A Young Woman's Body Image--A Basic Primer for Guard Instructors

I remember every player-every single one-who wore the Tennessee orange, a shade that our rivals hate, a bold, aggravating color that you can usually find on a roadside crew, "or in a correctional institution," as my friend Wendy Larry jokes. But to us the color is a flag of pride, because it identifies us as Lady Vols and therefore as women of an unmistakable type. Fighters. I remember how many of them fought for a better life for themselves. I just met them halfway.--Pat Summit

It's band camp time. Thousands upon thousands of kids across America are taking to the marching band field for the very first time. Those in the color guard are holding this odd thing called a flag pole. Many are stretching and finding muscles they never knew existed for the first time in their young lives. Others have never taken a dance class...much less been asked to leap, jump, and move across the floor with grace. Most of these kids who make up the color guard are girls. They are young women who just a couple to three years ago got their first period. Their breasts are still developing. Here are some other things you should know and consider, before the first ensemble drop spin is  even attempted.

• In 2008, the CDC reported that 36% of high school girls reported strong and persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness in the past year. 19% seriously considered suicide, 13% made a suicide plan, and 9% actually tried to kill themselves.
• Female athletes experience concussions differently and take longer to recover
• By the age of 5, children have absorbed a cultural bias against overweight people and females take the brunt of this bias (Musher-Eizenmean, 2003)
• The media is a multi-billion dollar industry aimed at shaming women into being unrealistically thin, unrealistically beautiful and unrealistically super human.
• The CDC reports that approximately 17% of adolescents are overweight or obese and the lower the income, the higher rate of obesity.

Finally...

Did you know that according the the Geena Davis Institute for Women in Media, only 31% of all speaking roles go to women? Only 23% of all films feature a female protagonist. Only 23% of all action films have females speaking in the films and almost all of action films have set the male up as the hero. This is why movies such as the new Ghostbusters and Wonder Woman is so freaking important. This is why the movie Frozen was so groundbreaking. She chose her sister over a man. She was not an evil queen and she empowered herself to use her internal strength. Oh and one more thing. Women highlighted in sports in the movies and on ESPN are less than 4%. Less than 4. Freaking. Percent! Intelligent women who are portrayed strictly for their talent and brain are visually hard to come by on television and in the movies.

Why is this important? Why did I start with it? Because, by the time you get these girls to spin their first drop spin, most of them are dealing with some sort of self-esteem, body image, or inferiority complex that you can never see, they might not even be aware of and it goes back to the beginning of time. We as women have a long history in this world of subjugation that we are just now coming out of. In fact, our right to vote is still less than 100 years old. 

When you coach a female you have a responsibility to them as women. Now this is no different than any youth you may coach. Males are just as important, but for this post we are talking about females, because females make up the majority of all high school color guards in this country. Without any proper data on the pageantry arts, it is probably the single largest sport for girls in the country. I have and many of those I know, have taken immense pride in our activity that we...for the most part...take the girls that many won't, because we take all shapes and sizes. We give them a shot at the 50 yard line solo. 

So here's the problem. When you coach a guard with the pure intent of designing a show and getting a score, then you lose the reason the girls need us the most. When your focus is only on the design of your amazing costume, then you may forget to design to body image. When you put your emphasis on design over proper training and conditioning, then your females lose out on possibly the one opportunity life has given them to pull themselves out of this pit of hell called the objectification of the female body. When your single goal in life is to choreograph equipment phrasing better than Crown...(well first of all good luck with that), then you have made it about you and not them. Here is something else. Teenage girls are not you. They do not have the wrist strength of a man or self esteem of a developed woman of power. How you speak to them and build their sense of self is more important to those girls than your costume design. How you condition them...if you even do...not just builds their strength to achieve your not so good Crown Guard rip off show, but helps them respect the health of the body for life. YOU are building life long habits. You yes you! It is not just that early is on time and on time is late. Their self esteem and health will be with them until the day they die.

