Most people can’t tell between great and good yoga classes nearby. Sometimes the difference is obvious but sometimes it needs a professional view to determine the difference. However, the quality of a class is not about noticeable things. Even if the yoga teacher has excellent technical expertise, it may still be a run-of-mill yoga class. It might be a good class and not a great class. Here are a few things that can be used to determine a good vs. a great yoga class.

The energy of the teacher

The quality of the energy of the yoga teacher is an important factor when it comes to teaching yoga. It requires to be calm, focused, enthusiastic and centred. When any one of these important ingredients is missing, your yoga class will not be great no matter the level of expertise you have. Showing up 30 minutes before a yoga class starts and meditating to get calm and centred is a key to getting attuned to an ancient teaching.

If you aren’t having fun when teaching, yoga will be just another job for you. When I hear of yoga coaches experiencing yoga teacher burnout, I don’t understand whether the inner joy of their practice has disappeared.

Flexibility

Tuning the needs of the students and being flexible about previously planned routines is another important factor to determine whether yoga classes are great or good. It demonstrates your intuition and your ability to care about and listen to your students. Some yoga teachers rely heavily on the day-to-day planning of classes. It is important to plan your yoga classes and it is great to have goals for your yoga students. However, you need to be realistic to meet the needs of the day. Even if the yoga class has been planned well, if the students aren’t ready or able to do the planned activities, there is no point.

Some days when yoga students arrive, it is easy to tell that the challenging class you had planned is what they do not need. Maybe they need an inward and relaxing yoga class. Some of the yoga students may have unknown injuries or need certain yoga postures to address certain parts of the body.

Voice

The tempo and tone of your voice are very important as a yoga teacher. Is it calm, clear, and well-modulated? Students want to relax when they attend yoga classes. After working hard throughout the day, the last thing your students want is a voice they strain to hear when they are practising yoga.

The world is stressful and a lot of students want enough time to relax. That is not to say that relaxing is the only objective of yoga. A magnetic voice could inspire students to release further into a yoga posture during yoga classes nearby. An energetic voice can bring energy into the affirmation and a yoga posture that students can draw on. However, relaxation needs to be present somehow. The ability of students to relax in Savasana is inspired by the tone of the coach’s voice.