use assistance in your big class, make it clear who's going to work on which section of the room. I typically start at one end and have my assistant start at the other, and we work toward the middle using hand signs to confirm. Everyone who wanted an assist has received one. If you're not taking the time to touch your students during their final relaxation, you could use a singing bowl or a chime to unify the Shavasana experience. The sound travels through the space, reaching everyone equally. It's a nice touch to move to different parts of the room when using these instruments so the sound originates from various locations. Position yourself near the door as your students leave creating one final connection point, even in a room of 50 or more students, a brief moment of eye contact and thank you as they exit, helps every student feel personally acknowledged. I get a lot of fist bumps from the football players. Now let's talk about when things go sideways. Because despite careful planning, large classes can present unexpected challenges. If you lose control of the room energy or you notice students in the back aren't following along, have some recovery strategies ready? A call for everyone to return to Mountain Pose or to take a moment in child's pose can help reset the room's attention and give you a moment to settle yourself. If your microphone fails or your music system crashes, have non-technological alternatives ready. So a clearly demonstrated short flow sequence that students can follow visually might go there, or a partner exercise if it's appropriate for your group. Something that creates engagement throughout the room that can buy you time to address technical issues. Sometimes simply acknowledging the challenge of a large space will create connection. I know some of you might not be able to see me perfectly from the back, so I'll be circulating throughout class to connect with everyone that shows awareness and care. As with so much in teaching, the real learning and growth happens after class. When you reflect on what went on during class, every large class experience is an opportunity to refine your space management skills. After teaching in big rooms, I always take a few minutes to reflect which parts of the room did I naturally connect with most? Were there areas I felt were neglected? How could I set up differently so that they feel more included next time? And did I get any feedback from students from different locations in the room? Over time, you'll develop an intuitive sense for managing your large classes effectively. What once felt overwhelming will become an exciting opportunity to create community on a larger scale. Remember the size of your class doesn't determine the quality of connection you create. With thoughtful preparation and conscious attention to how you distribute your energy, you can make even the largest yoga space feel intimate and inclusive. You don't have to be perfect to be effective. You just need to be as present as possible to everyone in the room. If you want more strategies like these and a community of colleagues to discuss the real challenges of teaching yoga with, come join us in the zone@comfortzoneyoga.com. It's our free virtual Teacher's Lounge where we can share practical tips and support each other through the ups and downs of this work, through the big classes and the small ones. You'll find a link in the show notes, and I'd love to continue this conversation with you there. It for now. I'm Sage Rountree, and this is Yoga Teacher Confidential. I'll see you next time.