Professional gymnasts are always looking for ways to perfect their techniques and gain competitive advantages, which is why many turn to ballet as a cross-training tool. Gymnastics is an incredibly demanding sport with varying degrees of technical challenge, all of which need posture, flexibility, strength, and endurance on top of the base gymnastics skill itself. Many gymnasts look for ways, outside of gymnastics, to hone their abilities, so many turn to ballet.
Gymnasts looking to take their skill to the next level should consider taking ballet. Ballet can help your gymnast improve their posture, balance, breathing, and overall endurance for high-demand sports. Ballet also helps to build body awareness and is an excellent tool for injury rehabilitation and injury prevention. If you are looking to help your gymnast enhance all of the components that go into a good routine, ballet may be the answer you are looking for.
When examining the benefits of ballet for any athlete, it is essential to look at the skills of the sport they are in versus the skills they will gain from ballet. Below, we will overview the overall benefits of ballet and gymnastics, followed by the range of difficulty for gymnastics versus ballet, which is more physically demanding than ballet’s strength and endurance benefits. Finally, we will overview how ballet helps to enhance flexibility and breathing techniques in gymnasts.
What are the benefits of doing both?
One of the main benefits of doing both ballet and gymnastics is injury prevention. Cross-training in different types of sports helps to work other muscle groups and strengthen joints. Overworking particular areas of the body without maintaining the surrounding areas leads to a higher chance of injury. The addition of a different type of activity can strengthen the surrounding muscle groups, which will help offset the risk of injury when doing repetitive movements within gymnastics. Gymnasts will also benefit from ballet because ballet helps to strengthen the hips, knees, and ankles, which will decrease injury likelihood as well as help with routines.
For the same reasons that ballet is good for injury prevention, it is also beneficial for rehabilitation after an injury. Professional football players often use ballet as a way to prevent and rehabilitate injuries acquired on the football field. Many professional gymnasts also utilize dance for this reason. Strengthening all muscle groups is an excellent way to support an injury while recovering. Cross-training is the best way to limit overuse and prepare the body for when overuse does happen.
Is gymnastics harder than ballet?
Many parents of gymnasts ask if gymnastics is harder than ballet. The answer is that ballet and gymnastics are pretty different in terms of physical requirements. While both are particularly challenging in different ways, neither is overall more challenging than the other. While gymnastics takes a great deal of endurance and use of all of the body’s muscles, dance requires intense strength of the legs and core while emphasizing musicality and posture. There is a great deal of cross-over in requirements between the two activities, however.
While ballet emphasizes posture and balance, many gymnasts could utilize these skills in their routines. On the other hand, Gymnasts need a great deal of strength in all muscle systems, which dancers could use to strengthen their dancing.
Which is more physically demanding?
The physical demands of ballet and gymnastics are quite different. Gymnastics is often done in a short burst of extremes amounts of strength and agility, while ballet is often done in many long bursts with less extreme requirements. Gymnasts are required to have muscle strength throughout the body. Vaulting, floor exercises, uneven bars, and the balance beam all need leg, core, and upper body strength while also requiring balance and technique—ballet is often more demanding of leg and core strength.
While gymnastics routines only need a short burst of high physical demands, the process of strengthening all of the muscle groups to be able to accomplish these skills is very demanding. Overall, gymnastics requires higher physical demands than ballet but, ballet is still a handy cross-training tool.
If gymnastics is more physically demanding, how will it help my gymnast perform better?
The results are surprisingly straightforward. Athletes who partake in ballet are overall better. They can practice and hone skills that are often left out of their typical training that allow them to compete at higher levels with more precision in their abilities and overall endurance and strength.
Remembering routines
One particular reason that ballet is suitable for gymnasts is because of the high intensity of routine memorization. Ballet exercises may only be shown once before an athlete is expected to memorize the move and repeat it in sequence. This can be helpful for gymnastics skills such as floor routines. Gymnasts will learn how to remember exercises at a faster pace and then perform them immediately.
Ballet also requires athletes to memorize moves while thinking about the positions of their legs, arms, the point of their toes, and timing all at the same time. This level of multitasking will help any athlete to be able to work at a higher level with more efficiency, with less practice.
Strength and Endurance
While ballet may be slightly less physically demanding than gymnastics, it can still increase strength and endurance. Ballet and gymnastics require different muscle groups. This means that when you are cross-training in both sports, you will have to build strength in a wider variety of muscle groups. Ballet also helps increase endurance because routines are often longer, and gymnasts will have to work in more extended amounts of time at a high level compared to what they might be used to in their gymnastics competitions.
Ballet uses a lot of long holds and repetition. Ballet uses slow movements that are working along with muscle groups in particular ways to build muscle. Balancing, which ballet also requires the engagement of the leg, back, and core muscles simultaneously throughout the entire time due to ballet requiring you to balance on your toes.
Flexibility, balance, and breathing
Flexibility, balance, and tempered breathing are all assets to gymnasts and skills to hone through ballet. Balance that can strengthen balance beam routines can be gained through performing on one’s toes in ballet. Ballet dancers perform exact movements, all while balancing on their toes. Improper balance in gymnastics can lead to point reduction and even injury. The soft power that ballet dancers use to balance can help your gymnast stick landings.
Flexibility is essential to both sports. Ballet emphasizes flexibility and will, in turn, help with flexibility overall. Muscles can become tense and are at a greater risk of injury if they are not loose and stretched before an activity. Ballet dancers focus on extension and length in movements that demand flexibility. Ballet movements are different from those used in gymnastics, meaning that other body areas will be stretched in new ways. Overall flexibility will help any gymnast’s length and sharpness in their movements which will aid them in their routines.
Breathing is another aspect of ballet that can aid in gymnastics. Ballet dancers are trained to keep their breathing slow and relaxed, keeping them balanced, focused, and calm. When moving into a high-demand activity like gymnastics, having the basics of breath counting and inhaling through your nose, and exhaling through your mouth will help you not breathe heavily during competitions. Heaving in the air during strenuous physical exercise can result in a lack of oxygen and hinder your athlete’s performance.
Overall Benefit
Ballet is a tremendous asset to gymnasts. Cross-training in ballet will first and foremost help to prevent injuries. By strengthening new muscle groups, stretching, and adding new movements, your gymnast’s body will be more prepared for gymnastics’ rigorous activities. The increased strength training, specifically of the lower joints and muscles, will help protect from tears, sprains, and other injuries that could bench an athlete. Ballet also helps to enhance enduranc
e. The flexibility, balance, and breathe control are just added benefits that will help your gymnast become a more well-rounded athlete with better control of each routine. Athletes in nearly every high-intensity sport are encouraged to cross-train in ballet to hone their skills. Besides all of the benefits above, ballet’s musicality and grace will help gymnasts in more performative routines such as floor and beam. If you want your gymnast to have a leg up on competitive and move up levels in their gymnastics career, it would be beneficial to consider ballet classes. There are many benefits to ballet for gymnasts and few negatives. All gymnasts should take ballet.