PROBLEMS!

[JDR]

I've been trying to find a way to motivate my guard to PRACTICE more at home. There are times when they look realy good, and yet those times only happen onceapractice, or once every other practice. The problem realy comes down to the fact that Half of them practice, and the half that doesn't brings them down. One thing that came up into my head is that it has been Freezing up here- and they can't realy practice in there house's. We also have it so the captains can have "student ran" rehearsals right after school when needed, but at times I know nothing gets done. It get conf. after a while because they all want to be good, they all want to be there, they all want to get better. When the pressure is on them (practicing before a comp.), thats one of the only times that they all put in 100%. The same thing goes for out door as well.

A lot of our problems come from a motivation stand-point, but we have tryed manny things and they havn't lasted long.

[Toby]

Not sure if you want to try this suggestion, but my old instructors threatened to cut you from a part of the work if you showed any lack of practice. But if the issue is lack of practice facilities for them to use in their spare time, I'm not sure how much you can do with that situation.

My high school had a band room with a ceiling up about 16 feet, I'm not sure how tall yours is. It gave me a place to practice during lunch, though.

[LegalEagle50]

I've been trying to find a way to motivate my guard to PRACTICE more at home. There are times when they look realy good, and yet those times only happen onceapractice, or once every other practice. The problem realy comes down to the fact that Half of them practice, and the half that doesn't brings them down. One thing that came up into my head is that it has been Freezing up here- and they can't realy practice in there house's. We also have it so the captains can have "student ran" rehearsals right after school when needed, but at times I know nothing gets done. It get conf. after a while because they all want to be good, they all want to be there, they all want to get better. When the pressure is on them (practicing before a comp.), thats one of the only times that they all put in 100%. The same thing goes for out door as well.

A lot of our problems come from a motivation stand-point, but we have tryed manny things and they havn't lasted long.

coming from CT i understand why they can't be practicing outside this time of year. *today and tomorrow don't count as normal CT winter weather.*

student run rehearsals can work if you can get your captains to have a good sense of order and responsibility. if they don't it will be a disaster. stress to them how important it is to run those rehearsals as if they'd be run if you, yourself, were there. they are the offshoot of you. that's why they were picked to be captains.

i'd also stress the idea that even if they can't practice with equipment they should listen to the show at least three times during their evenings home and visual their part in it. once for drill, once for equipment work only, and for the third time as if it were a run through, so all of it ~ drill & equipment work. stress that the same as their class work homework is important, so is this.

and best of luck to you!

[Mom2ZJ]

I agree with Liz ... practicing outdoors in CT this time of year can be difficult ... I would also suggest having the music and doing mental run-throughs, etc to help them .... Now, to further explain, this is what happened to me ... with my first outdoor camp with an alumni corps this past summer ....

At my first camp, three people quit. (Rifle captain and two of her friends in the rifle line). That was how my first camp weekend went with the corps. I was confused, but listened to the guard caption head and his helper, helped my friend in the rifle line get the two new rifles up to speed, helped the visual guy revise drill, and try and move on ... I was thrown into an already ugly mix.

Then, when they returned, I was sincerely happy to see them back. The rifle captain stayed away from the corps and quit for good for the season. At rehearsal, I treated everyone the same. I expected everyone to work hard, have fun doing so, but work together as a team. In return, this is what they gave me .... I saw faces being made, rolling of the eyes, people walking away during warm ups or not warming up at all, people not doing the work the way it was written, three rifles PERFORMING the work the way it wasn't written at a standstill performance.

I handed revised drill to one of the rifle members who came and went as she pleased at one Thursday night's rehearsal at to which she disgustedly threw it into her car and sarcastically said, "yeah thanks", at that same rehearsal, she sped away from rehearsal running over personal belongings of another rifle's right in the middle of it. I knew she had to leave for an administrative meeting, but she could have at least told me she was leaving ... not just throwing her rifle in her car, and speed off.... it just went on and on ..... I was wondering why they were behaving that way, assuming they considered me to be a "friend."

