153. Kick Technique with Cindy Clough & Jenny Raiche

Cindy and Jenny talks about how to get the most out of your kicks.

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Unknown: 0:02

Welcome to anything but routine. Before we get into today's podcast, we want to talk about our just for kicks coaches and studio owners conference. This conference is designed for dance coaches and studio owners to learn from industry experts, you will be able to network with other coaches and studio owners and so much more. This conference is hosted by Cindy Clough herself. For more information, email us at support at just for kicks.com. Now on to the podcast.

Cindy Clough: 0:48

Normally at this class, I do a very technique based class where we go over every little bit of technique and for new people, if that's what you wanted, I do have a video of what I normally do. But we're more going to hit strengthening and that kind of stuff. So yeah, but we'll hit some techniques stuff too. So take it away, Jenny.

Jenny Raiche: 1:08

Yeah. So I think most of you were in the first class that I was here. But if I haven't met you yet, I'm Jenny race. Just got done coaching for 20 years at ECU High School and kick was are we we did okay in kick. So I'm pretty confident talking about this. This topic. And like Cindy said, when we sat down and did this, we're like, do we give them a bunch of drills that you've heard from different places and different things every time? Or do we start talking about? Okay, what what are is actually happening to our kids bodies from the beginning of the season to the end of the season? What do we actually want to accomplish from the beginning of the season to the end of the season? In terms of what we're getting out of our score sheet? When are we practicing kicks? When When should we not be practicing kicks? Well, how do we level up? How do we how do we do things just differently than we've been doing them before to level up, that was a huge part of our conversation. But always going back to the basics at the very beginning with those new kids with those younger kids, and even with your older kids is also super, super important. So I was working with a team and saying like whether you are the first day you ever take a ballet class, or you're a principal at the New York City Ballet, every single ballet class starts with plays. So kind of in kick, if you've got kids who are have been kicking with you for three, four years, going back to the very basics at the beginning is always always a good thing. That's where you always go back and whatever kind of style dance you're doing. But the bigger things that we that we wanted to hone in on is how you are utilizing warmups to assist in your kick technique. And I know I've talked with a few coaches in here, and with your teams already about utilizing your strength training, utilizing your conditioning, utilizing your warmups utilizing your stretching, that is when you're practicing, and training your muscles to do the things you need them to do during kick technique. It's not having them just kick a lot. I will I can say candidly, I can say full disclosure, we do not practice kick technique during practice. We incorporate things into our warmups into our conditioning on a daily basis that get their bodies and their muscles trained to do what they need to kick. But other than that, during the winter season, we're working on the kick sets in the dance. And that's it. So really utilizing warm ups and conditioning more than anything. I don't know if you want to jump in on any of that.

Cindy Clough: 3:32

People ask what drills do you do? What drills do you do and I'm like, are they're like, We need new drills. And I'm like we really don't do drills that much we drill what we're working on. And and it may seem boring, but that's what we do in the summer will work kick technique, getting ready for camp and that type thing. And in our fall program. You know, at the studio, we weren't kick technique. So once the seasons there, we're working on what we're doing. And you you subsequently work on technique within that. Link your kick line or whatever you're working on. Yeah.

Unknown: 4:05

So as far as warm ups and stuff go on a daily basis just for a show of hands. How many of you have your captain's are your seniors leads stretch every day? Yeah. Okay. And how many of you have something that happens before stretch every day? Kind of Yes. No. Okay. I think when we got out of the mindset that practice starts after warmups or after stretching as done, as when our team immediately got stronger. And we talked this morning about utilizing your assistant coaches and utilizing the different people on your staff for different parts of your practice. And when those JV coaches, JV coaches, when you're wanting to work with those varsity athletes, warm ups is the time to do it, and to do those kinds of things. And so we are really, really, really intentional about what our warmups look like every day before our stretching happens. And stretching isn't just the seniors leaving three songs of stretch every single Day. So we have every Monday we have a dynamic workout that Coach Tony does on Tuesdays, they're in the weight room. On Wednesdays it's yoga sculpt on Thursdays they're running. And on Friday, we have a movement warmup that happens before we stretch. And what we're what we might do within those is different each week. But they know they can count on a different style cardio warmup, to get them ready for each day. If we know it today that we need to drill kick sets a lot, we're probably not doing a lot of legs, because we know that we're going to be working their legs later. So we're going to hit legs harder during stretching, but we're going to be working core and lower back because they need their core and lower back super strong for kick that day. So we I'm utilizing Tony's in charge of workouts on Mondays called trainee who's our TCO specialist is working is setting our Tuesdays. And he knows we have a kick meet that week. So he knows what to put into our Tuesday workout. Our yoga sculpt is is tailored towards you know what our bodies are going to need. If we competed on a Tuesday night and we need more of a recovery day, then she's focusing our warmups on that for that day. Thursday's are running is very much dependent. We start with a half a mile and then we go up a lap each day or each week until we get up to a mile and a half. And then we tailor back down to the end of the season. So they're back at a half mile. And that happens throughout the season. We were we run a lot. Then beyond that we have choreographed warmups that we do. And we so we have three, three choreographed songs and they're like four to five minutes long. And so for example, what Taylor will do with the team this year is on Monday, they'll do song one of the choreographed warmup as the first thing they do when they start stretching. And then they have about three or four more songs after that to continue that song to have our choreographed warmup they'll do on Wednesday, song Three they'll do on Fridays, then we call it when we get to Game Day we call competition day game day. When that first song of Game Day warmup comes on, that's when the kids are laser focused in they know a choreographed warmup. And they know that one hour from the time that game day music Start Game Day warm up music starts there on the floor competing, because we have timed out exactly one hour before they compete, their game day warm up starts. And those three songs are balanced exercises, flexibility exercises, and then movement to get their bodies warm. Those are what those three songs are. And the minute that music comes on, they go and game day mode, okay, and they don't touch their phones, they don't do anything other than focus on getting out onto the floor once that happens. But we practice it during the week, so that they're getting more comfortable with the movement that they're doing. So it's like the prep before they compete. Does anyone else do anything like this? When we started doing this, it was a total game changer for us. We were like, Why are we going to the most important day like we were sitting at state when you're being like, why are we telling them on the multi most important day of the year sit and stretch a little bit before we go? Why? Yes, we would have like, stretches that we would lead. But we're like, why aren't we doing a full routine to get ready to do their full routine. And once we started doing that, it just got them in a much better mindset. Those choreographed warmups that we're doing are doing so many things that are preparing our kids and prepping their technique for what it needs to be during, during their kicks. So utilizing

