Because there's more to dancing than what happens in class. There are many hints and tricks that keep your body in top form for those moments when you aren't dancing.
1.) Warm-Ups and Cool-Downs
2.) Endurance Exercises
3.) Dance Floors
1.) Warm-Ups and Cool-Downs
Irish dance is as much of a sport as soccer or baseball, and just as the players of those games need to warm up to prevent injuries, so do Irish dancers.
Irish is a high-impact sport, meaning the body makes forceful contact with the ground. Because of this, dancers are susceptible to many ailments, such as shin splits and inflamed joints, both of which I have.
Many Irish dancers attend a feis every two weeks! Some perform weekly or monthly. And between those, dancers can attended up to six hours or more in classes a week. That’s a lot of work and a lot of strain on the body. If they aren’t warming up and cooling down, that strain will damage the body.
Surprisingly, cool-downs are almost entirely forgotten when dance class ends! And studies in athletic magazines have shown that this is not smart—that cool-downs are just as important as warm-ups. It is essential to prepare your body before you begin dancing in order to prevent injury. A full fifteen minutes of stretching lets the dancer reach his or her full potential in class. But merely stretching is not enough.
When you arrive at class or at a feis or performance, before you even begin stretching, walk around or jog in place to warm up your body and get the blood flowing, then stretch.
Helpful hints? Release a rigorous stretch (such as splits) slowly so that muscles don’t cramp or get pulled. This relaxes the muscle carefully and releases all of the tension. Also, to prevent Achilles tendonitis and to help keep shin splints under control, before and after class, sit on the floor with your legs stretched out in front of you as if you were going to touch your toes. Pull your feet back is if you were tugging at string tied to your toes and hold for one minute. Because Irish dancers are constantly on their toes, this is a very important exercise.
To strengthen your ankles (and to help learn those fast tricks), sit on the floor with your legs bent in front of you. Cross one leg over the other and in the air, write the alphabet with your toes. Only move your foot, not your entire leg. Do this with both feet. Make sweeping movements, not tight ones. Big letters are the best way to go.
Below is a list of most common causes of injury, taken from Antonio Pacelli.com.
Most Common Causes of Injury:
Lack of warm up/cool down Misunderstanding of technique/choreographical demands Abrupt change in workload Fatigue/illness Unsuitable floor/environment Ignoring early warning signs Lack of general fitness/health Structural Imbalance
Here are some simple stretches to help prevent injury:
Toe touches. Try them with your toes facing inward, outwards, and straight ahead, to reach all the muscle groups. Toe reaches*. These you do sitting down. Try to get your elbows to the ground whilst doing them; just remember not to push yourself. Relax your muscles. Next, point your toes hard and reach, then pull them back, and reach, then turn your legs out at the hip, and reach. Don't bounce! V-Stretches. Spread your legs apart in a "V" shape, and put your hands under your knees. Push up with your hands, and down with your knees. Then, bend down and try to get your elbows to the ground. Relax all your muscles, and you'll just keep going down. Don't push yourself! Ballet sit-ups. Lay flat on the floor, then lift yourself into a "V" shape (legs straight up, upper body straight up), bring your legs in, then extend them again, then lower yourself. Make sure to have your legs on the ground at the same time as your upper body, to prevent injury. Curl downs. Sit up with your knees bent and brought close to your body, then lower yourself down, very slowly. Don't fall when you reach the point where it hard not to. Then go back up without letting your feet off of the ground. Quads*. Stand up. Bend your knee and hold it behind you. Pull gently. You should stretch your quad muscle in your legs. Pull backs*. Do as mentioned above. Sit down with your legs extended out in front of you like in the toe reaches, but pull your feet towards your upper body. Hold for one full minute. Alphabet*. Do as described above. Sit with one knee bent up, and put your other leg across it. With your foot and ankle (NOT knee) write each letter of the alphabet. Make them large. Repeat with both legs. Ankle rolls*. Roll your ankles clockwise and counter-clockwise. Split stretches. Do a lunge (one knee bent while the back leg is straight behind), but hold and go down a little farther, then come back and get in a bird leap position (one leg bent under, one leg straight out), and bend your upper body towards your knee. Repeat with both legs. Back twists. Sit with one knee under you, and one knee up, and hold on to it and twist your back in the same direction (i.e. if your right leg is up, then twist to the right.). Repeat with both legs. Leg presses. Sit on the floor with both legs bent and your feet touching and brought close to you. Press your legs down and try to get them to touch the floor. It's very hard, and takes lots of practice, so don't expect them to touch right away.
Try these stretches before class (thirty seconds to one minute each leg), and those denoted with an asterisk (*) after class, to prevent injury.
2.) Endurance Exercises
Get the endurance you need to master the dances you can't!
Endurance, or stamina, is the most important thing for any athlete, not just Irish dancers. Having strong endurance keeps dancers like Jean Butler or Bernadette Flynn from collapsing after months and months (and years) of touring with popular shows. It keeps championship dancers going for full two minutes of high-impact dancing in competition. It keeps you going in class and going for life.
But it’s not entirely natural to have high endurance. Humans have enough to allow for bursts of speed without passing out, but to go for several minutes without feeling light-headed or miserable takes practice and training, just like everything else.
The first step in creating and maintaining high endurance and good stamina is to set goals. For instance, start one week with twenty crunches, and add five or ten every week following until you can make it to one hundred or two hundred! Pushing yourself gradually is what improves both stamina and endurance.
Instead of getting a ride to school, if it’s close by, why not walk? I walked to and from middle school for two years which equaled about ten miles a week. It truly helped prepare me for the extensive amount of dancing I soon began to take. If walking is impossible or unappealing, try using stairs. Just a few minutes a day, until your heart is racing steadily, is enough to help gain endurance. It’s as simple as that! Lift your knees a little higher, go a little faster. Or jog after school for ten, fifteen, twenty minutes. Increase your running time or distance each week. It’s all about training your muscles and lungs to keep up with your body.
If you have room and a little time, there is a series of exercises we learned in PE, of all places, that really helped:
Stand across from a wall that’s at least fifteen or twenty feet away (being outside could work). You want a clear path to the wall because what you do next is run normally to the wall and back to your starting point again.
Then, skip there and back, pushing higher off the ground than you normally would.
Next, do high-knees, which is running with your knees lifted up waist-high with every movement.
Next, do the grapevine. Put your right leg in front of your left, and your left in front of your right and son on and so forth. You will be running sideways, not forward, so face the adjacent wall and keep your shoulders square to it.
When you reach the wall, run backwards half-way, then run back to the wall normally, then run normally back again.
Next, do something all Irish dancers need to know how to execute perfectly: butt-kickers! Run, but with each step, kick your bum.
Then, stop at the wall and don’t come back. Turn and do lunges to the middle of the room. If you’re not worn out or you want more to do, get down and do a series of crunches, increasing the amount each week. Then, turn and do push-ups (again, increase the amount each week), then toe-reaches.
And you’re done!
3.) Dance Floors
There are many little hints and tricks for preventing injury, but one of the most important is to never dance on improper floors! Never, ever dance on cement. A proper dance floor should have enough give to act as a shock absorber for the initial impact. There are many different types of flooring out there, but the basic rule for all dancers is: NO CEMENT. If a surface is too slippery, stick duct tape or electrical tape on the bottom of your shoes. If the sound is bad for hardshoe, ignore it and keep dancing.
A good floor is the key to a good dance.