Does this mean that we don't push them to be better every day? Absolutely not. Have you ever heard of the sandwich approach? This is a phrase coined by Dr. Robert Smith that states that when we make a correction, we will get better results by commending the effort first, addressing the technical mistake second, and encouraging future progress third. This technique is not just an idea. It is a well researched method of coaching that yields higher results in performance than just yelling. Athletes and performers are waiting for the negative comment, but what makes this method effective, is that most athletes are already beating themselves up for the mistake. They are mad at themselves for not performing up to par, letting the team down, and most importantly letting the coach down. So why beat them up again? A compliment on effort goes a long way to building the trust in themselves to try something new. Remember, if the stats are right and these young women are walking into your program doubting themselves, then basic psychology would naturally dictate that the emphasis on the positive effort is more effective than the negative.

"Oh but Shelba...kids today are so soft. Back in my day our coaches carried pistols and shot our hands off if we dropped." Oh, but reader...keep an open mind to science and psychology and try not to scream, "Get off my lawn to the kids on Halloween."

Here's something else to think about. Women have had their bodies objectified by the media, men, and even other women all of their lives. "You aren't thin enough. You're too athletic. You're too fat. You're hair isn't blonde enough. Your skin isn't soft enough. Look at your body. It's so sexy. Your breasts are so supple. Your ass is so round. Your ass isn't round enough." Think about the messages these girls have been seeing and hearing their entire lives.

"Here little Suzy. Here's your first Barbie Doll. Oh and by the way...don't forget that you will NEVER, EVER look like her."

"Oh look at how beautiful your daughter is dad. You're going to have to lock her in the house until she's thirty." 

The messages are real and they have detrimental impacts. When girls stretch in front of their male staff for the first time in their lives in a second position, with their legs wide open...it matters. When we have them bend over to stretch out in front of the band...it matters. When we put them on the ground to work leg stretches, while their legs are in the air...it matters. When we put them in uniforms that are too tight...it matters. IT MATTERS and there are easy fixes, such as how we ask them to dress in rehearsal. Some girls need more time to anesthetize or get comfortable with the idea of a second position stretch. Some need more time to acclimate to a world where showing skin in a rehearsal setting is common. Also remember, at least one of your girls if not two by statistics, state they have been date raped. Giving an option of rehearsal attire that covers the top parts of the legs around the thigh area helps in the acclimation process. Some of your young women may have never worn a sports bra and need encouragement to wear one, because all women participating in high impact sports should be wearing breast protection. It helps in their becoming comfortable with their growing chest and reduces soreness after practice. Only a woman can truly know this, hence the reason for this blog post. And one more thing...when costuming girls, please think of the large breasted girls. Fashion designers screw this up all the time. Most of us simply are NOT a B cup with a tiny waist.

Finally, I would like you the reader, the coach, the director, the designer who is reading this to consider how you approach punishment in terms of exercise. We need girls in this world to exercise for life. We need them to love exercise as to cut down on a number of diseases such as diabetes, breast cancer, and high blood pressure. Exercise for conditioning and health is a much better approach than exercise for punishment..not to mention that if you yourself are overweight, eating french fries and barking orders from a tower...all you are doing is building a guard that doesn't trust you. Put the fries down and pick up an orange and tell them to do the same damn thing. 

When I coach I have a simple philosophy. It took me years to grow this philosophy. I had to go through the yelling phase, ego phase, and arrogance phase. I'm now in the "leadership" phase. I want to lead them to lead others. I want them to love who they are, because it took me way too long to love myself. Sometimes it takes domestic violence, sexism in the workplace, and being called a bitch, cunt, whore, and tyrant to come to the realization that you are none of those things. I am and you are a strong, powerful, unstoppable, and once in a lifetime woman. My philosophy is to build young women who know who they are faster than I ever did, so finding that man who hits and berates them is not even an option in their lifetime.

Coaching women is an undertaking that if done right can build leaders of our country. Standing in front of them is an awesome responsibility and part of that responsibility is the undoing of generations of women being told they aren't good enough. It is your job to say, "You are good enough. You are a leader. You will make it. I believe in you."

