Is a 200HR Yoga Teacher Training Enough to Teach? with Paul Teodo

0:00 Welcome to the yoga teacher Evolution podcast. Namaste. My name is Paul chiodo joined here with Michael Henry. Most yoga teacher, trainings are becoming watered-down and mediocre. So we've created this podcast to help supplement those of you who graduated from a teacher training and don't feel confident going out into the real world.

0:24 Michael, and I are lucky to have been trained by some amazing people. We've gone out into the world ourselves and had success and we want you to feel confident to act your students and to build your career with integrity and authenticity. Welcome to our podcast.

0:41 Alright, welcome back to the yoga teacher Evolution podcast. My name is Michael Henry. I am one of your co-hosts for today and across the table from me, is mr. Paul Tio do, yes. Today we're talking about something pretty interesting. Actually, had a conversation with someone yesterday who's been practicing yoga for about?

1:01 I think he said, six years or so, just kind of on his own. It's not a teacher, never did a training. And we're talking about teacher trainings, 2:00, specifically, and the conversation of what he perceived these trainings to be, which was that basically was a rumor that he was sharing with me that he's had conversations with people and they say like yeah if you're going to do your 200 our teacher training, it's not really meant for you. To actually be a teacher.

1:26 It's meant for you to, you know, improve your own personal practice. If you wanted to be a teacher, you have to like go to the next stage, which should be doing your 3:00 or something along those lines. Or training needed afterwards. So when he was sharing this with me I thought I was like, this is interesting.

1:39 I was like, aren't you certified as a teacher when you finish a 200, our teacher training and I thought to myself, I was like I'm gonna bring this up to Paul and see what Paul has to say about this. So we're going to deconstruct that topic that room or a little bit and see where it goes from there. Yes.

1:52 So Paul, how do you feel about that particular statement with regards to 2:00 teacher trainings, not necessarily needing to prepare their students to actually teach yoga and just to actually work? Their own personal practice, or to improve their personal practice.

2:08 Yeah, this is a really great topic. And it's something that I am, I would say, really opinionated about, but it's something that I have a, pretty strong opinion about and my business partner Byron does as well. A yoga teacher, training a full 200, our yoga teacher training in, order for it to be called that should get a qualified student ready to teach yoga in the real world.

2:36 So, I believe that in order to do that, what you need to do is you need to talk about a lot of really practical things. So, teaching methodology voice, public speaking injury, prevention, a lot of practice teaching. So, in order to feel confident by the end of the training, your students need to practice teaching a lot, which is super uncomfortable at first and certain people will be Anybody under the training and certain people won't but a teacher

3:11 training should get a should give the student all of the tools that they need to teach a basic safe yoga class within the style of their teacher training. So my training is a power Vinyasa 200, our yoga training. I promised my students by the end of the training if they participate in 70% of my My lessons and Byron's lessons live either in person or live on Zoom. They will feel confident to teach a basic power yoga class to their students.

3:48 Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I think that's really important, right? Especially if you're going to be graduating as a yoga teacher and have that certification, like people are going to have that expectation, that you should be able to lead them in a class if this teacher doesn't feel confident or like, Been given the skills or the training to be able to do that then they might feel shorted or they might feel like okay well especially this rumor starts to become more

4:15 true. I mean, this is the first time I've heard it but at the same time I'm like I could see how this manifested to some degree because it's like to me it's not it's almost like a justification for some trainings not necessarily meeting the Expectation of needing to prepare their students to be able to go out and actually teach a class. And before I know, I think see you're ready to say something. But what I wanted to say before that is it is also little bit challenging to, you know, to to

4:43 think of the other side of the coin of certain teacher trainings. Like, it is a little challenging to prepare students in such a short period of time, right? Some trainings are three weeks, 24 days or something like that.

