I Don't Know You From Adam…

Dancing.

July 22nd, 2008

Today at the clinic, we worked on some neat stuff.  I’ve treated lots of various sports injuries but just a few dancers.  Let me clarify.

 

I’ve worked with cheerleaders, drill teamers, dance teamers, and pep steppers.  Today though, I worked with a ballet instructor who’s had an ACL repair.  This was our 3rd visit and she’d already made good progress since starting with us at the clinic.  The dancer’s surgery was earlier in the spring and she’d done therapy at another clinic up until the summer.  However, she felt as though her therapy was too conservative.  “I’ve got to be able to teach and do all of this in the fall.”

 

Before she got to us, she could walk without a limp and had wonderful ROM and strength, but she couldn’t do her dance moves. That statement shows my ignorance on ballet.  These moves aren’t “mad skills” like Napoleon Dynamite, these are ballet positions.  

We started out with 2 visits that first week and then the dancer went out of town for a vacation and then to a convention.  That first week, we acually started with football agilities.  Slow speed running, high knee exercises, skipping, defensive slides, back peddling, and dipsy-doodles.  She’d seen most of these at one point, her daddy was a football coach.  The dancer had a hard time with these at first but they got easier.

 

She’s back in town and she’s a new woman.  The first thing she did in the clinic was skip to me.  The last time I saw her skip, the dancer looked kind of like a gimpy kangaroo. THe skip today looked perfect. Like the skip of an 6 year old girl on the playground.

Today we worked on ballet moves.  One of her initial concerns was not straightening the right leg quite as much as the left. She’s only off a degree and I explained to her that degree will either come or it won’t.  Overall I think that final degree will come with continued activity. 
What I did explain to her was the importance of balance.  Not balancing work and family or a balanced meal but standing on one foot balance.  Specifically standing on the surgical leg while doing the ballet moves with the other leg. 

 

The neat thing about all this:  the dancer’s getting better.  I can tell she’s proud of what she’s accomplished.  3 weeks ago the dancer had been very depressed that she wouldn’t get back to her craft.  The neater thing:  she did all the work.  It was all in her.  All I did was coach.  Like her daddy used to do. I showed her what to do and how to do it. 

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