Pre pointe exercises can be learned by any age dance student, even young beginners. Not that there is any need to rush for a young ballet beginner, unless there are foot problems that need dealing with immediately that would benefit from pre pointe exercises.

A Young Beginner Profile For Needing Pre Pointe Exercises

Children with hypermobile joints can start special foot exercises as soon as their ballet teacher determines that they have the need to, and the maturity to learn them and practice them correctly at home. The need for this also depends on how serious a student is about ballet, and if they will continue long enough to eventually dance in pointe ballet shoes.

If a child has flat feet and ankles that roll in toward the floor, and will do exercises to correct that outside of their dance studio, this will be of great benefit to them. Specific pre pointe exercises are wonderful for developing foot control that will improve all athletic activity for this type of foot weakness. In addition to this, dance and sports injuries can be prevented by strengthening the foot muscles.

For The Younger And Older Dancer Profile

Foot muscles that are especially weak can lead to an extremely painful condition, commonly referred to as shin splints. There may be other factors, such as the quality of the dance floor, that contribute to shin splints, but the main reason for tight shin muscles is over exertion. When the foot muscles are not doing the work required to constantly point the feet, and push off and control landings from jumps, the lower leg muscles will have to do more work than they are designed to do.

All the calf muscles will hold too much tension in this situation, but particularly at the front of the calf, the tibial muscles can get extremely tight. This situation can get so bad that the shin bone can suffer stress fractures.

Another common dance injury resulting from weak feet is tendonitis of the Achilles tendon. The Achilles tendon is the bottom of the calf muscles that join and become the connecting tissue going under the heel. This area can become terribly inflamed if the calf muscles are not worked properly, and can end dance training if not rested, treated professionally, and healed.

If Your Age Profile Is Adult Ballet Beginner

Even the late starter in ballet who has the "born to dance" physique will have challenges. Since most adults in dance studios would like to catch up with the technical demands of classical technique, I recommend everyone learn pre pointe exercises. Many female adult dance beginners will never get into pointe shoes, yet developing the feet for dancing en pointe will result in much stronger foot muscles and better control.

For the men in ballet, these exercises will help them get ahead for the foot control needed for allegro (not that the ladies don't need it too, but men are expected to excel).

Exercises to prepare for pointe can be practiced while reading, watching movies, reading the kids bedtime stories - they can be fit in where you need to schedule them. Once you understand them and are executing them well, it is not difficult to do them six days a week.

Dance parents can do these along with their children - if you play tennis, or do other sports, I know you will feel an improvement in your footwork and control.

If your age profile is of the adult years, you'll be curious about all ballet exercises. Whether for the old or young, pre pointe exercises are extremely useful.