1 Thing Athletes Could Learn from Dancers

Lifters and athletes should watch "Swan Lake" and take notes. In one Tchaicovsky's most famous works, the ballerinas hop lightly and gracefully across the stage. Every movement the dancers make is incredibly precise and effortless.

From a young age, dance coaches repeatedly drill this pattern within their students. The goal for a high level dancer is to appear weightless and be light on the feet. The ballerinas develop a tremendous amount of bodily awareness through years of intense training.

Channel your inner ballerina. Learn to be light on your feet.

Now, I've had the privilege to work with and observe both young athletes and professional or high level athletes. One of the most surprising things I have noticed in many of these individuals is the inability to absorb a load efficiently.

Basketball players, tennis players and other athletes do not know how to land well. I've seen many fast, agile, powerful and strong people who seem to have lead feet. I hear my friends stomping up the stairs or dragging their feet on the floor. I watch runners slam their heels on the treadmill with each stride.

For some, this fault is a matter of awareness, while others may need to work on motor control.

Safe, efficient movement necessitates control. Hurling your body onto the box for a box jump is not going to improve your athleticism. Instead, learning proper sequencing (heel-toe to toe-heel) will spare your joints and allow you to float over the box.

At NYU Langone, they performed a study on both athletes and dancers. “We realized that dancers aren’t getting ACL injuries, yet they jump a lot,” Dr. Liederbach said. In sports like soccer and basketball, ACL tears are common. Nearly 200,000 people per year are destroying their ACLs, and it may be preventable in some cases.

Look at the landing position of these two. Which looks more stable?

Many of the dancers in this study plantar-flexed (or pointed the toes) upon landing, whereas the athletes absorbed the impact with the entire foot. Additionally, there was less of a valgus knee in the dancers on a single-leg jumping test than with the athletes tested. These deficiencies may contribute to the higher percentage of ACL tears in athletes as compared with dancers.

Well-trained dancers preform drills learning how to land gracefully, and many of them practice barefoot or wearing minimal footwear. Athletes, however, may not (depending on the coach) have the same type of instruction.

Over the summer, I was working with tennis players at a camp from the ages of 10-13. One of the most important elements of our sessions was learning how to land properly. I had them do a series of different jumping drills, all with an emphasis on "quiet" landings. I reviewed the sequencing of the movement from the start until the finish of the jump, and I had them repeat the drills until I was satisfied with the outcome. I believe proper jumping mechanics are an absolute priority for athletes of all ages (and anyone who's looking to improve power output). My goal is to make my clients more explosive while maintaining control. There is no use in having someone try for a 45" box jump is he or she cannot control the landing.

If you are utilizing explosive movements (box jumps, jumping lunges, broad jumps, etc.) in your workouts, make sure you place an emphasis on bodily awareness and mechanics. You may save your joints from jarring landings and improve your overall level of athleticism! Channel your inner ballerina!


Works Cited:

1. Dufek, Janet S., and Barry T. Bates. "Biomechanical Factors Associated with Injury During Landing in Jump Sports." Sports Medicine 12.5 (1991): 326-37. Web.
2. Liederbach, Marijeanne. "Incidence of Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injuries Among Elite Ballet and Modern Dancers." The American Journal of Sports Medicine 36.9 (2008): 1778-799. Web. 12 Mar. 2015.

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How to Improve Bodily Awareness and Proprioception

You've probably noticed that I find a way to weave the word "proprioception" into many of my posts. It's a beautiful word, really. Try saying it 10 times fast.

Okay, now that you've done that, I'll summarize, once again, what this word means. (I'm catering to the newer readers here.) Proprioception is your bodily awareness--your understanding of where you are in space and where your limbs are relative to your center of mass. Proprioception requires input from the vestibular system (to maintain balance) the visual system, and the musculoskeletal system.

Proprioception can be improved through training (sport, exercise, etc.), and conversely, one may weaken these sensations with a lack of movement. Enhanced proprioception means fewer falls, better reaction time, better coordination, and an overall improvement in athleticism.

Certain substances (like alcohol) can negatively affect proprioception. You've probably seen the tests police officers give to drunk drivers to test proprioceptive response: walking in a straight line or closing the eyes while trying to touch the nose. In a normal, healthy person, these tasks are easy to complete, but without proper spatial awareness, they become increasingly challenging.

As I've mentioned, the visual system is intimately tied to the proprioceptors in your brain. In a way, vision is a crutch upon which your bodily awareness can rest. Once you take away the visual stimulus, some people may run into trouble.

You might have noticed that balancing on one leg is exponentially more difficult when you close your eyes. Try this: do 5 bodyweight squats. Now, repeat with your eyes closed. Did you notice any difference between the two sets?

Although she can't see her partner, she's responding to his actions using proprioception.

A study on ballet dancers found that training with the eyes closed can produce some pretty impressive results. [2]  Golomer et. al. studied the dependence on vision for postural control in male dancers and untrained males alike. They used something called a Rod and Frame Test to measure postural swaying. The conclusion was, "the less visual-dependent they were for the RFT, the more stable they were in dynamic balance conditions." Not surprisingly, the trained dancers were less dependent on visual feedback than were the untrained males. Perhaps there is something to be said for one's postural awareness and their dependence on visual input.

In his well-respected text "The Training of the Weightlifter," R.A. Roman also alludes to the effectiveness of eliminating or limiting the visual feedback in learning movement. [3] In teaching the Olympic lifts (the clean and jerk and the snatch), he mentions that beginners can learn these lifts quicker by lifting in the dark or blindfolded. He notes:

"the lifter remembers the joint angles best with the eyes closed and reproduces them easier, and he remembers the degree of muscular tension and the amplitude of movement in the joints. Subsequently, when the exercises are done with the eyes open, the athlete's motor sensation is preserved with great clarity, contributing to the improvement of technique."

The Russians, he found, benefitted greatly from limiting the visual feedback with lifters. If Russian weightlifters and ballet dancers were able to reap the benefits of closing their eyes, so can you! It's easy to do, and it requires absolutely no additional equipment.

To start, I recommend trying simple, bodyweight movements like a squat, single leg deadlift or push-up. Once you've gotten the hang of that, you may progress to (very light) weighted movements--it may be best to use an empty barbell initially. As you grow more comfortable, try to add some weight. I do not recommend going above 50-60% of your 1 rep maximum, as it could be dangerous and unnecessary.

Doing positional drills (like a snatch deadlift, or a jerk dip) may be especially beneficial so that you can really orient yourself and learn to shift your weight properly. Initially, you will likely feel a bit off balance or uncoordinated, but, over time, you will develop a significant amount of bodily awareness and movement control.

Many people say that when you lose one sensation, as you see in those who are blind or deaf, your other senses develop to offset the loss. You, too, can translate this concept into your own training. If you want to master movement and avoid injury, just close your eyes!

Works Cited:

1. Hugel, F., M. Cadopi, F. Kohler, and Ph. Perrin. "Postural Control of Ballet Dancers: A Specific Use of Visual Input for Artistic Purposes." International Journal of Sports Medicine 20.02 (1999): 86-92. Web.
2. Golomer, Eveline, Jacques Crémieux, Philippe Dupui, Brice Isableu, and Théophile Ohlmann. "Visual Contribution to Self-induced Body Sway Frequencies and Visual Perception of Male Professional Dancers." Neuroscience Letters 267.3 (1999): 189-92. Web.
3. Roman, Robert Ansovich., and Andrew Charniga. The Training of the Weightlifter. Livonia, MI: Sportivny, 1988. Print.

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