I am a yog instructor in Chennai, India. I notice the beginners lose interest in practice. They expect something to happen in trice. How do the other yoga instructors feel. Any feed back to retain them?
Yoga instructors shouldn’t be doing it for the money.
Students ready to learn wont leave.
How to sustain without money when people don not continue. Its a dilemma.
I’ve had to re-read this several times. I didn’t see a question about teaching for money but rather a concern on the part of a caring teacher about the retention and subsequent progress of the student. So I wanted to look deeper and that still holds true for me.
There are two sides to the coin. The first is simply that some people will go in different directions. They go do something else, they go study with someone else, etcetera. Not all things are for all people at all times.
The other side of the coin is how we, as teachers, present material to the student, engage them in the practice, foster their growth, and educate them about the nature and profundity of ongoing practice both in class and in their living.
If all beginners are leaving then the attrition likely can be “fixed” if the teacher looks at themselves, their teaching, and their methodologies. If it is just a few students now and then, it might simply be a part of life.
Completely agree with what InnerAthlete said.
Also sympathise with Madhwa - it’s not easy to teach yoga, ESPECIALLY IF YOU TEACH IT as a spiritual practice. If you teach it as a physical exercise, then you have NO PROBLEM. But the truth is most people are not interested in the deeper aspects of it, so I find that you have to be very cunning.
Don’t put the beginners off by pushing deeper spiritual stuff on them!! Really, I cannot emphasise this enough. I learned this the hard way - I’ve been teaching yoga for over 10 years, and in the beginning i know now that I lost A LOT of students by being too rigid in my approach.
It is a good idea to have two classes - one PURELY PHYSICAL (you can even call it something like ‘dynamic power yoga’ or some such name that attracts people who want yoga just for the physical benefits.
That’s my 2 cents worth - it’s late and i’m tired, so i hope it made sense!