Cues in Yoga Class
Cueing in yoga class is a way to communicate to students exactly how to move, what to feel and how. It is a vital component to creating safety, clarity and belonging in the classroom. Great cues add to the experience, while bad cues can detract from it.
To create a clear and beneficial class, teachers should aim to make their cues as concise, specific and action oriented as possible. They should also leave space for silence and keep student safety at the top of mind.
Some of the Best cues for yoga teachers are simple and straightforward such as “lift your arms” or “sit up tall” and other movements that can be paired with the breath to provide additional support. It’s also helpful to use common movement terms rather than anatomical ones. Using anatomical terminology may confuse students and is often unfamiliar to them.
What Are Verbal Cues in Yoga Class?
When cuing during long holds, it’s helpful to break down a pose into its component parts and work on them one at a time. This gives students a chance to build the pose slowly and more easily. For example, instead of saying “get your hips down and back” it might be more effective to say “send your hips toward your heels and snuggle your tailbone down.”
Incorporating the breath into a cue adds another layer of depth and meaning to the motion. This is especially true for a long hold like in the case of savasana (corpse pose). Instead of simply saying “lengthen your tailbone down” you could say “as you breathe in feel your tailbone lengthen and release down as you sink into the earth.”
Knowing your audience is an important factor to consider when giving cues. For advanced practitioners, certain cues may make sense and be helpful such as “seal the front ribs together” or “breathe into your back body.” However, for a beginner, these types of verbal cues can be confusing and overwhelming.
The use of imagery and demonstration can be powerful tools to help a student internalize a cue. However, when used too much, it can detract from the student’s ability to connect to their own body. It’s important to find a balance between the visual and the verbal to create a truly holistic practice.
[7:04] Libby discusses the importance of clear and concise class cues. She talks about some of the pitfalls that come with being too wordy in class and how this can be an obstacle to student’s understanding. She also addresses some of the common cues that don’t really help students move safely.
For example, she says, a teacher might cue “shoulder joint hike up to the ears” but this actually contributes to many student’s scrunching their shoulders and can cause injury. She goes on to explain how anatomical knowledge can be useful in determining what type of cues are helpful in a yoga class. You’ll be surprised by some of the insights she offers on this topic!