Self-reported wellness profiles: comparing professional ballet dancers to professional athletes

Athlete Management Systems (AMS) have been found to be critically important for performance preparation and monitoring in professional sport. Subjective ratings of wellness (fatigue and stress) within the professional sporting industry appear sensitive to changes in work-demands and provide a useful tool to monitor adaptive responses to the rigorous demands of training, competition, and life as a professional athlete. Significant improvements in ratings of wellness (stress, sleep quality and quantity) in professional sport have been found following performance periods, demonstrating the sensitivity of wellness changes in training and competition/performance phases. At a professional level, ballet dancers must be experts in the aesthetic and technical aspects of the art, psychologically prepared and manage injury effectively. In the Australian Performing Arts Industry, self-reported wellness profiles relative to work-related activity and performance periods have not been established. To identify if professional ballet dancer wellness profiles align with professional athletes, this research aimed to compare self-reported wellness profiles of professional ballet dancers and professional athletes within the context of elite high-level performance.