Methods of Madness

[Slow Adam]

If a person messes up a rep, do you think they'll become better at that rep by spending the next few minutes doing the rep again, or running to an imaginary tree?

I'd rather teach a group of kids that focus on doing it right, not one's that focus on not doing it wrong.

It depends on the reason for the error.

If the member is having troubling understanding, or is just lacking the ability to perform something, then doing reps is the answer. If the member is screwing up because their head isn't in it, then send them for a run.

Most instructors know their kids well enough to be able to tell the difference.

[sday88]

Scott,

It was in saginaw

From what I remember we were working sections of the opener

We did forward, backwards and Crab step during the session

And I believe we figured it out to be about 9 miles when it was all said and done

I also believe it started to rain a little while we were doing this, not a heavy rain but more of a misting. I seem to recall water bouncing up off the bass drum into my face.

Good thing I had a girlfriend in the corps at the time, the calf massage afterwards was probably the only thing that made it possible for me to be able to walk the next day.

I thought it was 9 miles, but I wasn't sure. Of course it was raining. I don't think I was ever in Michigan when I marched where it didn't rain. Michigan sucks!!

[fourouttheforty]

2 things come to mind. ....

That made me want to start getting better right now :)

[piperguy]

hahaha. ahh.

"chop suey"? interesting. care to explain if possible? :)

one of my Cascades friends had us do "ball of fire" for character building before a performance. works for me.

Sorry, I've been way from the board for a few days (military tattoo!). Chop Suey was an exercise where the entire horn line would get in a 4 step interval circle and mark time VERY slowly (the toe to the knee mark time, not the just move your feet kind) and start playing the lowest note possible on the horn starting pp and cres. to ff in 8 counts. Then you mark time 8 more and move up a half step. This repeats until the last person in the horn line has reached the max of their range. This was done to the comforting beat of the cowbell. If anyone dropped their foot height, the whole thing would start over. Not only did this build chop endurance, it built physical endurance and range, as well as instilling a group dynamic... no one wanted to be the one to cause us to start over!

Edited April 15, 2008 by piperguy

[shostahoosier]

I marched in corps that did both...and to be honest...I preferred not to do the pushups...not because I was lazy or did not feel remorse for making a mistake...but because it just seemed like a waste of time...as in...the time you dropped to do 10 pushup you could be setting up to run the set again.

I consider myself a disciplined enough person to concentrate on fixing the mistake and not punishing myself for show.

It works for some corps...but personally I dont see it as being that productive.

[euponitone]

I marched in corps that did both...and to be honest...I preferred not to do the pushups...not because I was lazy or did not feel remorse for making a mistake...but because it just seemed like a waste of time...as in...the time you dropped to do 10 pushup you could be setting up to run the set again.

I consider myself a disciplined enough person to concentrate on fixing the mistake and not punishing myself for show.

It works for some corps...but personally I dont see it as being that productive.

I dont know... personally, I think it's ludicrous to believe that any person, or corps as a whole can possibly be 100% focused 100% of the time, or anything close to it. The days are too long, and the summer is too hard, for this to even be close to possible. Again, we're back to 'not wasting time', and doing the rep over again. When you have a 24 person trumpet section, and a different person makes a mental tick each time, I don't think doing the rep a 13th ad 14th time is the answer...

And for clarification - In my 3 years, I never did pushups for punishment, and I maybe ran a grand total of a dozen laps. Laps werent so much physical punishment as they were mental - aka - "man, we should be the best rehearsing drum corps in the world, but we just forced the staff to revert to this crap..."

[shostahoosier]

I dont know... personally, I think it's ludicrous to believe that any person, or corps as a whole can possibly be 100% focused 100% of the time, or anything close to it. The days are too long, and the summer is too hard, for this to even be close to possible. Again, we're back to 'not wasting time', and doing the rep over again. When you have a 24 person trumpet section, and a different person makes a mental tick each time, I don't think doing the rep a 13th ad 14th time is the answer...

And for clarification - In my 3 years, I never did pushups for punishment, and I maybe ran a grand total of a dozen laps. Laps werent so much physical punishment as they were mental - aka - "man, we should be the best rehearsing drum corps in the world, but we just forced the staff to revert to this crap..."

...but I just feel like your 2nd paragraph contradicts your first.

[corpsnewbie]

...but I just feel like your 2nd paragraph contradicts your first.

really? it didn't contradict itself and made sense to me...but idk it may just be me.

i think he's trying to say that by making the corps do the laps,or pushups or whatever, it is a sort mental punishment that is done for the sole purpose of getting everyone on the right track (haha) mentally. it seems like that would actually SAVE more time than the other "mature adults, rehearse smart not hard" approach.

For example, lets say you're doing a rep for the third time, and your section has been given the proper correction by the staff twice now, but because people are not mentally active in the rehearsal, a different person misses it again. They are told to put their instruments down, run around the goal post, and come back. They do the rep again and the 4th time it is finally correct. The other approach could potentially leave the same mentally distraught section on the 5th or 6th rep before they finally "get it right". Which one took longer to fix?

Haha now don't get me wrong, I march in a fairly well ranked corps that tries to emulate the smart rehearsal technique and I'm quite happy with not being aggressively yelled at or doing pushups all the time. But some days in the middle of tour, even I'll admit that I need a kick in the ### to get things going.

Each corps has different maturity levels and not everyone can be individually accounted for to be "a disciplined enough person to concentrate on fixing the mistake" every rehearsal after every correction.

[SACMellos2010]

We had lots of pushups and laps but it was part of our philosophy and approach and was expected when you walked in the door. In my opinion it served 2 purposes. 1. To make you more aware that you need to be mentally focused as most mistakes come from lack of concentration on the approach. 2. It also served as conditioning without being called conditioning as what we did required lots of it.

But most importantly the best Method that we used was in 1991 with the Mello section. We did not do anything standing still. Every sectional was on the move in circle drill form for warmup then for show pieces a lot of time we would put it on the field by ourselves or figure some other way to be on the move. There were times when all we wanted to do was play in the shade or standing but then again if you do not standstill during your show why standstill in sectionals. I can honestly say it was the best approach to getting us where we needed to be with the musical and physical demand of our book that year.

By the way I came back from 1991 in the best shape of my life.

Edited April 15, 2008 by General Blunt

[euponitone]

...but I just feel like your 2nd paragraph contradicts your first.

I marched in a fairly mature corps that didnt rely on those methods too much, but they were there. I can remember it happening twice in sectionals, and 5-10 times in marching rehearsal, usually when sully or jeff was running things. Like I said, it wasnt a time waster, nor was it really a big physical conditioning thing (if you arent in shape during the season, running a lap wont save you). As mentioned, it was more of a mental shock treatment to jolt the hornline out of the fog we were in.