Cindy Clough: 8:15

your time so well, yes. Because when you don't do that, they just

Unknown: 8:20

they sit in the butterfly, right? Or straddling though, would you last name, right? Yeah, yeah, there's they're sitting in a stretch. But when they have to be focused on a choreographed routine, that is specifically created to work every muscle of your body the way it needs to be utilized when you put it into a routine. They're actively practicing. When practice starts not when warmups are over. Does that make sense? So it's, it takes a lot of prep work on the front end to get those things ready. But like I said, Once, we really started getting much more aggressive about our warmup time, that's when we actually started practicing our dances less because their bodies were more prepared to do it. We are conditioning and our warm ups take 45 minutes of our practice every single day. And we don't have a day where we're like stretch real quick, we got to get right into the routine, I would rather not work on the dance and make sure we get that warmup. And that stretch time in every single day, two and a half hours. So we have like 30 to 45 minutes of warmup, but 45 minutes for each routine each day. And we are a practice jazz and kick everyday team. And then some team time at the beginning and end or middle wherever it comes in that day. So a lot of what we're like I said a lot of what the stretches that we're doing are focusing on what their bodies need to be doing when they're kicking. So when they're doing something as simple as we have once one part of our game day warm up where they're in a lunge like this while we're stretching their hip flexors really hard because we need them to do that. We're making sure that they're totally neutral, their core is engaged, their arms are up and they're pressing their arms up and down. Okay, well, they could just go like this and press their arms up and down, or they could reach all the way through their middle finger, press their shoulders down. And that's their connections. They're working on their connection, while they're also working their oblique while they're also stretching this. And they're also pressing through the floor and working on balance at the same time. So we talk through that at the beginning with them. And they're all like, they don't do this with their arms, because they know that that's what their connections are going to look like if that's what they do during the warmup. So there's so many different dynamic work warm ups and things you can find online, find out what were what level your team is at, and what you need right now, in order to implement those things during your warm ups. So you're not having to do connection drills every day. Because they did it during their warm up, and their arms and their bodies and everything is ready for what you need. When the time comes. Same Creek way round, warm ups all season all season long. Yep. Yeah. And it takes until like, it's a hot mess, until like week four, and then they get it down. But then by the time they get to that first game day, they've got the routine down. So we start working on those choreographed warm ups day one of winter season. Yep. Yeah. Yep, so the first song is really focused on balance and kind of waking up our muscles. The second song is much more focused on flexibility work. And then the third, the third one is, I feel like they're almost doing like improv movements, you know, and a lot of like, full body roll and roll all the way to down to the floors. And, you know, they're, they're like moving all over the place. But yeah, those are the three, the three songs we do. And I think the songs are like four minutes, five minutes and four minutes long. So it's about 1313 to 14 minutes, is their actual

Cindy Clough: 11:44

warmup that they do on those days. And if you're, if you don't have weightlifting at your school, you could do a fourth one, like a strength based one, since we're hitting balance, flexibility and movement, you could definitely have a strength one strengthening one that was all created. So I feel the beauty of having a created warmup is you don't spend any time going well, what should we do next? What should we do next? Who's going to lead warm up? You have it done and go for it?

