Ooooh. Ouch.
How are your practices going?
- Thread starter latingal
- Start date
Of course my no proper footwork is because I'm out of the boot, but the doctor says I can't do rise and fall. I can walk. We spent time on upperbody, direction etc.
I saw them fall and thought..."oh. no....!" They were fine. But the northeast corner is slippery. It must have to do with weather, but I don't know what factors cause slipperiness.
I’ve been working on stabilizing my right arm/elbow as Standard Lead. It’s the old story: it starts out great when I first take hold, but then I often let it drop during certain rotational figures (not a huge amount, but some), and if I’m doing a whole Round, by the time I get to Quickstep I have to fight “arm droop.”
When I can maintain the proper placement, from the glimpses that I can catch in the mirror, it seems to give me a more “present” silhouette. Or maybe that’s wishful thinking.
When I can maintain the proper placement, from the glimpses that I can catch in the mirror, it seems to give me a more “present” silhouette. Or maybe that’s wishful thinking.
Tracy
Well-Known Member
I do what I call frame twists. I stand with my feet slightly apart and stabilize from the waist down then twist my upper body until I feel my laps engage. Then release and twist and release and twist in tiny little movements sort of like you would do crunches with your abs. Make sure to keep from elbow to elbow in a straight line through the body.
joy
Forum Master
Interesting, you're teaching your lats to relax under pressure?
Tracy
Well-Known Member
No, I’m strengthening them by engaging repetitively. Little pulses. Just like when doing crunches, you release then tighten.
You wouldn’t actually do this movement while dancing as you wouldn’t isolate from the waist. It is an exercise to find and work the lat muscles.
You wouldn’t actually do this movement while dancing as you wouldn’t isolate from the waist. It is an exercise to find and work the lat muscles.
MaggiWrites
Well-Known Member
I don't lead in dance, but in pairs skating the female partner needs strong scapular muscles to hold her position in overhead lifts since she does half the work then. I do "push offs" from walls. Stand arm's length away and lean in until your face is almost touching the wall, hands flat against the wall at shoulder height, keeping your body and legs straight. Push away slowly, pretending you're doing horizontal push ups from the floor, exerting the same amount of strength. Hold, then "lower" to the wall again and repeat as many reps as you want. It takes imagination and concentration, but it's convenient and can be done anywhere.
joy
Forum Master
Yes it’s the main reason I’m doing them. For ballroom choreo where the man is supporting my weight.
That wall push up strengthens the same ability?
MaggiWrites
Well-Known Member
Works for me, and I've been doing pairs lifts since my mid-teens, which was........quite a few decades ago.
The common assumption is that the man in pairs skating tosses his usually much smaller partner around like a bale of hay. It's an equal partnership, where each has a job to do in each element. The woman has to be particularly strong in her arms and back for lifts, death spirals, pairs spins, to hold her position against the force exerted by his strength, or the whole thing falls apart, literally. In this one, both upper backs are tensed, the arms are rigid, and we're not just holding hands, we're actively pushing against each other. If either one relaxes, I'll be sprawled on the ice and he'll be just swinging me around like a Weed Whacker. The point is to not show the exertion. It's supposed to look effortless, just like on the ballroom dance floor.