5 Ways to Improve Your Toe Point
Written by: Kelly Laws and Samia Mooney.
Your toe point, like any muscle in your body, can be stretched in order to increase your range of motion. Learning how to stretch and strengthen your toe point can be extremely helpful in colorguard as it is a part of almost any piece of choreography! Here are some helpful stretches and strengthening exercises that help us improve our toe point!
1. Towel Exercise:
Take a small hand towel and lay it flat on the floor. While seated, take your foot and place it flat on the towel with your knee bent. Practice trying to grab the towel by scrunching your toes towards your body. This will help with the articulation of your toes specifically and can be transferred to your toe point!
2. Theraband Exercises:
Therabands are great for helping you not only stretch muscles, but strengthen them at the same time! To stretch your toe point muscles, take a theraband and wrap it around the ball of your foot. While seated, gently pull both sides of the theraband toward your body. With this resistance, alternate between pointing and flexing your foot slowly and with control.
3. Exercise for the ligaments in the top of your foot:
While standing, cross one foot over the other foot while pointing and gently press it into the floor. For an even deeper stretch, take a small plie with the standing leg. This should stretch and lengthen the ligaments that run along the top of your foot!
4. Flex, Point, and Turnout Exercise:
While seated with your legs out in front of you, alternate between pointing in parallel, turning out with your point, flexing while turned out, and flexing parallel. This series of different positions will help stretch the muscles that help you point your foot and it will help with articulation through the different positions of your foot!
5. Calf Raises:
Calf raises are a great way to strengthen the muscles in your ankle! Your ankle is super important in being able to point your toes with your full range of motion, so it is very helpful to make sure they are strong. Stand with your feet in first position, and slowly raise into releve and back down to standing. Make sure that your knees are tracking over your toes and you are maintaining your turnout as you do these in order to protect your knees! Try doing 20 reps of calf raises 3 times with a small stretch in between, and then increase as you feel your calves and ankles getting stronger!
For more key information on foot positions and other dance fundamentals, check out Samia Mooney's dance course! The course is packed full of techniques and exercises to make you a better dancer! And it’s coming from a professional who knows what she’s talking about—Samia is the Director of Dance at Avon High School, the Movement Coordinator for the world-class Bluecoats Drum & Bugle Corps, and she has extensive experience as a professional dancer, including in the Tony Award winning production Blast!