Unknown: 12:11

Yeah, and with our choreograph, like we have those same choreograph songs. So if if, if song One is on Mondays, then yeah, maybe you have the senior leading, they get to pick the music for Monday and the senior gets to pick the rest of the music for Tuesday are, you know, whatever that is, but it just, I don't know it, it forces them to not have to think about things that are unnecessary. It just gets them zoned in right away when you have that choreograph stuff planned out for them. Yeah. And I understand exactly that after you do the choreographed warmup, you do spend some time stretching, we spend a lot of time stretching. And when you say a lot. Yeah, I would say we usually say four songs. So four songs that three to four minutes, a piece is another maybe 15 minutes. That is something that the girls need. It's both, it's both. But we do expose our seniors in our captains to a lot of different warm up sales. I know Ali has an awesome warmup that, you know, we use the just for kicks warm up as one of our things that we do they do. They use that a lot during Fall season, and things like that. But just to make sure that we're never doing the same stretching routine every single day. So yeah, we utilize our kids to help with that. After the coach is choreographed warmup is done. Yep. Do you find that the dancers get complacent? If it's the same thing for all season long, like it's January, and they're like not fully engaging what they're doing? Not really? No, we haven't had that issue. But we are also, we are not like Cindy's like, do you want to sit during this class, like, I can't sit during anything. And I don't think I've ever sat during a practice. If there's five coaches there that day that it's five coaches moving around. And you know, we kind of say, well, you wouldn't slip through practicing your routine. This is another one of your routines. That's prepping you for the competition routine. So

Cindy Clough: 13:58

I think that comes back to expectations and like, you know, to be a good coach, you can't be complacent you have to be, you know, my assistant coach, or my JV coach is awesome at really staying on the kids and walking around and like it inspiring for the kids to keep on them and make sure they're always going and I do think you're right, you can't sit. Yeah,

Unknown: 14:21

I mean, I mean, there are times when during warmups, a couple coaches need to meet on some formations or they need to do things like that. But if there's five of us sitting with a Starbucks while they're warming up, that's the energy you're gonna get back from them. So we are huge on never not sitting while they're warming up because practices started. And so we're, we're giving them the energy that we are expecting to get back right away when warmups start

Cindy Clough: 14:46

and that's something Ali's been doing yoga two days a week for the kids in the summer, because it's her big thing. She's really into yoga, and she just texts, all the other coaches and she's been doing it early. They're doing weightlifting, two days, they're doing all this ballet two days. They're doing all the stuff it's Because I need you guys there during yoga, not to do it, but to walk around for the lazise. You know, she goes they they need our corrections shows because I can't correct every kid. So we've all been trying to go.

Unknown: 15:12

Yeah, so biggest thing if I if you get anything out of today it's utilizing your warmups properly to set yourselves up to not have to do drills or work on technique. Because once it gets, you know, once October 25 hits you, it feels like you have four minutes to get ready for your first meet, right? And so you don't want to have to be working on that stuff. Utilize your warmup time, to prep yourself for technique. And so that and again, all your stretches that you're doing, you know, really thinking through, you know, if if you're a team that needs to work on hips, then that needs to be four different exercises in your choreographed routine. Your warmup, focusing on hip flexors, focusing on abductors float, focusing on whatever it is that you need to be ready for that day needs to be part of your choreographed warmup. That's only section one. Yeah, here we go. Any questions just on on on warm ups, or starting your practices or different things? Cardio things to get things going? Ideas? Yes. Do you guys do a practice of how they do it a lot in the fall season. We don't do it ever in the winter.

Cindy Clough: 16:27

And we don't do it much in the winter, either once in a while, but we have so much other stuff we're doing now I've heard some teams do it all the time. You know, and yeah, we do it in the fall. Or the summer

Unknown: 16:39

training season. Not competition season. Yep. So just some different exercises, biggest thing for shoulder strength. And the I know, the biggest thing that we're seeing with kids is just posture is so terrible. And as I say that everybody needs this a little bit. Yeah. But like 75 80% of their day, they're like this, because they either have their phone in their hand or their iPad, or their on their laptop, you know, because now they that's what they use at school and things like that. So a lot of our exercises that we're doing in our warmup are really focusing on opening here, okay, and working between the shoulder blades and things like that. So just some utilizing some resistance bands, and things like that, whether it's during during your warmup, that's I should have, I should have brought some but we have, we use, we have resistance bands that we use a lot that were like pulling something apart. And I think I could do it with like a shirt. And using like a T shirt or something as a resistance band. But just having your kids do this for like 30 to 45 seconds each day, and just having them go up and over with their shoulders. A lot of kids can't do that without bending their arms until they do it a lot. But that this right here is just such a huge piece. And even when they're stretching when they're doing their warm ups, focusing on posture, focusing on posture. I mean, my kids are so sick of me talking about shoulders and posture, but it does change the way that they carry themselves, if you're focusing on it a lot during warmup, so we do a lot of resistance bands band training for their shoulders. Then after that, we'll start doing it, where they go there. And then they slimmed down and come all the way up and then you just added a hamstring push in it and stuff like that. So you're getting shoulders and hamstrings at the same time. So that is something you can put in choreograph warmup another stretch is sitting down, having them sit down on the floor, legs straight out in front of them, keeping their knees and ankles all the way together and reaching their arms back as far as they can behind them. And then getting their hands as close together as they possibly can opening this in a way that is very abnormal for them. Have them hold that for 30 seconds to a minute. And they'll be like this on the way back up. Because it's just it stretches something different. So again, they're like sitting on the floor, feet out directly in front of them, and then reaching as far back as they possibly can and getting their hands as close together as possible. Some of them will be all the way flat down on the floor. Some of them will be almost sitting straight up. It's just everybody's bodies a little bit different. But that's just an awesome stretch to open up those shoulders that they aren't don't think about doing sorry, then

Cindy Clough: 19:26

I'm sitting down with my feet hurt.

