It's the week before a big competition and you want to do everything you can to prepare. Here are five steps you shouldn't miss when planning out your last week. Meeting with your Person Nerves are flying high the last week, especially the day of. When we're nervous, it is more challenging to make decisions and problem solve. Let's control our controllables and plan a meeting with "your person" to go over both the last few days leading up to the competition and the entire competition day. "Your person" is the one who is with you throughout that day, many times a parent or guardian. We want ..read more

PART 1: Understanding Anxiety and How it Effects your Irish Dancer Performance Raise your hand if you, or someone you know, deals with anxiety within some aspect of Irish dance? I can imagine that many of your hands are raised high in the air (along with me) right now. If you are someone who suffers from anxiety with your Irish dancing, you are not alone. Anxiety can show itself in a number of different ways (fear of injury or falling, debilitating nerves on competition days, inability to eat, etc) and on a wide range of levels. And anxiety can be scary when it begins to impair your dance pe ..read more

As dancers, we often struggle with the idea of taking a “rest day” - a day which is set aside for rest or on which one departs from a normal or usual routine. With the countdown to the next feis or major constantly reminding you how many days are left before you take the stage, taking a full day to not dance seems like the wrong thing to do. More practice = better performance, right? However, rest days are vital to both your physical and psychological recovery and performance. When utilized properly, this recovery allows you continue training at the highest level possible in preparation for ..read more

If you've been online and have gone down a rabbit hole, searching for flexibility exercises, I can guarantee you've heard countless specialists talk about mobility. And there's a reason for that, it's effective. Active mobility refers to exercises that increase your range of motion through controlled movements. This type of movement is impactful for Irish dancers to complete before their dance classes or while working on their overall flexibility outside of class. Few notes to think about while performing your mobility exercises. Focus on your breath, trying to relax your body while takin ..read more

"Poof! That was like magic!" This was the exclamation I heard from a dancer after showing them a simple, yet highly effective, Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF) sequence. Of course, it's not magic. It's the science of human movement. Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF) is a stretching technique that has shown to have a positive impact on improving active and passive range of motions by increasing a muscle's elasticity. By contracting and relaxing specific muscles groups, we're able to relax and lengthen the muscle spindles, improving overall flexibility. Two ty ..read more

Too many times, I’ve see dancers come to us at Target Training frustrated by their lack of flexibility and wanting help. They stretch but are seeing minimal results when it comes to their click and kick height. Then they loose interest, are back at square one and the cycle continues. Over the past couple of months, and in preparation for the Six Week Stretch Lab starting May 19, 2024, I’ve been diving into the world of flexibility to better understand what’s limiting a dancer’s flexibility and the various tools, modalities and theories to improving flexibility. Let me tell you, it’s so m ..read more

Too many times, I’ve see dancers come to us at Target Training frustrated by their lack of flexibility and wanting help. They stretch but are seeing minimal results when it comes to their click and kick height. Then they loose interest, are back at square one and the cycle continues. Over the past couple of months, and in preparation for the Six Week Stretch Lab starting May 19, 2024, I’ve been diving into the world of flexibility to better understand what’s limiting a dancer’s flexibility and the various tools, modalities and theories to improving flexibility. Let me tell you, it’s so much m ..read more

It can be confusing. You keep getting that one comment in class and at competitions even though you're thinking about it when you dance. You've drilled at home, made some improvements, but you get your feis results back and HELLO, there's that pesky comment again. Here's 6 Tips to Help you Fix Corrections in Irish Dance Understand the correction Get real with yourself for a minute. Do you actually know what the correction means? What to do: Double check with your teacher. When they ask you to make a correction, make sure that you're interpreting what they mean. Show them, "like this ..read more

Your 2024 World Championships Training Guide is here! The 2024 World Championships are just around the corner. Whether this is your first World Championships or your tenth, take a second to be proud of your hard work and recognize that you have earned your place on that stage. As we head into the final days before the World Championships, you're probably feeling a combination of nerves and excitement. This training guide has everything you need to help keep your body and mind strong as you head to the biggest stage in Irish dance. Good luck to all competitors and happy training! Team Target Tr ..read more

When you imagine an Irish dance warmup, you may picture a half-hearted jog around a dance studio (or competition venue) followed by some light, static stretching and running through your steps. However, there is so much more to developing a well designed warmup that prepares your body and mind for dance. Research indicates the best warmups are well-planned, with exercises and content that directly relate to the goals of the training session (1). For Irish dancers, that means a warmup that will prepare your body for improved technique and the high demands of Irish dance. Ready to perform at yo ..read more