Reducing injury in youth ballet with our partners Podium Analytics
Our students’ health and wellbeing will never shift from the top of our priority list, alongside our deep commitment to ensuring that they can reach their individual potential, safely. It goes without saying that we take reducing and preventing injury incredibly seriously.
We’re therefore pleased to be entering into a partnership with Podium Analytics (Podium) the NGO and charity committed to reducing injury in sport.
Podium will support the School by enhancing our existing injury prevention and management processes via its SportSmart platform. It will enable teachers and coaches to log, track, monitor and manage injuries sustained during physical activity.
Our multidisciplinary healthcare team already collects data on dancers between the age of 11 and 19 to understand the key stages in a students’ growth and development – both physical and psychological – as they balance academic work with an elite artistic education and a comprehensive supplementary training programme.
At the same time, Podium will benefit from injury insights gathered by The Royal Ballet School.
The injury data collected by its expert team and via the SportSmart platform will help build a better understanding of injury risk and impact over time, and to find solutions that aim to significantly reduce injury that can be applied across all sport.
Karen Sheriff, Head of Healthcare at The Royal Ballet School, said:
Podium Analytics is uniquely placed to support us with our research at The Royal Ballet School. We are committed to delivering the highest standards of care to our young, developing dancers to help them reach and fulfil their potential safely and successfully. For us, injury prevention is the ultimate objective, and we are so excited to be joining Podium on its journey to create a safer world of sport.
Glenn Hunter, Director of Research and Innovation at Podium Analytics, said:
Podium and The Royal Ballet School are aligned in an ambition to reduce injury and enable long-term participation. The information the school collects will be instrumental in helping us better understand the links between exposure and injury occurrence. We look forward to working together to deliver real change, and in liberating young people to fully express themselves through dance.
Photo ©2021 Royal Ballet School. Photographed by Photography by ASH
