7 Mistakes to Avoid When Teaching Yoga to Gen Zers on a College Campus

As my last student walked out of the studio that Sunday, my inner critic was loud. I worried that the playlist I’d chosen wasn’t cool enough. I wondered if students liked the sequence enough to come back. I hoped they didn’t think it was weird that I’d led them through several rounds of channel-cleaning breathing.

My experience teaching yoga on a college campus to a population of students-slash-peers began shortly after I started my graduate program. Suddenly I had the opportunity to teach folks that I had seen around campus and offer them a chance to destress during finals week or find community while managing the loneliness of university life.

Although teaching yoga on a college campus was a rewarding experience, it also came with its own set of challenges. Whether you’re an experienced teacher or a complete newbie, it can be quite the learning curve. But if teaching to a group of college kids sounds intimidating, don’t let that stop you. Campuses need dedicated instructors who want to share the gift of yoga.

Instead, let these mistakes I made while teaching yoga to Gen Zers serve as lessons to support your own college teaching journey.

7 Lessons from Teaching Yoga on a College Campus

It’s all about staying calm and confident. And don’t forget to ask your students how finals are going.

1. Try Not to Make Assumptions About Your Students’ Needs

I assumed that teaching a mostly younger age group would mean that my students wanted fast-paced flows—ones that would make them break a sweat. But the best feedback I received actually came after I taught a slower-paced flow, offering my students enough time to go deeper into each posture.

Remember, college kids often have hectic schedules and attending a yoga class may be the only part of their day to unwind and slow down.

2. Enforce Class Rules

It’s never fun to enforce class policies. It’s even less fun when it’s to a group of people around your age.

Whenever students used their phones or showed up well past our gym’s late period cutoff, I let it slide. I didn’t want to be known as the bossy yoga teacher. Plus it just felt uncomfortable to tell someone my age what to do.

But I was actually doing a disservice to the rest of the class by staying quiet. As instructors, it’s important to cultivate a calming space free of distractions. Even though it may feel awkward, it’s okay to gently remind students to stay off their cell phones or to make sure that they arrive on time.

3. Feel Free to Deviate From Your Planned Sequence

Students attending classes on a college campus can vary wildly from week to week. This meant that carefully planning out my sequences days in advance and teaching them exactly as-planned was not a great idea. Often, when I realized my class plan wasn’t working for my students, I didn’t feel confident enough to go off script.

Now, I recognize how essential it is to be flexible. As instructors, we need to be able to tailor each class to the students who actually showed up that day, not the imagined ones in our heads.

4. Don’t Be Afraid to Demo

Demoing postures can be intimidating—and I tried to avoid it as much as possible. I worried that if I demoed Chaturanga or Upward-Facing Dog, my students would feel that I was talking down to them. But my lack of demos only led to confusion and I had to increase the number of cues I gave throughout class. If I had taken the time to demonstrate proper alignment, my students could have focused more on their breath, less on my constant cues.

5. Cultivate Community

Most colleges are broken into two semesters: fall and winter. I knew that the students I’d get to know in the first chunk of the year might not attend my class in a few short months. Because of this, I didn’t take the time to learn the names of all of my students, leading to a missed opportunity for connection.

One of the main reasons so many people turn to yoga is for its supportive community. No matter if a student shows up just once,or is a regular, we should try to foster community and connection with the people who take the time to attend our classes.

6. Don’t Worry About Judgement

Teaching yoga can be a vulnerable experience.

For me, this fact was exacerbated when I began teaching my peers. I constantly worried that my students were judging me, and I focused too much on how well-liked I was. This was simply my ego getting in the way.

Teaching yoga is not a popularity contest—it’s a chance to connect with our students and support them through their yoga journey.

7. Allow Time for Savasana

While Gen Z is notorious for their very short attention spans (myself included), this doesn’t mean that we don’t appreciate the power of Savasana.

I figured that my students didn’t have the patience to lay in stillness for minutes on end. I’d often keep Savasana to three minutes or less. But now I recognize that Savasana is one of the most important parts of a yoga practice. Savasana offers students the chance to go inward, recentering themselves before moving on with their day.