Stretching at home

[pointyfeet]

Does anybody else struggle to get there dd or ds to do streching at home.

[Colman]

I struggle to get me to do stretching at home.

[Kat09]

TBH by the age of 16 self motivation is the way to go, especially if they are off to voc school. So hard to step back but a necessity … it's a hard lesson

[Colman]

I think it's a struggle with most kids: as I say it's hard enough to motivate myself, especially for something as unfun as stretching.

 

As they get older, well, they have to start making those choices, or not.

Edited April 17, 2016 by Colman

[pointyfeet]

My dd is off to vocational school in sept and struggles with her flexibility and the arguments we have over stretching at home is unbelievable. Feeling stressed ????

[Colman]

Since a good part of stretching is learning to relax, that's probably not going to be fruitful. How old is she?

[Anna C]

Has she been given exercises to do by a teacher or physio, pointyfeet? I only ask because obviously stretching - for example splits, hamstring stretches etc - should only ever be done when the body is warmed up, i.e. after a general warmup followed by a barre session. If she's been given specific exercises to do then yes, she should be disciplined enough to do these at 16.

[pointyfeet]

She is 16 . I am trying to help her but she just thinks im moaning. She does dance 4 nights a week and all day Saturday so maybe she is doing enough. Her teacher does tell her she needs to work on her flexibility for Sept. Its not bad but needs to be better.

[Colman]

I think I'd be inclined to back off, give it a week or two to calm down and then have a chat, ask her if she's got a plan for working on her flexibility - and if she doesn't, and if she wants to, help her to form one (which really her involves talking to her teacher if she hasn't been given a specific programme) and then let her implement it - you can ask her how it's going, you can gently remind her, but that's about it. And as Anna C says, you have to be good and warm to stretch, which pretty much means that she has to do it after classes, unless she's going to warm-up, do some work and then stretch at home, which rapidly turns into at least a half hour session!

 

But on those hours, she may not need or be able to do extra stretching at home! She needs some rest and recovery time too.

[pointyfeet]

Thank you Colman. I will take your advise and will see how we go.

[2dancersmum]

Pointyfeet - I could easily have written that exact same post when my DD was in year 11 and had a place for vocational school for the September. Flexibility was what the teacher advised my DD to work on too but I saw no signs of it and she thought I was moaning if I mentioned it.

 

To be honest, my advice would be to back off and try not to worry about it. By all means ask if the teacher has given her anything to practice but leave it at that. Your DD no doubt has a lot on her plate at the moment with school, exams, dance etc and does need time to rest and recover too.

 

When she starts at vocational school I imagine you will find that her flexibility will improve rapidly with all the hours of dance she does. It is a big step up from dancing 4 nights and Saturdays to dancing all day.

 

My DD was bad at stretching at home aged 16 but these days, still unseen by me, she will stretch daily when she is home, even when too tired for anything else.

[Anon2]

If she has got into vocational school were they not happy with her current level of flexibility? Maybe she will be more keen to discuss your concerns after she has finished her GCSE, it is a hard few months for year 11s.