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Does The Score Really Matter To The Performer?


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I have often wondered why we "live and die" by each night's score and how they often affects our personal performance in subsequent shows. Dow we put too much emphasis on them and do marching members worry to much today about each score they get?

Up until about 15 years ago, we never knew about regular season scores unless you were on staff or a marching member. And beyond that, everyone else only knew about finals at the end of the season. In today's technological age, every score is there for the taking and we put so much heart into every night's score. Is this healthy?

And, do we feel that too many marching members are doing this and ultimately taking away some of their joy from the dci experience by feeling this way? My staff instructors always told us not to put any stock into the score and keep working hard. I have heard of others that tell the members each score and the breakdown each night of where they placed. I don't get this? Do they really think the number always corresponds directly to performance?

In any event, let's discuss...

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do you play the game?

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When I marched, I already understood that the number we received each night was just that, a number. It was the *context* of the number that mattered, and how the spread between us and other matched up.

The thing is, you can't compare numbers now like you could when the tick system was still around. With the tick system, you started at 100 and went down from there, as each "mistake" cost you. Because of that, it was much more of an objective system, and it was easier to make comparisons across the board.

You can't do that with the subjective system we have now. A lower score doesn't necessarily mean you did worse than the night before. You have to take the spread between you and those around you into account.

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i only cared about the head to head match-ups. When we lost to someone that night i got worried

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Yes, although I was more worried about head to head matchups and spreads then anything else. Of course by my 3rd year marching I stopped caring all that much and that was easily my favorite season. Realizing that "it is what it is" and that you can't do a thing about it except improve from show to show.

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I can't find the post that YeaGuy (Hoppy) posted after their 2 days off with full rehearsal...he said the scores are just the opinion of 8- but in this case 5 people wearing green shirts on a beautiful summer night.

When I was marching, we were too worried about getting talked to by our staff to see what they thought of our PERFORMANCE. That was our score. If they liked it, it was a 99.175 and if they said it was a bad performance, we took it as, okay ladies and gents we have a lot to do tomorrow. Pack up the busses and trucks and lets get to the next rehearsal site where we can work our butts off for out next PERFORMANCE!

What I'm trying to say, it's the times you perform for the audience that you strive to achieve, not the 99.9 at the end of the season. You only have 3 months to be with the people you've come to love and hate, and this show that you've bled and sweat on football fields all over the USofA. So if there are kids out there that strive for a ring, that's them, but the majority of us do it for the crowd, and for the people we march with day in and day out.

Then end.

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Scores matter. As much as many people want to hide from the competetive aspects of life, you can't. I marched to be validated as the best in my field as well as have fun. I noticed it was a lot more fun to be one of the best than one of the worst. I could appreciate others work but at the same time I knew everyone was not as good as each other. It is human nature to want to be the best at something. When you finish 12th out of 12, people telling you you did your best just seems to come up short. I believe we are beginning to see the negative effects on personality that playing soccer without keeping score breeds.

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do you play the game?

Only when I was not sitting at the front of the bus... :biggrin:

You guys still play the game?

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i lost

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If drum corps wasn't competitive it wouldn't be as exciting.

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