Why Footballers Should Study Ballet

What a weird opening!  What's that about?

Training for any specific activity requires specific training - if you want to be a runner you need to do lots of running, if you want to be a swimmer you want to do lots of swimming and if you want to play football - you have to play lots of football!

However, training for specificity can have its drawbacks when it's excludes any other component of fitness.  And there are adaptations that your body can make in one activity that can be of huge benefits in another activity.

There's an idea called Cross Training where other sports and activities are taken that complement particular aspects of the actual spirt or activity that's being trained for - for example, swimming is largely an upper body exercise, however it requires a good cardio-pulmonary system (strong heart and lungs) that can extract maximum oxygen from a breath due to being able to take fewer breaths while swimming - the effect for running can be an increase in the body's ability to work aerobically.

Cross Training is also a good idea where a particular sort or activity largely ignores an energy system or muscle group - for example cyclists spend a lot of their time hunched over their handlebars, which can be really bad for the back - back strengthening exercises can help prevent longer term problems.

So what's that got to do with footballers and ballet?  Well, footballers often suffer from hamstring injuries which caused by the rapid extension of the knee as the hamstring (the big set if muscles at the back of the leg) contract eccentrically (ie lengthen under tension) … and that can cause a tear.

Ballerinas almost never suffer from such injuries because they work on both strengthening their legs and their flexibility.  A study published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine also concluded that lower extremity injuries in solders could also be drastically reduced by increasing hamstring flexibility.

Perhaps footballers should do a spot of ballet!  Ok, the ballet thing isn't really a serious proposition for cross training footballers, but the idea that drawing on components in one activity to support another activity you do, possibly even on a recovery day, can yield great benefits.

So what else do ballerinas have in common with footballers apart from a need to be able to flex the hips and extend the knees without rolling on the floor in agony?  Both are Drama Queens!