4:53 Some of them can be spread out and like, you know, in order to master any skill, not to say that we would ER it but you need to put a lot of time and in order to do that, but for your trainings, what I'm hearing is it's, you know, you try to use as many practical tools as possible so that when they do finish, they'll at least get that minimum viable like teaching skill of being able to teach like a full class, whether it be one full sequence that they learn or memorize or

5:17 something along those lines, right? Yeah. So what I would say is if If a person is like your friend and they've been practicing yoga for six or seven years regularly, three, two, three, four times a week. And if that person has been studying with really good teachers, they will intuitively understand sequencing, understand alignment, understand breath cues, understand verbal cues, it'll kind of already have seeped into their system, especially if they have a

5:52 background, Maybe, She is having taken some personal training classes or some some physiotherapy sessions. He's a gymnast. So he's probably got a lot of. Okay. So he already has a basic knowledge, knowledge of the functional, anatomy and the body. And on top of that, he's been practicing yoga for a while. If this person also is comfortable speaking in other, in front of people, if this person already has a personality that they can allow to shine

6:19 through, I would say they probably be ready to teach yoga after doing my 200, our training. Absolutely, right? And actually would say, if I didn't get him ready, I would have failed him as his teacher on the other level. If somebody has only been practicing yoga for two or three months and they don't really know what Sun salutation a is, they don't really know the basic alignment of warrior two. They haven't studied with good teachers, they are not comfortable.

6:50 All speaking in front of people, then this person would probably not be ready after only 24 days of my training, or the three-month training, either one. So it depends on the individual, that depends on how much pre work or home work they've done before, and it also just depends on their own out the own students motivation.

7:13 So if you get a student Like my friend Zach who did our teacher training a couple couple years ago, he showed up, he had gone through some addictions some really hard stuff and he was ready to do something with right person ready for the real world.

7:32 And if you're an absolute beginner and you have other hurdles like you're more naturally, shy and introverted and you have a hard time speaking from maybe then it'll take a little bit longer but I would recommend that that person they do a couple. Privates with me or another teacher or take them like a mentorship program or something like that versus like go right into the 300 hour.

7:53 Yeah. Because you don't need that much yet. Yeah. And and my advice would be to take it 200 our training, teach for a couple years and then do your 3:00. Yeah. Otherwise like you said, it's just more learning. Yes. It's more information going in and not actually using that information and applying it to the real world.

8:12 Yeah, right. And there's like, you don't want to In school. Like if you're good at school, you're like I'm really good at school. So you like people like to hide in a classroom environment. So no out into the real world, you know?

8:26 Yeah. And then there's the other side of that to that you get the people who are super rebellious and like I don't need a training I don't need any I'm just going to teach like dude no that's arrogant. Hmm. You know so you need to respect your teachers. Do some trainings study with some people who are better than you get have them.

8:43 Give you constructive criticism. Have them keep you humble and then go out into the world and do it and and and be rebellious and break the rules but but don't don't completely scoff. Yeah, you need a solid foundation, especially from a safety perspective, considering you're speaking to the public exactly, right. And people could be walking into your classroom just off the street just because they saw a flyer or something like that or whatever, you know, there's no

9:07 relationship there and if you don't know them and you don't know how to like support them or at least speak to them, knowing that they may or may not have a Previous injury, or maybe it's the first time I've ever doing a yoga class.

9:19 That's something that you learn in the training, right? But if you have that, like, you said that arrogance and your like, I can just teach yoga because I'm really good at yoga, you know, there's, there's a red flag there potentially you.

9:29 Absolutely. And then, on another level of that is meditation. Teaching meditation there. I love it because meditation has what's called a disguised virtuosity, which is something that I got from an old acting teacher because disguised Virtuosity.

9:46 Yes. Which means that when you're doing it really well, it looks easy. So like a like an actor like an actor that's like doing an amazingly complicated scene in like an acting like Meryl. Streep like what she's doing is incredibly complicated and she's making it look effortless, right?

10:03 This is same thing with meditation. It's an incredibly simple practice with an unlimited amount of sophistication to it. So being able to guide meditation and to teach Rotation need to study with good teachers. You need to have done in my opinion, you need to have done a significant amount of work on yourself so that you understand how to handle people's emotions.

10:27 You need to understand that you're not someone's therapist. You need to have a lot of Integrity because Meditation has it's a disguise Rich Wasson. You can mess somebody up by telling them the wrong things in meditation, right?

