Toughest Drill This Year?

[oldsplash]

Right, so when you say "who has the hardest drill?" That means whose is the hardest to march... from the member perspective. It doesn't have to look hard to be hard. When we are looking at the drill, most of us are equating difficulty marching a show with design. That's not necessarily true. Just because a show has a more complex drill design doesn't necessarily mean that it's harder to march. I can guess all day long who has the hardest drill, but I'll never really know.

Yeah its pretty hard to tell. The 03 SCV show was crazy hard for me, but honestly when I watch it now it looks like nothing. A lot of times there's a big difference between how it looks and how difficult it is on the members.

I think blue stars drill looks the most difficult cause besides the ballad they are running around like crazy most sets. Although I'm sure phantom's is pretty tough, having marched myron's drill before.

But that's just me.

[musclebud]

I say someone start a thread to rate each corp on playing and Marching at the same time. I am sure you'll find a few corps who march difficult drills while playing difficult music and other corps who play difficult music and don't move.

Higher scores get handed out for not playing and marching difficult sets than the latter.

The benefits of marching difficult drill and not playing tend to pay off because difficulty is not measured in DCI. In this case cleanliness is next to godliness.

This is a flaw in judging (IMO).

I agree with everything you said. I would also point out that some of the corps limit the amount of the field(stage) that is covered by the use of props. There is much more exposure when the musicians are spread out with larger intervals than the kind of elbow to elbow forms that we have seen with some of the corps. Unfortunately for Crown they are so spread out over the field that the visual seems muddled and has less impact.

[saxfreq1128]

I agree with everything you said. I would also point out that some of the corps limit the amount of the field(stage) that is covered by the use of props. There is much more exposure when the musicians are spread out with larger intervals than the kind of elbow to elbow forms that we have seen with some of the corps. Unfortunately for Crown they are so spread out over the field that the visual seems muddled and has less impact.

Alternatively, props have also been used to push the corps members further apart, in the way that you're describing. They're not always a means of caging the corps in. BD's glass wall between higher and lower brass in 'Laura' would be one example.

I agree, though, that this sort of field spread deserves to be recognized for it's difficultly. I think Crown is a great recent example. Actually, I think the judges DO recognize the demand in these moments and give credit where it's due (and when the corps masters the challenge.) I'm not sure that DCI fans, on the other hand, always do...

Edited August 11, 2010 by saxfreq1128

[mellodramatic]

After seeing Phantom about a week ago I think their drill looks hardest just because it's written poorly. Too many awful direction changes and stuff that's just never gonna look good.