Training Optimization for Dancers
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We are proud to be the first to bring this cutting-edge dance medicine and training analysis to pre-professional dancers in the United States.
What is training optimization analysis?
A dancer’s physical performance is the result of more than just the number of the hours they spend at the studio. Performance can be influenced by a wide range of factors that include soreness levels, stress, sleep, and even the menstrual cycle. Understanding these factors can help dancers and instructors achieve better training with decreased risk of injury.
This has long been recognized in the sports science world and sophisticated analysis systems designed to recognize patterns in an athlete’s day-to-day reports are used in every elite athlete’s training. Recently, through partnerships with dance medicine experts, these concepts and technologies have been customized to address the unique ways a dancer trains and performs. The result is a powerful tool that can help detect when dancers may be most prone to injury, allowing dancers and their instructors/health care team to adapt training methods and techniques for optimal training and performance.
This has become an integral component of planning a dancer’s training for companies including Royal Ballet, Scottish Ballet, Boston Ballet, and the Australian Ballet. Royal Ballet and Australian Ballet have also begun to use these tools with their professional training schools.
How do I use it?
An easy-to-use morning and evening questionnaire covering basic aspects of health and well-being will be sent to dancers each day. This should be completed before they arrive at the studio and after they have finished dancing for the day.
If a dancer shows signs of overtraining, an alert is sent to the dancer along with recommendations of adjustments to make over the next few days.
How will the studio/company use it?
Rather than seeing responses to individual questions, studio staff will see an analysis report that can guide decisions as to when to push and when to pull-back in a dancer’s or group of dancers’ training.
This can mean adjusting class intensity, training load, or rehearsal schedules to help dancers achieve peak physical ability during performances, competitions, or auditions and avoid overuse injuries and burnout.
The Questionnaire
Each morning questionnaire has four questions about sleep quality, sleep quantity, stress, and soreness. Female dancers will also have two questions about menstruation.
Evening questionnaires have four questions about fatigue, exertion levels, participation, and enjoyment levels.
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The questionnaire can be completed by clicking to select your response and should take about thirty seconds to one minute to complete.
