My experience: YogaSix Bridge Training

Good morning!

In case you missed my recent post… I’m a studio-employed yoga instructor again! I recently accepted a job offer with YogaSix’s new Flagstaff studio, and starting TODAY, you can book my Monday and/or Wednesday night power classes. I’ll be teaching “Y6 Power” (my own fast-paced vinyasa sequence) 6 p.m. Monday, and “Y6 Hot” (YogaSix’s 60-minute set sequence) 6 p.m. Wednesday. So exciting!

The classes are also all free to the public this week (three class max limit if you aren’t a studio member) while we settle in and work out the bugs and kinks in our new studio.

I wanted to take a second to talk about Bridge Training — aka, the training that all new YogaSix instructors are required to attend — and what my experience was like.

So, overall, I loved Bridge Training.

It’s done in two parts. There’s an online module-focused training, which needs to be completed before the live training. I’m not sure if the live training is typically held in-person, but mine was held virtually due to COVID. It was actually really convenient because I was living in northern California during the training, so the virtual format worked out perfectly for me.

The module-focused training took me about six or so hours. It done through “The Six,” which is YogaSix’s internal site for teachers and future teachers. It’s composed of six modules that go over the YogaSix methodology, teaching style, language formula, studio experience, etc. There are videos, bullet points and downloadable “cheat sheets,” and online quizzes throughout the modules.

Each potential teacher is required to complete the online module-focused training before the live virtual training. However, there’s no timeline for going through the modules, so it was easy to squeeze in two hours after work for a few days in order to finish it up. We were given about three weeks to do the module-based training, too, which was a good amount of time.

After module training, we had live virtual with a “master trainer” from YogaSix. This was a three-day training hosted via Zoom where we took several classes hosted by that master trainer (Zac), recapped everything we’d learned during module training, practice taught and gave/ received feedback, and asked all our questions.

Our last day of training was “teach backs,” where we each auditioned for the specific class formats we would be teaching. Because I’m teaching both the power and hot formats, I taught two 15-minute segments to fellow teachers, Zac and our studio lead teacher Nicole to “test out” of training.

Our first two days of live training were about eight hours each, and our third day was four hours, since we split into two groups for teach backs based on the class types we’ll each be teaching.

The best part? It was PAID! I was really surprised when Nicole told me I’d receive a paycheck for my time spent in training.

(I actually had to PAY a few hundred dollars for the studio-specific training I underwent at the last yoga studio I auditioned at, so finding out I’d be making money during training was a huge welcome surprise!)

So, like I said, overall, I LOVED Bridge training. It was really cool that I got paid to learn how YogaSix wants me to teach. The YogaSix teaching style is a little different than the teaching style I learned during my 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training, but it’s somewhat similar and intuitive enough that I’m picking it up fast enough.

I’m so excited to be part of the YogaSix community, and I can’t wait to continue my yoga teaching career here!