Thinking About Taking a Yoga Teacher Training Retreat? Consider These 13 Things Before You Commit.

As a yoga teacher trainer, I’ve lost count of how many students I’ve taught who already had a 200-hour teaching certificate but felt the need to re-train. Almost every single student had attended a teacher training that, they tell me, was “great fun” but “I don’t feel ready to teach.” Picking the right destination yoga teacher training or yoga teacher training retreat, as they’re sometimes called, can be daunting. There are so many options, each resulting in the same 200-hour certification. They also seem to offer the same life-changing experience in the same picture-perfect type of locations

The reality is that destination YTTs vary dramatically in terms of standards, content, and quality. I’ve taught at multiple yoga schools in various locations. I’ve also attended dozens of trainings and retreats as a student before setting up my own school. I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t. From the outside, it can be difficult to differentiate among the trainings as their websites and social media pages say almost the same thing. But excellent teaching and excellent marketing are two entirely different and unrelated sets of skills. Time and again, I’ve encountered poor quality schools with excellent websites and vice-versa.

If you want to create the most solid foundation for yourself as a yoga teacher, you need to put in the time and research your options. Here are some of the questions that I find helpful to ask when researching month-long yoga teacher training retreats .

13 Dos and Don’ts of Finding the Best Destination Yoga Teacher Training Retreat for You

1. Do Consider Why You Want to Take YTT

Start by taking personal inventory. Why do you want to take a YTT? Destination yoga teacher training retreats have become something of a trend in the last decade and some travelers are simply looking for a few weeks with some yoga and an Instagram pic of their certificate at the end. I’m all for people doing more yoga! If this is you, then the quality of the education doesn’t need to be your priority and you can be more relaxed about your decision.

However, if your intention is to initiate meaningful change in your life, to explore the authentic teachings of yoga, and to take a meaningful step on the lifelong path of yoga teaching in a supportive and seemingly magical location, then you need to choose your destination yoga teacher training carefully.

2. Do Choose an Established School

It takes years to create, revise, and refine an exceptional yoga teacher training curriculum. Even then, it’s forever evolving based on current science and student feedback.

During the pandemic, many yoga studios, teachers, and retreat centers launched YTTs as a way to continue teaching and, I suspect, to support themselves financially during a challenging period. Many of these courses are more than adequate. Some are a little slapdash. I’m not saying that every YTT that popped up during 2020 or afterward is lacking. I’m simply inviting you to consider that some schools have less experience in creating, revising, and refining their curriculum.

Part of what makes an excellent training is the ability to respond to students’ needs—and that can only happen with time and experience. If a school that you’re considering is fairly new, practice extra diligence as you research it and the teaching team.

3. Don’t Opt for a Popular Tourist Destination

Hear me out. A month in Goa, Ubud, or Koh Phangan can be a lot of fun. And there’s nothing wrong with going out and having fun! However, these locations tend to attract a larger number of students who are less serious about yoga and more interested in exploring the local beaches and bars. As a result, the training can have a more “scattered energy” that’s not supportive for those who want to immerse themselves in the teachings of yoga.

If you’ve decided to gift yourself this transformative experience, four weeks is actually a really short time to initiate meaningful change. The days go quickly and there is a tremendous amount of information to learn, study, and apply to your practice and your understanding of yourself. If you’re serious about your training, you’ll want to stay focused, remain committed, and surround yourself with people who are the same. For four weeks, let yourself live, breathe, eat, and dream yoga. It’s an entirely different level of immersion when you and your fellow students stay within the close confines of the training for at least six days a week

Look for a more secluded location that is far enough from town that you won’t be tempted to party in the evenings, but perhaps close enough so that you can go in once a week on your day off and take in the local culture. In this environment, you can go deep, face yourself, start to address unhelpful patterns of behavior, and create positive habits that will last a lifetime. Seriously, it’s only four weeks. Give yourself the best possible chance of initiating and integrating change.

