Dot books or Charts?

[jake_the_hydra]

dots.

really? B)

I also like to see how the form works . . .

on the DVD, when I'm sitting on my couch.

Edited December 2, 2006 by jake_the_hydra

[Fincis]

Dotbooks and charts. I think anything that can help should be available. Everyone learns in different ways. For me, I got something different out of charts and dotbooks, but each helped.

[rdbc05]

We had charts only. We kind of had to guess where we were supposed to go, didn't help. I think it's best to have both though.

Edited December 2, 2006 by rdbc05

[tylerdurden]

I hate dots. I want to see how the whole form works and goes form place to place. A simple listing of dots does not allow me to do that.

We used only dot books, however the section leader would get a copy of the charts when we were learning drill. We would all write down our dots based off of the chart, then draw in a little picture of the form if needed.

In any case, we always had a field tech with the charts. If there were any form or route questions, they would be solved then.

[mellodramatic]

We got a chart and had to make a dot book since the printed out coordinate sheets weren't accurate enogh. Dot books had to be decked out with stuff too.

[MikeM]

Dots and charts.

You need to know what the form is going to look like, especially in a performance situation so that you can work the form, as opposed to dot diving.

Teach the dot. March the form. Period. We're not perfect, and not everyone makes their dot every time.

[jimott01]

At Blue Devils, we were given charts for the first day, when we learned the drill, then, after that we were expected to know all of our dots and yardline relationships and people's dots on either side of us for reference. Yes, we kept it all in our heads, people are capable of that. Other groups could do it too, but what am I thinking, that would be expecting too much from them.

[profhill]

I hate dots. I want to see how the whole form works and goes form place to place. A simple listing of dots does not allow me to do that.

As a marcher I didn't care what the whole form looks like. I only cared about how I got from place to place and to do it the same everytime. The only way to do that is going from place A to place B taking the correct step size everytime. Dots are the only way to do that.

As a staff member I only care about my students taking the same step size each and going in the right direction every time. Dots are the only way to get them to do that.

If everyone goes to the right place, with the same step size the form takes care of itself, and you don't have to worry about it.

When I was marching did I use the other people around me to help take the correct step size, yes.

When I'm teaching, do I use the form to decide who is out of place? Yes. But, I never use the word "guide" or tell my students to get into the form.

We used only dots in the corps I marched.

[AlexL]

learned initial drill with drill notebooks, which everyone had and contained full copies of the entire drill.. (though they became pretty worthless for anything other than telling the general form once we did some hole-closing)

after that, had dot books on us with dot info, guide point info, interval info... got rid of those around texas though and any time drill changed just wrote down the new coords and carried them around until that drill was learned..

[raphael18]

First corps - we were given charts (often prior to actually setting the drill), and expected to create dot books using them. Because the focus was on form, the dot was often a point of contention - and with rapidly changing drill it was not unusual for a marching members dot book to conflict with an updated staff members drill.

The other corps: We were given coordinate sheets when we set the drill. Once on your dot you were suppossed to write down what the form was, your yard-line relationships, and your interval. After that we were required to have dot books with us at all times. Honestly, they weren't really used very much at all - and by July, with constant changes, they really didn't resemble much of what was on the field.

For those that have marched Regiment - you can attest to how difficult it is to keep up with Tony Hall and Bob Smith on paper.

[Dot books in general were weird for me, at my high school only the section leaders were ever given drill, so I was used to keeping everything in my head. I understood that they were to help avoid forms from floating by keeping things more accurate, but I always found them annoying.]

Edited December 5, 2006 by raphael18