Blue Devils Guard

[DAvery]

Interesting pov.

It's my understanding brass, perc and guard are narrow focus performance captions in which there's a very clear "what" in the top box and a "how" in the bottom box. Clearly the perc judges understand this concept and I congratulate them on their ability to limit their focus to their caption. Your argument above would seem to indicate that this is not the case in guard. If you limit yourself to "what" and "how" I'm not sure I can understand the way this caption was judged top to bottom.

Thought experiment: have each guard do an empty field run thru with the show music piped in over speakers. Evaluate the guards. Do the numbers you come up with even vaguely resemble the numbers in Indy?

With perc and brass it is clearly easier to focus on their caption. With guard, it is not so easy. And this is my point. There is a very clear definition of what constitutes a percussion instrument. Same with brass. Not so easy with guard. Should any brass and perc member movement contribution be included in the guard score? If the answer is yes, then what is included and what is not? Or is all included? If so, why have a separate vis caption? If your answer is no, then keep in mind as the guards become more integrated, separating the different members for evaluation for the guard judge will become more difficult..

[vferrera]

but did Madison's guard affect their percussion score?

blurring the lines == good thing.

Next year, I hear BD is going to bring out giant Fresnel lenses. Hopefully they won't have any daytime shows or they might end up cooking themselves.

[DAvery]

but did Madison's guard affect their percussion score?

blurring the lines == good thing.

Next year, I hear BD is going to bring out giant Fresnel lenses. Hopefully they won't have any daytime shows or they might end up cooking themselves.

I remember in the old days when rifles used to tape pennies to their straps. I thought at the time this should have been considered a percussion instrument. If this was done today, which judge would evaluate? Or maybe both?

[DAvery]

but did Madison's guard affect their percussion score?

blurring the lines == good thing.

Next year, I hear BD is going to bring out giant Fresnel lenses. Hopefully they won't have any daytime shows or they might end up cooking themselves.

I remember in the old days when rifles used to tape pennies to their straps. I thought at the time this should have been considered a percussion instrument. If this was done today, which judge would evaluate? Or maybe both?

[BDCorno]

If a guard member has a drop in front of a mirror, is the negative impact doubled? :)

Conversely, if they toss and catch, or perform any other difficult move - is the credit doubled?

[Guard-ian]

I remember in the old days when rifles used to tape pennies to their straps. I thought at the time this should have been considered a percussion instrument. If this was done today, which judge would evaluate? Or maybe both?

Why do you always double-post?

[Big Bad Bari]

I lost alot of resect for those 3 guard judges this past week. A perfect score has to be earned not just given out and BD did not earn a perfect score. Drops each night and lack of vocabulary and I have asked plenty of knowledgable guard people and all have said the same thing. I thought BD's guard was much better last year then this year.

Man I lost all my resect for them as well!

[3rdCoast]

The problem is you're comparing apples and oranges if you are trying to compare the Brass, Percussion and Color Guard scores. The Brass and Perc judges are on the field and they are specifically sampling individuals and sections as they move about the field for what they are doing and how they are doing it. The color guard judge is in the stands typically with the ensemble judges. The guard sheet, as explained to me by a guard judge, really looks like a combination of the WGI sheets for all the captions (equipment, movement, ensemble and GE). That judge is looking at everything from the individual what/how of the performers to the overall design/vocabulary and how it is achieved and the effect of that design/achievement. It's really as if the entire WGI panel is concentrated in one judge. It is more than the cleanest guard wins or the one with the fewest drops. That's part of what they are looking at but not all of what they are looking at.

[Jeff Ream]

I will say i thought the uniform design was extremely unflattering about waist level with that black bikini bottom thing they had going on

[hostrauser]

Regarding dance, body movement and body control, I think BD's guard is nigh untouchable right now. Towards the beginning of their show the guard has a section where, bent over 90 degrees, they hop forward in unison with one hand touching the ground. It's simply a staggering example of (1) the difficulty of most of their body work and (2) the cleanliness of their execution. As far as dance choreography and other guard work sans equipment, BD tried more and executed it better than any other corps.

However, regarding equipment work I felt BD wasn't nearly so far ahead of the pack. I think it's definitely arguable that the Cavaliers had better equipment execution, and they most certainly had a better equipment vocabulary. This is not to say that Concord wasn't trying anything difficult, just that (with weapons and silks, at least) the Cavaliers tried MORE and executed it better (IMO).

Other corps had nice moments, as has been mentioned, but no one approached the consistent, start-to-finish excellence of these two guards on Saturday night. The huge gap in guard scores between the Cavaliers (2nd) and Bluecoats (3rd) bears this out.

Personally, I thought 0.3 between BD and Cavies was too much. But regardless of who you think was 1st and who was 2nd, I don't think it can be argued that very little separated the two units, and that they were far and away the best two guards on the field.