21/08/2026
THE COVER TEACHER CONUNDRUM…
As yoga teachers, part of our teaching is inviting students to embrace the unknown. And then we cover someone else’s class and suddenly the unknown can be quite destabilising.
I went to a studio yesterday where I’ll be covering for a well loved teacher. The studio owner gave me a little heads-up: “Don’t be surprised if not many students turn up.”
And honestly, I was fine with that. Because it’s part of the reality of being a yoga teacher, and something we don’t always talk about. When you cover for another teacher, people might not come simply because they don’t know you.
It has nothing to do with your ability.
It doesn’t mean anything about the quality of your teaching.
It just means people tend to stick with what they know. As humans, we can be quite attached to our comfort zones.
Which can be uncomfortable for yoga teachers, especially when we spend so much time encouraging students to be open-minded, and less attached to expectations.
I also covered at the studio where I regularly teach. A student arrived and couldn’t get their usual spot, I could see the frustration straight away. They moved their mat somewhere else, and the experience seemed to affect the rest of their practice. And I found myself thinking, this is also yoga.
Not the shapes, not the sequence. But the moment when something disrupts what we expected, and suddenly it’s harder than it “should” be. There’s a good chance that next time I cover, this student might not come. Not because of the class or me, but because something in their usual experience shifted, and I may now be associated with that change.
As teachers, we need to be comfortable with the reality that not everyone will choose us. Not every empty space is about us. And as students, maybe the practice is:
Try something unfamiliar.
Notice the resistance.
Be okay with the discomfort.
Stay with it anyway.
Because sometimes the thing that feels uncomfortable, unfamiliar or not quite how we like it, is exactly where the practice begins.
Leah
