Dance Health: Better Knee Health And Ankle Alignment To Prevent Injuries
A dancer’s jumps, turns and forward pushing movement all begin with a bent knee. A key way to prevent dance injuries is to ensure you understand your joint positioning during these transitional movements. This positioning includes controlling your knee and ankle alignment to prevent injuries.
Training in Parallel with Balls
You can train in parallel with a ball placed between your thighs and the just above your ankles. This will give you the physical cues you need.
These cues remind you to bend your leg with your knee tracking over your foot centrally. Any deviation towards or away from your body’s midline will cause strain in your ankle and knee joints. This strain will also as disrupt the alignment of your spine and pelvis.
How to use balls to help develop healthy motor patterns
Watch this video to learn how you can use balls to help develop healthy motor patterns that support healthy body alignment, efficient dance movements, prepare you for performance and help prevent dance injuries.