I lead a 200 hour multi style yoga teacher training in Ubud. Here is what I would check before paying a deposit anywhere in Bali
Disclosure first
I’m Deep Kumar, and I run Yoga New Vision, a teacher training school in Ubud. I have a stake in this, so weigh my opinions accordingly. I’m posting because the same questions land in my inbox every week, and most of what ranks online is written by booking sites that have never watched a trainee freeze during a teach back at 7 am. Take what’s useful, ignore what isn’t, and check everything against what other schools tell you in writing.
What “multi style” should mean in a 200 hour training
Multi style is printed on almost every Bali brochure and means very little by itself. A school can teach Hatha on Monday, add a Yin class on Thursday and call it multi style. What I look for is whether you learn to build a class in each style, because watching a style and teaching it are different skills.
Our training covers Hatha, Vinyasa and meditation. That is a deliberately short list. I’ve seen schools advertise Hatha, Vinyasa, Yin, Ashtanga, Kundalini, aerial and acro, with about three hours given to each. You leave able to name them and unable to teach any of them. My view is that 200 hours should give you two strong foundations plus enough exposure to other lineages that you know where to study next.
Hatha teaches you to hold shapes and observe what is happening in them. Vinyasa teaches you to link shapes with breath and manage pace. Once those two are solid, the Yin and Ashtanga lineages are easy to pick up through workshops later, and you will understand why the primary series is built the way it is.
If a school’s style list looks longer than its schedule can support, ask for hours per style in writing.
RYS 200 and RYT 200: read the fine print
People mix these up constantly. RYS 200 is the school registration with Yoga Alliance. RYT 200 is the individual teacher registration you apply for after graduating from an RYS 200 school. A school can hold the first, but you don’t hold the second until you finish, apply and pay the registration fee yourself, which is separate from tuition.
Some people don’t care about registration, and that is a reasonable position. Plenty of excellent teachers never registered. If you plan to teach in studios in the US, UK or Australia, though, many studios and insurers ask for it, so decide before you book.
Look every school up in the Yoga Alliance directory yourself, including mine. A badge on a website proves nothing, and the directory takes two minutes to search.
Why I cap the group at 25
We take 25 students. I chose that number on purpose and I’ll defend it. At 25 I can see every person’s Warrior II in one sweep of the room, and I can get to anyone in under a minute during a practicum. At 40 or 60, which you will find in Bali, feedback becomes a lottery. You might get one real correction all week.
Teacher training is learning to see bodies and choose words. You can’t learn that if nobody sees you. The tradeoff is anonymity. In a group of 25 you can’t hide in the back row. If you want to quietly absorb information, a bigger cohort is easier. If you want to improve, small is better.
Twenty two days is intense, and I’ll say so
Ours is a 22 day full immersion. That is compressed, and it is tiring. Other schools spread 200 hours over four to six weeks, or over several months of weekends. Longer formats give your brain time to digest. Immersion gives you momentum, since you live inside the material with no commute and no inbox.
I prefer immersion for teaching skills, because cueing improves with repetition inside the same week. I prefer spacing for anatomy, because memory needs sleep. We deal with that by returning to anatomy topics in practice sessions throughout the 22 days instead of leaving them in one block.
Whatever school you pick, some practical advice. Don’t plan sightseeing in the first two weeks. Don’t book a flight for the evening of graduation. Arrive a few days early, because a body that just spent a long time on planes handles a first morning practice badly.
Anatomy, alignment and contraindications
This is where I would press any school hardest, because it decides whether your future students get hurt. Memorizing muscle names gets you through a quiz. Knowing that a student with a disc issue shouldn’t be cued into a deep seated forward fold with a rounded spine protects an actual person.
I want trainees to leave with a habit of asking who in the room might need a different option, and what they will say out loud to offer it.
Questions worth asking:
- Who teaches anatomy, and what is their background?
- Is there dedicated time on contraindications for common situations like wrist pain, lower back issues, pregnancy and high blood pressure?
- Do trainees practice offering modifications out loud while a partner watches?
At many schools the honest answer is one lecture and a diagram on a wall. That is too thin for people who will be responsible for other bodies.
Sequencing and cueing: where most trainees struggle
Nobody warns you about this part. Sequencing means building a class with logic. You warm up the areas you will load later, place the peak at a sensible point and bring people down so they leave calm. Cueing means saying what needs saying in the fewest words, in the right order, at the right moment.
Beginners talk too much and in the wrong order. They announce the arm position before the foot position, and a room of students freezes with their hands in the air.
