Stepping up the pace....

Well you'll be please to know, I've had no more injuries since Christmas!  For me - this is quite an achievement.

As many of you know, over the last year or so, I've been trying to run before I could walk.  I had thought I could tense my muscles the same, jump the same, put in just as much effort and my body would follow suit.  However, at almost 30 years old and many other issues (detailed in previous posts), things weren't quite that simple any more.

After class, all my joints tend to scream in pain, my feet swell and my hips feel like they are being crushed in a nutcracker.

Once Christmas was over, I decided to treat my torn calf with seriousness.  I made sure I took the appropriate amount of rest as specified by my physio (and actually adhere to it this time) and I warmed up fully before class - EVERY class.  One of the younger girls in the class before mine commented to her teacher, 'That lady is here SO early!  There's still 25 minutes of our class left!'  The teacher replied, 'That is because she has an injury.  You should all be doing the same if you don't want the same thing to happen to you'.

So many of the people barely warm up for class, if at all.  Until the last couple of years - I was one of them!  I never saw the importance, because I'd never had a problem.  My body did what I asked it to without complaining. I used to consider basic barre my 'warm up'.

Since all the trouble with my torn calf,  I now religiously warm up around 20 minutes before class.  I tried to get away with it once, and ended up injuring it yet again.  So I've made myself a routine and I stick to it. Warming up isn't about slowing 'breaking in' your muscles - it is actually about increasing blood flow to those areas - hence why many professional ballet dancers actually wear a million layers as they are beginning their classes.

Now we are nearing the end of April, things are SO much better.  I feel like I've come on leaps and bounds compared to all the set backs of last year.  I felt like I couldn't retain information and improve whilst I was constantly having time out.  After easing myself back into 2 classes a week in January.  I'm now in the studio 4 days a week.  Not all for physical class, one day and a morning are for teaching observations.

You might remember from a previous post that my teacher was encouraging me to train to teach.  I've learnt SO much from theses sessions and even stepped in for my teacher when she needed to split her very large class.  I taught a 45 minute lesson for grade 2's and I absolutely loved it!  I'm starting to learn the ISTD syllabus for all the grades so that I can eventually take the DDI exam, but I really need to focus on passing my Intermediate vocational exam first.

I've been working on the Intermediate exam a lot over the last couple of months and almost have all of the set exercises memorised.  There are a LOT!  I still find Adage the most difficult because of the weakness of my abdominal muscles.  Holding my leg a la second en l'air is extremely difficult, particularly the 3rd set adage which consists of a Grande ronde de jambe en l'air (big rounding of the leg in the air - for those wanting to know what the heck that means).  I don't know about any of you, but doing it en dedan is so much harder than en dehors!

I'm currently trying to tackle double pirouettes, brisés and failli assemblé.  Double pirouettes are my nemesis though.  I am almost trying to retrain my brain on my entire technique here, because I think I 'cheated' a lot when I was younger.  I'll let you know how I get on with those.  I did manage several ok (ish) ones last week when nobody was watching me.

So the Intermediate exam is hopefully going to happen in July.  I happen to be getting married at the end of that month too!  I just thought it would be highly amusing to really push my stress levels! :-/

I'll check in again before the exam and let you know if I'm pulling my hair out!

Rach