bd5times Posted July 22, 2005 Share Posted July 22, 2005 (edited) I think competition is great, so long as it's kept in perspective. The competitive aspect of drum corps has propelled many corps to perform far better than if there were no competition. The lack of competition, or the lack of a competitive attitude can hurt corps (i.e. Madison's drop from finals). Now that they have changed their focus, they are climbing the ranks. Being competitive does not imply that you are not performing for the fans in the stands. From my experience, it's given the fans in the stands the chance to witness stellar performances. Let's assume you're in a corps that has no inkling of being competitive. All of the members come off the field saying they did their best......did they? What's their definition of doing their best? Must be that feel good thing. The corps I was in always strove to perform better than it performed before. Better than the previous run through, better than the previous show, better than the previous year, better than the best corps in the organizations history. We were constantly challenged to be better. We competed against ourselves every day and the mantra thrown out at us during rehearsals was..."You have to beat the Blue Devils".......we were the Blue Devils! We didn't always win shows, all of which we deserved our placements. There were many shows we lost where we did not do our best as a corps. Perhaps as individuals, many did their best, but not as the corps. There were many times we lost and as a corps did our absolute best at that time....but we knew we could do better do the next time. And we strove to do that. There were times we won when we did not have our best performance. We got lucky and needed to be better than next time out. You can be competitive with yourself, perform for the fans, and have a great time. Being competitive, entertaining, supporting your competitors, and performing for the fans are not mutually exclusive ideals. Edited July 22, 2005 by bd5times Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penguin Posted July 22, 2005 Share Posted July 22, 2005 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKBari Posted July 22, 2005 Share Posted July 22, 2005 Absolutely true....every show I lost was due to politics......but I never won due to politics, we deserved those victories. Never figured out how the judges were able to get so many shows right and the rest wrong. Baffling..... <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I'll concur, because I questioned the judges sanity when it came to you finals scores in 83-85. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lerbass3 Posted July 26, 2005 Share Posted July 26, 2005 (edited) Sure, the main goal of drum corps is to entertain the crowd, not get a higher score thatn your opponent, but imagine drum corps without scores. You would lose the excellence in the shows. Scores give the members something to strive for, and motivate them. If you didn't have that drive to make your score go up, your show would just stay pretty much the same all summer. Yes, there is a part in me that wants to just make the show better so people will like it, but most people in the stands don't appreciate a whole corps marching with the same style in their feet or playing notes perfectly. Judges, and in turn scores, do. Edited July 26, 2005 by lerbass3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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