oldschool1180 Posted April 20, 2011 Share Posted April 20, 2011 How many kids (and adults in DCA) are wearing knee braces and they don't have a high leg lift at all? We practiced every Sunday rehearsal in the winter in a gym on posture and leg lift as well as roll step. It was torture! It was worth it during the summer...except for the guys that joined in May/June. Kids today couldn't march like we did....I'll wait for the young'uns to chime in ....LOL the bushwackers do a lot of warm ups & stretching before we even start m&m it eliminates all those little naging aches & pains Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimF-LowBari Posted April 20, 2011 Author Share Posted April 20, 2011 (edited) the bushwackers do a lot of warm ups & stretching before we even start m&m it eliminates all those little naging aches & pains Just like the old days right? In college I had to take two gym classes which I usually suck at. So one class I took was fencing since no one knew what the Hell they were doing either. Best thing I picked up was some leg stretches modified from the fencing "lunge" move. Started doing them just before going out on the field and couple of my corps mates did 'em too. Really helped with that ye olde high mark time at the start of the show. Other than that.... wow... only warm ups were breathing exercises... Edit: Other gym class I took was swimming. That I COULD do but dind't let on. Edited April 20, 2011 by JimF-LowBari Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lindap Posted April 23, 2011 Share Posted April 23, 2011 (edited) Just like the old days right? In college I had to take two gym classes which I usually suck at. So one class I took was fencing since no one knew what the Hell they were doing either. Best thing I picked up was some leg stretches modified from the fencing "lunge" move. Started doing them just before going out on the field and couple of my corps mates did 'em too. Really helped with that ye olde high mark time at the start of the show. Other than that.... wow... only warm ups were breathing exercises... Edit: Other gym class I took was swimming. That I COULD do but dind't let on. In high school I tried out for volleyball and basketball while I was a competitive lane swimmer and runner. They said no. I was too short. I switched to synchronized swimming and won. Spent evenings and weekends at drum corps practises as a marching instructor from 71-79. Body alignment was the first lesson. Second lesson was feet heel roll toes. They wouldn't touch equipment until lesson 1 and 2 were complete. The next lesson was listen to the music and sing it. I went to Chicago for a drum corps conference mid 70's and did a presentation on yoga, meditation and an early form of pilates and how it can relate to drum corps. I was so nervous. My flashback moment of the day :-) http://www.drumcorpsplanet.com/forums/index.php/topic/111076-1970s-style-marching/page__view__findpost__p__2198781 Edited April 23, 2011 by lindap Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeromeyBush Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 Just like the old days right? Actually, yes.:o) P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeromeyBush Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 the bushwackers do a lot of warm ups & stretching before we even start m&m it eliminates all those little naging aches & pains Yep.:o) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Oz Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 (edited) I have to agree on several points. The marching style was very close to military style. Pretty much a “natural” style, without much added. We practiced marching, coming to rest (heels together, feet at a 45 degree angle), stepping off, left and right foot pivots, and, more than anything else, the high mark time. “Heel to knee … heel to knee…”; I can still hear Bud Johnson’s voice in my memory. Thank goodness I was a drummer and didn’t have to lift ‘em that high. Early in the spring, we rehearsed in a gym and beat the style into the rookies. Once we went outdoors, it became endless company fronts, “Six to five”; six steps to five yards. At the practice site at Reading airport, the tar strips on the apron were conveniently five yards apart. Company fronts, close order drill, marking time; every rehearsal. Every rehearsal. Don’t forget the things that were different back when dinosaurs roamed the earth: The field had only end and side lines and the 50 yard line. No dots. I can still mark off a 30 inch step. The rules said that you had to lift your feet off of the ground. If you didn’t the “time in motion” clock stopped. You had to have a minimum of time in motion (marking time counted) or suffer a penalty. We virtually never marched backwards. One less thing to practice. The marching tempo up until the 70s was almost always around 128 bpm. My last two years we shortened the step to eight to five (thank you, Ralph Pace) and could then more easily move at faster tempos. Less to learn, but no shortage of practice. Junior corps may have been different, but not that much. Edited May 10, 2011 by The Oz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MsBusDriver Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 Come every weekend in the Fall,(before breaking into sections), it was nothing but M&M in the a.m. Marking time, company fronts, "gliding", marking time, pivots, "too the rear", marking time, elbow contact, halting with 45 degee foot angles, heels aligned, left turns, right turns and about face, over and over and over again. Then we got to do "drill downs"... Now THAT was fun! I know you've seen this picture before, but in my mind, it's the epitome of the perfect mark time... Any other examples out there? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opti-Burr Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 When talking about perfecting marching technique, the one drill that comes to mind that we did was called the "five minute drill". This is one were the whole corps lined up in a block formation, at attention with their equipment. One of one of the instructors would command the corps to mark time. We would all have to mark time perfectly, with the arch of the feet raised to the knee and the toes had to kick downward once the foot was at the knee. The objective of this exersise was for every corps memember to maintain a perfect mark time technique for five minutes straight, while all the instructors wondered throughout the ranks, ensuring this was so. If one person were not to maintain this perfection during the five minutes, we were all halted and restarted, as well as a restart on the clock. Sometimes it would take us upwards of an hour to get that perfect five minutes of marking time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimF-LowBari Posted May 11, 2011 Author Share Posted May 11, 2011 (edited) Come every weekend in the Fall,(before breaking into sections), it was nothing but M&M in the a.m. Marking time, company fronts, "gliding", marking time, pivots, "too the rear", marking time, elbow contact, halting with 45 degee foot angles, heels aligned, left turns, right turns and about face, over and over and over again. Then we got to do "drill downs"... Now THAT was fun! I know you've seen this picture before, but in my mind, it's the epitome of the perfect mark time... Any other examples out there? LOL, the college mark time was like the pic except the toes were pointing stright at the ground (IOW - foot parallel to the leg). Had a couple of corps members in the band and DCA was in the middle of band camp. Got back to the corps and had to remember the corps style (or forget the band style) again. Had drill downs in band just before meal break..... always had those last 2 or 3 people who made us late as they were that good. (I always would drift a few inches during mark time and be OUT) PS to the younger set - Why the white bucs and white strip on the pants? So you could see the high mark time better. Year we went to lower mark time was the same year we sent to black shoes. Edited May 11, 2011 by JimF-LowBari Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Puppet Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 How many kids (and adults in DCA) are wearing knee braces and they don't have a high leg lift at all? We practiced every Sunday rehearsal in the winter in a gym on posture and leg lift as well as roll step. It was torture! It was worth it during the summer...except for the guys that joined in May/June. Kids today couldn't march like we did....I'll wait for the young'uns to chime in ....LOL Yep. You said it mostly. We did the same thing all winter on Sundays at the Armory. Technique, drill and on and on. It was also when we broke the newbies in. Mark time leg left was essential for the horn line. Learning how to point those toes and "dig in" while playing cleanly was certainly the chore during those many cold hours. I'll tell you though ... at 60 I've got no knee problems, ankles fine and legs still strong as a horse. Hope those who march now can say that when they get to be - you know, of a certain age. Just saying, Puppet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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