NOTE:

The Marching Roundtable is producing a series of podcasts focused specifically on how to coach young women. They are also putting in place a mentoring program and diversity program. I encourage you to check out their site to sign up here to mentor young women or men, so we can start building coaches, directors, and designers who know the how of the young people and not just the what.

Dear Band Director...

An open letter to all of the band directors out there from you guard staff. 

Dear Band Director,

I am your guard instructor. I want to tell you a little about myself. First I want to say that with me, you have hired a professional. I was unable in college to major in color guard like your percussion instructor or woodwinds section leader. For my education, I had to start learning my craft in high school and then carry that into different realms of development through winter guard, drum corps, and even dance and acting classes. I may have a degree in education, psychology, or engineering, but I don't have a degree in color guard. This however, does not make me less intelligent, less educated, or less knowledgeable about the section you have hired me for.

I know that you have hired a drill writer. You might have even hired a designer or program coordinator to help you build your program to a level of excellence, that is competitive on the national music stage. I want you to know though, I am also a designer. I have ideas about what show should be chosen and how that show should be staged. I have ideas as to what equipment should be used and where. I can also fix the drill if we find it isn't working. You know what else I can do? I understand music. I can read it and my sensitivity to musicality allows me to create moments of beauty we call art.

I am a coach of young women and men. In the way I talk to them and coach them, can make or break their self-esteem, body image, and absolute enjoyment for their future in the activity we both love. It can even make or break your program. I can hinder and stall the success of your bands name just by my decision to NOT make your program a priority. What I have to know to make your color guard successful ranges from the mechanics of body conditioning, dance, equipment fundamentals, performance techniques, judging score sheets, an understanding of staging, components of colors and even the building of props. My very expertise can impact your General Effect, Design Analysis, Guard Caption, and sometimes even your music caption if just one judge decides to venture out of said caption. I am a professional.

I know that you have spent a lot of money hiring drill writers, music arrangers, and consultants that come to your band class and teach the nuances of music. You hired me, too. You want me to teach a daily class. You want me to stay up late at night designing costumes and then ordering those costumes to precise measurements, that will allow beauty to flow from the performers bodies just by the very essence of the way they stand on the field. You desire to hear, "...and in first place for color guard is...your guard." With that first place score will most likely come with high marks in general effect and ensemble analysis.

When the design company you hired has been paid their final check and your music consultants have flown back home...I will still be here. In fact, I will most likely be planning for the winter season on top of the planning for the fall marching band season. One thing I realize in color guard, is that we as an activity have failed in the promotion and advocacy of the training of proper conditioning, certified dance teachers, and even certified technicians specializing in the use of equipment. I know that you realize that there are guard instructors out there who have failed in keeping with their end of the bargain. They used the activity as a stepping stone to their ego. Some have even been fired for misconduct with students. Some are in jail. Some have been caught stealing funds from the guard itself. We know this happens. It also happens on your side as well. Our activity is fraught with issues of accountability. This however, does not make us all unprofessional and uneducated. I am not a neophyte to this activity, nor am I corrupt. I have honed a skill that is unmatched by the sheer way I've learned to lead young women into excellence beyond the pageantry arts. I am building the performers to be leaders of the nation they are about to inherit. Am I worth the money, when we take into account the absurd responsibility you have handed me night after night after night?

This is what I ask in return. I ask that you respect my work as much as you respect the work of the design company you hired for $10,000 that raped the till of finances for your day to day guard staff. Without proper pay, I cannot dedicate my time fully to your program, as I have bills to pay as well. So I will have to split my time, find a full time job, or just simply fit you in when I can. That is not what I want to do. I want to build a program and not just call it mine, but call it ours. To do that, you have to trust me. You need to include me in the design side of the program and not just hand me drill charts and say, "Here...write." I would like to be included in the pre-season...very pre-season discussions on show concept. I'm not an afterthought. I should be the first thought. You see, in this activity and in many, many programs, the design of the show and who should design that show comes first and those that will be around to bring that show to life comes second. I need you to reverse your thinking. One...this will cause you less stress. If you put the correct day to day staff in place...people you trust...people who are professionals and who can grow your program together, then the design will come easy. Programmatic issues will be handled in house and with less stress. It's easy to write a check. It's a lot harder to build a team and a team is what will make your program successful in the end.

