How do I improve my stamina as an Irish Dancer?

‘How do I improve my stamina?’ We hear this all the time! It seems like every dancer wants to know the secret. Here’s the thing, there’s no big mystery. No big secret. Just these simple points…

Firstly, it is not all about cardio fitness. It’s about muscular endurance and muscle memory. Running for 20 minutes at a steady pace won’t work for Irish dancers but 20 minutes of interval sprints would be a lot better. Our dances don’t last for 20 minutes at a steady pace, so why would we train our stamina in that way? Replicate dancing by doing high intensity work for a shorter period of time, and repeat. We all know that we are all very busy people and so we need our stamina training to be smart! Use your time wisely. 

How often does this happen in your dance class - your teacher shouts ‘time for full dances’ or ‘time for stamina work’ and what do you hear around class? ‘I can’t do this’, ‘this is going to be awful’, ‘I’m going to die dancing this Jig’. 

How do we expect to perform well when we go into it thinking in such a negative way? Changing the way we talk about stamina to ourselves and each other can improve the way we perform. Try going into your full dance or stamina training thinking about the positives of doing your full dance, telling yourself you can do it and reminding yourself of how this is going to make you feel more prepared when it gets to feis days. Language is so important. 

Finally, you are never going to improve anything in Irish dancing when you cut corners - so make sure you’re giving your stamina training your all. Only giving 70% to your stamina training is never going to improve your stamina. We have to give 100% to our stamina training in order to see rapid improvements. 

But remember, Irish dancing in general and stamina training in particular takes a toll on our body, so we need to incorporate rest into our schedule too. Resting allows our bodies to recuperate, to build muscle and prevent injury. Swimming is a great way to recover from dance class whilst still working on improving our stamina.

See, no big secret to improving stamina. Simply training in the most effective way, using our language to help us rather than hinder us, give it 100% and rest! So, when are you going to start?