My opinion: practice cueing out loud every day from week one, even badly. Written sequences feel safe. Speaking them to a room is where the learning happens. If a school offers a PDF template and calls that sequencing instruction, you are heading for a rough first public class.
Teaching practicum and teach backs
The teaching practicum is the real exam, and I weigh it above any written test. A teach back is when you teach a segment to your peers and receive feedback from the group and the lead trainers.
Ask each school how many teach backs you will do, how long each one runs and who gives the feedback. If the answer is “a few at the end,” you are being assessed on a performance you barely rehearsed. We build in repeated practice, short early on and longer later, so the final practicum is never the first time you hold a room for an hour.
Ask about feedback culture too. The most useful comments I have seen came from fellow trainees who were told they could say what they actually noticed. Polite applause teaches nothing.
Pranayama and the Yoga Sutras
Schools split sharply here. Some treat philosophy as an afternoon lecture to endure. Others build the whole course around it. My take is that you don’t need to become a scholar in 22 days. You should leave able to teach basic breath practices safely and explain a handful of Sutras in plain language without reciting them.
The Yamas and Niyamas are the most useful material for new teachers, because they shape how you treat students, how you handle your ego after a bad class and how you talk about your own practice. Pranayama needs the same care as asana. Advanced retention techniques don’t belong in a room of beginners, and a trainee should understand why.
Meditation sits at the core of our program, and we practice it daily. A teacher who has never sat with a restless mind has a hard time guiding anyone else through one.
What “all levels welcome” means
It is on our page, so here is what I mean by it. You don’t need a handstand. You don’t need years of practice. I have watched people with a modest practice become better teachers than advanced practitioners, because they still remember what confusion feels like.
You do need willingness to be a beginner at teaching, and a body that can handle several hours of movement a day with modifications. If you have barely practiced, spend a month in regular classes before you arrive. That single step makes the first week far more bearable.
Be wary of any school that says anyone can join with no questions asked. A responsible intake asks about injuries and health history before taking your money.
Food: vegetarian, vegan and gluten free
Meals are vegetarian, with vegan and gluten free options. Long days of movement and study need real fuel, so eat properly. If you have celiac disease or a serious allergy, email the school ahead of time and get written confirmation about cross contact in the kitchen. At a lot of places “gluten free options” means they leave out the bread. Ask how the food is prepared.
Ubud has a big café scene, so topping up on protein or snacks is easy if the included meals leave you hungry.
Ubud versus Canggu or Uluwatu
I’m biased, but here is how I see the three.
Ubud is inland, surrounded by rice fields and temples, and it is Bali’s cultural heart. Mornings are cool enough to practice comfortably. A large community of yoga teachers, bodyworkers and healers lives here, so workshops and classes are everywhere once you graduate.
Canggu is a beach and surf town with a heavy digital nomad presence, loud nightlife and serious traffic. Uluwatu has cliffs, surf and a quieter, more spread out feel, with longer rides to get anywhere.
Choose based on what you need during 22 days of training. If you want to rest between sessions, Ubud makes that easy. If you want to surf at sunset, Canggu or Uluwatu will suit you better, and I won’t pretend Ubud has waves. Traffic in central Ubud has grown, so book accommodation within walking distance of the school if you can.
Costs beyond tuition
Tuition is only one line in the budget. Count flights, visa fees (check Indonesia’s current rules close to your travel date, because they change), accommodation if it isn’t included, travel insurance, the Yoga Alliance registration fee if you want RYT status, laundry, transport and the extra food you will want after long days. Ask each school exactly what the price includes, and compare totals instead of headline numbers.
What a certificate does and doesn’t do
A 200 hour certificate gets you through the door for auditions and community classes. It does not give you a following, a style or confidence. Those come from teaching a lot of classes, mostly to small rooms, in your first year. I tell trainees to say yes to every opportunity in their first six months, including awkward time slots, and to record themselves teaching so they can hear their own filler words.
The questions I’d ask any school
- How many students are in the cohort, and how many trainers are in the room?
- Is the school an RYS 200, and can I confirm that in the directory?
- How many teach backs will I personally do?
- Who teaches anatomy, and how much time goes to contraindications?
- When do trainees begin teaching, and how is that assessed?
- What does the schedule look like hour by hour on a typical day?
- What is included in the price, and what do students usually spend on top of it?
If a school dodges any of these, that tells you something.
Raw numbers
We documented the full data set for our 200 hour multi style yoga teacher training in Bali project here if you want the raw numbers.
Your turn
For the teachers here: looking back at your own 200 hour, what did your training skip that you ended up teaching yourself afterward?
