How are your practices going?

j_alexandra said:
What is this even supposed to help?
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In my opinion, it seems that the theory is that this will build up the strength to hold frame. Problem is, that theory is flawed. Holding frame has very little to do with strength, and very much to do with stamina. You don't improve this skill by holding something heavy--you improve it by holding the position for an absurdly long time.
 
fiesta0618 said:
In my opinion, it seems that the theory is that this will build up the strength to hold frame. Problem is, that theory is flawed. Holding frame has very little to do with strength, and very much to do with stamina. You don't improve this skill by holding something heavy--you improve it by holding the position for an absurdly long time.
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In which case, a theraband that you have arranged over your elbows will work just fine. Proprioception, strength, and using the muscles you actually use to hold your arms up? Works for me.

Wrenching this back onto the topic of practice, I used to use a theraband when I practiced in the gym, and at one point, I had figured out how to arrange the theraband around my arms, torso, and neck so that if I relaxed my arms, it choked me. Didn't take much practice to learn the position after I found that.
 
I’ve spent the past month prepping for an Argentine tango competition, so I haven’t even touched my rhythm and smooth routines in ages. Last night’s practice was ROUGH - I was forgetting super basic things like footwork and choreography that I absolutely had down 5 weeks ago.
 
I got to the Y three times this week for Solo practice. Now that it’s February, the Exercise/Studio room isn’t quite so busy, because all the one-month passes bought by people who made their New Year’s Resolutions have expired. Now there is just one weight-lifter in one corner who is easy to dance around. But, there is a Zumba class that starts at 6:15, and I pack up and get out of the Exercise Room by about 6:10, which is usually about the time that the Zumba instructor arrives. The early-arrivers hang-out in the hallway and watch me practice until I leave. But there are one or two people new to that class who arrive around 6:00 and wander in to “claim their spots” on the floor. Grr - I know that it’s “shared space” if there isn’t a class going on, but…. aargh. They weren’t even warming up – they just stood around in “their spot” reading their phones. One of them was so oblivious and annoying that I couldn’t help myself and kept buzzing her with a Running Right Turn. (I *think* some of the regulars may have explained to them that I use the whole floor space and that I will leave a couple of minutes before their Zumba class starts and that I do appreciate it if they don’t try to squeeze me out early.)

As to practice itself - I’ve been working on VWaltz and foot closure on the Natural Turns. I think I’m getting more consistent, but I’ll be interested to see what my Pros say at my next lesson. I hope that getting my feet closed hasn’t created a new problem somewhere else.

And, I’ve been trying to pay attention to the push-pull of the supporting-working legs in Waltz and Foxtrot in an effort to transfer weight without “falling” into my steps with “hard” landings. Again, I’ll be interested if my Pros see any improvement.
 
Life has continued to interfere with dance lately, though there's light at the end of the tunnel (knock wood). But when we have managed to practice, it's actually gone very well and felt less effortful than usual. Maybe having the stress and focus elsewhere allows us to stop interfering with what our bodies know how to do? Kinda weird, and not a good idea to generalize the observation too far (if minimal practice has good results, with zero practice we'd be great!), but I'll take it.
 
I did solo practices at the Y three times this week. On Monday, I’d forgotten to re-charge my ipod, and it died during the first song. So, I switched to doing drills on balance, swing actions, sway actions, etc. I should probably do that more regularly than I do. On the other two days I practiced, I started with a longer warm-up/drill period, and then really tried to focus on not letting the use of my headweight pull me into backweighted positions when moving from foot to foot. Sigh – I need a lot more practice on that.
 
I attended Comp Rounds last night. The fellow who had been using handweights converted to wristweights, and we all gratefully thanked him. For Standard Rounds, there were 2 couples and 3 solo Leads. I danced 2 Rounds as Lead and 3 Rounds as Follow – wish I could say that they went great, but in reality they were “meh.” One of the Standard Couples is a new pairing, so that was interesting to observe. The other Standard Couples sat out a couple of the Standard Rounds, and during the Standard Round breaks, they danced 2 sets of Smooth Rounds, so that was interesting to watch as well.
 
I figured I’ve spent a lot of time recently on Standard Syllabus routines to work on balance and sending the knees forward, etc. So, at my solo practices at the Y this week, I tested out my Open routines and picture lines to see if I felt any more stable in those. And yes, maybe I felt a bit more balanced. But, I was struggling in some spots with keeping my shoulders down. So, maybe it was wishful thinking that working on Syllabus would help my Open. Sigh.
 
I put out my back last week-end, so I’ve been doing only very gentle stretches and exercises. I went to the Y twice this week, to walk/hobble through some of my Open Standard sequences as both Lead and Follow.

I’m finding that my old but much-loved iPod Nano 4th Generation is dying. It won’t hold a charge for longer than an hour; I haven’t been able to synch it with my iTunes dance playlists in ages and ages. Sigh.

So, I’m thinking about getting an AppleWatch – then I can Bluetooth it with my iphone to use my dance playlists, and synch it with my headphones for dance practice.
 
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