Snowboarding and Ballet
Hi Becky,
I’d like to start a discussion on the fitness levels and skills/techniques required for snowboarding.
I studied classical ballet for over 15 years and never really wanted to give any other sports a go, however my boyfriend really wanted me to try snowboarding so thought I would take the chance! I was a little bit scared because I thought I’d be really uncoordinated and that I wouldn’t be able to pick it up, but I found I picked up the basics quite easily as I’ve been trained to control my muscles and centre of gravity and could apply these techniques to snowboarding. I also found that years of flexibility training really helped when using those legs and stomach muscles !
Maybe if we could discuss the similarities in technique and fitness required for both snowboarding and other sports, a few more people might be encouraged to get out there !
Thanks,
Lys.
From what I have seen of ballet there is a lot of lower body and core strength involved. Also being able to balance on your toes uses incredible balance and strength. The similarities are there and I would see the main benefits translating to correct stance and good balance.
Hi Lys,
Lots of sports go ‘hand in hand’. And I’m never surprised by the strangest of relationships between sports. For example, many runners are made to swim alot (and vise versa) - both need cardiovascular fitness and strength. Training in one aids the other sport.
Snowboarding and ballet would be no different. As cabseven mentioned- the main crossover would lie in good balance, core stability and flexibility from many years of classical ballet. Boarding needs all of the these!
I was also plesantly surprised my first time snowboarding. I play competitive soccer- translating into good fitness, agility, and lower limb power (unfortunately not so much flexibility!)
Great idea for a new topic. Id be interested to hear of some other unusual sports people have found benefited their snowboarding…
I have had some dancers in my lessons before, and they have done quite well.
I think the awareness of your body and weight and leg strength all helps greatly to learn the basics.
Learning still requires a bit of falling down and getting back up.
Getting banged around a little happens to everyone.
I did ballet for 12 years, mum is a ballet teacher.
Lys don’t be afraid of any sport, ballet is best all around training for any physical activity especially if you started at a young age. Everything I have attempted I picked up quickly (surfing excluded) and have been above average at.
Ballet trains every muscle in the body to work individually, as a group and to support the skeleton, flexibility increases strength and co-ordination. Ballet also increases your threshold for pain.
The only activities that come close to ballet IMO are martial arts and yoga, ballet takes elements from both but can have side effects on the physique of your body were yoga and martial arts support the bodies natural movement and flexible limit ballet goes beyond it.
Good input Spaz.
I recall many years ago my father telling me that it was normal for many football (American football) players to take ballet.
I thought it quite odd then.
When considering flexibility and body awareness and balance, ballet makes sence - to someone who knows next to nothing about ballet.
IO think I would go for yoga if I was to take any classes or something like that.
Possibly Pilates… some form of core strengthening exercises.
Good input Spaz.
I recall many years ago my father telling me that it was normal for many football (American football) players to take ballet.
I thought it quite odd then.
When considering flexibility and body awareness and balance, ballet makes sence - to someone who knows next to nothing about ballet.IO think I would go for yoga if I was to take any classes or something like that.
Possibly Pilates… some form of core strengthening exercises.
It’s true that alot of footballers were required to take ballet lessons ! I believe one of the reasons is that footballers tend to build up quite big quadriceps, often to the point where the muscle becomes so bulky that it places too much pressure over the knees - by doing ballet they trained in a very different way which lengthened the quadricep to reduce the it bulking up too much! Not a very technical explanation, but you get the idea !
Also I like the comment about ballet increasing pain tolerance - dancing on your toes on blocks of wood will certainly do that !
snowboarding isnt the only sport that ballet has good effects for. the surfer Tom Carroll did ballet for a while and even someone of his fitness level described it as ‘fu*king hard’ and that the men and women who do ballet are some of the strongest/fittest people hes met