There are no quick fixes and easy answers. To build a program takes dedication and decades. When your day to day guard staff is a second thought or the bastard child in your mind, then we will leave and move on. Your band will become just money to us. The reality is that you can hire the best names in the country to design your show and arrange your music, but without me...that great design becomes average and forgetful. Your first thought should have been, "Who will train my color guard to be the finest in the nation?" You would expect nothing less from yourself as a band director in front of young musicians, so why would you expect less and pay less and communicate less and trust less of your guard staff...We who are your day to day staff. We are the people who are in front of your guard, mostly young women, and the kids that are trusting you to bring in the best, as they stand with a flag in their hand waiting to hear the words, "...and 5,6,5,6,7,8."

We must not forget that with the very way I add nuance to effort changes in let's say the slight tilt of the head, in a moment when that one note, from that one soloist is heard off in the distance; I could make an audience weep. I can make them laugh by the way I train for performance. I can bring your show to life. I do bring your show to life! So I ask you to consider all of this as the nation begins band camp and the start of the fall season. Who is more valuable to building the name of your program that the community will cheer for as your band loads the buses to some far off show to earn trophies to be shown on the local news? Who is there sweating and laughing and crying with your students? Is it your day to day staff or the far away designer who posts pictures of their feet by the pool, while they write your drill and calling the kids in your band...dots?

Never forget that we know the names of every kid and they are more than just dots to us.

The Very Essence of the Term "Technician"

What is a technician? What does it mean? The text book definition for our practical purposes in the activity states that a technician is an expert in the practical application of a science, art, or craft. Let's see if I can make sense of this. An expert. This would mean that a technician for a color guard would need at the very minimum an awareness and demonstrated proficiency in the areas of conditioning, dance, muscular dynamics, performance concepts and equipment principles. The practical application of color guard is the demonstration that the technician has the ability to coach youth with intent, while using modern teaching principles. They would need to exhibit that they understand behavior modification for the coaching of sports to achieve the highest results. This expert in turn for their diligent hard work, would show results in the realms of competitive success, growth in membership, retention of veterans, and increased success following the current class structure the program exists in. Meaning, the program will get better each and every year.

Now, that is just the general job of a technician. What if they write choreography? What if they have to change drill when there is a mid season glitch a judge pointed out at a show? What if they are the person who makes on the spot design decisions, when the chief designer is only on staff as a contracted employee who is seen maybe two or three times a season?

Now, what about the technician who is at rehearsal every day, every show, football games, parades, and concerts? What about the one who has the skills to clean the show from the perspective of all captions including, but not limited to General Effect, Ensemble, Music, Movement and Equipment in general? What if this person has the skills to help write the show? 

Think about it. What is a technician in today's high paced, highly competitive, and high priced world worth? If you were the band director or director of an independent guard, how do you calculate the cost of a designer at let's say...50% the staff budget, while the rest of the staff fight over the other 50%? What do you think happens to morale, commitment, and desire to grow as an instructor? What do you think happens to the desire of a technician to stay and build a program if those in charge of the money choose to put their technical role below that of the other side of the sheet? When you look at the sheets in any of our pageantry activities, I often ask, "Which side is more important? The what or the how?" Because dammit, there is no what without the how. They don't exist separately and we need to start paying a hell of a lot more attention to those whose jobs are to make the what come to life through the expertise of the how.

With all this being said, if how equals the what, then why do we as an activity spend more resources focused on the what? 

Let me give you some examples. Drill writers. How many drill writers out there are writing 20 and thirty and 40 drills over the summer for marching bands all over the country without once stepping foot on the field of the band they wrote for? How much is that drill writer worth over the most talented technicians on your field? "But Shelba, if it wasn't for the designers, you would have nothing to clean." Very true. I can't argue that point. I'll offer you this though, "Without the great technicians of the activity, your design can't flourish and you won't be able to put your name on this program." I mean come on people. We all know that when a designer lands one great band or winter guard gig and if that band is successful, they in the end puts their name on it. Because it's the designer that wrote it right? However, what if that brilliant technical staff walked off the field in mid-October and said, "Clean this shit yourself." Would you want your name on that program then?

