I have been learning a number of dances which require foxtrot hold (tango/blues/rocker) and I am finding it hard to keep my left arm far enough back without it affecting my body position or making my shoulder hurt . We have been using the version of the hold which is just simply waltz hold with both skaters turned to face forward. My skating partner said that a lot of women bring their arm around behind the mans shoulder for certain parts of the dances to get around this problem. Can anyone advise me if this is allowed for testing/competitions or must the hand/arm be kept in front of the mans shoulder? (I live in the UK.) Hope this description makes sense! Any suggestions of other ways around this problem/stretches that might help to increase the flexiblity of my shoulder/other ideas would be gratefully received!

Thanks
Anna

Foxtrot hold can be done that way, at least in the US, but your coach may not want you to do so.

I have a British coach but live in US...when I first started working with him, I tried to do Foxtrot hold and put my left palm against his right shoulder blade, and he wouldn't let me get away with it.

What works best for me is to make sure that I'm lifting my left elbow so that it's not "leaning" on his right arm (the palm of which is against my left shoulder blade). As you do this make sure that you don't roll the shoulder forward, otherwise it will throw off the alignment of the hold and risk rotator cuff injury. Try and isolate the left shoulder blade and left lat and pull down with the lat muscle.

Also be sure to pull down somewhat on your right side/shoulder blade so that you're not leaning onto partner with your body. This will give you a bit more clearance as well. Sometimes making sure that you're not strongly leading with your right upper body/shoulder will also give a bit of space. And remember, your right arm/hand clasped in partner's hand should be leading and be in line with the point at which the partner's right shoulder and your left shoulder come close to touching.

Hope this helps.

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Thanks, thinking about what I'm doing with my left elbow might help. I'll have to keep practicing the arm position against a wall or something so I get used to stretching in that direction!

You do get used to it! I used to hate it, but now it's my favourite hold, I think - we can get a lot more speed & flow over the ice (in our free dance) in the steps we do in Foxtrot hold.

All the same, I still think my coach is evil when he makes us do a whole length of forward cross-rolls in Foxtrot hold (which isn't to say we don't do them ourselves in our practices, we sometimes do, just that the coach is evil when he makes us do them!).

My coach says it's okay to hold the man's shoulder-blade, although I find it's actually easier not to!

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Mrs Redboots
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It sounds as though you are setting up to work on the side pattern in the Paso! Good for your coach to get you started on this!

I don't know anyone who is that picky about that hold -- I used to kind of go for the shoulder blade and then my hand would creep up to the back of my coach's neck. He accused me of trying to strangle him -- then I would back off. I saw his neck as a sort of a handle!

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Thanks, everyone seems to put their hand somewhere different for that hold! I haven't been accused of trying to strangle anyone yet with it so I'll take that as a good sign !! I find my shoulder is ok for things like the end of the Paso, its the bits where you are twisted round more which give me a problem like in the tango before the swing mohawk or the blues before and during the choctaw! Oh well, I'm sure it will get better with practice!
Anna x