Thread: Deep Knee Dips

So, I have been working for 5 months now on a deep knee dip down without a bobble coming back up. I generally dip down, then sweep my arms forward and up to use momentum, but I really want to do that graceful rise with an omie or small camel to rise up like I see so many other dancers doing today.

My question is, after 5 months of working on this, why do I still bobble when I try to gently rise up? The bobble is distracting when I have my sword on my head, plus I know my audience will notice it.

I admittedly have not done the deep knee dips every single day for the 5 months, but I have worked on them at least 2x's, and sometimes 3x's a week. Is that not enough?

Suggestions? Am I just never going to get strong enough for the more complicated moves like these dips or Turkish drops? It is a bit frustrating.

My guess is that you're using your quads to rise back up and they're just not strong enough to help you rise AND keep your balance!
Try engaging your inner thighs (your adductors...squeeze em together as you rise) and see if it helps!
Gia

I practiced this move a few times at every practice session (2-3x/week) in order to get the smoothness I wanted. Put one leg behind the other, it'll help you keep balanced and put less strain on your knees. What Gia said about squeezing your thighs together is great advice too! And engage the core to keep your posture

good tips from Gia
what helps also is to check weight placement.

i put one foot a bit in front of the other for balance and try to put a bit less weight on the front foot than on the back one, if you land with the hips above the back foot you'll have support from that leg too when going up.

posture is super important too, no bending forward from the hips, try to keep your head straight above the hips and elongate/lift your upper body

hah Safiya, you type faster than me ;)

also shift weight to the heels of your feet, this will engage the hamstrings and provide more support as you rise, not to mention saving some wear and tear on the knees.

I only do the deep knee thing when I'm either really and truly warmed up, or am wearing high heels. With heels, your feet are in the correct position without having to think about it, so it makes it a bit easier.

As you lift, instead of focusing your attention on lifting/pushing with your quads (front of your thighs), focusing on lifting with your pelvic floor (Kegel muscle). Even though your pelvic floor muscles are not actually skeleton-movers, if you focus your energy there and lift from there, it's amazing how much easier it is to rise from a level change!

Originally Posted by kina

also shift weight to the heels of your feet, this will engage the hamstrings and provide more support as you rise, not to mention saving some wear and tear on the knees.

You know what's funny? I do this, and I never even realized it! If I don't shift my weight (and I do the one foot behind thing, usually), my knees will twinge a bit and it's really uncomfortable.

I am chiming in with shifting weight to the heels. When I teach this my main focus points are:
- the back of the heels and back of the head stay in vertical alignment (as if you were sliding down a wall)
- abs totally engaged and "lifted up under the ribs"
- keep the heels down for as long as possible when you descend
- push the heels down as soon as you can on the way up

Thank you so much to everyone! I believe I do only use my quads and that is why my quads hurt so much after every practice.

I will use all these helpul suggestings tonight when I am practicing and let y'all know.

Thx!

it is also possible that it isn't the strength in your quads you are lacking, but strength in your ankles. That's my problem. I have really weak ankles and shake like crazy....
try doing balancing exercises & lower your heals to the ground as soon as you can (on the way up)

Originally Posted by Gia al Qamar

My guess is that you're using your quads to rise back up and they're just not strong enough to help you rise AND keep your balance!
Try engaging your inner thighs (your adductors...squeeze em together as you rise) and see if it helps!
Gia

Thank you for this. Focusing a bit of "squeezing the invisible ball held between my thighs" helps.

I wouldn't stress over it unless you want knee problems - it's terrible for them. (You strengthen your outer quads more than those on the inside of the knee and it pulls your kneecap out of alignment if you do it often). If you want to dip down, use counter balance to take the pressure off your knees and don't stay there long doing fancy moves (you won't be able to balance anything on your head if you do it this way, though).

Turkish drops are even worse.

There are a lot of really neat moves out there, but I don't think they're worth harming your body for...

Try really engaging your low abs, too- these are your balancing muscles. I learned to use them in yoga to help in balancing poses, and found further proof that they help balance when I learned to ride a bike for the first time and they hurt like hell the next day- after four years of dance, I was shocked that those muscles could be that sore!

I also suffer from weak ankles, and it's not just the (for lack of technical terms) "uppy-downy" mechanism but the side to side, too. For a while, I couldn't even DO calf raises because the muscles that control pronation (side to side) were too weak. Try lifting up one leg (while standing or even just lying in bed) and writing the alphabet with your toes. It sounds simple but really works all the muscles in your ankle and will help with balance and strength. I used to get a moderate sprain in my ankle once a week or so till I started doing this. Good luck!