10:45 You know, so like that, that's usually why the meditation teacher training is designed to be done after the yoga, even though it looks like, oh, like I don't need to do all these fancy shapes. Just meditation. It's a more sophisticated practice and it's more sophisticated teach and that requires a tremendous.

11:05 This amount of humility as well. For the meditation training. Yeah, yeah, interesting, all trainings but right meditation is the one where I think people are, you know, they're the Instant gratification Instagram culture is creating this environment where people believe that they're perfect and that they can just go out and do anything now.

11:28 Right? And it's disrespectful to the practice. It's disrespectful to the teachers, it's disrespectful to yourself. you know, so Yeah, study. And then after you study grind for a few years, put it behind ya, teach a couple thousand classes for $15 $20. That's what all the great teachers that, I know, that's what they did.

11:56 They graduated their yoga teacher training? They taught for a few years made nothing which is what you make your free to make nothing. Hmm. You know, and then after they got pretty good then they built a business around Themselves. Mmm.

12:10 Yeah, so that brings up an interesting thought and it's surrounded to the idea of like You know, there's teacher trainings all over the world, right? And depending on the person that's signing up for a teacher training. If they're doing it in this would kind of reminds me of going to Teachers College.

12:29 Whenever I was in, when I was in college, it seemed to me like everyone was going to Teachers College because I think at the time it was like a one year extended Teachers College Teachers College, like you go to Teachers College to actually like teach like kids in elementary school.

12:44 Yeah and like high school and stuff like that so like Teachers College. So I played basketball and University to the meditation. You experienced deep states of meditation and that will allow you to have emotional releases traumatic releases from the past, it will allow you to have a connection with nature, your body, relax and a deeper level than you've ever had. So those are transformational, you know, a lot of times what sometimes, what will happen is

13:19 somebody will come and do a teacher training and they'll be like, I don't want to teach yoga, but I've never, I haven't relaxed this much in years and you get yourself out of work for a month, you get yourself out of your environment, your friends, and your family, and all the people that are influencing you, and to living the life that you want.

13:37 And you come to you have this inside of, oh wait, I'm not living a life for me. I'm living the life that my mom. Mom wants me to live for the life that my dad wants me to live for my friends think I should do and and and then you come to a greater insight and you go out and you pursue something that you're passionate about.

13:54 Yeah. Yeah. It really opens you up. Absolutely. That's what that's I mean that's that's definitely something that I'm sure we can agree on and most trainers can agree on. Is that a yoga teacher training will definitely open you or I would can't speak for all them but I would imagine they all basically open you up they have that minimum at the very least that yeah, you know, you have some sort of transformation you can. Do you realize things about

14:15 yourself, you transform you, you know, you learn to meditate, you may cry. You may release on all those things which is, which is what it's about as well, right? And we make a big emphasis about talking about the actual practicality of teaching yoga Asana.

14:29 That's what we speak about a lot because that's more of the thing that's lacking. But I just wanted to say like yeah, the teacher trainings in general. That's a big positive, right? That's a big plus, or a big benefit to doing the training. Is it really opens you up and It can transform your life and who knows what happens after that.

14:46 Yeah, yeah, exactly. So I know a lot of people that have done teacher trainings that have had transformational experiences, but they still don't feel ready to teach yoga in the real world. I'd like to challenge the teachers leading. Those trainings to do both, can your student have a transformational life changing experience? And can you get them ready for the real world which I think is possible.

15:10 Right? You know, and some of the people won't want to teach yoga after work. Like it's not that something greatest career, like, I'm not, I'm not rich, you know, like I'm not super wealthy. The pandemic is freaking destroyed our career, so it's it's yeah. And we're working online, it's going fine. But like it's not a job that anyone would want to do unless you actually love it.

15:34 Yeah. And the first couple of years are not like financially are not rewarding and and that's okay. I so like when you say like a lot of people don't actually want to teach. I think a lot of people want to teach but then when they see what you have to do your first two or three years, it weeds out a lot of people.

