dacolorguard1

Gregg, Where are you at in the picture????? geez them flag poles are huge!!! And those rifles? Wow, bet no one nowdays can toss a 7 with those kind!! b**bs see you next week, Renee

Didn't have gloves in high school, but I definatly use them with my saber. I don't like them when I use my flag or rifle. I went to our local fitness center and got really nice Harbinger leather padded gloves for about $13.00 and they are the best ones we have had.

I tell my guard, field shows are our practices for our Winterguard shows :P There is so much more theatrics added to the indoor show, and you don't have to worry about hitting expensive horns! B) Deftguy, I still get chills thinking about the pyramid tosses!!! b**bs

Go to Guardcloset.com They have tons of used flags. You can get some that need a little repair for very little money!!

We had fiberglass the first year I started instructing, and they were gone after that. Too many fiber splinters!!!! They are nasty!! Do any of you remember collapsable poles?? We had them when I was in high school (mid 80's) The pole was 11/2" diam. at the bottom and there was a piece in the middle that let the smaller 1" diam. top slide down inside the bottom. It was 6' when extended the whole way out. We only used them 1 year, they kept collapsing during shows...

25 cents a can, and it was usually a TAB cola!!!! (diet pop so we could fit better into those oh so flattering wool military uniforms!!!!)

The first thing I teach my guard is we SPIN!!! Majorettes twirl. (and complain, and whine.....can you tell I don't like them??? :P )

I remember the screws, I remember them hurting and my friend getting stiches in her hand and forehead (don't ask...) We still use velcro in the guard group I teach. We have never had a problem with the flags pulling off the velcro. We did use a cheap brand we got at the local hardware store, and the adhesive wouldn't stick to the poles very long, so, we went back to the better brand.

Marching band 4 years, Winterguard 2 years, Drum corps 3 weeks (long, stupid story )

1983 winterguard toss and catch under leg, I think we had a toss from one end of the basketball court to the other. I wasnt one of the 4 that had to do it. How about the "head choppers??" ( Rifle person w/ flag person standing behind them , rifle person tosses a triple, flag person swoops flag over head of rifle person ) We did these for our field show and we were wearing our stupid shako hats. Well, stupid us, we practiced doing these without wearing our hats, guess what happened at the show when we did them wearing hats????? I think we all lost our hats that night, but that 's better than a concussion... :P

1983 Cavaliers James Bond show. I saw a video of their show and couldn't speak when it was over. I had never seen such a show in my life. Tossing rifles over a human pyramid and catching (note: SOLID catches!!!!) on the other side. I'm getting chills as I write this :) :) If you ever come across this show, let me know, I would love to see it again!!! (I don't know if my old heart could handle it though!! :P )

We use 5'5" aluminum poles. We did use 6' poles last year for one of our songs. I would be afraid to go much larger, I have 3 girls that are under 5'. They would be doing drop spins above their heads :P I have not yet weighted our poles, we are starting practices for Memorial Day and have been putting some weights in the poles just to see if they like it and if it really makes a big difference.

Our guard got killed on movement last year. We did more spins and equipment work than most of the other guards. I tried getting clear-cut answers from judges on exactly what we needed, but every judge had a different answer. We didn't use the floor enough, we didn't have enough movement around the whole gym floor. (that was hard with only 6 girls...). I was very frustrated because I think it's become an unwritten requirement that body movement is more important than what a person can do with their weapon. We also have a group in our circut that do awesome things with their equipment, they are so fun to watch and always get a standing ovation. They never get very high marks though. How can the crowd be so fired up for a guard and they not do well? I don't get it either, but I'm learning.

I humbly bow to our band parents organization. Without them, I have no guard equipment, uniforms, anything. We have a set of 8 show rifles that belong to the band, the kids have to buy their own practice rifles. We recycle and recycle flags. I did buy a sewing machine last year though :) I am probably lumped into the "old school" category, BUT the first thing I did when I started instructing at the high school I am at now I got rid of the pathetic military uniforms. They brought back too many memories of my high school. Wool skirts, nancy boots (had to be polished before EVERY show with vaseline...) and our wonderfully hot wool jacket that pretty much limited you to what you could do with your arms and to top it all off, our BLACK WOOL shako hat!!! My girls now wear a very trendy one piece black outfit that has royal blue velvet tops trimmed in gold sequins. I keep the old ones in the guard room to remind them of what they could be wearing if they don't practice hard. :P :P

I graduated high school in the mid 80's. The last year I did winterguard, we were putting more movement into our show, but we always had clean execution of all our equipment work. 4 years ago, I got back into instructing a guard. We got KILLED on our scores for our first year of winterguard last year. We did tons of spins and tosses and lots and lots of equipment work, but we didn't have enough BODY MOVEMENT. Me and the judges went around and around. The guards that were beating us couldnt do more than 8 spins in a row but they were dancing all over the place like it was a ballet. This is what upsets me the most about the direction of guard. (I know, my age is showing...) When you have guards who don't know how to do basic rifle spins, left and right handed, crossovers, MF's, I wonder, are we no longer a guard and just a dance team with equipment???? Most shows are dance, some spins, dance dance, big toss, dance dance, go behind scenery, dance, toss, dance, spin, go behind scenery, toss, go behind scenery, big toss, lay down on floor, roll on floor, go behind scenery, you get the picture.. Quit running around, show me what you can do with that piece of wood or metal that's in your hand!!! Ok, I feel better now, I'll get off my soapbox.. :P

My only major injury came my junior year of high school. My friend had her flag on the ground and I accidently stepped on it, and she pulled it out and I fell and when I put my hand out to catch myself, I broke my wrist. :( But, since I am known as the class clown, the band director and the guard instructor didn't believe me when I told them it hurt REALLY BAD. ^0^ The next day when I came in with a cast on, they belived it then... We had a really cool show that year and it was my first year on rifle, and I was really bummed because most of the season I had a cast on my hand.