The Stressed Wrist

Dances:  Nightclub 2-Step, Waltz, Tango, Viennese Waltz, Foxtrot, Quickstep
Part:  Lead
Workout:  Chest and shoulders at the gym.

It's hard to ensure that your workout at the end of the week is equally intense as that of the beginning.  Usually by Friday I'm pretty torn up and ready for the weekend break.  Still, chest and shoulders are pretty important so I can't afford to skimp out.

Our round today was pretty average and not much to write about.  We not dying after them anymore which is progress.  My sadistic partner had decided of all the days in the week, Friday was the one to work on the Rumba Crosses in Quickstep.  For those of you who don't know, this step is intense (at least compared to the other ones in our routine).  Not only does it require absolute precision, but also a fair amount of energy each time.  Sarah has been having trouble getting her legs to naturally cross in this step.  For the man, crossing his legs is very awkward as well since you need to bring your right leg to cross behind the left.  On top of this, timing is an issue as well.  We're just not in sync enough here.  Sarah also kept running her knees into mine so an adjustment needed to be made.  We ran through it many times today and I think its slowly coming together.

One thing I've been telling Sarah is that my right wrist is really strained and quite sore by the end of our round.  I'm not sure what it is, but usually by the Viennese Waltz, that wrist is starting to die.  We really need to figure out what is causing this.  I'm sure one of our frames or positions is warped.  Sarah has this hypothesis that since our connection in the hips is getting better that means there will be less connection up top (since she can extend further out).  I can see how that might very well be the issue, but even then I think the follow needs to "follow" the guys frame.  If the hypothesis is true, my frame is tighter up top.  That means she won't be able to extend as much.  I'm not saying it's a good thing, but she shouldn't fight it.   It's like driving a Civic versus a Celica or Ferrari or BMW.  Each car has it's limits, and you can only push each one so far before you loose traction and spin out.  As the follow (in this example the driver of the car), you need to be aware of what those limitations are and drive only up to them, not past.  Hopefully in time, the car gets upgraded and the limits expanded.  For now, like Jerry Seinfeld says (in reference to medication):  Give me maximum strength.  Find out what will kill me, then back it off a little bit.