Then, came one Thursday night's rehearsal. the guard caption head (who could not be there) asked me to teach the rifle work prior to the local show in town if I was able to. His helper (who was there that night) told me to go ahead and do it. When the same woman that sped off at Thursday night's rehearsal came late that night, she didn't even come up to any of us explaining that she wasn't going to rehearse. She strolled in about 30 minutes late with her granddaughter in a baby carriage, sat down, barely watched us, and then whipped out a video camera to video tape me teaching work?... Then, during my rifle instruction of the new work that was already Ok'd to teach, another older member decides to walk away, ##### to her, and REFUSE to do the work only because during a part of my work there was a very small shuffle dance. She REFUSED to dance saying that she's 50, not a teenager, and she doesn't do that crap, blah, blah, blah, blah ....

As an instructor, I ask you, how do I handle that?

I sent out an email to the whole guard thanking them for rehearsal that night but also pointing out a couple of negative things that occurred (for example, some members' behavior.) When I addressed walking away from instructors after rehearsal that night prior to my sending out the email, I had TWO rifles come up to me afterwards and apologize for answering their phones during practice. I had NO problem with that because I understood that we all have families and obligations, and sometimes, you have to answer your phone. I thanked them for coming up to me, but that's not what I meant, and they understood. To me, that was a strong sign of respect to me and I respect those people who are willing to treat each other as equals and work hard. I can't even go into it, but let's just say, that I was shocked by attitudes at rehearsals LONG BEFORE this whole email thing started. My email caused them to get upset and then send me emails. They were nasty, rude, insulting, and I could never go back to teaching them. It's incredible how their true colors came out ... sad, yet incredible. It took only three of them ... but that was enough. Three women who put SO much tension and uneasiness on the rest of the guard who only want to have fun. I decided that my family was MUCH MORE important than this volunteer work I was doing for this alumni corps.

I'm not sure what I'm expecting, but thus far, administration didn't really do anything. They keep telling me that they're going to "handle it", but I haven't seen or heard anything yet. Talk is talk, just that. It's nothing.

The ONLY thing I will take ownership to is sending out an email that addressed the problem. Yes, I did and I still stand by that. Because by ignoring the problem, they're ignoring the rest of the guard who just want to be there, have fun, work hard, and get along.

So yeah, that's been my experience. So, my strong advice to you is to make sure you have the support of the Director and the corps' administration before you take on the task of threatening to remove a person from that part of the show if they don't practice it and do it well. Or, if they have bad attitudes, etc ... come in late sipping coffee, standing in the back of the guard and watching the rest of the guard practice, etc .... refusing to do the work the way it's written, etc ... because with bad attitudes, it can unfortunately affect the WHOLE guard ... even though you have others willing to try and do the work ...

Without administration and the director's support, it can get ugly ... trust me ... I've recently been in that position ... wanting the guard to work as a team, show up on time, give 100% at rehearsals, be honest with each other, help each other, etc ... and, it just backfired on me ...

Good luck! :)

Edited January 8, 2008 by Mom2ZJ

[byline]

It took only three of them ... but that was enough. Three women who put SO much tension and uneasiness on the rest of the guard who only want to have fun.

Wow, does this ever remind me of my 1987 season teaching high school guard. In that case, it only took one person -- one of my co-captains -- to throw the entire guard into disarray. We chose one of the other guard members to be a soloist, and she was jealous because she felt she was entitled to that role (even though she was far less talented). I never thought a senior captain would do what she did, actually deliberately making mistakes during shows just to make me mad. (People always ask me why I didn't just kick her out. I didn't have that authority. Band was a class, she a year-round student who was a musician as well as a guard member. She would've had to have sabotaged the instrumental music side of her involvement, as well, to warrant being cut from the class). So I had to keep dealing with her and the divide she created within the entire guard. The saddest part of it is that the friction didn't just tear the guard apart that year, but carried on for years to come with the guard members who were left behind.

