Sports and ballet

I recently went to the ballet for the first time, to see a major production by the Australian Ballet company of the classic "Romeo and Juliet". To say the least it was eye opening - even from our nose-bleed seats - for the scale of the whole performance...it was spectacular. But during some of the slower moments of the show I started noticing similarities between the ballet and sports, and what things we can learn from professional ballet because often it is only when we think laterally that you see where opportunities are for development and improvement.

To start with, one obvious difference is that ballet is non-competitive (although the film "Black Swan" might suggest otherwise!!), without any sign of a start or finish line. Ballet is primarily an artistic expression of a story in a way that is like poetry in motion, with all the grace, beauty and smoothness of a fairy tale. But once you start to look at the dancers, the sets and more the similarities appear...along with things we can learn from.

Starting with the dancers...they are amazing. Like all specialists, they have physically evolved to suit the needs of their performance both in appearance and how they move - duck feet everywhere!!! These dancers have evolved during their career to develop the characteristics to support their activity, honed by hours and hours of practice and rehearsal. Their skill and control of movement is equal to top athletes in any sport, where the principle dancers are the highest ranked ones at the top of their game.

The sets on stage are large and elaborate, providing the setting for a performance that would otherwise lack context. The sets create a scene, and do far more than simply provide background and colour. The sets are much like a race village and finish chute, where without them a finish line would simply be a line in the dirt. Like the sets, a race finish arch provides focus for the effort being put in by athletes, with the orchestra providing the live music.

Ballet performance seems to be a mix of abstract and random movements, but choreographed into a sequence that portrays the story being told. But if you saw a dancer without the context of sets and choreography it would seem to be random, surrounded by support dancers weaving and twisting across the stage...at least that is how it appears to my unfamiliar eye. I often think this is how a triathlon looks to similarly unfamiliar eyes, where there are races within races due to wave starts for different age groups - people are swimming, riding and running everywhere in seemingly chaotic fashion, but to a person who understand the nature of such events, the competition is clear. Each pursuit - and every sport - has aficionados who see and understand the intricacies being demonstrated and the people who are doing them.

These are just three areas where I could see similaries between ballet and sports, and as I pondered further there were also lessons to be learned from the ballet, not just the performance I was witnessing on stage but what must happening behind the scenes and in practice.

These top ballet dancers are so good because of endless practice, but I would venture to say that beyond the basic skills of dancing, there would be volumes of 'deliberate practice', that is, concentration and thought towards every movement and it's role in the overal performance. Think of a dance instructor correcting what is seemingly a minor alignment in a dancer's routine, which might seem trivial but if it was left unattended might lead to further small routine flaws...each of which adds up. As the old saying goes, only perfect practice makes perfect.

The lesson is that when in training, practice and refine every aspect of your performance as if you were doing it in a race...because eventually you will be. Train with the perfection you want to race with.

Continuing that theme, the dancers seemed to move on auto-pilot as if this show was their life purpose. In reality, they had rehearsed the performance so much that it was automatic, like a singer who performs the same songs at every concert so the words and tunes are automatic. Rehearsal would have been repetitive, boring, tiring, demanding and more, but that was necessary to achieve the final outcome.

The lesson is that sports training is also repetitive boring, tiring, demanding and more, but that is also necessary to perform in races. Rob de Castella used to day that (elite) running is 99.9% drudgery, and 0.1% glamour. I think he over stated the glamour aspect.

The final lesson I learned is that the best dancers are all-rounders. They could have stepped into any of the other roles and excelled. They had worked on all aspects of their dance performance so that nothing was lacking, and it would have been this dedication that led to them being the best dancers and filling the lead roles. Carry this over to sports and it is clear you need to work on all aspects of your fitness and performance, and while you will never be able to run like Usain Bolt AND Kenenisa Bekele, your should include elements of each type of training in your overall, year-round program to round out your performance.

The actual story of Romeo and Juliet we saw is well known, and although we couldn't understand why some parts performed as they were, in looking back on the show the story was clear...which a credit to the dancers and director who brought a story to life simply through music and dance. The final product, however, was the combined result of so many things and contributing elements that to consider them all is mind boggling. It's the same with sports performance, where success goes to those who firstly see the whole picture, and secondly who act upon it.