Here's another one. Choreographers. I once looked at a budget that had a separation of designer, writer, and then technical staff. The technical staff were at the bottom of the pay scale. I looked at the staff budget from a percentage stand point and realized that the line item percentage for the day to day staff was significantly lower than the percentage for one designer and one choreographer to come in and wave their magic design wands around. This my friends, is not uncommon in our activity. The phrase, "We need to hire such and such to boost our programs standing in the pageantry community." (fill in the blanks of someone you pay to put their name on your program for saying that blue would be a good uniform choice)

Well...this is what I say to that. BULLSHIT! Spend the bulk of your budget and hire a brilliant technician who has the skill set to work with an average designer and writer, whose job is to set a three year goal and move your color guard/band up through the ranks...then build your budget around that brilliant technician and your staff around them. What would happen? Maybe, your program would grow so well, that you could then hire the big named designer to put their name on your program to just say the uniforms should be blue. Simply put, what if we reversed our thinking all together?

"But Shelba, we can't find any good techs who have the skills of what you are talking about." Yes. I would have to agree with that statement....maybe. A great technician is NOT a dime a dozen. Not everyone can clean a well written phrase with the finesse of breath, musicality, and effort changes necessary to reach the pinnacle of the how. Or is it, that you have ignored the how and the people that do the how for so long, that no one wants to work with your program anymore. It also could be that your people are actually pretty brilliant technicians, but you refuse to pay for their services so they put your program on the back burner and come in when they can fit you in. I've done it. If I find out I'm working for a program where my services are undermined or devalued, I will stay for the kids...to a point, but I will start the process of moving on and that may come in the form of moving completely to another program or moving your program to the back of the line and I'll fit you in when it works for my schedule. Why do I do it? Because designers and writers most of the time won't design page one for free. So why would I do the same as a technician and as a woman? We do this activity for the kids, but I won't be used and no one should ever feel that way.

I have another example. Local circuit and national focus clinics. I would love to know how many go on each year all over the country that say, "Hey guess what you guys! We are paying this great designer to come and teach you how to design a great show." The fine print of that clinic or workshop says, "By the way, we'll teach you how to design, but we won't teach you how to clean it. We won't offer workshops on time management, coaching with intent, or cleaning for effect." The fine print of that workshop will be so small that you won't even realize it's not being offered. The result, is a lack of attention to the importance of the technicians of the activity. 

Why am I writing this today? It's because I received an email from a band asking me to consult...for free. FREE.  Let me say that again. FREE. When I gave them my price they told me they didn't have the money. They had already hired a drill writer, but the drill writer is expensive. My response? So am I. "But Shelba, you don't write drill or design world class shows." I don't? Have you ever seen me or any other expert technician work THEIR magic? Have you ever seen me take a mess of design and rework it to make sense? Have you ever seen me clean efforts into a phrase written without the thought of musicality? Have you ever seen me kick total ass when I've been given one day to write and clean an entire song for a show, when the drill came in late? I'm that good and so are many, many others.

I have one more. Oftentimes, so much money is spent on the production value side of the show, then when it comes time to pay for the day to day staff, all that's left over is money for a young, inexperienced person with no resume to speak of. Costumes, silks, props, floors, make up, hair, designers, and writers all make up the what. When you budget first for the production of the show, without figuring out the day to day staff who will make sure the make up is worn correctly or the silks go around together, then my friend...your program will ultimately remain average and forgettable. You will spend your time wondering why staff turnover is so high and you can't ever seem to make it to the top. This pattern will set you on a path of bitterness and the feeling as if it's everyone's fault besides yours. 

"The staff don't care."

"The boosters don't want to pay."

"The judges are bad."

"The kids never practice."

No...those are excuses. The reality? No one wants to work for you because you put the what before the how.