4. Do Ask Former Students About Their Experience

Go to the Google and Facebook pages for the yoga teacher training retreats that you’re considering and scroll through the reviews to learn what graduates say about their experience. Unlike the reviews that appear on a school’s website, these are uncurated and offer an unfiltered sense of what former students think. Then reach out to some of the reviewers and inquire if they would be willing to share their experience with you. I’ve always found at least one helpful person who is willing to chat.

If possible, speak to a graduate who has been teaching for at least a year or two. Often people had a great time during YTT but don’t have any point of reference. It’s only after they’ve been teaching for some time, and perhaps experienced another training or interacted with graduates from other schools, that they can accurately assess the quality of their education.

5. Do Pick a Training That Has a Lead Facilitator

It’s not uncommon for destination YTTs to employ an array of local teachers to teach individual modules without a lead facilitator to mentor students throughout the training. As such, the coursework in these trainings can feel disjointed and the students often feel a lack of support.

What will benefit you most is individual attention from a lead trainer who is present throughout the program to witness your progress and provide stability. Your lead trainer’s role is to tie everything together, assess your needs, and meet you where you are at with yoga.

In my experience, the best YTTs have one to two lead trainers. They are sometimes supported by a small number of other teachers who lead modules or workshops on specific topics. But your primary instructor should remain present for most of your training, even when a guest teacher is instructing.

6. Do Research the Teaching Team

Learn about your lead trainer. You’re committing to an entire month of absorbing this person’s knowledge of yoga and perspective on life. You’ll want to make sure it’s someone who you resonate with—and I don’t just mean that you like their Instagram feed.

Check out the lead trainer’s website. Practice at least one class with them, whether in-person or online. Request a Zoom call if you can’t meet them in person. And confirm that they’ll be present for the majority of your training hours. Ask your lead trainer:

“How many hours of the training will you be present for?”
“How many hours will each of the other teachers be present for?”

If you have any hesitation after your conversation or if the school cannot provide you with access to the teachers, consider that a red flag.

7. Do Choose a YTT Where the Trainers Live On-Site

It can be a profoundly powerful experience when the teachers move into the venue exclusively for your training and make themselves available to students for the entire month. It’s an unparalleled dedication to your experience and your education.

You’ll have that continuity and support throughout the month along with even more opportunity to learn from your teachers and cultivate a relationship with them. You can also ask questions one-on-one that you wouldn’t feel comfortable asking in a group or that didn’t occur to you in class.

By comparison, when local teachers commute to teach occasional classes, they are often paid by the hour, which can lead to a very different level of commitment. Students who have experienced this type of YTT have expressed to me that they felt like they were on a “conveyor belt” of trainees.

This distinction can lead to a wildly different YTT experience.

8. Do Consider Student-to-Teacher Ratio

Four weeks is actually not a very long time to establish a relationship with your teacher. Building trust takes time. So does working through your blind spots and layers of resistance. If the group size is too large, the teacher will be unable to offer you as much individual time and attention.

In my experience, the best yoga teacher training retreats at the 200-hour level happen in small, intimate groups. I find that a team of two lead teachers can adequately support a group of 14 or perhaps 16 students. When the group size is larger, there needs to be additional teachers to guide students through the training.

Teacher-to-student ratio can be tricky to discern because a school might claim to have 10 teachers on their staff when really eight of them are guest teachers who show up for an hour or two during the entire training. Some trainings enroll 20 or more students with only one teacher. This can be the only way to access a Rockstar Yoga Teacher. These trainings can still be incredible. (I’ve been a student of plenty of great trainings like this!) However, chances are that the amount of personal attention you’ll receive will be low.

I recommend that for your first training, you select a school that offers a more intimate group size so that you can experience maximum support as you take your first steps. Also, a teacher training should include practice teaching under the observation of a trainer who gives you feedback. With too many students, this can’t be done well. Then, once you have some experience and a little more confidence, you can explore other styles of teacher training and see what works for you.

9. Don’t Make Your Decision Based Only on Cost

Just last week, a student told me that she chose a yoga teacher training because it was “shorter and cheaper and the same qualification.” Well…sure. It’s shorter and cheaper because a section of it is pre-recorded and during that section there might be no practice teaching or feedback or personal attention or Q&A. You get what you pay for.

