Think of the subject you were best at when you were in school – or, if you are still in school, think of the one in which you consistently achieve the highest marks. In most people’s cases, this will be due in no small part to the quality of the teacher. It may be something to do with their passion for the subject, the clarity of their instruction or their ability to make a student take an interest – one way or another, the best learning is possible under the best teachers. It makes sense, really.

Yoga in this respect is no different from History, French or Chemistry. If you have a good instructor, you are much more likely to have success in learning. That is not hard to understand, the simple fact is that a good teacher or instructor communicates the essential details, the non-negotiable aspects, in a way which ensures that you remember them, and then fills in the gaps by way of reinforcement. It is not always the instructor with the greatest technical knowledge of the process who will get the best out of their student. Some people who are excellent at doing something really are not so good at teaching it – largely because they simply do not understand why everyone does not find it as self-explanatory as they did.

A yoga instructor who is as talented in communicating the essentials as they are in performing them will get a student to a higher level much more quickly than someone who simply tries to “tell” or to “show”. Communicating things clearly is something that requires the best elements of “show” and “tell”. If you are deciding between yoga classes, then you could do a lot worse than either asking a friend who has attended some, or logging on to the Internet and doing some “comparison shopping”.

Picking the right yoga instructor is beneficial in a number of ways. Not only does it ensure you will learn fast, it encourages you to keep on learning – because not only do you see how you can learn, you also see why you should, and that is something almost as important.