As for motivation, that was a struggle for me pretty much all the years I taught guard (late '70s to early '90s). The last group I worked for was strange, in some ways. It was predictable enough, I suppose. They were one of the biggest bands in the state, and because of the region we were in, we didn't compete with most of the "big boys" until state prelims. So, the kids had this notion that "bigger is better," and they'd automatically win. So they didn't have to work at anything, because the band's size would take care of it. Wrong. The band director and I were both proponents of hard work and preparation. If you work hard and prepare well, then your chances of succeeding are good, right? That's my motto. But many of these kids didn't share that work ethic. (Some of them did, and they were such a blessing.) So, we had to push them constantly to make them work. That was the hard part of my job, because frankly, I didn't always feel all that motivated, myself. Heat and extreme humidity do that to me. But I had to motivate kids, just the same. That's where being a professional comes into it. But it made the job a lot more difficult than it would've been if the kids had been self-motivated. I've assisted with other groups whose members were self-motivated, but never had the pleasure of working such a group, myself. Still, all in all, I consider the experience a good one, and wouldn't trade those years for anything.

Edited January 8, 2008 by byline

[Mom2ZJ]

Yes, I believe that working with younger kids is actually easier because they listen better .... older women (well, some of them that I spoke of in the alumni corps that I helped) were more 'set in their ways' ... and, they were just harder to teach because they wanted to do things their way or no way ... old school method ... but, let me stress completely, that it was just a FEW of them ... the majority of the alumni guard were willing to work and DID work 100% each time .... *shrug*

it also made it more difficult that the trouble makers were on the administration and on that board or this board of the corps ... more power strings to pull ....

but, if teaching younger adults ... then that's a totally different ball game ....

[byline]

but, if teaching younger adults ... then that's a totally different ball game ....

Well, in my experience, it could be equally problematic, but for different reasons. Lack of maturity, and all that. Of course, maturity isn't a chronological number; I've meet teens who were far more mature than people twice their age. I even had a few who marched in some of my guards.

[Mom2ZJ]

Absolutely! The young ladies that I help teach at Morris Knolls High School in NJ are such young hard workers ... they've got a great mentality and a huge amount of respect for their staff, to which I was honored to help with ....

but, with this alumni corps, a few of the older women (handful of the 'originals' from the junior corps) thought that since they were from the original corps, that they deserved respect and acted as if that's the only reason they should get it, despite the fact how they acted at rehearsals and towards others .... so, it was very difficult .... but, I agree with you, wholeheartedly ....

Good luck with everything ... :)

[quegrawks]

I've found a few things that work. 1) As long as you're doing your best, it will get easier and make more sense.

2) Do it the way I taught it, and it will be easier than trying to do it some other way. 3) In order to succeed, you all need to look the same at every second of the show. You all need to spin at the same time, from the same place on the equipment. You need to do all movement/dance the same way. 4) I teach the show based on what the judges want to see, but also based on what you can do. If you want to throw sixes on rifle, you better be able to throw singles, doubles, triples, 4s, and fives and catch them all solidly before I will teach you anything higher. And you need to do it the same way every time. 5) Show them guard videos of WGI finalists scholastic guards (A, Open, World). They're usually amazed that kids in high school can do what Open and World guards can do.

Then let them go to a show and watch the higher class guards (I teach SRA, so I have them watch AAA/AA/A, etc), and other guards in their class to see what those guards are doing well. I use guard shows as an educational opportunity as well. This really helps the new kids who don't fully understand what guard-- and especially indoor guard-- is about. It also helps motivate them to want to be like their favorite local guards. This was great in South Florida where we had so many A, Open, and World guard finalists nearby.

[dugg]

5) Show them guard videos of WGI finalists scholastic guards (A, Open, World). They're usually amazed that kids in high school can do what Open and World guards can do.

Then let them go to a show and watch the higher class guards (I teach SRA, so I have them watch AAA/AA/A, etc), and other guards in their class to see what those guards are doing well. I use guard shows as an educational opportunity as well. This really helps the new kids who don't fully understand what guard-- and especially indoor guard-- is about. It also helps motivate them to want to be like their favorite local guards. This was great in South Florida where we had so many A, Open, and World guard finalists nearby.

i think these are both marvelous teaching tools and tremendous motivators!

great advice!