feet

Tag Archive: feet

1. How to Stretch Your Feet Safely and Easily For More Flexibility

   August 16, 2013 9:02 pm Comments Off on How to Stretch Your Feet Safely and Easily For More Flexibility

   Stretching and strengthening your feet have many benefits to your overall technique and presentation as a ballet dancer.  Dancers have found all sorts of ways to stretch feet over the years using all sorts of techniques like cramming their feet under a piano or couch, using tools built specifically to stretch feet, or even asking a friend to do it. And while some are effective, some other techniques can actually be quite risky and may result in injury.

   A dancer strives for two things, among many others: strength and flexibility.  One without the other and there is an imbalance.

   Today we’ll show you a couple ways to stretch your feet that are both safe and easy.

   These foot stretches are simple stretches that don’t require you to buy anything, ask anyone or use any tools or gadgets to stretch your feet.

   Foot Stretch Technique #1: Grab and Pull Back

   The basic idea, as you may have guessed, is that you grab your foot and pull back.  Let’s take a look:

   • Sitting on the floor, place the foot you want to stretch over your other thigh to create a figure 4 with your legs.
   • With the hand closest to your heel, push into your heel.  Be sure to relax your Achilles!  (the large band coming down from your calf that attaches to your heel)
   • With the hand closest to your toes, place it over your toes and up your foot a couple inches and pull back so that your foot arches, feeling a nice stretch on the top.

   And that’s it!  It’s simple but effective.  Need a little more stretch?  Read on for technique number 2!

   Foot Stretch Technique #2: Wrap n’ Push

   It’s not really called “Wrap n’ Push,” as that name was made up just seconds ago.  More important than thinking of a creative label, is how effective this foot stretch really is!  If you find that stretching your feet with your hands hasn’t quite worked well, this one is for you.  Let’s take a look

   • Once again, sitting on the floor, place the foot you want to stretch over your other thigh to create a figure 4 with your legs.
   • Lift your foot up slightly and wrap your arm (that is on the same side of the leg you bent) under your bent leg, grabbing the top of your foot toward your toes with your hand.
   • With your free hand, place it on top of your hand that is grabbing on the top and bottom half of your foot.
   • Lean slightly forward so that your elbow is tucked more closely under your calf and the top of your arm is pushing right into your calf muscle.
   • Now that you’re setup, be sure not to feel any tension in your knee and remember to relax your foot and Achilles.
   • Begin stretching your foot by pulling back with both of your hands and at the same time equally pushing your leg forward.

   

   Stretching TechniqueSitting on the floor, cross one leg over the other to make a figure 4.

   

   Wrap your arm underneath your leg and foot, placing your hand on top, over the bottom half, of your foot.

   

   Place your free hand over the hand that is already holding your foot.

   

   Begin the foot stretch by pulling back with your hands while your lean forward.

   By pulling equally on your foot with your hands and pushing out with your arm, your leg shouldn’t actually move, but you should feel quite a bit more extra strength to better stretch your foot.

   You can play around with this one to best suit it to your body, but the push and pull action that allows for the additional strength is the general idea.

   Remember, you should never feel that you are straining or “working too hard” to stretch your feet.  You don’t want to overstretch your feet.  Ease into it slowly and take a break from time to time to let the whole foot relax.  You will end up getting more out of your stretches this way.

   Here is one final look at this effective stretch, but from the angle you’d see if trying it for yourself.

   Why Are These Foot Stretches More Safe and While Some Others Aren’t?

   The biggest reason why these foot stretches are more safe is because you are in complete control of the stretch and you are doing it with your hand, meaning you are not adding additional stress on your body.  For example, other stretches may often involve the dancer prying their feet underneath a heavy object and stretching their knee until they feel a stretch.  By doing so, the dancer is placing an incredible amount of tension and strain on the knee joint, muscles in the leg, and digging their heel painfully into the ground for more leverage.

   You don’t want to overstretch your feet.

   Another popular (for unknown reasons) method for stretching feet is asking a friend to stretch your feet.  For this to happen, the asker first must assume that the stretcher is actually okay with touching his or her feet.  Then the asker usually sits on the floor with a leg stretched out in front while the stretcher pushes down with a lot of force.  This is basically the same idea of prying your foot underneath a heavy object, but now you are at risk of your friend pushing down with enough force that by the time you yell out “Ouch!” its too late and you’ve overstretched your foot.  This technique, though popular in schools, is not recommended for many reasons, besides safety, you are now relying on someone else to do the work for you, which is like asking someone to do all of your homework while you get the credit.

