Somersault festival

After entering an Instagram competition held by @vitacocouk, my sister and I were delighted to win tickets to Somersault Festival in North Devon. We have only ever attended one other festival, V fest (for the past 5 years), which appeared to have a completely different vibe to Somersault so we were excited so see what it was all about.

We received tickets and 4 huge boxes of vitacoco coconut water in the post. The band tickets were for the long weekend (it ran from 23^rd- 27^th July), however we only attended on the Sunday as we were travelling to Devon on the Saturday for our annual 2 week holiday in North Devon.

 

Our treats from @Vitacocouk

 

It was BRILLIANT! In fact we bought an additional ticket for my boyfriend so he didn’t miss out on the fun. We had packed a few cartons of our prize coconut water and headed to the festival where we were dropped off by family. (Luckily we hadn’t parked as the tractors were hauling cars out of the mud).

Armed with wellies and raincoats we made our way to the centre of activity, checking out all the shop and activity tents along the way. At the centre was a huge beautiful tent stage decorated with bunting and lights. Surrounding this were bars, all the best food stops you could dream of, clothing and craft tents. My dinner for the evening consisted of falafel with a tasty mixed homemade salad, while the others grabbed a meaty beef burger and a burrito.

The Main Stage

 

There was a section of the festival I completely fell in love with. This was an area dedicated to health and wellbeing. To access it you walked over a pretty stone bridge. Here sports masseuses worked and yoga classes were run – my favourite. Unfortunately we missed the yoga class but next year I hope to attend a few.

The Pretty Stone Bridge

 

One of the many yoga tents

After we had toured around the site we stopped to listen to the wonderful Jimmy Cliffe, whose reggae music brought happiness and sunshine to the rain which was coming down on us festival-goers. I couldn't resist a good boogie with my sister and boyfriend. Other artists of the weekend included, Passenger, Imelda May, Laura Marling, Bombay Bicycle Club and many more.

Dancing to Jimmy Cliffe

 

At the Vitacoco tent the three of us enjoyed freebies of black coconut oil coffee- I enjoyed it, however the others did not. But that’s just a taste thing. We all like different things! The Vitacoco tent was very chilled out and had its own dj and set of bean bags to lie on while sipping your Vitacoco drinks. It was nice cosy place to escape from the main festival for a while whilst enjoying a warm drink.

The Vitacoco Tent

 

Throughout the day we also visited the Pukka Tea tent (my particular favourite), where we were able to sample a range of different teas in the form of shots (something which made us giggle as we threw our heads back to drink it). The lady also gave us a huge number of sample tea bags to take away for free. These teas were perfect for the weather, which again had turned cloudy and cold.

The Pukka Tent

 

There was just so much to do, we definitely needed a good four days there to appreciate all the activities. Things I wish I had seen/attended but didn’t get chance to were the Surfers Against Sewage talks, watch the Gorilla Circus, hear more artists on the stage and chill out with some tent yoga.

Directions to events

 

Next year is a must! I would recommend this festival to all ages – I even want to take my parents! This is definitely a festival for the free-spirits, fun lovers and adventurers. Don’t expect too much crazy like you would find at other festivals. Both my sister and I agreed that this festival was far better than V fest due to no idiots attending(everyone simply wishes to enjoy themselves), it is a smaller festival and therefore cosier and less easy to get lost, and just the general vibe and activities were more suited to us. We just wish we had heard of it before and would like to thank @vitacocouk for giving us the chance to attend!

Here are a few more photos from the day...



 

 

 

 

 

Hope to see you there next year,

ellieee x

 

'You're Hired' Book Review

Easy to read, to the point and well written, this book is perfect for anyone interested in excelling in the world of Strength and Conditioning or looking into the possibility of joining.

This book was recommended to me by the head Strength and Conditioning coach at Teesside University the summer before I started by studies.

The book, written by the incredibly well experienced and qualified coach Nick Grantham gives you tasks along the way to assess and re assess your progression towards your goals. He is blunt, but in a way which inspires you to prove him wrong, that you do dream of being an S&C coach. Not for the glory of working with a famous team or sports man/woman but of enhancing their performance to make them the best athletes they can become.

