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2014 World Championships Semi Finals


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BD was incredible.

Personally thought cadets should be much further ahead of Coats tonight.

Also feel Cavaliers are better than their score is suggesting

All the corps were very strong though.

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The thing that irks me is that Blue Devils seamless perform their program with ease from the get go in the early shows. I think that's an indication that they're really not challenging their kids. Yes they perform well, yes they are amazing, but if the kids are so good I think you should challenge them with consecutive years where the show is hard enough that the beginning of the season is very rough and the end of the season is very refined.

There's a sense of reward watching a corps literally struggle through a run through in the beginning of the season and see them conquer a show by finals week.

I never get that sense of reward from BD. These 20s comes too easy for them, so my applause seems to be more directed at the designers more than the corps. It's fine, but it has been kind of boring to see a corps that consistently gets 20s. For a niche activity that is dwindling away, this sort of emphasis on what is considered a perfect caption makes it more niche I guess. It almost feels like BD shouldn't compete because the consistency of giving them the best score is so absolute that it is becoming more and more tolerable. Sugar doesn't taste so sweet when you have it everyday.

The Cadets need to figure it out. 2007-2009 was some of the most beautiful drill in terms of demand, design, and execution. I didn't think they really cared about whatever was happening with the scores, the audience reaction, or the general perception. 2008's closer just made me chuckle at the fact that whatever watching before me was actually happening. That aura of brashness was a breath of fresh air. They might not have won but the entire DCI community probably acknowledged the kids as being serious Olympians.

Cadets please go back to not caring so much. The members are not that weak but I get the feeling that you're starting to shelter them from the judging sheets. Bring back that whiplash drill and crazy hornbook. You guys have been playing it too safe and too cautious and you are dangerously losing your roots of being DCIs biggest risk taker. When you're consistently a high risk taker in terms of excellence, you falter often and succeed less. But that one or two times you get it right, the pay off is totally worth it. The shows have been lifeless and I feel like you're resorting to shoddy methods to just get points rather than truly generating effect. I feel as though Carolina Crown has inherited the Cadets' willingness to take risks with difficulty and not care if you stumble and have a rough year. DCI probably won't last for much longer (I hope I'm wrong) so why not go for the jugular.

On the flip side, it irks me to watch a corps struggle all summer with a program that is clearly too difficult for them. That one moment that would be "epic" if they ever actually managed to nail it. There's challenging your members, and then there's setting them up for failure.

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Because the organizational goal is one of performance excellence. The idea is to put out a program that challenges the members to the extent that they can make it as near perfect as humanly possible on August 9th, 2014. It's about squeezing out every bit of achievement you can, not "almost nailing it".

There are a large host of "almost" corps, but very few that push the balance of content and achievement like Devils do (and Crown last year, and Cadets most years).

It's not up to the Blue Devils to rewrite the rulebook. You wouldn't see that in any other sport or competitive event. The corps plays the game by the rules and adjudication process that is in place. Change that, Devils will change with it, and most likely excel in whatever venue you turn it into.

I am encouraging the Blue Devils to take a risk in making their shows harder than their current preconceived notions of what is feasible. It's purely for curiosity sake. There are no rule books to taking unknown risks in increasing difficulty. If there was a rule book it wouldn't be difficult.

It's like constantly getting As, then getting curious about what other challenges life would present if you pushed yourself and raised your own bar of excellence.

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BD was incredible.

Personally thought cadets should be much further ahead of Coats tonight.

Also feel Cavaliers are better than their score is suggesting

All the corps were very strong though.

Sorry - I posted this before looking at the recaps and realizing Kemp judged. The gap will sort itself out tomorrow night between the top 3

Again - all the corps were great. Carry on!

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I am encouraging the Blue Devils to take a risk in making their shows harder than their current preconceived notions of what is feasible. It's purely for curiosity sake. There are no rule books to taking unknown risks in increasing difficulty. If there was a rule book it wouldn't be difficult.

It's like constantly getting As, then getting curious about what other challenges life would present if you pushed yourself and raised your own bar of excellence.

Well, the corps' own bar for excellence is absurdly high. It's what the alumni mean we when use the term "BD clean".

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On the flip side, it irks me to watch a corps struggle all summer with a program that is clearly too difficult for them. That one moment that would be "epic" if they ever actually managed to nail it. There's challenging your members, and then there's setting them up for failure.

Yes. If you take risks you will fail more than you succeed. And that's okay. Yes it's difficult. And that too is okay. It's just drum corps placement. The concept of failure isn't that detrimental. You go from 1st place to 6th place, the world doesn't stop. You have next year.

The kids are extremely young. Failing in drum corps by losing a few placements in an obscure underground community that most of the world is not familiar with is trivial. You shouldn't teach the kids to fear failure. You should teach the kids to push the notion of what is possible by increasing their difficulty threshold.

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Well, the corps' own bar for excellence is absurdly high. It's what the alumni mean we when use the term "BD clean".

Make it higher. Try something extreme and forget about BD clean. I have a huge hunch that BD isn't truly exploring what it's capable of. It's not a big deal, you can go back to your current formula if it doesn't work out.

I don't know, Play a joke one year and become the Red Devils, or the Blue Angels. If you think BD is already outside the box, take it further.

It's the Blue Devils, winning again isn't interesting (same goes for Cadets). You can always do it again.

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Yes. If you take risks you will fail more than you succeed. And that's okay. Yes it's difficult. And that too is okay. It's just drum corps placement. The concept of failure isn't that detrimental. You go from 1st place to 6th place, the world doesn't stop. You have next year.

The kids are extremely young. Failing in drum corps by losing a few placements in an obscure underground community that most of the world is not familiar with is trivial. You shouldn't teach the kids to fear failure. You should teach the kids to push the notion of what is possible by increasing their difficulty threshold.

Your argument basically boils down to the notion that BD's staff is not pushing their members. Frankly, having witnessed their practices, I don't buy that. They really are just that good at making what they do look effortless.

I'm not saying corps shouldn't take risks, but giving members a program they can't possibly hope to succeed at (and I don't mean absolutely nail to perfection) is doing them a disservice. You don't have to design a insane program to teach these young adults any of the things you mentioned.

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Your argument basically boils down to the notion that BD's staff is not pushing their members. Frankly, having witnessed their practices, I don't buy that. They really are just that good at making what they do look effortless.

I'm not saying corps shouldn't take risks, but giving members a program they can't possibly hope to succeed at (and I don't mean absolutely nail to perfection) is doing them a disservice. You don't have to design a insane program to teach these young adults any of the things you mentioned.

My argument is that the magnitude of pushing the kids can be amped up more. I'm not saying they're not pushing their kids. They should experiment with going much further. Further than the comfort zone of what you think is possible.

You don't have to make it insane. If you run a 5k, run a 7k or a 10k. You don't have to go up to the 20k right away, work up to it in LARGE chunks. The increment has to be uncomfortable.

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