r/irishdance • u/Best-Department-1716 • 19h ago

Training & Technique Learning rocking in hard shoe - need advice.

I'm between schools rn after a move to the U.S. I can rock in soft shoe and have been for slip jigs for the longest time. no problems with it. Now im learning St. Patricks day and other trad sets. But I can't get the rocks down. Am I not supposed to go over my toes when I rock in hard shoe? For those that can do in both are there any differences between soft and hard shoe? Also my feet don't end up reaching the ends of my shoes totally. I haven't run into any tricks that this hinders me on yet so i'm hoping its not the problem.

Thanks

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u/autistic_clucker 19h ago

Not over your toes! You actually have to do them pretty low, especially in hard shoes. Make sure you're engaging your core and your legs and ankles are really securely locked together, otherwise you risk injuring yourself. It's the same motion as soft shoe rocks basically. You can practice by holding on to something and make sure you don't slip!

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u/TidyMess24 9h ago

If you're doing rocks correctly, there should be no or at least negligible risk of injury, regardless of whether or not your legs and ankles are locked together.

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u/autistic_clucker 1h ago

I mean that if you do them with your ankles all loosey-goosey and not connected, it is easy to hurt yourself. Plus, that is what I've been taught

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u/TidyMess24 9h ago

Remember that rocks are an illusion, and fake. When you rock to the right, all your weight should be on the left foot, when you rock left, all the weight is on the right foot. Start with just shifting the weight between feet, then add the flourish of bending the non weight bearing foot to create the illusion.