Posts Tagged ‘agility’
Eight-Count Drills
Posted on: May 17, 2012
Here’s something to work on if you feel so inclined…
This drill is great for coordination and agility, and sort of a mind-bender as well.
What you do is take your normal eight-count lindy footwork (step-step-triple step, step-step-triple step) and substitute jazz steps for some of the counts.
Say you’re using a jazz step that takes three beats. The first time through you substitute this jazz step for beats 1-3 of your lindy footwork, and then continue on with your normal &4, 5, 6, 7&8. Second time through, you stick it in on beats 2-4; third time, on beats 3-5, and so on. You do what you have to in order to end up on the proper foot to start the next eight counts – usually means throwing in a ball-change.
When you’ve done that all the way through, then you start over using opposite-role footwork, lead/follow-wise. Instead of starting everything with your right foot, if you’re a follow, do the whole thing again starting on the left side.
There are a bajillion jazz steps you could use for this. Here’s some suggestions, in an order I consider easiest to hardest:
- Tick-tocks (out-in-out) – 3 beats
- Turn in place, either direction (this is the same thing as my turning exercise) – 2 beats
- Tabby to either side (down, rotate, up) – 3 beats
- Leg lock, twist, twist (either in front or behind) – 3 beats
- Half-break on either side (forward rock step, kick ball-change) – 4 beats
Ladies, for extra credit, practice this in your heels!