Unknown: 19:28

That's okay. I still do. I'm just I can't sit still ever I usually can't either, but push ups in a bridge. Okay. We do that towards the very end of our warmup when their backs are really nice and warm. But get them in a bridge position and have them do push ups in a bridge so that they're stretching, you know their shoulders. That's one that's awesome. And then a great one for lower back is when they're in that bridge, keeping their arms as straight as they can and dropping their butt. Down and up. I cannot demonstrate That one, I wish I should have brought a video of one of the kids doing that. But you're in a bridge, keeping your arms as straight as you can. And without bending your arms, have them drop their butt to the floor and come back up. And that's an awesome stretch for their lower back and just below their shoulder blades. Again, it's going to look awkward, they're going to feel totally awkward. But it's just a really good strengthening exercise for that middle to lower back that you want them to hold nice and tight when they're kicking. Any questions on shoulder strength, things like that. We work with a weight room coach, who he'll come in and say, Okay, I can see add about a minute into the routine. Everybody's starting to do this a little bit. So we're going to work some different exercise, really utilize your weight room staff in your school, and get them to speak your language. They get excited, and they geek out over stuff like that. So if you say this particular thing in our dances giving us trouble, what exercises can you give it? They get excited over that stuff. So we really utilize our weight room staff in our school a lot

Cindy Clough: 20:59

neat that yesterday, we had Kim Bagley do it and she gave us so many exercises horrible. So yeah, she's just great. So

Unknown: 21:08

she's awesome. Awesome. Okay, I'm just gonna keep going down the list. And then you guys can ask questions, yeah, later talking about the use of the quads. And I know we had a couple of things about knees, stretching the knees, stretching the knees, stretching through the back of the knee, I would say, I know, I went in and worked with Tiffany's team. And they, they heard me say 1000 times stretch the back of your knees, stretch the back of your knees. That is something that is learned can be learned during warmups. And there's so many different times that during warmups when they're in the runner stretch, and they're just bending that back knee, and they're just hanging out down here because they think they're stretching their left hip flexor will actually what they should be stretching is the back of their knee and their glutes during this stretch. And so there's so many stretches that they're doing, where you need to focus on them almost hyperextending and pressing through the back of their knees. So even when I'm just standing here, am I pushing my heels to the floor and sticking my butt out, I'm stretching through the back of my knees, when they're reaching down, you know, to the floor here, is there a slight bend? Yeah, you want a slight bend up, there's too much pressure, but almost pushing back through the back of their knees so they understand what that feels like. So that they're learning what full extension feels like in the back of their knees. A lot of kids immediately think to get their kick up, they need to tighten their quads. And that is the opposite of what needs to happen. Okay, and they're their kicks, I talked about those lower back exercises their kick, start right here in their, in their core, push through to their lower back, down through their glute, and then out. And when they do that without tightening their quad, that's when you don't, that's when they're, you get the extension and you're not getting the leading with the needs. As soon as they tighten that quad, that's when their knees bend is right here because this quad is too tight. So during your warmup doing stretches that focus on lower back glute all the way through the hamstrings, in the back of their knees, and really pushing through all of those muscles, so that when it comes time for them to lift and actually kick their legs, and you can do it connected, laying on the ground, have them brush and reach out with those legs. Do not tighten that quad use their inner thigh. Okay, that comes from ballet and pas and things like that using their inner thigh on the way up. And the only time they're using their quad is at the top of their kick to pull it down. And that was another thing on the sheet. How do you get them to pull them down, that's when you utilize your quads is on the way back down with your kicks. That was a lot of information in two minutes, I'm sorry, just blurting that all out. So again, focusing during your warmup lower back strong lower back strength, okay, doing a lot of exercises for your glutes, so that they're stretching through their glutes through the top of their hamstring through all the way through their knee. And brushing, a lot of people say up down, we say out, down, out, down, out down. So they're thinking of brushing out with their kicks, not just lifting up, we brush out, pull down, brush out, pull down for kicks, and then not tightening the quad until you get to the very, very top to pull that kick down. What other things

Cindy Clough: 24:16

I just had a thought and it just left me. I just think that the more the longer I've been doing this, I feel like we really have to realize strength is what it's all about. I mean strength and flexibility. You're not going to look good at this unless until you spend that time getting strong and you're going to be able to do anything. We were also saying that jazz dancers are easier are easy to turn into kick dancers if they're strong. You know, it's harder to turn a kick only dancer into jazz, but if you have those basic skills, but so you know, I was used example one time I had abdominal surgery, although you know, a C section, and I had to teach a kick workshop like three weeks later or something and it was like You don't realize how much you're using those inner layers of your core until you have an abdominal surgery or something. But you need to figure out and it made me realize, oh, they really do need strong cores, you know, because that's what it's your health. That's what's helping you lift and so strength, strength, strength, you can't.

