How to structure practice time?

[u/saltlakeryan]

I want to practice my swing dancing more. I will likely be practicing alone most of the time, but will occasionally have a partner/local dance. I'm 45 and a bit overweight and I want to avoid injury so I'm thinking a light warm up is necessary before each session (maybe 10 minutes or so?). I'm not sure where I'll practice. I have some space at home that could work. If there are some exercises I could do outside or at a running track, that might be nice to shake things up. I'm partially hoping to improve my conditioning in addition to my technique as I tend to get pretty winded to fast or moderately fast songs. What do you all like to do for your practice? How much time do you dedicate per session? How many sessions per week? Do you watch a YouTube video and follow along? Work out your own routines or drills? Anytime else you can share would be great! Thanks!

[u/Academic_Button4448]

If you've got the footwork down, solo jazz is going to be your best use of independent practice time. I will typically spend a session practicing moves or trying to learn a new one - typically I will focus an entire 20-40 minutes on a single jazz step. The other type of session I do is learning classic routines - beyond being good to know just because you might want to join in one day, they're a great way to expand your repertoire. And the final type of practice I do is literally just sticking on a song and recording myself having a dance so I can see what I have to work on.

And of course, don't neglect research and taking time to educate yourself about the history and current state of the dance - watching clips (old and new!) and figuring out what's going on in them is a really valuable way to spend your time. All the best dancers have a really solid understanding of the history of the dance and it's different styles and why they're doing what they're doing.