FAD Blog: How to Improve Your Toe Points!

Wed, 15 May 2013

FAD blog

how to improve your toe points!

Hi All,

I hope you all enjoyed my blog about the USASF Cheerleading and Dance Worlds last week! This week I am giving you tips on ‘How to Improve Your Toe Point!’ Toe Points in dancing are very important; toe points are the thing that can make a routine look great rather than good!! No matter how basic you dance or movements are you are going to have to point your toes; there is simply no dancing without it! :-)

Now to give away a little secret... Toe Points should really be called Pointing your Foot - Because that is what you are doing, stretching through your ankle and foot to make the foot into a perfect arch.

The beautifully pointed foot is the most recognisable image of most dancing styles. So use these 5 Tips below to help you achieve the beautifully pointed foot.

5 Tips and Exercises to Improve your Toe Points:

Toe Points should not look like a ‘claw.’ This is probably one the most common mistakes when pointing your toes. I.e. curling them up under your foot with no foot extension and making your foot look like a claw. No, No, No – Yucky! Dancers always want a nice extended foot through their toe point. :-)
Start by sitting on the floor to work your toe points. Sit with your legs extended out in front of you, flex your foot up to the roof to tighten your leg muscles with your heel lifting off the floor, then stretch the ball of your foot away from you while keeping your leg and foot muscles tight and once your heel comes in to contact with the floor push through your toes to complete your toe point. By pushing the ball of your foot towards the floor first you will achieve the pointing through the ankle and foot to then continue with the toes.
Once you have achieved the extended position in the point above try to maximise your arch by pulling up through the top of your foot. Pretend there is a string connected to the top of your foot and it is pulling your foot up to the roof to increase the size of your arch.
Not all toe points are just on the end of a straight leg, toe points are also needed in positions such as the Attitude and Liberty where the leg is bent at the knee. If your knee is bent ensure that is still a nice extension through the ankle and foot. If you are performing things with a straight leg there should be a complete extension from your hips right through to your toes.
Last thing... You don’t want to have a sickled foot in your toe points... Sickle means that your foot has curled around and inwards at the ankle rather than staying in straight line from the knee this happens when you bunch the muscles in your foot too much. Make sure you keep the muscle in your leg and foot extended to prevent this from happening.