Unknown: 25:22

Yeah, a lot more focused on strength training and stretching, less on kicking over and over and over again.

Cindy Clough: 25:28

And I think it's going to help with the overuse injuries, too, if you realize if you have, you know, I had one of my girls lead a class here last summer, we're demoed for us her name was Sammy. And yeah, here, I coach her. But after watching her that class, I was like, Well, no wonder she's so good. It's because she's so strong. She could do anything we threw at her. Ali had all these all these new and same thing with Eva on day one, she's very strong. So those kids are going to be able to do anything. So you really do need to use your time. Go ahead. Somebody had a

Unknown: 26:03

Do you have any tips for teaching kids like the mind muscle connection, especially younger kids that might not have that ballet or studio experience? Mm hmm. Yeah, I would just I would say breaking things down and going through, I mean, just a lot more, especially at the beginning of kick. You're not kicking above the waist, until you need to, like focusing on you know, just the different placements and the different, you know, a lot more DECA Jays a lot more just leg lifts, things like that, until they get the idea of where things need to be placed in the motions of things before just throwing a kick set at them. And they're already throwing their legs up and their hips are going everywhere. But just breaking things down really, really slowly. And, and not kicking up. I mean, and especially like seventh, I know, a lot of people have seventh and eighth graders and stuff on their teams, like when they first get going straights and sides is all they need to know how to do right now. Because that's all their little tiny growing bodies can probably handle the fans and the crossing and the hinging and the stuff like by the 11th grade, they're not going to be able to do anything anymore, because their bodies aren't ready to do that. So focusing on the strength training piece of it and the placement of things first, I know I said this to a couple teams that I've worked with, we don't kick full out until two weeks before our first meet. And so their entire fall season until they get out on the football field and maybe do it during the performance. They're never kicking above shoulder level at practice, because for me, the difference between here and here is adrenaline and a little more flexibility. And so yeah, that a couple weeks before we compete for the first time, we'll be like, Okay, this one's all the way. But 90% of the time, we're kicking at eye level. So all of this is maintained. And that adrenaline is what just gets that last bit of snap up at the top. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's just, it was just like, unnecessary work that, why are we tiring them out on the stuff that their bodies could be trained to do in a different way? And then we're not getting the overuse and they're not developing bad habits. They're gonna get them up when they need to get them up. Those kids that can't. You know, I mean, who Yeah, I mean, sure. I mean, they're all going to be at different levels, but it kind of evens itself out. Where it needs to usually, yeah, we're a less is more for sure. We're a practice less, we're a do less team. Absolutely. For sure. So was that? Did that help answer your question. But yeah, just break down, break down and go slower? Go slower with those kids at first. Yeah. Go for Mark. Mark, Mark time, I would say like, their actual dancing and movement is full out and then kicks are maybe at about eye level. But yeah, marking time, marking time we say is our first performance of the day. Yeah. So but we don't really do marking time anymore. Do we? marking time kind of some some places you do. Some places we don't. But when when we had marking time on a more regular basis? Yeah, that's your that's your first performance of the day. If you go out there and just throw it out there. Then you train your body in that setting. That's what it can do. So we're not a full full out full out. But we're all the technical parts of it are full out I would say. Yeah. We live in Oh, yeah. Those that's just some exercises that Yeah, I think we've talked through that. So, a lot. We've talked a lot about really extensive conditioning and really extensive warm ups. And then at what point do you so you get them stretched and you get them ready for that day? It would be like in between jazz and kick or after you've done kick for about a half an hour. That's when you start doing more of static stretching, partner stretching things. like that when their bodies are already, like sweating and warm, that's when you push flexibility, that's when you push things to go a little further is when they're, maybe their heart rate needs a break, but their bodies are warm enough to push them further than they've ever been. So that's where we get together. And that's an awesome time for us. Because we all practice at the same time, if we're switching between kick and jazz, then you know, it's partner up with someone from JV, let's do these three partner drills or partner exercises or partner stretches or things like that. So we're doing more of our static things in between, after we've already done a bunch of cardio and our bodies are the warmest that they are for the day, that's when we're doing our our hardest stretching, is when our bodies are the most warm for the day

Cindy Clough: 30:47

Musco to this level up kicks. So next, we're going to talk about leveling up kicks. And by that meaning, how do you get higher scores from the judges, like what can you do to get higher scores, we all heard it on day one, left Hicks left kicks, left kicks, and not just opens what and no rocket. But left kicks to open kick sets. And don't just do your hard kicks on your right, make sure you're doing hinges, fans and that type of thing. On your left, they want to see that then other things, varying your rhythmic counts, and having your kicks have some kind of meat to them. Like by showing that you're not just doing straights, and you can do some

