Hyperextension

[Guest dancergal]

My knees are pretty hyperextended. If I stand in first with my knees fully straight, my feet are about 3 or 4 inches apart. But I have never known whether I should fully straighten my legs to the point where my knees are hyperextended, or if I should keep them slightly bent. See, I take dance classes at two different places: at academic school during the day, and at my regular studio afterwards. And at my academic school, the teachers keep telling me to slightly bend my knees, because my hyperextension is making me rock back into my heels. But then, at my regular ballet school, they don't encourage us to bend our knees like that if we are hyperextended. They just let us keep our knees fully straight. In fact, at my academic school, it was the first time I had been told to slightly bend my knees.

 

So now I am in the habit of slightly bending my knees when I am at academic school, and fully straightening them when I am at regular ballet school. And I know that this cannot be good for me, but I don't know what I am supposed to do.

[Mel Johnson]

In the final analysis, you will use the "slightly bent" configuration. Your knees will last a great deal longer.

[Victoria Leigh]

But don't forget that, when your legs have that much hyperextension, when you think they are bent, they are probably just "normally" straight! My guess is that you were working with your weight back in your heels, which forces the hyperextension instead of correcting it. By adjusting your alignment and your weight placement, you will be able to straighten your knees without hyperextending them.

[La_Bailarina]

I'm very very hyperextended (If I push all the way back into my hyperextension, my feet can be a good ten inches apart and my knees will still touch) and every teacher I've ever had has told me to do something different with it. Several teachers have told me that learning to control and work with my hyperextension is my only major technical issue at the moment and once I learn to control it, everything else will fall into place fairly nicely. I took it as a compliment, but I can't for the life of me figure out a method that is correct and works for me. If I keep my legs straight (not hyperextended), I feel really insecure and unstable (and my knees feel VERY bent) but if I pull up in my quads I hyperextend.

 

Is there some other method of working with my hyperextension that might work better for me? Is it possible to decrease the amount of hyperextension that I have? Are there any exercises I can do to improve my control that I have over working with my hyperextension? At this point, I'm willing to try almost anything.

[Victoria Leigh]

La Bailarina, I think everything we know about hyperextension has been written. Start with my answer above. Then hit the Search button and type in hyperextension. There should be information on this forum and the other YD forum, lots of it!