The moral to the story...Start paying your technicians equally and in time we will see more devotion to programs and more experts will come out of the wood work who make the what truly come to life, because they will devote their time in the activity in honing a skill that is valued both financially and visually.

Training! What does It All Mean??

"Individuals understand the introductory skills and achieve a consistent degree of uniformity in method and timing."

"The choreographed vocabulary contains a good introductory/beginning range with variety and some versatility."

Uh...huh. I've been in the activity a long time and I've taught and judged and taught and judged and used the judge words and put the numbers down and taught and judged. Today however, I was judging a unit that kind of stopped me. I looked at the sheet and then the sheet above it and I looked at the boxes and literally thought, "What the hell is an introductory skill?" What is it? If it's so easy to put these words on to a piece of paper and use it as criteria to rank and rate units, then why can't we actually define it? Why can't I come into a show as a judge and say the phrase, "Well low and behold look at this. You have demonstrated that this is clearly not an introductory skill."

What about this?

"The range of the choreographed vocabulary for this class is broad and well understood." Broad and well understood. Broad and well understood. Broad and well understood. Say it ten times fast and you know what will happen? You still won't know what broad and well understood really means. My personal favorite is, "Dynamic gradations of space, time, weight, and flow are usually achieved." Ummm....o.k. How do you quantify a "usually?"

Have you ever wanted to take 20 people and put them outside of a gym and bring them into the gym one at a time and say the words, "Show me a basic skill and then demonstrate for me a basic phrase on any piece of equipment of your choosing and when you are done with that, explain to me the training process you would take to get performers to understand a good degree of physical and mental development for that phrase." Now, what if 10 of those people were judges and 10 of those people were instructors of the Regional A and A classes, who were young and somewhat naive? What would we get? Now, what if those 10 judges were split between national judges and local judges? What would we get? Anyone want to play the game, because I'll bet my next paycheck on the fact that we would see 20 different approaches and 20 different answers. Until we acknowledge the fact that we still have not come to a consensus on what we are asking the young guards to achieve, then how can we sit and use the phrases such as, "Your vocabulary range doesn't fit the class or your training program doesn't fit the book the kids were given." I'll tell you what I think. I teach at various levels and judge all over the country. I'll tell you what isn't introductory or beginning...a back hand on flag release behind the back into an immediate release of a 45 toss out of it. Something else that isn't a basic skill...a quad with lower body contributions such as single foot balance or deliberate shift in weight, yet I see it all the time all over the country in the lower classes. However, when I teach my high school guard those skills and break it down and teach the techniques behind it, I start to think, "Well then...that wasn't easy." Am I a bad tech? Do I not know how to teach those skills? I'm not thinking that's the case. I'm thinking that we don't know what the hell introductory, beginning, and intermediate really are and the training process it takes to get them there.

I live in a world where everything we have to do is S.M.A.R.T. Anyone who has worked in the professional realm for longer than 8 minutes knows this acronym.

Specific...Measurable...Achievable...Realistic...Timely.

This is how our Regional A sheets should be created. A specific guideline that tells anyone who designs for and techs for these guards what is expected and the timeline for achievement. We act in this activity that if we were to say that a quad is an introductory skill or basic skill or intermediate skill or whatever, that somehow we would hurt the delicate sensibilities of the instructors and designers around the country. We go into these discussions that if we were to actually define introductory or beginning or intermediate that we would strip the design choices out of the hands of the units. Oh please. My philosophy is that Regional A is a training class and if your guard or you as an instructor needs to be in this class, then we need some more damn guidance than a sheet that reads like a toy given to a child on Christmas day that can't be put together, because the directions are in Japanese. I'll also tell you what isn't a basic skill and not even intermediate. It's equipment work that is manipulated by one hand that explores alternate angles by use of the wrist only. Have you ever seen a 15 year old girl who barely weighs 75 pounds wet try to manipulate equipment with one hand? Have you ever seen them disengage the body to just achieve? How do you train for that? Do we train for that? Do we really as an activity train to strengthen the wrist in this day and age of multiple one handed planal work? I said to a guard today while judging, that the wrist didn't support the work and more training needed to happen before the kids could achieve. After I said that I thought, "Bad Shelba. Bad." What I should have said was, "Take the damn thing out before one of those girls breaks their wrist!" But what does it mean anyway? It's so easy as judges for us to sit back and say that a guard needs better training, but what does it really take for a guard to be truly trained in one handed, end of pole, multi-planal work?

