I always look out for the "hours trained" stats on ITT but while it 'seems' to me the same couples train the most week-by-week and the same ones appear at the bottom of the list, has anyone actually kept track if that's actually the case (i.e it appears to me ali & brian are top of the hours trained and phil tufnell is bottom!) (apologies if this is discussed elsewhere on this forum, couldnt find it ) Mainly i was wondering whether the hours trained has a direct correlation with the scores couples are getting from the judges, or whether in the end, hours in the training room is no competition for natural talent

Couldn't answer your question off the top of my head, but Louisa Lytton's jive was a very famous example of when that was not the case. She had by far the least amount of training that week.

I think the answer is definitely that it does. I'm sorry but I can't remember the exact week of this series but Ricky W had a very heavy schedule for Hollyoaks and his training hours were down, it really showed on the Saturday night.

I think there are lots of factors to take into account and training hours is just one of them. Someone who does less training might be better at picking up the routines so their training can be 'polishing' rather than just 'learning' I also think that too much training can sometimes be counter productive as you can get tired and stale.

Mark Ramprakash and Karen Hardy trained the most in series 4 and they won.

good point hadnt considered that side of it. less is more sometimes! I think Natalie & vincent were towards the top of the hours trained, but it didnt seem to me that the hours alone are going to be enough to rescue their jive

Alesha and Matthew also trained the most in seres 5 and won. However I still think its not the main reason.

well Brendan & Jo seemed to be putting plenty of hours in and it didn't do them any good

and tom must have been among the top hours last series? or did it just appear that way ?

I have never seen any good sets of stats on training.

If it were that simple I think we'd have been told. Anyway some of the celebs are still working (yes, Ricky W, we mean you, I believe you did mention it once) and some may be resting so perhaps they don't publish the hours routinely because it would be discouraging to those who had a lot of commitments. You know, like preparing for a wedding or something - not that that's ever happened that I know of.

And can you imagine being Karen Hardy's pupil? Eeeeek. I bet she cracked that whip. Good thing Ramps seemed to enjoy it.

I seem to recall someone on these boards saying that Alesha & Matt also topped the training hours in their series as well (Although I could be wrong)

This is very true. It can also be a matter of quality rather than quantity as well. Just like I can sit at my desk for four hours one day and another day get as much done in two depending on mood, tiredness etc IYKWIM.

It does help but you need the talent too - poor Andrew Castle and Mark Foster training like demons and it did them no good at all. Sometimes the 5% inspiration makes all the difference.

Ditto for Craig and Flavia this year.

Delightfully true. Some will never make good dancers no matter if they trained 24/7.
Then again I like the idea that not everyone can be good at everything.