   Still, Always Be Careful

   Stretching your feet is always recommended, so long as you aren’t facing an injury of course.  But that being said, you always want to be careful.  Don’t stretch your feet so much that you’re actually causing them to be weak, which leads us to our final tip.  Also, be sure that you are not stretching your feet in a sickled position.

   Always Wrap Up With a Few Strengthening Exercises

   Now that you’ve stretched your feet so well, you want them to be able to get there on their own without help from your hands.  There is little chance that will happen without adding some exercises to strengthen your feet in the range of their new found flexibility. After you’ve done some foot stretching, be sure to grab an elastic therapy band for some strengthening exercises or do some tendus.

   A dancer strives for two things, among many others: strength and flexibility.  One without the other and there is an imbalance.  Weak but very flexible feet can be just as much of a hurdle as strong but flexible feet when it comes to ballet technique.

2. Sickling in Ballet: What, Why and How to Avoid It

   August 14, 2013 11:13 pm 1 Comment

   When most people hear the word “sickle” they likely think of a useful tool for harvesting grain.  While there may be a sickle appearing in a classical ballet or two (La Fille Mal Gardee, for example), when it comes to a dancer’s technique, they should always try to avoid it as it’s considered a mistake.

   Sickling, as used in ballet and other dance forms, refers to when a dancer’s foot is misshaped in such a way that it actually is scooped down with the heel too far back.  Of course, that description somewhat depends on the position and how you see it, but after this post you’ll have a clear understanding of what it means “to sickle your foot”, what a correctly pointed foot looks like, and why it’s important not to sickle.

   Exercises with a large therapy band where you concentrate on keeping your heel forward as you point your foot are great ways increase the strength in your foot and ankle.

   While it has it’s own term, it’s not a desired quality for a dancer for multiple reasons: it does not enhance your line nor is it functional.

   A dancer who always sickles will likely develop incorrect muscles over time and struggle with weakness in the ankles, which as you can imagine can limit an overall ability to perform more advanced steps.

   So What Exactly is Sickling?

   Let’s take a look at a few pictures and you’ll see exactly what “sickling your foot” looks like.

   Here, in tendu side, we see a sickled foot on the left and a correctly pointed foot on the right.  Notice how the toes are well in front of the line that her calf is making, while the correct picture has them slightly behind the inside of her ankle.

   Now, demonstrating tendu to the front, notice how the foot is dipped under with the heel close to the ground, while the correct photo on the right shows once again that the toes are behind the inside of her ankle.

   

   Finally, in tendu to the back, the sickled foot practically has its toes pointing straight into the floor with the heel sticking up in the back.  On the correct picture, the toes are once again behind the line from the inside of the ankle.

   

   Even though you just saw three different positions, try to look at how the shape of the foot actually doesn’t change, the only difference is where the leg is.  A foot can be sickled at any time, in any position when it’s pointed, not just in tendu.

   How to Correctly Point Your Feet

   As mentioned and demonstrated several times above, the basic idea of pointing your foot is actually not perfectly straight, but with the heel slightly forward and the toes slightly behind the inside of your ankle bone.

   Go ahead and try it out sitting down.

   • First, point your foot so it looks like a straight line out from your calf.
   • Now shift your foot to the outside just half an inch.
   • Your big toe should now be just inside of an imaginary line from your ankle bone, just about a toe width pointing out.

   If you feel you lose too much of your point by moving your foot slightly out, then just be sure your foot is still straight out from your calf.  Exercises with a large therapy band where you concentrate on keeping your heel forward as you point your foot are great ways increase the strength in your foot and ankle.

   Less Sickle, Better Line with More Function

   One of the main reasons a dancer would not want to sickle their foot is because it is breaking her or his line.  Look at how a correctly pointed foot continues the rounded shape more beautifully and looks more strong than a sickled foot.  Another major reason is that a properly pointed foot allows the dancer to have more functional technique.  Think about which might be stronger to balance on… It’s definitely not a sickled foot.

   After years of training correctly, the muscles in your foot will also adapt and become stronger, making many more advanced steps quite a bit easier because you can transfer your strength from your legs and feet into the floor with more power and stability.

   Especially for females, sickling can lead to many potential problems if wanting to eventually dance on pointe.  A sickled foot in a pointe shoe has a very high chance of rolling over and causing injury when going up on pointe.

   You May Not Realize It!

   Sickling is sometimes tricky to self correct.  In beginners, it most commonly happens because, well, you’re a beginner and there’s already so many things to think about!  After a while it can become easier, but always try to remind yourself about the shape of your foot.

   For professional dancers, a sickled foot can sometimes be seen when they are trying to point their foot “harder.”  Since most feet are more naturally flexible going inwards, the foot starts to veer inwards and sickles.  Even at professional levels, a dancer will often still be thinking of the line of their feet in order to avoid sickling.