Looks Like Liquid Purple

I completely believe that 15 guards will get above a 90 in prelims and even semis, but like wolfgang said, they are going to spread the scores during finals to ensure that the correct placements are made.

I was standing near them in retreat, and just based on looks I don't think that they were all under 23, so I pretty sure Europe doesn't have a restriction. (although I could just be bad at telling how old people are. I do that sometimes.)

This point doesn't really make much sense to me. I mean, there are some girls in Braddock who do nothing but dance, and I haven't seen anyone giving them crap about it, and in any number of shows you can say that certain performers do nothing but dance and spin flag. I'm not really sure why just dancing is any different; if they're executing it and it is effective then it doesn't matter.

Eh. Not really. I've always disliked performing in Florida. If you're from Florida, you're instantly loved and cheered for no matter what. If you're from anywhere else... well, too bad for you. Really, go and listen on replay, especially to the lack of response to Blessed Sac's show.

Actually, I think that makes sense (not the part about the semi's scheduling, I don't understand that at all). Because IO only has three rounds, I would work the same way as SA, but with only 3 guards at a time: The top three are all in different rounds, and then (like basketball) the next three are placed in reverse order: 3 with 4, 2 with 5, and 1 with 6. The one thing that I really don't know is how big the 'blocks' are, but I think the top six works.

Well, I know how it works for SA, so it should be similar for IO: 1. Rankings are created based on a 1.5 pt. growth per week (not 2.0 like guardbuzz says. Or at least that's what I heard from my instructor, it could be incorrect). 2. The top 8 guards are placed in one of the eight rounds. I'm not sure how they choose which round, but none of the top eight go in the same round. 3. Guards #9-16 are also placed in different rounds. And I think it's similar to basketball: 16 gets placed in the same round as 1; 8 and 9 are also in the same round. 4. This continues in groups of 8 until the top forty have been placed. There should be five guards in each round, and these five guards will be the last five time slots in the round. These five slots will be randomly assigned. This is why you can have a guard ranked 2nd go on three spots before a guard ranked 38th. 5. Steps 2-4 are repeated with #41-80, and then #81-120, continuing as necessary. So with in one round there should be multiple 'blocks' of five guards similar to each other in ranking. I'm not sure if I completely agree with the system, but I do like that it places more importance on how you do at worlds itself, not just the regionals.

Really, if you're going to argue about what is acceptable and what is not... you might want to try asking the students. I'm a high school student right now and really like that show. I would have LOVED to perform in it. Yes, it was dirty and that's part of why it didn't score better, but if you watch the WGI video with the close ups, the performers are giving it everything they have. It's amazing how into it they get, and they go all out with the costuming and hair too. I'm also not really sure why it would be considered inappropriate for high school students to perform Dante's Inferno when many high school students are required to read the book.

They were a world guard. I'm not entirely sure why they folded; I know that the year after "7 Deadly Sins" was pretty unsuccessful for them (that was 2005, the Amadeus show) and they didn't make finals at worlds. That might have absolutely nothing to do with why they folded, but it's the only information I have.

...but...but, that doesn't work! Mathematically, I mean. Area of pole + Area of silk, notttt length of pole x length of silk. Ahh! (I am such a nerd sometimes ) But I understand. Dropping a flag is just one of those things that sucks because you're like "how could this HAPPEN?"

I think it's just your circuit (or perhaps that is normal and my circuit is different). That seems waaay too short. I know a fair number of middle schools and novice guards that haven't even finished their shows yet! In my circuit, everyone has championships the same weekend (1st weekend of April), and it's a really big event with about 130 groups.

How necessary is it for your performer to do her drill? We had a girl who had appendicitis and had surgery last sunday who we needed at the Richmond regional for the way some of the props have to move. We through her in a sling and had her move her prop at the right times and sit the rest of the time. Now granted, she didn't march all her drill because she was still doing pretty bad, but you didn't really notice the hole that much.

I'm not sure, but if so, they certainly planned it better than the year before. In '06 they sold us (as performers in A class) tickets for seats behind the curtain and we had to spend the entire time seat hopping (aka sitting in a vacant seat until the owner of the real ticket comes along). Last year we had permanent seats!

