How are your practices going?

Practices have been few and far between, unfortunately, and I really need more! Unfortunately, sick kid, sick husband, nanny drama, Olympics, back to school prep all got in the way. And now I am sick. So frustrating! I feel like I am close to getting some of the stuff that my teachers have been pounding on - the connection between movements, using my feet to drive my movement, when to stay on balance and when to go off balance....and I spent the weekend on the couch, sick with a cold and feeling like lead. GRRRRRRR
 
They had been going really well - I seem to be getting good results with decreasing the number of hours on the floor, and upping the gym and sleep time - but yesterday was a bit of a disaster.

Took me forever (ok, about an hour) to get into my legs and start dancing at a level even remotely resembling my ability... got some good work in on FT and QS, but didn't make it through the whole practice plan... then I went to run a round or two to finish off as per my typical Sunday morning practice approach... and blah. I blanked on the opening of my waltz, came incredibly close to falling over in tango, and had my calf (which has what I think is a grade 1 strain) give out in the first few bars of FT... at which point I bailed, and went home for food-ice-nap.

I'm chalking it up to a simple bad day (and a minor injury, causing some balance issues as it fatigued), and refusing to take it as an indication that I'm imploding... given that I have a comp in less than 2 weeks ;)
 
short practice this weekend, due to it being post-comp week and also because of a million things to catch up on in my life. the house is picked up! the kids' clothes have been sorted through for what fits and what doesn't! Trying to implement a couple of things from the DYTM book and the 10-MT book. Only practiced mambo, but will do more dances and technique this week.
 
RiseNFall said:
What is the 10-MT book??
Click to expand...
Oh! It's not a dance book, sorry. 10-minute toughness by Jason Selk. it is a 'mental training' book. I used to be very meh on that type of stuff, but I can't deny that my brain got the best of me in two of the last four competitions I did. So i went in search of stuff to help! There were a lot of things that are described in that book that are similar to some concepts in dance to your maximum. I cannot vouch for results yet, but it has given me a path forward on retraining me mentally.
 
Practicing with new dude while we work out whether we can make the height difference work (I hope so bc dang is he a nice dancer), which means no lessons together for now.

Working out well in standard...we're both experienced enough that we can put together a nice basic routine that's still got flow, cobbled together from various routines we've had over the years.

Latin is a disaster zone lmao. It's either basic and cramped, or the routines I had with my old partner. Desperately looking up stuff on YouTube to use for basics that still work nicely in a routine. He's not a Latin dude either so we're both at a loss.
 
Been carrying on the theme of "quit muscling through things in your muscle memory" and I've been really impressed with what I'm seeing in occasional glances at the mirror!!!

I've realized I don't really need effort to have proper leg / foot / hip coordination in Rumba, so I can calm down with that and focus my energy on further hollowing out my core and using my back and arms in coordination with my walks. Very excited to keep this thread going.

Samba's a similar story with whisks, the hips down are automatic minus a leg detail im adding for styling, so I just need energy on that and the rest can go into my core, back, and arms.

Did get annoyed with myself running a solo round yesterday - the floor in the studio is super slick (still new ish, needs to break in more to be really good for dancing) and it was a brutal adjustment from a very sticky floor in Houston all weekend. There was some sweating under my breath as I struggled to keep balance in sections (but it was a good reminder that step size was getting a bit too big).
 
3 hours' practise yesterday and another 2.5 today.

I hope this pays off...seeing as we spent an hour working on throwaway oversway and came out with "there was one good one in there but it still feels like garbage and we can't recreate the good one"

Still...very productive and very fun.
 
Still haven't found that line between my responsibility to keep our connection in our common center WHILE giving him my weight AND being engaged BUT not stiffening my shoulder/elbow SO that he can lead me.

For me, I think this is my windmill, my center of the Tootsie Roll Pop. LOL! (cries)
 
@s2k, that's one of the things that I get very frustrated with myself about at times. :) Holy grail of partner dancing. In my calmer moments, I can recognize that it is getting better....
 
I had a blast prepping with my practice partner for Latin and rhythm for a comp this past weekend. Since last September, I've really been focusing on standard and the pressure has definitely taken some of the joy out of dancing it. This was a nice break from all of that, though admittedly I could have been very happy without the Latin component :p

That said, I've been enjoying applying all of the things from lessons in standard practice! Talk about instant gratification. I now want to focus on the most basic of figures; they've gotten much more fascinating, which has been a great change after hitting a plateau for a while. Now to get my partner to feel it too...
 
Worked on rumba and cha cha yesterday. I was having an off day and was off-balance all over the place, but it was fortunately still productive. Working on re-establishing our connection, both visually and between our hands, throughout the routines. Also switched to jazz shoes halfway through because I suspect dancing in heels for extended periods of time aggravates my lower back, and switching from normal heels to flats is very weird.

Working on not taking my foot off the floor for this pseudo-lift thing in rumba, but keeping my foot on the floor is also kinda painful.
 
Been working on leading with lots of different people as my partner was not present. The big thing to practice though is keeping frame more and not under rotating natural spin turns so I end up going the wrong way. Luckily if I do umder rotate I have found a way to get myself out of trouble. More practice on Friday and Saturday before my first university comp on Sunday
 
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