Teaching demos can be REALLY intimidating, especially if it’s your first one! The first time I did a teaching demo, I was a combination of sweating profusely + terrified to stutter on my words, and I want you to learn from me! Here are my top 4 tips to make sure you crush your teaching demo:

1.Be prepared

Practice, practice, practice. Even if you have been teaching for a number of years and have hours of teaching experience under your belt, you should practice before your demo! A demo is shorter than a regular class, and at any point, you may be asked to lead something different or to stop. You should be prepared to teach a variety of poses in a short period of time. This means that you shouldn’t spend the first 5 minutes in a silent meditation, as that certainly doesn’t highlight a variety of what you can offer. Set up a strategic sequence to highlight the most commons poses that you teach and to demonstrate who you are as a teacher… and then practice that again, and again, and again!

2. Keep it simple

Your teaching demo is about your skills as a teacher, not how proficient you are at pincha. Teach the most common poses that you would offer in your classes, and offer a variety of these poses. It’s important to move at a reasonable speed and to highlight how you would normally teach in a classroom setting.

If you meditate for 5 minutes at the beginning of class, cut it down to 1 minute. If you usually do 5 surya A’s and 5 surya B’s, maybe just offer one of each. If you usually do 3 balance poses, maybe just select one to offer. The point is, keep it simple and make it a well rounded offering that clearly demonstrates YOUR offerings as a teacher and how you would teach the average all-levels flow class.

3. Showcase your unique offering

This may sound like the opposite to the last 2 points, but it’s actually not. You have a unique voice as a teacher and there is space in a 10 minute teaching demo to highlight that.

For example, if you have a unique variation to surya A, perhaps highlight that, or if you enter triangle from a different way, this is a great pose to select to show that. Or, perhaps you teach a standard flow, but you time your poses to music or you encourage your students to choose a mantra at the beginning of each class, highlight that during your teaching demo.

As teachers, we all teach a little bit differently and the teaching demo is a time + place to show a studio owner what you do that is unique to other teachers.

4. Don’t be afraid to ask questions beforehand

Yoga studio owners are yoga teachers too and they KNOW what it’s like to be a teacher trying to get a job. In other words, they aren’t scary demons that you should be afraid of! You will be best prepared if you ask a few key questions beforehand, including:

• How long would you like me to teach for?
• Is there anything that you would like me to highlight in my teaching demo?
• Will it just be you attending?
• When would be best for you to arrange this?

Now go out and crush that teaching demo!

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