r/Colorguard

Okay, so for our school's fight song, at one point we have to do drop spins. Every time I try, my flag gets tangled between my wrists because of even the slightest tap of wind on it and i have to stop my spins entirely and I come back in at our next move, cones, and they're extremely weak and discouraged because of how badly I messed up drop spins right before. Anything I can do to fix this problem? I don't have a flag to practice with tomorrow, nor do we have practice, but I'm trying to go to my section leader's house tomorrow to get it dealt with. I know it's the wrong flair, I don't have a video because I don't have a flag.

So my coach contacted me to basically be 1 of 2 coaches to coach my old guard while the main coaches work their real jobs, im only 2 years out so the now seniors know me but not the rest, im troubled bc the 2nd person they asked to help coach is someone who spun before my time and we dont know each other, im kinda a complicated case as im chronically ill with dysautonomia and separate heart problems, which my old coach knows, but my old coaches dont know that now i have a pacemaker and other internal devices to monitor and control my heart, im still sick, kinda worse than before, i still pass out and get dangerously high heart rates (250bpm) but yeah, when I was in the guard I couldn't run via my coach would not allow it and give me separate exercises but I dont wanna seem lazy to my new kids and this new co-coach, but I also dont wanna scare them if something happens like i pass out, ive had problems before where my old guard captain would talk to my team behind my back about how I can't keep up and shouldn't be there and I dont want that to happen with thus co-coach. Ig my question is what should I do?

i’ll be in a dorm and not able to practice but i want to do it the next year so any tips on what i can work on?

I don't own my own silks or any equipment so to those out there who do own their own where have you bought your items? Anythings I should stay away from??

hey!! for any of yall who’ve marched dci, what are some skills i would need for drum corps auditions?

Previous update: https://www.reddit.com/r/Colorguard/s/Tn9wo6MmKd

Y'all what the heck... so one school I've gone through the onboarding process basically without being officially given the job, now another school wants me to onboard with them? Though one is a "assistant color guard director" position and the other is a "color guard advisor" position. Do any of you work with multiple guards? I know it's a thing in my area. How do you make it work? Do schedules conflict between the guards often?

I have an update!

Original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Colorguard/s/3nafkWVnWf

So I haven't officially been offered the job yet, but I applied for an assistant color guard director (won't say where for anonymity purposes), I've done the background check, I'm up for BOE approval (their next meeting is in 2 weeks), and I'm now being included on emails with only the staff, as well as with parents and students, and I've been invited to the BAND app so I'm confused. I think I have the job, I'm just missing the "official" thing. What's your thoughts?

Hey so me and my girlfriend have been together for quite a while now and we’re super close, we barely ever spend time apart and it’s safe to say we have a clingy relationship.
For context she tries her best to dress really modest, especially after we met, she stopped wearing anything that would show more than her lower arms, which means no crop tops no tube tops, nothing revealing.
That all was for a reason, I was really insecure about how she dressed and at first I tried to make it seem like I didn’t care hence I didn’t want her to worry about anything or come off as controlling.
However after she started suspecting that it affected me she stopped wearing any of those things.
She signed up for the colorguard at her school for next year and she was in it before we met, but just today I saw what their uniforms look like and basically it’s just a dress which shows off a lot of the shoulder and both her whole arms.
I know I might seem crazy and that people dress like that for occasions and it’s perfectly normal but seeing her in that, knowing she’ll have to go in front of her whole school every football game and wave the flag around while wearing this made me feel sick to my stomach, I haven’t told her anything and I’ve been trying to avoid the topic but I genuinely don’t know how to grasp it.
She complained about their policy which is basically that she will have to take off all her jewelry before every game which was frustrating for her since she has a lot of facial jewelry and she thought of resigning but the teacher in charge of the team told her that they already made a list and that it’s too late, so even if I told her to quit there’s really nothing either me or her could do.
What do I do? How do I even approach this or how should I cope with the gut wrenching feeling? If anyone has any idea please help me out 😓

I have up to a triple on a standard setup so i don’t think it’s a strength issue, I just can’t seem to get it out with enough rotation or get it high enough, any help and tips would be GREATLY appreciate!!

I DONT HAVE A VIDEO IM SORRY ANY GENERAL TIPS WOULD BE GREAT!!

Hello Everyone!

I've just kinda been thinking about what kinda guard I wanna join. I'm going into my second year of college and I just finished up my 25'-26' marching season with my college and I hated spinning with them. My experience in guard is I did it for 3 years in High School and then one year out with my college but I'd like to continue guard I just don't know what I should do. I've never done a winter guard as my school did not offer it. We did just your regular field show and parades.

My experience with my college guard made me really question if I was really good enough at guard. It was challenging but challenging in a fun way to push myself to be better but in the long run it wore me down quite a bit especially because our show was learned on the fly and we were given a routine for a whole song a week out from one of our half time performances. I have no heavy dance experience other than being your typical theater kid who danced up on stage and whatever dancey type thing they shoved into our show this last fall which wasn't a lot.

I'd love to expand my knowledge and become better at spinning overall. I love guard and marching band so anything helps and or even some advice.