15:58 Yeah and it should have that passion or that that deep-rooted sense of. This is what I want. Yes. And I believe that. That's what it's designed to do, right? You know in order to be in order to have a blessed life Like a really amazing and you can have a blessed life doing lots of different things. But like, people look at the life that I've been lucky enough to build my wife and and it was, it took several years and not only that, but I spent several

16:30 years in therapy fucking cleaning up my shadow, which allowed me to go out into the world and stand in front of people and have self-esteem. That is not intellectualize, apple and a spiritual connection. That's not intellectualize Ebola, but Necessarily come from yoga and meditation. It came from my wall.

16:49 I was doing thousands of hours of teaching yoga. I was also doing thousands of hours of therapy are doing those two things, and playing guitar, like an all of these things, they kind of came together and then I had a real talent to share with the world, but it was built over time and I built it while I was broke right and poor right.

17:13 And you know, eating at Taco Bell, Well, and eating shopping at the dollar store, right? And grinding, but it felt good because I didn't want a normal life. Never have wanted a normal life, never do even right now, you know, like being here in but like, I don't want that, I don't want, I don't want the stability, I don't want the security, I want the, the, the Wild Ride.

17:39 Hmm. And that's the, the yoga teacher life is not a normal life. Yeah, that's really. it's really powerful, thank you for sharing that, and it makes me think of Your last training in October me being a student at participant and mingling with some of the other students.

18:00 And Seeing or hearing some of the things that were shared which I'm not going to get into the specifics. But there were definitely a few people that I could see the passion and drive behind why they were there, whether they had shared it, you know, directly or indirectly and just even afterwards connecting with them and seeing how they're still going after it. And they're still, like, putting in the work and their practice teaching and they're studying a

18:25 little bit more on there, asking questions, like, that's kind of that, that underlying drive that we were speaking to. It's like as opposed to One that's like, yeah, I'm going to do the training to do the training to improve my practice, which is fine and you can do that and you don't need to be a teacher afterwards. But I think there are some people that they go into it and, you know, whether whether it's the yoga itself or the, you know, the the meditation or the,

18:49 you know, the the practice of the asan or whatever. There's something about that space, that transform their life, or did something for them. So then they wanted to do the training so that they could know how to Do that for someone else.

19:02 And that's what I heard a couple times was like I want to be able to share what this has done for me so that someone else can experience the same thing that I share that I experience, which was either a release. It was like a sense of Peace, a sense of Stillness, a sense of Awakening, whatever you want to call it. Yeah.

19:19 And to me that's like a nun. Like and unsurmountable depth of passion towards a goal. Like if you really want to share what yoga is done for you so that someone else can experience that same level of like depth and transformation.

19:35 Like that's to me, that's super fueling. Like you're obviously going to want to continue to pursue that regardless of the money regardless of the the Moguls are the hiccups that you're going to need to go through to get there.

19:45 If you know, deep down like what this is done for you, then you're going to have a lot of internal motivation to continue to pursue it and at least that's what it's shown or that's what I've seen through a few of the students.

19:55 Yeah, straining. Yeah, absolutely. And at the same level, I also am very sensitive and empathetic to people who have just graduated a teacher training that are like, well, now there's a fucking pandemic and all the studios are closed and how do I build my craft?

20:14 So, there's like, there's that side of it too. And how do I stay enthusiastic about Got it because right now, it's like, it's like trying to trying to run a race with your shoelaces tied together and your arms tied, behind your back up.

20:30 That's basically how I describe it. Like, it's true though and even for me, it's like that. And I'm I have built something and I have my, my 6,000 classes. So, you know, if you have Recently done a training and you do love yoga and you're in a city where you're locked down right now like I If you're listening to this like I have so much compassion for you and it's not easy and that's something that I don't know what it's like, you know.

21:01 I don't know what that's like. I know what is like, you know, eight years ago to start from nothing and to build something but I didn't have to build it during a freaking pandemic or her computer. Yeah. Yeah or third. Yeah exactly so the whole nother level of Challenge and so people are going through right now.

21:20 Yeah whole other level of challenge. So our grit more resilience more Drive is needed probably to push through that barrier and and a community. You need other people to, you need to surround yourself with other people that will give you motivation and feedback and I think that's actually more needed than anything is.

