How are your practices going?

Hour and a half of Latin today followed by hour and a half of smooth with my pros Rinse and repeat Wednesday. And two hour practice with the mrs tomorrow. Nice to have a week off without travel. Comp in two and a half weeks. I will still workout andtrail run too just.........coz:D:D:D:cool:
 
My new dance partner figured out how to give me nerve pinches inadvertently. I don't like it. I've never had a dance partner that could make my whole arm numb. I know a lot of it is coming from giving him exaggerative body weight to help with our connection.

In spite of the pain, our dances are starting to actually feel great. We'll see today after our coaching if the feeling great relates to looking great. :oops:
 
GinaN said:
Really great, actually.

I don't know what's gotten into me, I've been feeling super motivated the last couple of weeks and have been practicing almost every day. Sometimes for just a few repetitions of something, but still.

Hopefully I'm out of the slump I was in.
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I just noticed a few people "liked" my post it was really really cool to see that.

Thanks for the encouragement! I felt supported. :)

I'm about to put my shoes on right now and do a few runs.
 
got a little practice in, not as much as i wanted. but my body feels like lead from workouts, so lesson tonight should be REAL FUN. hopefully my pro is as tired from his workout as well.
 
practice over the weekend was short, and this week has been drills and silly fun stuff to think about for a possible showcase. nothing last night because i was exhausted (bad me) and had a stupid early meeting today. lesson tonight in smooth!
 
Alternate-alternate am partner and I continue working on the toy tango that we are choreographing ourselves. We did it to music for the first time this week, and, once we made a few timing adjustments, actually got it danced up to near the end of the song, where there is a brief rumba interval. And the choreo mostly works musically too; we hit lines and things in the right places. We changed nearly all of the rumba bit this week. I think my partner got a bit frustrated with me there because sometimes it takes me a while to memorize choreo, but by the end of the hour, I mostly had it. The transitions in and out of the rumba interval still need work, but for the most part, the routine is there. Now I need to edit the song to make the beginning and end work the way we want. We talked about costuming a bit, but no decisions yet.
 
Have had to drag myself to practice recently, not been interested in doing the extra work needed. i know i am a little frustrated with what feels like lack of progress, even though i know rationally it's not true. Disappointed that i can't do ohio this year. itching to compete sooner rather than later. having trouble letting go of a poor performance that really wasn't that bad but still irritated me. Outside life stress is definitely playing a part.

But I did practice both smooth and rhythm over the weekend! one piece in mambo is finally getting more solid, and getting better at the right feeling of movement in smooth. I think i need to shake up my schedule or my dancing, do something new to refresh myself.
 
So alternate-alternate am partner and I danced the toy tango in the showcase last weekend, and it was a lot of fun. Went over it Monday and talked about a couple of "dead spots" that we're going to dress up more. She also does figure skating and she wants to throw in a couple of skating things... :eek: Alternate am partner and I decided to scratch the VW we planned to do. It wasn't ready for prime time; we had tried to come up with a shortened version, but it's a routine that we're going in memory of someone, and so the first time we do it, we want to do it right.
 
Sort of resurrecting this as I likely won't be able to get a lesson in this week (studio is hosting a major comp and has pretty much shut down for the week).

My practices have been going well overall. I'm more focused after making a list of "what annoys me most" and then cross-referencing it with a list of what my coach brings up the most (thankfully they pretty much match). I still feel like Zoolander sometimes (any sort of turn to the right is leagues easier than a turn left) but a few things are starting to click here and there--especially with Samba. Jive makes me cringe a little inside and by far and away needs the most work.

That being said, I'm starting to wonder if I'm over practicing...something I'm very much prone to in all walks of life. I'm camped out in my gym's group fitness room a minimum of 3 hours a day seven days a week to practice--not including normal gym time which has basically made the gym my second home. I break it up into morning and evening sessions so that my concentration stays up, and I'm not having a bad time, but I'm just starting to feel physically and mentally tired. Going to try and force a rest day on myself today and then get back at it tomorrow.
 
10tmf said:
I'm starting to wonder if I'm over practicing [...]. I'm camped out in my gym's group fitness room a minimum of 3 hours a day seven days a week to practice--not including normal gym time which has basically made the gym my second home.
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I'm going to go out on a limb with: Yes, you are over practicing. Unless this is your full-time job and you are basically a pro athlete, that's too much.

General* guidelines for us mere mortals, dedicated though we be: No more than 6 days a week, and no more than 3.5 hours a day including cross-training and lessons.

Practices, particularly solo ones, are best kept to 60-90 minutes, and at a weekly/biweekly ratio not exceeding 1:8 (lesson : practice). Day 7 should ideally be a complete rest day, though light active recovery (i.e.: a gentle yoga class) might be ok. Working on a cycle with a practice de-load week every 6-8 weeks is also a good idea to keep you fresh and healthy.

*I emphasize the general. Everyone's a little different, and for many, this would be way too much. This is built off of research into recommendations made by trainers, dance teachers, athletic coaches, etc.
 
FancyFeet said:
General* guidelines for us mere mortals, dedicated though we be: No more than 6 days a week, and no more than 3.5 hours a day including cross-training and lessons.

Practices, particularly solo ones, are best kept to 60-90 minutes, and at a weekly/biweekly ratio not exceeding 1:8 (lesson : practice). Day 7 should ideally be a complete rest day, though light active recovery (i.e.: a gentle yoga class) might be ok. Working on a cycle with a practice de-load week every 6-8 weeks is also a good idea to keep you fresh and healthy.
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Thanks for this! I was actually looking for some sort of breakdown similar to this but couldn’t find anything so I opted into my default mentality of “more is more” and well...yeah....Time to rein it in a bit and swallow my impatience to get better.
 
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