Benefits of adding ballet and how much?

[UnoMas]

Hi all,

My 2 DD's took summer ballet classes for the past 6 weeks and loved them. They of course did well in them because of their strength and flexibility from gym.

I am thinking about adding in ballet for each of them once a week for one hour with an excellent ballet teacher.

How many of you/your DD's/gymnasts also do ballet in addition to gym? How many hours per week? What benefits have you seen from it, if any? Any problems?

I'm excited that I could find classes that fit in with our nutty gym schedules! Just a little hesitant about adding yet another hour of activity!

 

[Sunobo]

At our old gym, the team girls took an hour of ballet every week at the gym. At our current gym, the dance training isn't as long or frequent but dd will start taking a dance class this fall outside of the gym.

I think dance training really helps the gymnast have more graceful routines on the beam and floor.

 

[MdGymMom01]

That's awesome that your dd's are enjoying the ballet! I find that it is an excellent form of cross training for gymnasts. My dd is taking a few summer classes as well (a total of 3 1/2 hours a week).

My dd's situation is a little different in that she does a different type of gymnastics league that only trains 10 hrs a week so she does have the time to do other activities. DD has really fallen in love with the ballet and wants to pursue it further along with the gymnastics. Since she will be repeating the same gymnastics level this next year, I am allowing her to do the additional ballet classes since she won't be learning any new gymnastics skills, just perfecting the ones that she has. Since she will be going on pointe for ballet in the fall, the requirement is to take 3 ballet technique classes along with a pointe class. It sounds like a lot, I know, but when you break it down into hours it is about a total of 15 hours a week (not much more than a USAG gymnast at her level).

For your dd's it really depends on how many hours they are training gymnastics and how much free time they have. The ballet is definitely helpful so taking any ballet is a plus. This past year my dd took one ballet class a week for an hour and then did the rehearsals for the Nutcracker and the Nightingale on Saturday afternoons. I could really see how the ballet has helped her overall grace and posture for beam and floor.

If they really enjoy the ballet classes I would definitely continue with them with at least one class a week. I hope I helped and good luck! Let us know how they do!

 

[UnoMas]

...For your dd's it really depends on how many hours they are training gymnastics and how much free time they have...

Thanks, Md! DD's both train about 15 hours per week (they are L4 and L5). So, adding one more hour is reasonable at this time, I think, and I also love the idea of keeping them in another activity that complements gym, and...might be a good option if and when either one of them wants to leave gymnastics. Even though neither one of them seem to know it now, there is life after gym!

My big thing is they each have one "free" day during the school week from gym, and adding dance eliminates the "free" day. But I explained this to both of them (age 6 and 9) and they both INSIST that they want to keep the ballet class!

 

[Azgymmiemom]

Absolute benefit!!! Another fringe benefit to the grace and balance...turns!! and if they can take a technique and turns class..even better! Seems to me, most gymnasts have a nasty time learning those turns at the gym... Ballet definitely helps!!

 

[LizzieLac]

I think that ballet sounds like a fantastic idea. I agree with madigym00, with the exception of Sunday my DD will have only one day "off." That day of physical and mental rest if important.

Now at DD's gym, the level 7-10 also do a weight training program once per week but it is part if that day's workout, so it is not additional time. Maybe the answer is to drop 1-2 hours from gym workout and substitute ballet. Something to consider....

 

[superflipgirl]

A friend of mine does 4 kinds of dance in addition to gymnastics, and she is a beautiful dancer, but she has actually been doing dance longer. Still, gymnastics really helps her with dance so your girls should definitely do it with gymnastics if they want to?

 

[MaryA]

My DDs are fraternal twins. One of them takes dance and the other takes gymnastics and never the two shall meet. The dancer has no interest in gymnastics and vice versa because it's her sister's "thing." Similarly, even though they have each read and enjoyed a different series of books by the same author they won't consider swapping and reading the other series because that somehow "belongs" to her sister. I hope that as they get older, these unwritten rules of individuality will get less rigid!

HOWEVER, Kathy, my gymnast daughter, does take an acrobatics class at the same dance studio where her sister studies. The gymnastics coach isn't necessarily thrilled with this because she's afraid she'll learn bad form, but Kathy has consistently gotten among the highest, if not the highest, floor scores on her team so I'm not worried about it. Her team only practices 6 hours a week so I figure she needs all the extra practice she can get. Anyway, I think that the acrobatics has taught her some showmanship that she didn't have before. They work on a choreographed group performance, just like the dance classes do, and perform at the recital. The quailty she has learned is hard to put a finger on but it has something to do with "I know people are watching me and I'm going to give them a good show" as opposed to just doing the correct skills in the correct order. I think it really helped her with her scores last year.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

doing dance it is better than not.