Teaching Teachers

My vinyasa class has been going great. I’ve got a group of regulars who show up and are really into the structure of the class. Usually there is a round of sun salutations, then some fun variation of a warrior series followed by whatever the class chooses, arms, back, hips, whatever. Small classes make it easy for a dialogue between the students and teacher and we can kinda go wherever.

Recently the classes have been getting busier and busier with tourist season in full swing. At first I wasn’t bothered, Moab is pretty chill so I didn’t make too many adjustments to the class. The other day though there was a woman who was obviously really experienced. After the class we were talking and it comes out that she teaches at a studio in Washington. No problem until she showed up at my next class. I got all nervous, like I needed to expound everything I knew about all the poses. I didn’t feel confident at all. Of course, none of this was coming from her, all me. I’d never had a member in the class who’d started practicing when I was ditching school to go skate. It made me question my self as a teacher. How can I do this when my experience is still so fresh? I’m more or less a newbie still.

She and I got together to practice for an afternoon. It was great to share ideas and work with someone who had so much experience. She gave a lot of tips and advice and after a bit I felt that her yoga was very different than mine. I like the idea that Schiffman brings up about free form yoga and sometimes I think that I like it because it is a good excuse for not cultivating a traditional foundation, i.e. “i’m lazy so i just do what feels good”.

As we moved into more ‘advanced’ poses, the dialogue between us seemed to open up a lot more. It was intriguing that we had similar ideas on how arm balances can be taught with more wiggle room as one is first learning them. Then she came over and gave me an adjustment during the Up Dog in a vinyasa. Now, in my Up Dog I tense my butt and quads a lot to support my sacrum and low back, which I know are hypermobile. When she moved my hips up a bit there was an audible crunch sound followed by a pop. No pain at all but scary. We both looked pretty shocked.

The next morning I couldn’t get out of bed, my low back was totally seized up. It took 15 minutes of knees to chest to hobble to the shower. I haven’t been really injured like this in a long time. Its frustrating. After almost three weeks of no backbends, sun salutations or climbing, I’ve got a pretty good forward fold now. And now I’m just wondering what kind of teacher I’ll be in 10, 12, 15 more years. Will I still get nervous when another teacher is in my class like I was this morning? Is my practice going to include more prehab forward folds? When will I injure my first student? How will I feel about that?