Unknown: 31:32

utilizing syncopation I think is a huge thing. You know, having a fan kick take two counts, and then like some quick little footwork or some footwork into a slower kick, and then you know, just changing up your head guides. Using utilizing timing and syncopation in your kicks in, in really utilizing your music. A lot of times your music tells you more than you think it does. And pulling some of those musicality things out are things that I like to play a lot with, with kick sets, is I I'm like I want my body to sing what the music is doing, or what the back beat of the music to is doing or the instrument that you might not hear. And the waltz, you know, those are the kinds of things that we we really try and play with to pull out the dynamics and the again, the musicality to get some of those difficulty points and kicks, but really playing with pace of kicks with speed of kicks, and syncopation and footwork and just just some interesting things to to really change things up. I, I don't know I'm not a huge like, put a left kick into put a left kick in kind of person, because who wants to see an ugly left hinge. But if that's what they want, then that's why you do it. I don't know, then, then I would maybe just have two groups, but the front lines doing right. And the second line is doing left? Maybe and I don't know. But

Cindy Clough: 32:53

yeah, variety of kicks, like making sure you're covering all the different types of kicks, you know, just checking them off a list and going okay, do we have lovers? Do we have fans? Do we have hinge? Do we have flicks do we have you know all the various things.

Unknown: 33:09

I'm, we're huge to not not being obvious with your kicks, if like I know what the next kick is going to be in the set. Like, if, if it seems natural to do an outside kick, then maybe you do an inside on the opposite leg kind of thing. Where like, and that's where like visual effects can come in as if line one can do a write outside. But line two is doing left inside at the same time. Where can you play with visual effects within your kicks, and that for me, creating kick sets with visual effect like that with different group work is fun. And that's where you can gain difficulty points for both kicks, and then visual effectiveness points within your kick sets. Surprise, yeah, yeah, really trying to do the not obvious things. Those are some things that I really like to play along with and using and counts and things like that. Or you have started with the left leg variety, spreading them out from the beginning of the dance to the end of the dance is huge to

Cindy Clough: 34:06

kicks at the end of the dance to show you can sustain your momentum. And the other thing that I think to think about is don't do all your you know, when you hit that kick line, you better look beautiful. It's like you don't want to put something you really can't do in the kick line. That would be something where maybe to cover it up when people are moving or in the back. Kind of like she said you want your left in the front if it's bad. In the kick line you want to have what your the best act in your kick line.

Unknown: 34:36

Absolutely. Yeah, I know we kind of have a kind of a formula but like our first kick kick set is always going to be our kick set that shows our technique. Like right off the bat. We want them to be like we're starting them at a nine you know, or we're starting at 10 if we're really lucky that day, that doesn't happen too often. But you know, our our first kick set technique though technique, I feel like it's hard to get a tenant in. But our first kicks that we're focusing on our technique and showing that we're strong, we're solid, we're prepared for this, that our first kicks, that is showing our technique. Our second kick set is usually where we're like really beefing up the difficulty, we're really playing with the dynamics of the visuals, and the footwork and all of that kind of stuff. For them to be like, okay, they can kick, oh, no, that was hard. You know, because I'm trying to think like a judge where that when, like Cindy said, when you're in your straight line, and you are so exposed, exposed, what you're awesome at, during that, during that time, if your team is awesome at fans and swinging and switching their hips, then go for it. But if that is not your team's jam, then don't put that in the in the space that you are most exposed. And then I think at the end, don't put your hardest kicks at the end of the dance, because do do something that you can maintain your technique with, at the end of the dance. So they're saying at the end of the dance, I would think in a judge's mind that they would want to see strong technique at the end, instead of continuing to throw hard stuff at that makes you look weaker than you maybe are because you're trying to do something you shouldn't be trying to do at the end of the dance. So I would say our last kick set is maybe like our second easiest one, because it's things that we can maintain all the way through to the very end of our dance. So expose your technique, show them what level your technique is going to be at, get a little harder, do what you're very best at, you know, when you're most exposed, and then at the end, maybe scale it back on the difficulty. But show them you can maintain technique at the very, very end when you're choreographing those kick sets. Yeah. As far as, you know, just the technique what, what, what, what resonates with your team, as far as

Cindy Clough: 36:55

she's seen individual unhooked on kicks, correct?

Unknown: 36:58

Yeah, we I mean, we always put them in there. But a lot of our lot of song one of our game day warm up is a lot of balance and posture stuff. And so we're seeing right now this is your individual kick. So they're swinging these legs, and they're doing all these things. This is are you holding this so that when your leg actually has to be up here, instead of just this? Are you there? So they're thinking now how this is going to benefit them later. So that's a huge thing we use during our warmup, too. But yeah, I mean, I like them. They're hard, you know, and we all had to do them a lot a couple of years ago, when we couldn't connect for very much time. And so I like doing that too, for the exposure, but only if they're really strong, is when they're effective. Are you

Cindy Clough: 37:42

strong? Do you have great cardio, because if you don't, and you put them in, they're not gonna look pretty, you know?

