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The End to the Color Guard Controversy


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Many guards today are awesome, outstanding and appeailng, sadly....many are not.

~G~

but soooo many people make blanket statements that come across as ALL guards of today are horrible. and that is not true. and not all guards are great either. but credit should be given when it is due.

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Many guards today are awesome, outstanding and appeailng, sadly....many are not.

~G~

but soooo many people make blanket statements that come across as ALL guards of today are horrible. and that is not true. and not all guards are great either. but credit should be given when it is due.

Absolutely !!! Blue Devils, Cadets...mainly take guard to new heights and execute as well as ANY guard ever to hit the field.

What they may "lack" in what is desired of old school guards, they have in many of the new areas.

To see the Blue Devils dance, it is sometimes breathtaking, which brings us to, what I think, is the heart of the matter.

We want to see execution, clarit, and precision.

We, meaning not everyone, but "we" could probably care less what is being done with what as long as it is done clean and an emphasis is on execution.

Seeing everyone do whatever....with NO regards to precision, or execution is a slap in the face to the hard work we one went through, and a mockery to colorguard in general.

You want to use tires ?? Do it clean !!! Crown's show was an absolute debacle with those idiotic props...why ?? No unison. Then,they picked up equipment and BAM !!! awesome..attention to detaila nd execution....

It doesnt matter so much what you do, but is had better matter , and more importantly to the ones doing it, how you do it !!!

~G~

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and i despised Crown's show. and laughed about the joke of anyone missing tires should report to the parking lot after the show.

but i feel that the good, even great guards are overlooked because they are doing modern guard not old school.

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Whelp, here's my two cents and it's liable to #### some people off, but I could really care less (or is that couldn't care less) anyhoo...

I, like Liz, got my start "back in the day". I stil have my white boots. I wore the heavy wool skirt. The hat. etc. I never understood how we could be doing a beautiful ballad and be high marking time and doing drop spins, slams and other "flag BASICS" and feel like we were accentuating the music in any way shape or form. I watch tapes from back in the day, and yes, the are clean, buddy. You will not find an error. But I'm thinking, if you're standing in one place, pile driving your feet into the ground, but not moving none the less, and doing flag basics, you had ###### well BETTER be clean. Back in the day, there was like 12 moves you could do within the following

Spins

Basic tosses (if you had a really avante guard instructor, otherwise that pole never left your hand)

Angles

slams

all while either standing in place for an entire song, or making a box, making a straight line, fall out to a circle, fold back into a box, make an X..... wow...tough stuff there.

Each and every guard, doing the same basic work. Ok...so ewwwwww.....yeah it was clean. Great. Yaaaawwwn, didn't I just see this from the last 12 guards....and the same thing the year before that, and the year before that? Think outside the box, will ya? Give me something NEW to look forward to.

Now, enter today's guards. It is all up to the instructor the level of cleanliness a guard has. I have seen some guards and judged some guards that just look like a garage sale. I'm thinking "Are they even listening to the same song?????" I taught color guards for 10 years, judged a few shows too. And it was the modern, dancy, jump around like a ballerina spinning a comma type guards, and one comment I always got from the judges and audience members alike was compliments on how clean my guards were. It can be done. Just watch Blast. Clean as ####.

Sometimes I just wonder if old school's grumblings isn't just the realization that their youth has passed and its somebody else's turn now. I also wonder if its living with the knowledge that they couldn't DO today's color guard work. I base this on comments from people within my own guard that marched back in the day. They've commented that doing today's guard work is much more demanding, but much more fun. I think since they've done both, that's an opinion I'll value.

I understand "back in the day" some guards didn't do much with their vocabulary....but, there were exceptions. There were some guards experimenting with the use of body under the equipment work, but most of the emphasis was on being clean.....BECAUSE of the tick system in place. For example, my last year in Crossmen we had some equipment work that involved a rifle in one hand and a flag in the other. Originally, they had us throwing the rifle up and switching the flag to the other hand while the rifle was in the air, then catch the rifle with one hand followed by a flourish type move. That was cut and watered down because it wasn't consistent enough by all 36 members in the guard.

Yes, Lisa, I know I came from the "old school" of color guard, but I can and do hang right in there with what they are doing today. Not that I like or agree with a lot of moves that are being done, but I do it to stay with the current times. It also helps me to be a better judge.

I do think, had the tick system not been in place back then, color guards would have been doing more experimentation with body and equipment.

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and i despised Crown's show. and laughed about the joke of anyone missing tires should report to the parking lot after the show.

but i feel that the good, even great guards are overlooked because they are doing modern guard not old school.

But that's kinda my point (I hope)

Modern and Old school arent or shouldnt be that far off the same page...they should have a common ground, and that should be execution clarity and visual command.

It doesnt matter what you do, just do it clean and with command......

~G~

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I do think, had the tick system not been in place back then, color guards would have been doing more experimentation with body and equipment.

YES!!!! Absolutely and AMEN. and if there was still a tick system we'd be seeing the same work from every guard over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over (I TYPED all that, I didn't copy paste!!! :P ) because everyone would be afraid to try something new.

Edited by LisaLisaMoMeesa
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But that's kinda my point (I hope)

Modern and Old school arent or shouldnt be that far off the same page...they should have a common ground, and that should be execution clarity and visual command.

It doesnt matter what you do, just do it clean and with command......

~G~

I have a feeling that the people who ##### the loudest about old school vs. new school wouldn't be happy with that. They SAY it's about the cleanliness issue, but they really think that guards should be in the white boots, ugly dresses, 12 foot tall flags, in the corps colors for the entire show regardless of song or mood.

And as always I say "Great start a circuit that resembles your dream of guard" and as always I get crickets chirping.

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But that's NOT true ! Corps like SCV, 27th Lancers, Bridgemen, Allaince....all ventured away from mainstream and added various equipment and ....GASP !! Dance.....80 27th had quite a few "dance" movements..all done to enhavce the show, not take it over.......

~G~

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Todays work is not harder than work done "back in the day"

I think the only people that can judge that are people that have performed in both eras. Not performed in one and watched from the stands in the other. Actually, on the field DOING it.

One is not better or worse....just different.

Edited by LisaLisaMoMeesa
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Todays work is not harder than work done "back in the day"

I think the only people that can judge that are people that have performed in both eras. Not performed in one and watched from the stands in the other. Actually, on the field DOING it.

One is not better or worse....just different.

Yes, I agree...those of us that did march and do/did contribute to todays colorguards are qualified to make that statement.

A thirtsomething doing todays work will of course find problems and stumbling blocks with todays work......their is a lack of transition, phrasing, and sustained unity in todays work....Theres are lapses betweens ets, down time, dance *&^% that doesnt fit, and rest periods.

In a show, say 1985 Madison Scouts.......I ask someone in todays senior guards to pull that off, correctly with proper technique, as opposed to what theya re doing for this years work.

No, as a whole, the guard experience of the mid eighties was harder simply based on the fact that there was more being done and more attention was being paid to detail, and every move wether it was a highlight or an interim move was critical tot he show.

~G~

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