I see for most college dance team tryouts toe touches are required. My dance team never does them at all and lets just say my toe touch leaves MUCH to be desired.

it seems to me like I'm turning in and I dont get very much height at all, while my center leap is alot better.

My computer is broken but I might be able to upload a video soon I have a year and I really want to my toe touch higher.

Like any jump it requires flexability and strength. I would say toe touches (or russians as we call them lol) require more strength.

Your legs muscles need to be strong to first achieve a great plié to get into the air as high as you can. And your core needs to be very strong as well (like any jump) to hold yourself up there.
- also continue to work on flexability.
- and do lots of jumps straight up and down trying to get as high as you can on each one.

As you have a year, I'm sure as long as you continue practicing you will have an amazing toe touch. Good luck and I hope I've helped!

tiny
p.s. Could you ask your teacher at your studio if you could work on them a bit more?

well our dance team coach is also the school's varsity cheerleading coach so after I get to know her I will probably ask for some tips.

theres stuff (or there used to be) on varsity.com about getting better toe touches. but from personal experience, I was able to get really good toe touches by working out my abs everynight- not only will the core strenght help your toe touches, it will make your stomach look fabulous! i also stretched everynight- wokring on splits, over splits, pulling through after stretching in a stradle. then, most of all just practicing.

First, before you even think about ever doing a toe touch, visualize. If you can't see what a perfect toe touch looks like in your mind, you'll never be able to do one. once you're done visualizing, practice the motions without the jump. if you're not getting the motion right, no matter how many times you practice them incorrectly they'll still look bad. so work on doing the toe touches just like you would do them if you were doing a perfect real one. Look up, good posture, arms tight, pull up in your center, plee-ay, everything perfect until you get to the jump. Then when you jump, do a modified toe touch, one that is low, but your toes are pointed, your legs are turned out and they snap up and down. practice that until it's second nature. and when that's perfect, gradually bring your legs up higher, until you get the level you want.

remember this probably won't take a day so get the feel for things. so take your time, and try to do at least 10 toe touches a night. have a friend, or a parent, or sibling watch. if they dont know anything about toe touches, cool! explain to them in detail what you're doing, cuz then you're internalizing what you need to do.

Good luck, and have fun! And dont be afraid to ask anyone who knows how to do a toe touch correctly for help. you can watch theirs, and you can get help with yours!!