I want to sit with every downstairs judge around the country at the national level and ask the question. Do you know? What is the training for one handed, end of the pole, multi-planal work? I am personally mad as hell that we are given sheets to work off of, but they lack such specific guidelines that it forces the guards at the bottom to struggle in writing and in training. We are so afraid to define it, because then it would force us to meet somewhere in the middle and say, "You know what? Maybe one handed, end of the pole, multi-planal work is something that we should only do if a guard is shooting for the top 10 of A class." It also would force us to say, "To do that particular skill, we expect you to train the wrist in such a way that it builds the muscles around it to support in a healthy way the development of the wrist." It would force personal trainers to be hired at the national level to evaluate the skills. It would force risk managers to look at the skills and say "No way. This is a lawsuit waiting to happen."

Why are we so afraid to really discuss skill and training? I take pride as a judge the information I give to Regional A and A class units; specifically the ones not headed to Dayton or a regional. I love those guards. I love challenging myself weekend after weekend to make sure that what I say doesn't sound like I'm speaking at the U.N. to a group of delegates from China. Each week I strive to make sure that when I leave, the units in the lower classes get more than judge speak. I listen to a lot of audio files from many different judges and it makes me angry when I'm listening to an A class guard who clearly isn't a regional bound team and hear a judge say something like this, "The training doesn't support the dimensionality of the phrase when the body is in the bound position." Seriously? How about this? "Hey you guys, you are trying to constrict the body to create different efforts and I get it, but I if you want to do this phrase, the kids are going to need specific level body training in contractions to better understand breath and release." I know I know. We aren't supposed to be teaching the guards. However, I don't care what we are suppose to and not be doing. I don't care. Sue me. Don't bring me in again. What I care about, is that the instructor who is 25 years old on their first go round in the activity understand what the hell I'm saying and that when they hear my voice they get pointed information on what training means, so the kids are successful and feel good about themselves.

Being in the trenches is important. I pride myself on being in the trenches. I pride myself on not walking on the floor with 47 guards, but just one or two and building training programs that makes the kids feel successful.

So what is an introductory skill? What is it in movement? When we blend body and equipment, when does introductory move to basic and then to intermediate? Picture this. I'm teaching a guard who is in let's say the Triple A or A3 type of class. Kids who can barely walk and chew gum at the same time. We now know we are on the A sheet. Intermediate is a word we will start hearing and exploring. However, when we came out of Regional A, no one really told us what introductory or basic constituted. I start writing harder work. Judges are telling me the kids don't have the training to support the new one handed, off center work. Except, training was never really defined for me. Now the work is harder and I still don't know how to adjust the training program or even if I should. All the clinics offered in my area is based on design. I now know how to create an effect, because my local circuit paid some high priced designer to come in to teach how to build effect and create production value. Well this is what I say to that. Whoop dee doo! My floor looks great. That $2,000 was spent well. Wow! The costumes. Look at them. The effects. They were built so well and now I understand how to build effects like a pro, but wait. While building into the effect, the kids passed through planes they didn't understand, used methods of travel that challenges them, because they really don't know how to jump in the air and then come out of that jump and continue with a nice flow through the lower body, and when they got to the big toss they just chucked equipment in the air and caught. YAY! They caught! Good for them, but unfortunately the toss was thrown wrong, different elbows, wrist energy, and free hands, but good for me...I built an effect and the kids caught! Now...I can build effect. I'm a pro. Congratulations to me. My guard has now been promoted into the Double A class. My kids still have underdeveloped lower bodies and they don't toss well. I have now learned as a designer the concept of smoke and mirrors. And the cycle goes on and on.

Specific. Measurable. Achievable. Realistic. Timely.

