Practice Tips

MJP Practice Survival Guide

How long should my child practice?
Even small amounts of daily practice can help dancers to remember steps and start improving technique.
Consider this; children attend school for six hours, five days a week and forget things. Most of our dancers
attend one dance class a week, so they are bound to have trouble remembering their steps between classes.

Its important for dancers to try to practice at least three times a week.

Below is a chart to help dancers plan their practice time (not including warm up and cool down).

Recreational/Beginner- 15 mins per day OR 1 ½ hrs. per week
Beginner/ Advanced Beg. - 30 mins per day OR 4 hrs. per week
Novice -45 mins per day OR 5 hrs. per week
Prizewinner - 60 mins per day OR 6 hrs. per week
Open -1 ½ hours per day OR 9 hrs. per week

The times listed above are minimum times for practicing for maintaining dance steps and technique. If a
dancer wishes to progress their dancing to the next level, extra practice time is needed.

Remember to stretch out well after every practice. To increase flexibility, dancers should spend at least 10
minutes a day stretching.

Most importantly, its how you practice that makes the biggest differnce in a dancer's improvement.

How to Practice 101
Try to do this list 3 times a week. Complete this list doing all soft shoe, then all hardshoe. Try alternating
which type you start with each time you practice.

1) Warm up with repetitive exercises from your practice sheet (cuts, ralleys etc.) that are all hardshoe or all
softshoe. Practice checklists are at the bottom of this page

2) When warm, dance every dance all the way through (just do only all hardshoes or all soft shoes)

3) Next, pick one dance to focus on.

4) Dance the first step 3 times through.
This will show you what parts in the step are inconsistent and need work. Write down the problem spots if
you need to.

5) Pick at least 4 things to drill from the step (a leap, clicks, a section that is not flowing)

6) Drill each problem spot continuously until you get it right 3 times in a row, twice.

Eg: start counting at 1, If you hit two clicks, count to two, then if you miss the next one, you have to start
back at 1 again until you get three clicks in a row. Then keep going until you get three clicks a second time.

7) Repeat steps 4-6, using step number 2.

8) Move onto Hard shoe or Softshoe (whichever is the opposite that you started with) and repeat steps 1-7

Helpful Tips
1) Sometimes when you practice, no matter how many times you repeat a difficult jump or move, you just
cant seem to get it right three times in a row. If this is the case (after you really have tried) then sometimes,
your body just needs to sleep on it.

Im not sure why this works but I think that sometimes, your body just needs time to absorb the new way
you are trying to get it to move. But, this only works if you doing it right at least some of the repetitions.

2) Sometimes progress is slow. There might be weeks where you feel like you are getting nowhere. Just be
patient and keep with it. Also, be sure not to "overpractice". Sometimes before a big competition or show,
a dancer might be putting so much time in at the studio that their body doesn't have time to rest in
between. You must take one or two rest days a week or your body wont heal, making the amount of
practice time irrelevant, leading eventually to "burnout". If you still want to be active during your "rest"
day(s), try a different activity.

3) If you are having an "off" day and you are only becoming frustrated, take a moment to regroup and
rest. Think about something else for a little a while then go back to practicing. If all else fails, just do the
warm up exercises, some sits ups, pushups and stretches and try again another day.

4) Avoid injury! Its important to work up to being able to complete this list (4 steps drilled in one practice)
So, build up slowly to being able to do the full list. If you can only do one step in each dance, then accept
that from your body and add an extra 15 mins to your practice time each time until you can do the full 2
hours.

Enjoy your practice time and try to remember once and a while that you dance because its fun and
you love it!

For Parents: Supporting your dancer
Some children have a natural drive to practice their dancing on their own and strive to be better dancers.
These dancers need only support and encouragement to continue with their good practice habits.

Some dancers want to be competitive and to improve their dancing but have trouble understanding how to
fit practice time into their day. These children often need help from their parents to set out a weekly
practice plan and stick to it. Quite often, after a month or two of help and support, these children can learn
to practice diligently on their own to achieve their goals.

It is important to discover what your child's practice style is and compare that with what their goals are for
their dancing. Overall, as a parent, your most important role is to accept the character type of your child and
do your best to be supportive of them and the decisions they make regarding competition.

What if my child doesn't place?
Overall, please keep in mind that practice does not guarantee that a child will place at every competition.
Your child may dance really well, but another dancer may dance better. For example, achieving a 95 on a
math test is excellent yet another student may receive a 98. It is also possible that two dancers are of equal
caliber yet a judge may prefer a particular dancer's style over another's.

So remember that when a dancer doesn't place, it doesn't necessarily mean that they are not a good dancer.
It is important that your child understands this and that they understand that they are still loved and
valuable even when they don't win.

Tips for Parents
The following tips for parents are taken from the Child Protection Guidelines of Tennis but they can be
applied to any activity.

- Offer encouragement, especially when your children face hard times. Do not use punishment and
withdrawal of love, affection and warmth to get your children to try harder or perform better.

- Ask questions such as, "How was the match (or feis)? How did you play (or dance)? Did you enjoy it?"
which shows you care about your child rather than the result. Avoid asking, "Did you win?" after your child
comes back from a match (or feis).

- Make your child feel valuable and reinforce his/her self-esteem, especially when he/she loses. Avoid
criticizing your child's results. Emphasize that, "Win or lose, I love you just the same." Do not get upset or
treat your child differently when she/he loses.

- Stick to your parental role. Avoid trying to be your child's coach (i.e. becoming too involved in strategy,
technique, etc).

- Recognize and be generous in applauding the performance and effort of your child's opponents. Do not
ignore or criticize your child's opponents.