I recently finished my first season of independent winterguard, and while I'm incredibly grateful for the friendships I made and everything I learned, I'm honestly struggling with how to feel about the experience overall.

For some background, I didn't have the greatest color guard experience in high school. My school's VAPA program had very little funding which caused my coaches to quit at the beginning of my senior year of high school. After graduating, I auditioned for an independent group (that I do not feel comfortable saying at this time) because I wanted to have a better guard experience than what I did in high school.

At first, things seemed fine, but as the season progressed, I started noticing a culture that felt increasingly harsh and demoralizing. I understand that staff want performers to improve and that constructive criticism is part of the activity, but a lot of the feedback felt less like teaching and more like being constantly berated. We, and especially other performers that were struggling on a certain skill that was in the show, were frequently asked things like, "Do you even want to be here?" or "What are you doing?" and were often made to feel like we were replaceable.

As a college student balancing school with my group's 24+ hour rehearsal weekends, there were times when I genuinely questioned whether I was good enough to be on the team anymore. Looking back, I don't think I was the only one feeling that way. By competition season, many members seemed physically and mentally exhausted.

One thing that bothered me most was how injuries were handled. Members often had very little opportunity to rest, and several people got hurt during the season. Support staff would sometimes encourage injured members to sit out and take breaks, but the head directors often pushed for them to return immediately saying that they "needed to be better" and especially if they were a returning member, saying that it was "embarrassing for them to be sitting out because they are being a bad role model to the newer members."

One of the worst moments was when a teammate suffered a severe ankle sprain at the beginning of rehearsal and couldn't walk. She waited hours for our lunch break to ask one of our directors if a teammate could take her to the hospital so that she wasn't disturbing rehearsal and was initially told she probably just needed a brace and was even discouraged from going to the hospital. When she eventually got medical attention, the injury turned out to be much more serious. A few days later, there was pressure for her to return, and when she said she physically couldn't perform yet, the directors had told her that she was removed from the team. This was right before we had a rehearsal and was a teammate that I was housing with for the regional weekend, where they had asked me to gather my things from her car before she left and was told that they would "figure something out for me." It was genuinely awful trying to ask some teammates in the middle of rehearsal for a ride and people to stay with especially because they had me go back to rehearsal like nothing happened. They later apologized a few hours later and said that they had acted brashly and would be happy for her to return to the team, which she did and was put back in the show with modified drill for her ankle, but I can't help but feel that the entire situation was handled unprofessionally by the directors.

Another member suffered a facial injury during rehearsal that required stitches, and she was back spinning shortly afterward which the teammate has shared was a very unpleasant experience as she had to literally drive herself to the hospital and back since the directors didn't want any of the performers have their rehearsal time taken away.

There were also moments when, after poor runs, we were told that if we didn't want to be there, we could leave, and that we were essentially just dots that could be replaced. That mentality always confused me because everyone had auditioned, invested thousands of dollars, and sacrificed countless hours because they cared. We had many occasions were after rehearsal our team would meet and talk about our shared frustrations. We had many talks where our captains would bring up our frustrations to the directors but nothing ever happened. We did not see some change in their behavior until the support staff got involved about a month before the season ended but even then some of my teammates who are under the directors' instruction for dci this summer have said that they have basically continued to keep up their ways which worries me immensely.

Despite everything, we had an incredibly successful season. We made history for the organization by medaling in Ohio and being our class champion in the local circuit for the first time ever. More importantly, I met some amazing people, and I truly believe the members were what held the team together. The bond we formed is something I'll always be grateful for.

I'm conflicted on if this is normal because I genuinely do want to continue marching and especially at a higher level. However, I can't help but be afraid that I will experience the same feelings and experiences again regardless of where I go if I do switch organizations. I'm curious if experiences or behaviors from guard staff like this are common in independent winterguard, or if this kind of environment is considered unhealthy. I know high standards and accountability are part of the activity, and I don't expect everything to be easy, but I can't shake the feeling that some things crossed the line between demanding excellence and creating an unsafe or toxic environment.

I'd really appreciate hearing from people who have marched independent groups before or have any other advice such as switching organizations.

Hello Spinners!

So I am in a VERY unique situation right now... On 29th May I ordered a king saber (KS2-36") and then 2 weeks later found out im moving across the country. I called and changed the saber to a 39" (what my new guard uses) and they said shipping would take the same time (2-2.5 weeks) and my order would say in the same place in the queue. its been 3+ weeks now... I've never ordered anything from King and I know we started with the fall guard season, but I don't know if I should be worried or not... (I've seen some people in here complaining that they never got their product so I guess I'm just a little nervous LOL)

Also, I'm not in any time crunch when it comes to performing (I do front ensemble during the fall) but I am worried it's not going to come by the time I move!

I don't have any experiences with marching band but I really want to join. I did some research and these two seem like the most beginner friendly ones. I do need to audition for them. Pls give me some advice cuz I don't know where to start.

Hi!! I miss color guard so much and I’m hoping there’s already a group or we could form one in NYC!