Okay, so I’ve been wanting to share my stamina tips for awhile! I most certainly don’t have perfect stamina but I have developed some ideas which really help me stay strong until the end.

Stamina is very mental. If you go in thinking about how long your dance is, your stamina is not going to be good. Instead, tell yourself that you are about to do your best dance ever. Another tip is to take it one step at a time. Tell yourself you’re only doing one step, than add another and another.

Do your full dances frequently! You can do as much cardio and strength training as you want but if you don’t practice doing your full dances, your dancing stamina will not improve. I try to do my full dances at least once a day (with a rest day) and coming up to competition I try to bump it up to two or three times a day. Do what’s right for you. It’s important for me mentally to be able to know that I’ve done my fulls frequently.

BREATHE. After each step, I try to check my breathing and make sure that I am actually breathing. I have a tendency to hold my breath and that does not help endurance!

Drink plenty of water.  Make sure to drink plenty of water throughout each day and especially on days you exercise! It makes a bigger impact that you think!

My Favorite Stamina Exercises:

1. Full dances + extra steps: Self-explanatory…Usually I only add one extra step but I occasionally add two steps or go twice through my dance.

2. Backwards Step-About: This one is difficult but rewarding! Start with left foot of your last step, then wait eight bars. Continue with your entire last step, wait eight bars. Add your left foot of your second step into your entire last step, and so on until you end up doing your full dance.

3. Stamina Step-About: This is my favorite at the moment. I do my first step then go directly into 8-16 bars of jogging in place while kicking all the way up behind. I then directly go into my second step and again go into 8-16 bars of jumping jacks, then I do my last step and go into jogging again. Sometimes I do my last step one last time. Feel free to switch out cardio moves! I often just do whatever cardio move I feel like, or sometimes I do basic dance moves instead, like skips.

wait is this actually a joke…. i’m 25 years old first of all. i’m of age and have every right to make my own decisions.it’s new orleans and i haven’t had an alcoholic drink in months in preparation for this major competition. they literally sell alcohol IN THE VENUE OUTSIDE THE BALLROOMS. there are parents and about 99% of the senior ladies all had a drink in their hand right after their set.. also including some teachers who literally started drinking at 8am. lol i’m old enough and responsible enough to have a drink after i dance and i don’t think any consumption of alcohol in moderation is setting a bad example whatsoever. at the end of the day, i am a NORMAL person who lives a NORMAL life and i’m not going to change the way i act to exist in the irish dance world whatsoever because at the end of the day this is a hobby that essentially means nothing in the grand scheme of things and if everyone thinks i’m a bad role model or dislikes me for how i am than whatever. i’ll still sleep at night haha this is actually so ridiculous i can’t deal with this website anymore lmaooooooo

World Champion Michaela Hinds of BFoC

One of my very favorite reactions of NERO was when Erin Murphy was called as a world qualifier. I have gotten to know this family over the past few months and know how hard this girl has worked to get to this point.