21:42 You can't. feel like you're alone, right right now and So if you're doing a teacher training or Workshop or immersion simply for that, like I just want to remember why I love this thing. Yeah, with I just people. Yeah, with other people, even if it's through a computer, it's what we've got right now.

22:03 And hopefully God willing, you know, six when we began under six months of this, maybe hopefully not much longer than that. Fingers crossed. If fingers crossed So I will. Yeah, I will say that, you know, for this October teacher training, the one that we did that you were a part of I know a lot of people just did it because they were like depressed and they had such a hard year and they just wanted to like, have something to wake up for every morning. And, you know, that's a great

22:33 reason to do it too. Right now, I did another training with East-West yoga in July of 2020 and that one was even more. So, like, a lot of people were just like like, I'm just doing this training because I-i'm sad. Yeah, you know II need a reason to exercise every day and to and to to meditate every day and and something to be accountable for.

23:01 Yes, you know, that's Community super powerful. Yeah. So that's not lost on me, you know, that needs to be a huge part of it as well. Yeah, I just think you know, and if your yoga teacher and you want to lead trainings, you're leading trainings, just, you know, just make sure you're really doing your best, you know, are you really giving it everything?

23:26 All right, you know, and I don't know, I'm not a big believer in, you know, the business model of the 200, our training is just designed to get their feet wet so that you can sell them a 300, our training and then sell them more and this and that it's like every Perience, that that I give like it needs to stand on its own. And it needs to be means to be good. And every time I'm done with the training, I want to be exhausted.

23:55 That means I've done my job. It's powerful and it shows a lot of Integrity I feel and that's one of the reasons why I wanted to continue to work with you thanks man. It showed some of your your values, as a human in that aligned with me. So I think when anything becomes popular, it becomes watered down and that's what's happened to yoga. And I was lucky enough to study with some badass people and I want to keep that level of Excellence alive and, and it feels really good to work hard

24:35 at something. and to know that you're good at it because you've worked hard and because you've had people that have pushed you, you know, lovingly pushed you you know, that's really my main thing is, I don't I want to help Not, I want to help yoga not get watered down farther or further than it already has.

25:03 Yeah, yeah, I hope that's the case as well. Oh, that's the computer keep making noises there. But yeah. Is there anything else that you wanted to add to that spot about 25 minutes? I now got that we went pretty deep into it so yeah, I think it's pretty good, you know? And I'm a big believer in like study with multiple teachers too.

25:25 I don't want either Guru. Yeah, different varieties. I'm not your Guru study, do my training, and then go out and do someone else's and then maybe start with me again. Like, you know, like, I'm a big believer in a confident.

25:36 Teacher wants their students to study with other people. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, because you're going to learn different things from different people, right? Yeah. And and just to talk on that like I for your training in October.

25:49 Like I attended your classes more than by Ernst was Byron's were online. Line and it was later and I did the, you know, I watch the recordings and stuff like that but there wasn't that engagement for me. So I felt like I got I kind of molded more towards you and the way that you teach and then when I did my final teaching sequence at the end and Byron kind of looked at me, he's like, we need to like, you need to come to some more of my classes so that

26:17 I can deconstruct you a little bit more and give you some different feedback. Yeah. Right. Because you want to have that different perspective, that different criticism that different Our perspective. And I really value that I was actually. Yes, that would be great.

26:29 Yeah. You know, I want to be able to find and get that different type of criticism so that I can figure out my own way. Yeah. And not necessarily completely mold into, you know, you for example but at the beginning it's obviously obviously very helpful to just follow a leader. Yeah.

26:46 And then eventually find your own way to lead exactly. Yeah. Cool. Awesome. All right. Well, thanks so much for listening. On that note. About mentorship and how important mentorship is post training. For those of you who have done a teacher training and you are passionate about potentially pursuing.

27:03 This further, we are still accepting new students to our six-week mentorship program that is starting in about a week and a half. So, if you're listening to this after shortly, after that, it's been released, we are accepting students. You can go and check that out at waititi masterclass.com or you can connect with either of us on Instagram and we happy to answer your questions and tell you more about it. The wise have a beautiful, beautiful day. Paul.

27:27 Anything else you want to add? That's it. All right, take care everyone and we'll see you next time.