Your yoga teacher training is not about obtaining a certificate. It’s about exploring an ancient tradition to which you’re drawn. You’ll be best supported in your teaching by finding a training that offers dedicated and experienced trainers, a focused and supportive environment, and a track record of satisfied graduates.

10. Do Think Twice About A Training That’s Less Than 26 Days

A 200-hour YTT is supposed to be, well, 200 hours. That works out to approximately 50 hours a week, not including the time you spend studying or preparing for practicums. Unless you’re enrolled in a hybrid yoga teacher training, which means a combination of in-person and online content, it isn’t realistically possible to cram 200 hours into less than 26 days.

Even in a 26-day course, there are only 23 days of training when you subtract your days off and your arrival and departure days. That means you’ll be learning for eight or nine hours a day, which is a lot. I find that most YTTs that are shorter than 26 days either teach fewer in-person hours than required or demand extraordinarily long days.

Look at the schedule and calculate the hours to ensure that you’re getting the 200 hours that are promised. I find that 26 days is the minimum amount of time you can do it without running into exhaustion and overwhelm.

11. Do Get Clarity About the Curriculum

The word “yoga” covers a multitude of lineages, styles, approaches, and systems that span millenia. There will be some 200-hour courses that have almost zero overlap. I was already a YTT trainer when I decided to take Max Strom’s 200-hour training, which was entirely dedicated to fascinating content that I had little knowledge of from my prior studies.

Ask to see the school’s curriculum and make sure it’s what you’re seeking. Some will be more anatomy-based while others will be more mystical and philosophical. Some will have a strong emphasis on teaching skills and practice teaching and others will focus more on your personal practice and self development.

There is no “best” syllabus. There are a variety of courses with differing intentions that will suit different learners and aspirants.

12. Do Your Part

It’s your commitment to the training, in tandem with the quality of education and environment, that is the foundation for becoming more knowledgeable about yoga. Choose your training wisely but also don’t forget to hold yourself accountable as you embrace the infinite possibilities that lie within you.

13. Don’t Expect to Teach Right Away

An informative 200-hour yoga teacher training can be a solid foundation upon which you can build. But no one should expect to be an expert on anything after just 200 hours.  For teachers who are serious about their craft, the learning never stops. The breadth of yogic wisdom is so expansive that no individual could ever learn it all in a single lifetime so you should not feel pressured to know it all after a single month.

Being a great teacher takes experience, and getting experience takes time. An old teacher of mine used to tell us, “the learning is in the doing.” Although some YTT graduates immediately start to teach yoga, that is not the norm. And many yoga students enroll in a yoga teacher training retreat without any intention of teaching and come simply to deepen their practice and understanding. I think that’s a beautiful thing.

The Last Thing To Consider With a Destination Yoga Teacher Training

There are other valid ways to train as a teacher or to explore the practice and tradition of yoga beyond destination yoga teacher trainings. That includes online options or an in-person training at a local studio. You can also learn more about the practice without taking yoga teacher training by exploring workshops, books, and podcasts on your own. Each approach has its pros and cons.

Ultimately, when you’re making the decision about who to study with and where, return to what we mentioned at the outset: ask yourself why you want to take yoga teacher training. After you have clarity around your intentions, then inquire about the lead trainer’s intentions. If those two align, then chances are you have a strong foundation as you continue on the path of yoga.

About Our Contributor
James French was born in London and first practiced yoga in 2003. He spent several years exploring his practice in India and taught for more than a decade. In 2017 he founded a yoga school. His influences include his guru, Sri Prem Baba, as well as Yogrishi Vishvketu, Donna Farhi, Max Strom, Jason Crandell, and Clive Sheridan. He is passionate about the art and science of teaching. The culmination of his studies is his level-2 300-hour course which is focused on inquiry, inviting students to question everything, and to deeply explore what intentions lie behind their choices on the mat, choices in their teaching and choices in their lives. He recently retired from teaching yoga to focus on being a yogi. The courses and curriculums that he designed continue to evolve at Path of Yoga.