You learn of Nicks own interesting journey to become the great coach he is now, how to stand out from the crowd, get experience, reach out to experienced coaches, what to read and why, the key to networking, your physical and mental development as a coach and how to go about job hunting. He really covers all the essentials of making the most of your skills. I particularly found this tasks helpful to see where I was in my learning/career, where I wished to head and how well I am progressing through my own steps towards my end goal. I love to make lists and plan so this was perfect for me.

I would definitely recommend this book to other S&C coaches, students and also others wishing to work within sport. The approach of tasks and hard hitting truth can be applied to all fields such as sports therapy and sports coaching. I would definitely have found e-book useful to read during my undergraduate degree in Sports Therapy.

Even better, this books proceeds go towards Marie Curie and the Richard Holmes Memorial Award in memory of a young S&C coach, Richard Holmes, who unfortunately passed away in 2013.

Get your copy of this e-book through Amazon (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Youre-Hired-Nick-Grantham-ebook/dp/B00MENQMEE)or the apple store.

New blog info

Hi all,

So I have decided to expand my blog to focus more broadly on Strength and Conditioning, and additionally my lifestyle and fitness fun. I shall keep updating you on dance conditioning, however I wanted to look to broaden my audience to advise and help with health and fitness.

I shall aim to keep you up-to-date with my latest adventures keeping dancers, rugby and American footballers fit and healthy, as well as looking at new health food on the market and fitness fashion etc.

I look forward to sharing my tips with you,

 

ellieee x

The Dancers Profession

Dance is a demanding profession. It is an activity which is not usually regarded as a sport, yet the demands of a dancer are just as high as those of Olympic athletes. Dancers require the psychological readiness, motor control and aerobic and anaerobic capacity that is required of athletes, yet dance is more complex. In addition, there is a required element of personal artistry by which an individual dancer performs to achieve an aesthetic goal of clean lines, high elevation, precision, poise and grace whilst maintaining the endurance to perform anaerobically on-off for 30-60seconds (e.g. a series of adagios). As well as requiring the strength to hold limbs against gravity and the speed to move efficiently in a coordinated, effortless rhythmic manner. Thus dancers must be physically ‘fit’, however only 40% of fitness may be linked to genetics, leaving 60% to the dancer’s regular training, diet and appropriate lifestyle. Research, however has indicated that dancers are generally not as physically well-conditioned as sporting athletes by holding lower anaerobic values. It is reported that aerobic fitness varies also within the genres of dance as modern dancers hold higher anaerobic power outputs than ballet dancers. However, anaerobic fitness of contemporary and ballet dancers was found to be that of a similar level to a normal sporting population in a review by Angioi et al. (2009).

Additional challenges for dancers may arise for those whose company’s tour. The demands of traveling to new venues every few days, adapting to different theatres, climates, cuisine and climates adds to the demands placed on them. These are all challenges which professionals must learn to cope, deal and adapt with.

The life of a student is organised differently to that of a professional but still as demanding. Performances may be less regular, however there are greater technical classes, projects and academic work. In addition to dance studies, many students have an outside job to pay for their everyday needs. Young dancers often rely on their teachers and their young bodies to negotiate the physical stresses of dance. However dancers need take responsibility for their own bodies if they are to have a long fruitful career without injury.

Dancers must remember that their body is their instrument which needs to be kept well-tuned to the demands of their profession.

In the next post I shall be looking at the essential skills required of a dancer and his or her body.

 Start strong, finish stronger!

References

Allen, N., Nevill, A., Brooks, J., Koutedakis, Y., & Wyon, M. (2012). Ballet injuries: injury incidence and severity over 1 year. journal of orthopaedic & sports physical therapy, 42(9), 781-A1.

Baldari, C., & Guidetti, L. (2001). VO~ 2~ m~ a~ x, ventilatory and anaerobic thresholds in rhythmic gymnasts and young female dancers. Journal of sports medicine and physical fitness, 41(2), 177-182.

Brinson, P., & Dick, F. (1996). Fit to Dance?: The Report of the National Inquiry Into Dancers' Health and Injury. Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.

Koutedakis, Y., & Jamurtas, A. (2004). The dancer as a performing athlete. Sports Medicine, 34(10), 651-661.

Russell, J. A. (2013). Preventing dance injuries: current perspectives. Open access journal of sports medicine, 4, 199.

Welsh, T. (2009). Conditioning for dancers. University Press of Florida.