Not that the one in Toronto (where I live now) isn't fantastic too. But in Boston, my old home studio (Bikram Yoga Boston) begins prepping #BKTT attendees as soon as someone decides they want to go. A study group is formed, and teachers crack the whip on students with the dialogue.
Melissa from Boston (whom I never met while I lived there, funny enough) wrote me today to give me the low-down on what exactly they are doing in Beantown to prep...
"We actually stand up on the podium and use the microphone. Standing up, hearing your voice through a sound system, and announcing it to others feels wildly different than lounging on a couch - I've started practicing standing up and enunciating in a loud voice now. Cheesy, yes, but helpful :)
The only time I've completely drawn a blank is on the second part of awkward. I got nervous having the other future teacher trainees hanging on and waiting for my words. I crumbled under the pressure of their shaky knees. So getting friends to do it while you call it out is definitely helpful!
For poses like awkward and balancing stick, we focused on speaking rapidly/clearly without hesitation or any pauses so students don't have time to "think" about how long they've been in the posture. The goal is to have their bodies simply react to your words without time to ponder.
During the week, we all have our own memorization strategies. Some of the ones we all seem to like are: (1) just reading it a ton of times the first day to have everything sink in, without actively trying to memorize anything, (2) writing out the first letter of every word and saying the dialogue looking at that sheet, (3) saying it while others do it (if you're lucky enough to have other bikram friends you can recruit), (4) recording yourself saying it and then playing it back to make sure you got it entirely right and aren't stuck in a robotic monotone."
These are great tips!
Maybe I should try to get The Husband (whose never done Bikram before) to do the poses while I recite them? Or perhaps I should crack the whip on my team members at work, and force them to help me out during a lunch break?
Thanks Melissa!
just let your husband check you verbatim as you recite it. though tt is meant to prep you for teaching, there's nothing like presenting in the posture clinic room, with a ton of eyes on you and equally as many eyes on the book checking you.
ReplyDeletedon't even worry about second part awkward in the posture clinics. Anyone who's "maxing" out a pose in the cold clinic room will learn right quick that it's not the place to be pushing your yoga poses.
besides if you get it down, the second pose dialogue is not that long.
i recorded myself and edited it down (used to work in radio). It was the best thing I ever did. I still have it in my cd player in the car, listened to it today. this is only the beginning! you'll be great.
Thanks Anna!!
ReplyDeleteI get questions about teaching yoga all the time. If you read Planet Yoga’s #yogachat, they had a great discussion on teaching tips. It’s part of their weekly Twitter #yogachat. I thought your readers might want to check it out: http://planetyoga.com/yoga-chat-archive.php?chat_date=2010-08-01
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