| Developing Arm Strength in Young Dancers by Paula Hess Working on strength of arm movement is forever a work-in-progress for many dance team coaches. When you consider that the qualifying standards for 16 year-old females to win the Presidential Fitness Award list a mere 24 push-ups and one pull-up, having a team of anomalistically-strong young women may seem impossible. Don't give up hope! Here are some things to look for when working with your dancers on strong, clean arm movement: Arm movement originates from the back. Each dancer should concentrate on using their latissimus dori (the triangular muscles from the shoulder to the spine) as a foundation for arm extension. What does that mean, they ask you? Consider the Snowman. When you make his arms, you never just tack the sticks right on the outside of his body. One strong wind will blow the arms right off! Experienced snowman-makers poke the branches deep into the snowball to create a sturdy base, no matter what the weather brings! Alignment, Alignment, Alignment... Watch for those dancers that pull their shoulders up and hunch their backs in an effort to hit motions sharp. This tendency generally indicates that the dancer is not maximizing the benefits of proper alignment, so their arms are getting tired, and they're using other muscles to help them out. Not only does the hunched shoulder mar the clean visual appearance pressed shoulders and stretched necks provide, this dancer may suffer from chronic sore trapezius (muscles connecting neck to shoulder) and even the occasional pinched nerve. Keeping the back straight and hips tucked will allow the dancer to change direction quickly and isolate the arms with ease because their center of gravity is very concentrated. Fist Strength = Lower Arm Strength. Tennis players learn early on to carry and squeeze a tennis ball to improve their serve, and a dancer can learn from this example when working on powerful arms! Consider making your dancers home-made hand exercisers with round balloons and birdseed. You can layer the balloons for added resistance. Much of a dancer's forearm power is jeopardized by the weakly clenched fist or the limp dance hand. When you're checking your pom squad for proper fist grip, make sure that the thumb is placed firmly over the middle phalange of the ring finger. When using many other hand positions, dancers should maintain the appropriate tension. Some common imagery used may include bolts of energy coming from the fingertips, someone pulling the fingers, or pressing through a wall of gelatin. Good, Old Fashioned Exercise! Incorporate push-ups and pull-ups into your warm-up routine. Invite each dancer to bring two cans of soup from home and add bicep and tricep curls as well as side raises to improve the deltoid strength. Make strength conditioning part of your daily fitness regimen! |