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Donation based yoga workshop for fellow yogis.
Rolf stressed that successful workshops accommodate students. “Invite them to a party they want to go to,” he said repeatedly at the conference, adding that it’s about what the students want, “not a party you want to go to.”
Understanding your clientele’s lifestyles and schedules is also key to bringing them into the room. For example, holding a workshop at 2 p.m. on a Wednesday might not fit with their work schedule. However, a 7 a.m. event on a Saturday might work well for a mother who can attend the workshop and come back before her family even starts its day.
For later in the day, if you host a workshop at 2 p.m. instead of 1 p.m., that extra hour allows your students to finish their morning routines without feeling rushed around noon. That same sort of idea works for later in the day, as Rolf explained that a Saturday hour-long class starting at 4 p.m. still allows people to get together with their friends after 5 p.m. instead of after 6 p.m.
From his own teaching experience, Rolf offered a case study of working with students in Northern Virginia. Explaining that the student base for a class in the greater Washington, D.C. area would likely feature a lot of “Type A” personalities, he mentioned that he knew the students would push themselves to accomplish everything without giving themselves credit for what they achieve.
“I have a sense of the room I’m walking into. You know, what does that room feel like? It feels like a room full of people who are doing a really good job and aren’t able to give themselves credit for it,” said Rolf, using the phrase “glass half-empty” to describe how the students view their own accomplishments. “These people don’t need me to caffeinate them and jack them up,” he added. “They need a little ease.”
Rolf recommends dividing a class into a three-hour block. The first third of the workshop should introduce the new concept and focuses on education, or the dharma of yoga.
The remaining two-thirds should put the new concept into practice as “experiential learning.” Grab your students’ attention by explaining how they can incorporate what they’re doing in the workshop into every day life. For some, that may be sitting quietly at home and “sweeping the garden.” What’s most important though is that you, as the teacher, are interested in what you have to teach and introduce concepts that you yourself actually practice.
credit to Rolf Gates in yoga alliance, template lorem ipsum filler to be deleted