Unknown: 37:48

Yeah. But they can be really, really effective. And if you change them, and they're facing different directions and doing different things, individual kicks can be so cool and so effective. But they have to be strong in order to do them. But yeah, we incorporate things in our warmup, and then we talk about this is, this is holding your right side, for those left kicks to stay up and you're on this base leg right now, are you pushing through the four and pulling up through supporting leg like you're gonna need to when you do that, those individual kicks?

Cindy Clough: 38:16

Yeah, some things to think about are moving kids around. Like I do that in our kick line when we're working timing our kick line so that if you're having trouble with the kicks coming down together, you move the kids around. So they're different sizes of legs come down together, not when we're competing, when we're practicing. It's good way to practice the drill. Somebody asked how to get your hinges, your hinge kicks, like tips for hinge kicks, I think it comes, you know, it comes back to you had a little drill like up here where you're holding it, I'm not going to demonstrate it.

Unknown: 38:50

Yeah, it's just where they're connected. And then they're pulsing and they're lifting up here. But again, those are something you can put in like an individual warmup, where they're doing that but then go ahead and have them connected Do you know just lifts to strengthen through those hip flexor muscles and things like that?

Cindy Clough: 39:09

I think for hinge kicks, ballet, I mean, if you can do any kind of ballet at the bar, where the you're doing your extensions, it just really helps strengthen, and it's its strength. And if you're not good at, it's probably because they're not strong. You do need to do them a lot. Some of the things I find that just technique wise is make sure you're hitting that up high kick and then fold into it or some people, they anticipate the fold so it looks like a mess. Another thing someone said that helped them that I said one time was you know when you're going up, pretend you're dinging a bell dinging the bell. So you have that strength behind that, that flick on it, that will help you.

Unknown: 39:48

I think focusing on your base leg a lot too though, like, yes, if they get their hinge up, that's great, but like it's this leg that this leg is what's helping them so your strength and your left glute is what's actually going to help you Do you maintain height of your right hinges? Is that base legs, so a lot more, a lot more, you know, there's a lot of different, you know, exercises that you can do where you're, you know, we're moving their legs around and they're doing this. Well, that's, you know, that's your hinges right there and building up that glute strength for when that other leg is up in the air and things like that. So focusing on the base leg as much as you're focusing on the working leg. Yeah. Obviously, they're going to work out routine. Recover. Yeah,

Cindy Clough: 40:41

we do enough during practice that they can tell them go practices recover.

Unknown: 40:50

I think it's like they know, in order to be prepared for the next day, there's kids who could go home, recover, watch the video a couple times, and be prepared. There's kids who know themselves, you know, will say, when you get back tomorrow, we're not going over this, again, be prepared for this. And then they kind of have to know themselves to know, okay, I'm a kid who's gonna actually have to go home and practice this for an hour to be prepared. Or there's kids, like I said, who could sit watch film from practice, you know, for 15 minutes, and then they're ready to go. So that's more of an individual responsibility thing. on their on their side. But yeah, we don't have like a here's your homework for today kind of thing. Because our one of our biggest focuses this last year was well rounded. And so I felt like my job was get it all in and the time I have them and when they leave me. Yes. Are they thinking about this? And yes, are the choices that they're making outside of this, we hope are beneficial for what they're doing inside of it. But they also have to shut us off at sometimes at some point too. But if it's a kid who needs to practice than they do, if it's a kid who doesn't, I'm okay with that.

Cindy Clough: 41:57

I was just I'm gonna start going through these questions how to get the snap down in kicks to control timing. We talked a little bit about that. But I also will say, I think music speed can play a big difference, you know, if you're not getting your kicks to come down together, like I've watched teams before, where I literally want to speed their music up and go, that's why you're doing this. So you do need to know your music speed, and know how to do a 10. Second check. I also think the drill that I use is first kick, you've got to get that first kicked on. And I really believe like beat ones. If you're not getting that first kick in a kick set set. You got to focus on going there. First kick stop, so that you get it together. Anything else with that? You're like,

Unknown: 42:45

we're 150. And I never speed it up. What does that divide by? I have no idea. I don't even know. But somebody told me. I'm 150. And that's where we usually stay? Well, I know some people thought we were like a 155. We're we're slow. We're slow. Yeah, we're one. I think we started at 150 last year, and I did not speed it up once

Cindy Clough: 43:10

you have 25. Does that mean 25 I do a 10 second check. So I'm checking music. So it's quicker than listening to a whole minute. So I listened to 10 seconds that with my stopwatch and then I know, okay, we're at you're at 25. I think we're at like 26 in a 10 second, which would be 156. Okay, so if you're 150 get what I'm saying? Yeah, you guys are smart. Let's see head guides. I somebody asked a question, how do you get good head guides. I feel like you have to choreograph head guides in when you're learning them. And really be be intentional about that. And sometimes you need to slow down a little when you're teaching them. So bad habits are hard to break. So if you teach them right, like your kid should know if they're kicking on the or if they're doing their head on the prep, or the kick. And some teams don't differentiate, you know, detailed detailed detail is big on heads. Trying to think the other drill I use for head guides as I bring them all together. And I I like Mark Hicks. And if they're close together, I can see whose heads are off or slow or not as hard. So that's just my little thing. hunching. I think getting stronger backs is huge, because a lot of times you tell kids Oh, you're hunting, but you're not they know that. But they can't fix it. So it's probably get them stronger. I mean, being conscious of

Unknown: 44:40

it kicking and start doing drills to strengthen their back.

