If your son or daughter is a budding ballet dancer, you've likely heard and seen the benefits ballet can offer. From increasing strength and agility to developing concentration and rhythm, this style of dance can be great for a child's mind and body. However, when your child starts to reach more elite levels of dance, you'll start to see problems as well as benefits arising out of their training. That's why incorporating regular physiotherapist visits into your child's regime is so important. Here are 3 reasons you should contact a physio specialist for your child.

Physio Helps Prepare Your Child for Training

If your son or daughter has decided they want to pursue ballet at a competitive or professional level, they'll have to increase their hours of training. Ballet dancers looking to pursue a dance career will eventually have to reach a 24- to 30-hour weekly training schedule when they reach the age of 16. While part of the preparation from this training will come in the form of ballet instruction, your child's strength and endurance will need to improve just as much as their understanding of the dance.

One of the biggest focuses of any sports or dance physiotherapist is helping their patients enhance their core strength and cardiovascular capacity. A physiotherapist can develop an exercise plan that works alongside your child's ballet training to strengthen their muscles and joins, build their core strength, and boost their heart health to increase stamina. This will ensure that, when the time to increase training hours comes, your son or daughter is physically ready.

Physio Prevents Career-Threatening Injuries

Minor injuries like simple sprains and tears can be unavoidable for many ballet dancers, but it's important to prevent more serious damage to the body. Some injuries, such as a lisfranc injury, can end a young dancer's career before it even happens. This is an especially big concern if you have a daughter in ballet, as girls must go en pointe, putting more pressure on delicate bones and muscles.

Physiotherapists can help avoid these devastating injuries in several ways. Firstly, as mentioned above, they'll ensure your child's body can meet the demands of training, reducing the risk of them getting hurt by overextending. Alongside that, a physiotherapist can also educate your child on best practices to avoid such injuries. They'll teach your son or daughter a range of safety information, such as how to prevent injury when falling. Finally, if your child does suffer a minor injury, a physiotherapist will use exercise and massage techniques to facilitate healing, preventing a small pain from turning into a big problem later down the line.