I’m in the middle of packing my bags for my 200 Hours Yoga Teacher Training in Bali! I’m sharing some tips for both picking the right course, and preparing for a Yoga Teacher Training. I’m trying to write the blog posts I’d have found super helpful a few months ago. This post is all about choosing a yoga teacher training. The next post will be about preparing for your teacher training. 

Focus On The Teacher

It sounds obvious but your first priority for a Yoga Teacher Training (YTT) should be the teacher. Your teacher is going to have a huge influence on your yoga practice, your teaching style and you’ll be spending some 200 hours with them. 

The easiest way to find a good teacher is to have had personal experience of being taught by a teacher trainer or by asking your yoga teachers who taught them. Make sure that your chosen teacher/yoga school is sufficiently experienced in holding various teacher trainings (200 Hours, 300 Hours, 500 Hours, Prenatal, etc) and that graduates are now teaching yoga. If you get a chance to take a class with a potential teacher trainer, make sure you like their teaching style, their energy and that you like them! If you’ve never met the teacher then do some research, Google them, read testimonials and get a clear picture of their experience. 

I chose to train with Peewee Sanchez of Yoga First. She is based in Dubai and used to teach at a few studios here before focusing solely on teacher trainings. She has over 20 years of yoga teaching experience! My course is co-taught by Jo Arganaraz, Jo lives in Bali and has been amazing at answering all of my questions!  As I know I want to teach yoga, it was important for me to have teachers with practical experience of teaching in this region.

Find The Right Time

Taking a month out to fly to Bali, India or Thailand for a teacher training is a huge commitment and the timing needs to be right. I finished up in my corporate role at the end of April and was originally looking for trainings in May or June. When I found the *perfect* teacher training for me I realised that I’d have to wait a little longer, which would mean a couple more months without a solid income. Having this additional time has been actually been amazing as i’ve had time to recharge, deepen my practice and get stronger. I’ve kept myself super busy with the re-launch of this blog and my studies with IIN. 

If you don’t have a month to spare for an immersive experience then there are options for doing your YTT part time, at weekends and sometimes with an intensive week thrown in. It’s definitely worth making sure the rest of your life is as simplified and stress free as possible. I tried to do a part-time YTT in London in 2016 and it just didn’t work for me alongside working long hours and having a tonne of other things going on in my life (although I enjoyed it enough to pursue it fully when the time was truly right).

Costs of courses vary depending on the school, location and whether accommodation is included. A good immersive teacher training will set you back $4-5000 (including accommodation) and there may be discounts for signing up early, or if you have a referral from a graduate. It may be tempting to keep costs down but if the main selling point of a course is that it’s “cheap” then I would tread very carefully. I waited until I had the savings, the time and found a course that really, truly appealed to me before taking the leap.

Choose The Right Course

Each yoga school and trainer will place their focus on different yogic traditions. I mainly practice dynamic vinyasa yoga so it made sense to pick a vinyasa-based training. The training I am doing is female only, which wasn’t my intention when looking for a course but the more I looked into the course the more I knew it was right for me! I love that they’ll be a maximum of 12 students and that a week of the course focuses on yoga for women. 

I’d visited Bali before and experienced what a special place it is, the cost of living is low and the food is healthy and SO good. Think carefully about the location, maybe don’t pick Bali if you’re not a fan of a tropical climate, or India if you’re not a fan of spicy food? There won’t be a huge amount of time to explore the country while doing your YTT but you could factor in some additional time before or after the course. 

I reached out to a few yoga schools earlier this year while doing my research. Some didn’t even respond to my emails but others gave me a chance to call them for a chat or added me on WhatsApp . I wanted to attend a program was as excited to have me as a student as I was to do the course! The questions I would ask are, how many students will be on the course (some said up to 40), what your course fees cover (are meals and accommodation included?), the accommodation arrangements (will it be shared rooms, will the school find you accommodation, or will you need to find your own?) and whether partners can come along, too (if you want them to!). 

My boyfriend will be coming to Bali, and while he won’t be doing a YTT, it didn’t feel right for me to have this experience without him there. I mean, who wouldn’t want to escape the Dubai summer in favour of being by a pool in Bali with a fresh coconut? Some programs won’t let you bring a partner, and some students will feel like this is something they want to do on their own. There are different YTT programs for a reason! Given that I’ve already paid for my accommodation as part of my course fees (I opted for a private room), my boyfriend coming along ins’t costing us any more than just his flights.

Make Sure It’s Yoga Alliance Accredited 

Lastly, make sure your YTT is Yoga Alliance (YA) accredited. This means that it will follow a specific curriculum and cover teaching skills, yoga philosophy, anatomy, and will be accepted by yoga studios as a credible teaching qualification.

I personally double checked all the courses I researched that both the yoga school, and the individual teachers were YA accredited on the YA site itself (blame years of doing due diligence as a lawyer). 

I hope this is helpful, let me know if you think there’s anything I’ve missed? My next post will cover how to prepare yourself for your YTT. 

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