How ballet training could learn from football and rugby, says report

A new study from researchers in our Department for Health with colleagues at Bristol suggests that current practices for grouping and evaluating young dancers in ballet could be counterproductive, potentially placing late maturing girls at a significant disadvantage during important phases of their development and at greater risk for injury. The researchers behind the study published in the  Journal of Adolescence , point to a new approach to training known as 'bio-banding', something that groups individuals by their biological rather than chronological age and is growing in prominence for other sports including football and rugby. The researchers also stress the pivotal role of the teacher at this time and how the provision of further education for dance teachers regarding the implications of puberty upon dance training may be helpful. Challenges for traditional training in dance. Dancers in vocational training are grouped by age and can begin full-time training from as young as 11, often training for up to 6 days a week. Girls of the same age do, however, vary greatly in biological age with some maturing in advance or delay of others. Therefore, differences in the timing of maturity have important implications for talent identification and development, as well as self-esteem.