Dear Ballroom Dancers,
In order to be productive and successful in ballroom dancing, we strongly encourage you to read the following post written by a member of our studio – a successful dancer and experienced instructor Dayana Nikon. The information disclosed below is very important and applicable for both beginners and experienced dancers, as it features valuable suggestions regarding the following topics:
- What is training?
- Effective Practicing
- Your – Dancer’s – Responsibilities
- The correct attitude towards wins and losses
- The Credo of a Champion…
Primarily, a training is a repetition of one and the same action.
If you are learning a new figure or dance routine, you have to repeat the same steps over and over again.
If you want your movement to be strong and beautiful, you have to apply the same effort many-many times.
If you want to achieve precision, speed and coordination of a movement, you have to repeatedly perform the same sequence of actions.
For example:
- it can be an effort to straighten the knee;
- an action of “straightening the knee prior to transferring the weight on the leg”;
- a sequence of actions “rotate the upper body using spine muscles – prepare (lead out) the leg for the step – straighten the knee – start working with the foot of a standing leg – get the abs and glutes (but) muscles in tonus – transfer the weight – elongate and stretch the muscles of the body and arms” and so on…
- an effort to stretch the foot;
- an effort to keep the abs always in tonus;
- an effort to keep the shoulder blades always down;
- and others…
In few words, a training is a creation of a useful habit. In order to make your body move correctly – coordinated, plastically, quickly, strongly and beautifully – it is necessary that your body gets used to be kept and moved that way. But in order to make it get used to be kept and moved that way, you have to repeatedly complete the same action or effort for a large amount of times.
When the useful habit has been created, it will be hard to get rid of it. If you try really hard and will repeat purposeful and targeted actions and efforts every time you are dancing during the training, you will get used to dance correctly in a very short period of time. And then you will not need to think about it every single time.
Remember:
- A trainer can’t create a habit for you or make an effort instead of you, because it is your body, not trainer’s. You body – not trainer’s body – should apply efforts, because you are the one who will compete at the competition – not your trainer. Adjudicators will evaluate you – not your trainer. Your trainer can only explain you how to do, what is correct and what is not, and what do you have to do in order to do it better than anybody else. But to do it – is only your task and depends only on you.
- The winner is only the one, who practices and repeats more often than others, stronger than others, more diligent than others and longer than others.
- There are thousands of dancers, but the first place – only one! Everybody wants to be first, everybody practices, everybody is trying and doing as much as they can, but the winner is only the one, who tries harder than others every minute of the training.
- One minute during the training when you were talking to others, were inattentive or weren’t doing your maximum – is one more couple who will beat you at the next competition. Your competitors are not sleeping! They are working hard during their trainings and want to achieve the first place not less than you want it.
- A coach can’t force or push you to work hard, win or dance better than anybody else. You are the ones who make a decision: Do you need it or not? A coach can’t teach you to dance better than others, if you are not doing for it everything that you can and if you’re not using your full potential and capabilities.
- A loss – is the loss of a lazy dancer, but a win – is the win of a talented teacher (mentor, instructor, coach).
The Credo of a Champion
In order to be first, you have to accomplish 3 victories:
The first one – a victory over yourself. Beat your fear, laziness, tiredness, doubts, irritation, disobedience of your body.
The second one – a victory in your couple. Try to dance better than your partner, compete with him / her. And let it be a mutual game.
The third one – a victory over your coach. Convince your coach – with your dance, with your persistence, with your knowledge – that his / her efforts of teaching you are not in vain.
And only than you can beat (win over) your opponents at the competition!
Thank you for reading and good luck! 🙂