Make my ankles stronger in ballet?

Question:

Make my ankles stronger in ballet?

I want to go on point eventually. How can I make my foot arch better and make my ankles strong in ballet?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Do alot of releves and eleves. Eleves work your foot and arch harder because you dont use a plie to get to the balls of your feet. Just stand in first and second and rise slowly until you're fully over the balls of your feet. Just a few of these and you should definitely feel the muscles in your feet working.

It's very important that you concentrate all your weight on the first and second toes. When your muscles get tired you're going to want to start rocking back onto the little toes. In pointe correct weight placement is very important.

A little exercise to try for working your arches:

1) Sitting upright on the floor place your legs straight out in front of you, knees and feet together. The sequence is feet-toes-toes-feet.

Feet- pointe your arch to the floor without curving your toes over
Toes- now finish the point by curving your toes (this is the standard pointed toe position)
Toes- keep the arch elongated and just raise the toes back up towards you
Feet- now the arch comes back up so your feet are in the flexed position.

You want to try to point as low to the floor as you can in this exercise. And when you flex your foot try to imagine that you want to touch the tops of your toes to the front of your calf. I know it's physically impossible but just the effort will do the trick. Just do this exercise while you're at home watching tv or listening to music, maybe for 10 or 15 at a time, 4 or 5 days a week. You should get increased flexibility in your arch which is definitely good for pointe.

Another exercise: Sit on the floor with your knees bent like your going to do a sit up. Keep your feet flat on the floor and have someone sit on them or hold the instep of your feet firmly. Now scoot back all the way until your legs are straight out in front of you, knees straight. The other person will still have a hold on your feet and your arch should look amazing in that position. Now they will let go and you try to hold that foot position.

But don't have them apply too much pressure to your feet. You don't want to tear anything. Just enough pressure to keep your feet from coming completely up will be enough..

Good luck.