4 WAYS YOU CAN USE HANDS ON ASSISTS TO ENHANCE YOUR STUDENT'S EXPERIENCE...
…AND SOME TIPS TO GET YOU STARTED
A good hands on assist can be an amazing and sometimes even transformational experience during a yoga class. It can help us as teachers to facilitate space for our students to access depth, experience and learning in an asana that they may not have been able to access otherwise. It can help to add an extra layer of spice and communication to the yoga journey.
Now some students will be open to hands on assists, while others will not be comfortable to be touched so the first port of call is always consent. At the start of a class and during, especially when you are approaching a new student that you haven’t assisted before ask before you touch.
Now you will inevitably have many different types of people of varying levels come into your class and you need to be able to support them effectively. You can do this in many different ways an assists is one layer of this. Here I’m going to share with you 4 types of assists that can be used for varying levels and needs.
1. Props and Guidance - Support with props
Props are not given the credit they deserve. You can use them to support not only your students that are new to the practice to help them to find more stability, length and grounding but they can also be used for more seasoned practitioners to enhance the practice in many different ways.
Props would be the first port of call for beginners. If you have a student that comes to your class for the first time and is a beginner, the best thing you can do is set them up with the props and show them how to use them in their practice. You don’t need to do so immediately but instead as they start moving see what is needed immediately and go there. Encourage them to use them. The way you present the props can either empower or disempower them. So make sure it is given in a way that is empowering and encouraging and then step back and let them find their way. As long as they are safe, as messy as they may be and as tempting as it may be to help them to find the correct alignment etc, one of the best things you can do is step back, leave them to it while offering verbal cues to the whole class that are directed at them.
2. Alignment - Helping your students to find the correct alignment
Alignment based assists can be used with all different levels and can be quite subtle in nature alot of the time. When using an alignment based assist start from the feet up. Check the base and work up from there. Alot of the time the root of the misalignment will be at the base so once you correct the lower part of the body the rest of the body will fall into alignment.
3. Deepening - Help your students to deepen the pose
This type of assist is to be used only on intermediate to advanced practitioners and also only on students that you know. This means students that come to your classes regularly and/or that at least you have introduced yourself at the start of class and you have asked permission to assist. You have watched how they have been moving at the start of the class to assess what the level is and what they potentially need, then you can approach.
Helping to deepen a pose for students can help them to feel how far the body can go, and can help them to feel the direction in which they should be moving to deepen the pose. This will then give them guidance for when you step away, they can potentially get there themselves.
4. enhancing - Massage and grounding
How much do you love a savasana massage? As humans we thrive with touch and the reality is that we are rarely touched by anyone other than our intimate partner and maybe family and friends. So as teachers we are in a position in which we can provide a safe nurturing touch and we shouldn’t take this for granted. There needs to be elements of trust, consent and safety and this comes by building relationship with your student. That being in the form of introduction, clear communication and that we as teachers need to stand in a place where we know what we are doing and know that we are moving in a safe way with clear intention beyond each touch.
It has been found that touch calms our nervous centre and slows down our heartbeat. Human touch and especially massage has been found to lower blood pressure and cortisol, our stress hormone, allowing the muscles throughout the body to relax, while yoga improves respiration, energy, and vitality. Together, they are the perfect combination to relieve stress. This is an added cherry on the top for your students.
Now before you rush out and start to integrate these into your classes it is important to highlight that it is a must, when assisting, to know what you’re doing. This means having mastered the assists you are offering, so having practised on other yoga teacher friends and had feedback from them.
Make sure you have felt this assist in your own body so you know what it feels like yourself so you can assist more intuitively and that you have had the appropriate training that qualifies you to support your students in this way.
We dive into in all four of these types of assists in depth and much more in my upcoming training in October: 20 hour Hands on Assists for Yoga Teachers. If you are looking to add this valuable layer to your teaching and to learn to support your students in this way, come and join us. Our next training on the 7-8th of October here in London. Head over and check out the details. Any questions be sure to get in contact here.