I understand where you're coming from. I'm a senior in a guard made up mostly of sophomores who haven't been on varsity before, and there are a few people we've had trouble with. A big motivator for us is 'reality checks'. If we have people slacking, usually someone will speak up, saying "Hey, we've got our first show in three weeks. And it's a REGIONAL. We only have x number of practices left." This helps because some people develop the mindset of "I'll get it eventually," not realizing that 'eventually' comes a lot sooner then they think. Also, do you have any specific goals for the season (ex. Make finals at circuit championships, have a show with no drops, finish the show by a specific date, etc.)? If so, it may help to share your goals with your students. I know that I, and many other older members, have things that we want to accomplish, but some of the girls who are younger can't quite see the potential yet, and don't have anything tangible to motivate them. As for the extra practices, I find as a captain, that some things work and others don't. If we have a goal (clean these eight counts, etc.) things go just fine because we're breaking it down and have a target. And working by ourselves goes well too, because everyone has specific things that they do badly and need to work on. But at an extra practice where we have no set goal, but work as a large group, nothing gets done. It's too widespread and everyone has different opinions on what is worth the time to work on.

You should be just fine. When we paint, we'll normally have a painting session on Sunday that ends around 3pm-ish. And then we come in at 7am on Monday to powder and fold before school starts. We've never had any problems, so 24 hours should give you plenty of time.

Wow! That's early! Our first show is the first weekend of February.

^ Las Vegas is definetly not a central location. And tourist cities are only less expensive to travel to if you're flying. I know as a scholastic unit, the guard I'm in will never be able to afford to fly. I find the idea of somewhere in oklahoma or kansas to be much more central.

If you're thinking about doing an independent guard, I would definitely go for a 39. That's what most of them spin, and you wouldn't want to have to buy another new rifle.

Our bolts just... don't rattle. I'm not completely sure as to why, but I would make sure that the bolt fits very securely into the stopper, so that it can't move around a lot. We also, when putting the flags together, put the bolt in the stopper and then put the stopper on the pole (as opposed to bolt on pole and then stopper on pole).

Really, as a spectator, I would be disappointed with a lack of rifles. I always love to see how people intermix all pieces of equipment and bring out the style of the music. I especially love to see how rifles are treated in ballad-like songs. There's all sorts of ways to make them fit the music. From a competition standpoint, however, I don't think your show would be hurt at all without rifles. Two years ago Scotland HS got second in SA at worlds with no sabres, and another guard made finals with just flag. So it is certainly do-able, but you might make some audience members (and possibly your performers) sad. :(

If you do volunteer, AIA is a great circuit! Every class is competitive, but we have so many classes that everyone has a fighting chance. Making finals in Novice class is just as exciting as in A1.

Croatan medaled in Sch. Open with nine in 2005. That's the smallest I know of (which doesn't say terribly much).

Blessed Sac! (That's a two part dream... first I have to get into MIT)

Hummm. I haven't really seen too many bad injuries. I think the worst thing that happened this past season was during our rifle triple into a flourish. One of our girls did it too close to her body and clonked herself on the jaw. And it was in warm-up, right before we performed. The only really bad thing that's happened to me (although, it's nothing compared to what some of you have talked about) was when I was first learning to spin sabre and I was trying (and failing miserably) to toss triple blades on chrome. I 'caught' it between my fingers and the force of it was enough to pull some of the skin off. Other than that, just bumps and bruises. I think I've really been rather fortunate.

I know! That school in Richmond is amazing. I've been there three times, once for circuit championships, and twice for regionals. Everything has worked smoothly each time and the people have been great.

Really I wouldn't mind Richmond being the first weekend if WGI even pretended that it was important. Last year (heh. I'm already referring to the 2007 season as 'last year') they didn't send any form of representative or put anything about it on their website other than scores. It was completely ignored, which really sucks for guards who do well. Part of what happens at worlds is based on not being unknown going in, and when WGI gives no coverage, those guards are at a disadvantage.