I always stretch my Achilles tendons as best (and as safely) as I can -- usually pressing my foot up against a wall and slowly pushing the leg toward the wall to get a good stretch of that tendon. My wife and I do a lot of fitness yoga as well, so most of those stretches and poses aren't a bad idea before heading over to the studio.
I saw the replay of Misty's injury and, knowing what a great athlete she is and that she surely stretched her muscles a bit before starting her rehearsal, it looked to be one of those fluke landings -- on a hard surface with the heel hitting first and the rest of the leg bent slightly forward. The perfect storm for an Achilles injury, if you will. She was practicing the Lindy with tennis shoes on. Again, a setup for potential injury. She probably felt "free-wheeling" in her tennis shoes, which she is in far more than dance shoes on a regular basis, and probably went a bit overboard in excitement and exuberance in doing this fast dance. It was a sad turn of events for her and Max, who also is one of the more popular dancers on the show.

Thanks for your description of the actual injury. As I said, I only read about it.

I am positively amazed that Max allowed her to work out in shoes with gripping soles. Trying to turn the foot against the floor resistance created by such shoes puts tremendous stress on the Achilles' tendons.

As successful as he has been at dancing, Chmerkovskiy may not be all that bright.

jj

No he was not on any medication. For him he was playing a freindly game of basketball, and it happened in an instant.

Just like Misty where she heard it and thought she hit the stair he too explained it as a very large pop sound... He knew it was over for him then!!

Three weeks ago one of the contestants on our Dancing With The Stars who was a very recent world boxing champion. As part of his routine was practising a lift. He displaced a rib which caused the lung to flatten. Even though he was in great pain he still competed and is still in. The injury is still a problem for him.
There is another lesson to be learnt here. One of our other lady competitors who practised without gloves. Wore silk gloves on camera. That was nearly a disaster. She lost her grip caused through the gloves slipping.
Misty May would have been better off practising in stocking or bare feet.

I have noticed at some recent Swing Dance nights here in town that the real Swing "pros" are wearing some type of Swing shoes that I am not really familiar with -- almost look like a cross between a bowling shoe and a tennis shoe. I would venture to guess that maybe that's the kind of shoe Misty was wearing at the time. Max and Edita did the dance the night after, as kind of a tribute to Misty, but I didn't notice the shoes. I know Misty mentioned that she was fired up about being able to do a dance in tennis shoes, but they may have been what these young kids are calling Swing shoes these days.
My dance shoes are the nicest shoes in my closet, yet they are the most comfortable as well because they've been used the most. The leather bottoms, which are becoming harder to find in a regular dress shoe, have been replaced a few times!

The lecturer that "Polished" mentioned about gently stretching the ankles sideways was on the right track especially for Ballet where there are a lot of jumps. The World Dance Plaza brought out an article some time ago completely devoted to stretching for dancers. It covered 29 pages. If anyone cares to "surf the net" there are some good pages on stretching before practice and performance. Some years ago whilst we were training, our studio was used by a top overseas professional couple who were to demonstrate the following day at a show. They spent 30 minutes in a warmup and stretching routine before they performed one step of their routines. I now see them occasionally, and next time I do I will tell them that "A few minutes of moderately brisk walking suffices to warm up leg muscles"

In my past life as a hunter/jumper competitor, someone was *always* barking out "Put your heels down!", so we used to hang off the edge of a step by the balls of our feet to stretch out the tendon.

How *stupid* that was, in retrospect, to do that with both feet, sometimes in slick leather-soled boots... what if we'd slipped and snapped something? Still, there's merit in the exercise, if you keep one foot on the ground and don't just dead-weight into your heels... like Lord George Morris the DragonMaster would have you to do.

Diva, the stretch that you describe is a good one when done properly.

Unfortunately, many folks make the mistake of bouncing up and down in that position, one of the worst things that one can do while stretching.

jj

stardust, if you'll pay attention to the context of the remark then you'll see that it was a response to anymouse's post about not stretching cold muscles and anymouse is correct.

I never claimed that a few minutes of walking would substitute for stretching.

Bodybuilding great Lee Haney used to have a local fitness show in Atlanta and always warned about trying to stretch cold hamstrings. He would point out that five to ten minutes of any light exercise - including brisk walking bike pedaling, or gentle rope skipping - would warm the legs up enough for stretching.

jj

Boy...timing is everything.

Last night, I had one of those craaaazy dreams where A Big Black Dawg was chasing me (no analyses please... it's complicated), but just before I woke up (or because of it I did) he clamped his fangs right into my fat little right calf. I woke up with one of those ripping crying-out doubling-over charlie horse spasms in my calf. Thanks, Anubis or Cujo, or whomever, right?

Everything was fine after I massaged it out (thank you, Origins) and whatnot, until tonight, was dancing foxytrot with foxybritches student and right around the clubhouse turn, OW OW OW! there it went, the invisible dog gnawing on my leg!

I had to stop the damn dance, hobble into the kitchen, and get out the bottle of horse liniment (Yes) I keep on hand (ThermaFlex, only because I can't find the good Equi-Tite anymore), then head to the bathroom (was wearing jeans- couldn't just hike up and smear on), and then hobble back with people looking at me like wtf.

Ow.