If Arnold Schwarzenegger can do Ballet so can I.

Actually Arnold was also on a huge amount of steroids, so the application of "if he can do it, so can I" may not apply in this case!

Ballet; Why, how, what.... and every other permutation of the question of why I would do this to myself is probably relevant. The last time I did ballet I was 5, but I was inspired by Arnold rocking his poses in his 1980's documentary "Pumping Iron."

I wanted to undertake a couple of ballet classes i) for posing skills for my fitness/figure contest (project 2) and ii) for application of skills to the young sprinters I work with.

Let me explain. Training adolescents can be a bit tricky because text book strength and conditioning guidelines doesn't always work. They get bored. The idea of using dance moves to "trick" them into doing stabilization training seems like quite a good idea. So I was thinking ballet and krumping.....think body popping and locking. The South Koreans b-boys have nailed this. I however have not, and my attempt at break dancing was more like watching a stag beetle that has unfortunately landed on its back and can't get up.

Ballet and other dance training teaches movement skills, body awareness, strength, coordination and all manner of other skills and is basically quite fun. Foot strength in ballet is also something that I had overseen and became very obvious after doing this class. This is important for sprinters as the precision of foot contact is essential to speed and power. Running at maximal velocity relies on applying maximum vertical force into the ground. The rate of force development (RFD) refers to the amount of force that can occur with each foot strike, bearing in mind for an elite sprinter that can be less than 0.1s. A lot of force in a short amount of time. The greater the RFD the faster the athlete and this correlates with a foot that is both strong and "stiff" as less energy will dissipate. It facilitates the stretch-shortening cycle, hence why 100m sprinters wear spikes with a hard plate on the mid-foot.

Sprinting mechanics and maximum velocity is based around creating vertical height to move forward, similar to skimming stones on water. Recent advances in sprint mechanics were in fact inspired by the physics of creating the bomb in the classic film "Dambusters", based on the stone skimming principle.
Vertical height to create horizontal velocity.

So that is the rationale for putting myself through this experience on a Friday.
Let me elaborate.

Friday 3pm at Pineapple Studios.
On arrival I'm told this is not a beginners class - Rrrrrright. Ok. Next hurdle. Walking into a room of very "ballet" looking ladies, think a lot of pastel pink nylon skirts and leg warmers. I'm wearing a black Helly Hanson and black tracksuit bottoms but yes I do have my pink ballet shoes, so I guess that's ok. I was very happy to see the chap playing the piano was also sporting a Helly Hanson and I did spot another lady wearing a pair of "umbro" football shorts and an arsenal top so I didn't feel completely out of place.

Bar work at Pineapple

Trying to "freestyle" some ballet flexibility on my kitchen stove

My ability to learn choreography is not good, suffice to say when everybody moves left I go right, so for the safety of others, I sat the last "free style" bit out.
The warm up drills and bar work (as in "bar" in photo above, not as in pub) was excellent and put me in positions I only experience when basically falling down the stairs. The emphasis was on control, flexibility, posture, elongation, isometric contractions to name just a few things that became apparent.
Definitely food for thought for training ideas.

Krumping next......