Danny Amendola and Witney Carson Reveal the Secret Behind Their DWTS Lifts and Tricks: ‘Like Football’ (Exclusive)

Danny Amendola and Witney Carson are letting fans in on a little secret.

Talking to PEOPLE after the Halloween episode of Dancing with the Stars, the former NFL wide receiver opened up about how the pair manages to do their complex moves on the dance floor. Amendola revealed he took a tip from his football days to help build his confidence in his lifts and tricks.

“We watch a lot of tape,” he said. “Honestly, it sounds like a football interview, but we watch a lot of film and we try to study other dancers — what they’ve done — and we try to tweak it ourselves a little bit and just put a good performance together on Tuesday night.”

As for the fan love for their extravagant dances, like the one this week where Amendola tossed Carson in the air and caught her, Carson said the pair couldn’t be more grateful for the support.

“It’s meant the world to us, honestly,” she gushed. “I feel like you could be the best dancer and have all the best scores, but it doesn’t really matter if the people aren’t voting. The fact that people are wanting to see us every week is really cool and we really appreciate it so much because we want to keep dancing.”

Scoring their first 10 of the season in week 7, the partners said they’re excited to have finally met the milestone.

“We feel so excited about our first 10,” Carson said “It just is really satisfying to see that people are seeing us as a competitor in this competition, which is really nice.”

“We’re happy,” Amendola added. “We put a lot of work in last week. We’re excited. We keep growing, keep getting better every week. That’s the goal. We’re going to try to keep doing that.”

For Halloween week, Carson choreographed an Argentine Tango to “Poison” by RAVN to represent Amendola’s biggest fear of meeting a real-life snake (which happened during rehearsals). 

“The snake is a slimy, disgusting creature. It’s giving me the heebie-jeebies,” he told the cameras. “I handled the snake. Now it’s time to handle the Argentine Tango.”

Amendola proved his determination as he lifted and twirled Carson in an impressive performance.

“I need an antidote. You can bite me anytime!” judge Derek Hough joked while Carrie Ann Inaba added, “Those lifts were so difficult. You were so on point with the character.”

Dancing with the Stars airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and Disney+. Episodes can be streamed the next day on Hulu and Disney+.