Cindy Clough: 44:43

Yep. And sometimes we've divided into, you know, issue groups, I call them like, hunters are over here. Feet, people are over here. You know, and we'll go okay. We're going to, you know, six minutes with your issue. You know, you go and that's what you're working on. And I You know, because I have kids that are overly flexible, but not strong, they don't need to do static stretching forever, I want them to be able to like pull their leg down, because they're strong instead of it just going everywhere, you know. So sometimes you got to divide. And that's where assistant coaches come in. Because one person is going to be on feet, that's our issue this your feet, feet, feet, you know, so divide and conquer into groups and don't be making people work on stuff they don't need to work on. leading with the knees we talked about, right?

Unknown: 45:29

That's all in your it's all in your warmup for that part of it.

Cindy Clough: 45:32

Oh, they do what they're doing. So it becomes a habit. Filming I love a lot of filming my my thought is do it on your kicks that you're doing. You know, like, like, if you're doing a kick, just when you teach it be real intentional and yell had had had hold and head you know, so they know where it is. And then you do it with that drill? Because I mean, you could do it. There's all these tightness drills and different things, you got to implement it into the routine. So that's why I don't use a different drill. I use our kicks.

Unknown: 46:20

Yeah, I mean, just I mean, I feel like head guides and things like that are similar to like, turns when they count their turns, their turns are usually on, right. Because they're physically telling their body what to do, where like I'm telling their body what to do, but I don't control them, they control them, when they say it out loud, they are more naturally going to do something when they're they are saying that out loud and telling their body what to do. So that we do that saying that

Cindy Clough: 46:47

realize we're doing that. But yelling it out is great. We do it on spots, too. And I mean, you can't be off on your spot. If you're yelling Spot, Spot spot, you know what you can. But

Unknown: 46:58

that's a different kind of talented though

Cindy Clough: 47:02

that you can be off on anything, but hopefully that it helps them. I think it engages the that part of the brain so that they're thinking about it at least. But I really feel it's in the learning process of heads that you have to learn them correct. Because boy, if you don't catch it right away and somebody learns it wrong, it's just it's such a habit to get it switched. So what else? Yeah.

Unknown: 47:29

It's also almost Tuesdays, or whatever. Yeah, 45 minutes is weight room. Yeah, and, and our strength coach will kind of see where we're at in the season. See what our competition schedule looks like for that week. Or if it's like a rest week, when we don't have a competition, then he's pushing harder in certain areas. And he tailors that whatever they're doing in the weight room based on what our week looks like and what we need if it's a jazz competition week, versus a kick competition week that changes up what he does, too. Yeah, our yoga sculpt is 45 minutes. We're like, like an hour feels too long to do anything to me. So we're like a 45 minute for each thing. That's I'd have to

Cindy Clough: 48:09

leave the room during 45 minute yoga. Helped me like, gotta keep going, we gotta get going. So

Unknown: 48:19

yeah, but Ellen leads that not me. That's for someone else jumps in. Yeah, utilizing different coaches for different things is definitely what we do. Are we got like five more minutes other questions just feet, I mean, yeah, all that's all during during their warm ups. That's and a lot of it's not just toes, it's like ankles, stretching through the top of their ankles.

Cindy Clough: 48:51

It's flexibility in your feet and screen.

Unknown: 48:55

And so utilize utilizing that during your warmup. So, you know, have him go up and relevant and then have them go over the top of their toes and have them do plays over the top of their toes. So they're stretching the top of their feet, and their ankles in the front of their ankles, too. I mean, that's a huge part of it is ankle strength and ankle flexibility is a huge part of stretched feet. We use a lot of resistance bands, like each kid has a little pack of three, like the red, blue and green and they're sitting next to them during warm ups and they're stretching their feet and stuff during warm ups. So using bands a lot during feet, feet and they each have their own with their name on it so that their feet don't touch other people's.

Cindy Clough: 49:33

That would be gross. Yeah. Yeah. That's good. There's so many things you get you can do for feet like our, our physical therapist guy had the kids picking marbles up and putting them in a solo cup. And just you know, today didn't Kim's talk about the towel yesterday. So I tried that this morning. I took a shower and I was just like scrunching the towel with my feet and it really does. I mean, you can really feel that so I mean that'd be something every day when you take a shower, scratch towel 20 times with your feet and I mean, they just have to be conscious of it and

Unknown: 50:08

yeah, incorporating more exercises into everyday things so you spend less time on him during practice. That's That's it.

Cindy Clough: 50:16

I hope this helps you. She's amazing and yeah, so she did my dishes yesterday when she got to my dad

Unknown: 50:30

thank you for listening to anything but routine. If you liked the podcast, give us a five star rating or hit that subscribe button. We'll see you next time.