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Drum Corps Injuries


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Hello All!

I'm wondering what kinds of drum corps injuries you've experienced, but more importantly, what do your instructors say to do about them? Personally I tore up my knee when I marched, and all that could really be done was to lay off it (During finals? Yeah right!). Ice and Ibuprofen had to suffice.

I'm interested to hear your stories. How you handled it, how your instructors handled it, etc. I'm looking for both common injuries (e.g. sunburns, muscle cramps, sprains) and uncommon injuries (e.g. broken tibia, staph infection).

I've been out of teaching for the past 3 years, but I'm interested to hear if much has changed in regards to injury care and prevention. If you have a story or know of a situation in regards to health or injuries, I'd love to hear it!

Keep fit. Stay tough.

~Ryan

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I nearly choked on a French frie once.... I was in the pit, that's about as dangerous as it got for me!!!

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Our very first show last season, we had an amp fall on one of the pit girls as the truck was being unloaded. She wound up with compound fractures in her pinky and ring fingers on one hand and missed the show that night, but the next day she had her hand bandaged up and was playing her marimba one-handed. She proceeded to perform in every show for the next week before actually going to the hospital. Can't say pit isn't without its dangers :winky:

Personally, my first season I had some minor knee issues, and marching served only to aggravate them to the point that I was worried I would be able to march again.The staff allowed me to take it a little easier since it was a shortened tour, and I came back the next season without a problem. I've also heard of many a tuba/euph player develop stress fractures in their arms from holding all that metal in front of them for so long...

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A brass staff member slipped in the shower and broke his front tooth. We left him at home at the home show. He graduated the next spring with a Bachelor of Trumpet Performance.

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Maybe three of four years ago, I was interviewing marchers in Allentown. Staffs kept sending me injured members because they didn't need them for anything else at the moment. It seemed like I kept talking to members recovering from ankle sprains and twists.

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Whether or not the tinnitus condition I currently have was caused by marching is open for debate, but I can just about guarantee that most mm and staff of todays corps will have it some day if they're not using ear plugs. With about 113 members playing an instruement, usually at the same time, that's a lot of loud music for ones ears. I'll wager that with no protection, it's just a matter of a few decades before DM's start having the buzz.

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Tore three ligaments in my shoulder from carrying around a euphonium all day. Ended having to go home during pre-tour to have surgery to repair it, and missed out on the season. Sucked, but 6 months of recovery time wouldn't allow me to keep marching.

Also, I've seen lots of people suffer knee and ankle injuries, just the nature of spending all day marching around a field, sometimes not very good fields either.

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