The Question Every Yoga Teacher Dreads
“So, what are your qualifications for working with our athletes?”
If you’ve ever wanted to pitch yoga to an athletic program, you’ve probably rehearsed this moment in your head. And in that rehearsal, you start mentally listing what you don’t have—no sports medicine degree, no athletic training certification, maybe just a 200-hour yoga teacher training.
I get it. I’ve been there.
But after twenty years of teaching athletes—including working with UNC’s football and basketball programs for almost two decades—I can tell you the answer has nothing to do with your resume. It has everything to do with whether you can communicate your value in a way coaches actually hear.
Here’s the approach that’s worked for me, and for the teachers I’ve trained.
What Coaches Are Actually Asking
Most yoga teachers miss this: coaches are pragmatists. When they ask about your qualifications, they’re not running a credential check. They’re really asking one thing: Can you help my athletes perform better and stay healthy?
That’s the whole question. Everything else is detail.
What they actually want to know:
- Do you understand what athletes need?
- Can you work within their training schedule?
- Will you complement what they’re already doing?
- Can you speak their language?
- Are you going to create problems or solve them?
Once you land on that, the conversation changes. You stop scrambling to defend what you don’t have and start showing what you do.
The Three-Part Framework
I teach this framework in my Yoga for Athletes course, and it has three parts: establish relevant expertise, demonstrate understanding, and clarify your role.
Part One: Establish Relevant Expertise
Start with what you DO have that’s relevant. Don’t apologize for what you don’t have.
Here’s what that sounds like:
“I specialize in yoga for athletes, with a focus on recovery, injury prevention, and mental training. I’ve been working with athletic populations for [X] years, including [specific relevant experience]. My background helps me understand athletic training, and I design practices specifically to complement—not compete with—existing strength and conditioning programs.”
Notice what’s happening here: you’re positioning yourself as someone who gets athletic training. You’re showing relevant experience. And you’re making it clear you won’t step on anyone’s toes.
If you’re still building that experience, this is where finding your niche matters. Specificity builds credibility—even early in your career.
Part Two: Demonstrate Understanding
Show you understand their sport and their concerns. Research before the conversation. Know something about their athletes’ needs.
Say it’s a track coach. You might tell them:
“I understand your runners are dealing with IT band issues and need hip mobility work. I’ve worked with distance runners before and know how to provide targeted recovery without adding fatigue to their training load.”
Or maybe it’s a football program with a packed schedule:
“I know your season is intense and your athletes are managing heavy practice schedules. The sessions I design are focused and efficient, typically 30 minutes, because I understand their time is limited and recovery has to be purposeful.”
This is where a lot of yoga teachers underestimate themselves. If you’ve taught group classes for any length of time, you already know how to read a room and adapt on the fly. That skill translates directly to working with teams.
Part Three: Clarify Your Role
Make it crystal clear how you fit into their program:
“My role is to provide what your athletes aren’t getting elsewhere—tools for recovery, breathing techniques for performance, and practices that help them manage stress. I’m not here to change their training or add intensity. I’m here to help them recover better, stay healthier, and access their mental game. I work with your existing staff, not against them.”
This last piece matters more than the other two. Coaches need to hear that you understand the chain of command. That you’re a complement, not a complication.
How This Played Out at UNC
When I started working with UNC’s football team, the strength coach called me because he’d heard about my work. In our first conversation, he asked: “What’s your background in athletic training?”
I didn’t have a certified athletic trainer credential. But I didn’t panic. I said: “I’ve been teaching yoga for years with a focus on athletes. My background in exercise physiology gives me a framework for understanding athletic training. What I provide is recovery work and mental training—the pieces that complement what you’re already doing with strength and conditioning.”
Then I asked him questions: “What are your biggest concerns for your athletes right now? What’s missing from their current program? What do you hope yoga will provide?”
He told me the athletes were exhausted, dealing with chronic tension, and needed help managing stress. That’s exactly what yoga provides.
I got the job. Not because I had the fanciest resume in the room. Because I understood what they needed, I showed I could provide it, and I made clear I wouldn’t complicate their program.
Curiosity did more for me in that conversation than any certification ever could have.
Language That Lands with Coaches
The words you choose matter more than you think. Coaches live in a world of performance metrics, training loads, and results. When you speak that language, you signal that you belong in their world.
Here are some swaps that make a real difference:
Instead of “I’m a yoga teacher” → “I specialize in recovery and mental training for athletes.”
Instead of listing certifications → “I’ve worked with [specific population] for [timeframe], helping them [specific outcomes].”
Instead of “I teach yoga” → “I provide tools for recovery, injury prevention, and mental focus that complement existing training.”
Instead of defending what you don’t have → “My approach focuses specifically on what athletes need—balance, recovery, and mental skills.”
Use terms like “recovery modalities,” “performance enhancement,” “injury prevention,” and “mental skills training.” These resonate with coaches because they’re the language of athletic training.
If you want to go deeper on what Division One athletes actually want from yoga, that post breaks down the specifics.
Building Your Confidence for These Conversations
I’m not going to pretend this is easy the first time. Walking into a conversation with a coach or athletic director can feel intimidating, especially when imposter syndrome is whispering that you don’t belong.
But confidence doesn’t come from collecting more certifications. It comes from clarity. When you know exactly what you offer, who it’s for, and how it fits into an existing program, the conversation becomes a collaboration instead of an audition.
You don’t need a wall of certifications. You need to know your value and be willing to say it out loud.
If you’re ready to sign more athletes for private lessons or land your first team contract, the framework above is your starting point.
Your Next Step
If you want the complete system for landing clients with athletic programs—including pitch scripts, follow-up templates, and exactly what to say in every situation—I cover all of it in my course, Yoga for Athletes.
Coaches aren’t asking if you have the right letters after your name. They’re asking if you can help their athletes. Answer that question, and you’re in.