Specifically, there are skills that those of us on the true front lines know what is introductory and basic. We can measure it on a daily basis by the struggles of the young performer and the bad habits they build why we as an activity try to figure out introductory, basic, and intermediate. Achievement is confidence of knowing how to do your show with fluidity and breath. Realistic is setting goals of knowing when it is a young performer is to have learned and mastered a double, triple, and quad. Being realistic in knowing when to put in lower body blended elements. Timely. All of this should be timely in the fact that kids shouldn't have to wait until Championships to finally feel a small amount of success. It shouldn't take from band camp to April Championships for quads and leaps to become comfortable and achievable.

We are hurting the kids by not defining and having dialog about what these words mean and what training truly looks like. I'll tell you this, though. I talk about it. I talk about it all the time. I listen and teach. I teach how to read a recap for the  messages being sent. I teach instructors to listen to common themes on all 5 tapes. I teach on my tapes how to clean a phrase and what specific training exercises will help train the skill and one last thing. I have no problem telling them to take it out. It's about the kids and their feeling of success and to do that I want an instructor to understand how to create success and what success really means. Recently I heard someone say to an instructor, "All the criteria is on the sheet. You need to read it." Well how elitist of you, I thought. Later, I pulled that instructor aside and gave her my phone number. I told her to call me and that I'll walk her through the Chinese words written on the sheet and what they really mean.

Training. Criteria. Introductory. Basic. Intermediate. What do they mean and who are we serving by keeping these words in a nebulous of confusion?  When we decide to get in the mindset and understand the unique problems of these classes, then we will decide to have better dialog.

A Technician's Internal Dialog

Since sometime around 1996, I have been a loud and proud technician. Some years I have been a part of the design team and other's I have stepped back and let the design team do their business...as long as they let me do mine. I've never pretended to be a designer, although I certainly have had my share of design ideas. I've never written a phrase that anyone at WGI would say, "Wow...did you see that? How did they do that?" I've been on the receiving end of that phrase however, as I analyzed late into the night how I would attack the phrase, what muscles were engaged and every effort in between of every 'and count.' If I had to create the staging, it would make a design analysis judge's eyes bleed, but I can look at that staging and ask, "Ummm....was the intent to completely block your best phrase on sabre by a teenage boy on the other side of the floor throwing some high, over rotated 12 on rifle?"

Over the years, as a loud and proud technician, I've had an inner dialog that's pretty strong. The older I get however, that internal dialog is becoming pretty damn external. Let me tell you what a good technician knows. We know that the effects are crucial. We know that without a strong book that flows from one moment to the next moment guiding your eye across crucial points of the stage, then the score will suffer. We understand that the designer has a vision and their ability to design to that vision to maximize points is crucial to the success of the program. As a technician, I have to take it all into account and know that my job is to bring the design vision to life. It is my job to understand the kids and what they can do. It is my job to create a relationship with my designer and be able to say, "No. Absolutely not. If we go this route, with this skill, we lose 20% of our cleaning time, just focusing on this one moment. Is the effect worth it?" As a technician, it is my job to challenge the thought process of the designer when it comes to skill and the day to day work of bringing those skills to life. These are hard conversations to have. They are contentious and often times result in knock out drag out fights.

This relationship of tech to designer dialog, back in my early years, was something I didn't have the guts or the power to contend with. I played along. "Sure. Let's try a blade 5 on sabre with a tilt under it." My inside voice was telling me no, this risk won't be worth it in the end, as we risk the comfort of the mind of the performer as they struggle to get past it. Nowadays, I don't keep it to myself. I simply say, "I will give this 3 weeks. If they don't have it by then to the point that all we have to do is clean it, then it's coming out. I would recommend that you have a backup plan."

A tech's job is hard. There is so much involved with training the guard to be cleaned for the show. We fight idea's with the designers and often times listen to the audio files and sit in critique shaking our internal head back and forth as we say to ourselves, "I told you this wouldn't work." I've worked with a number of designers over the years on the field and in the gym. The good ones, listen to their technical staff. They bring the ideas to the table in the beginning and simply ask, "Do you think the kids can handle the character and skill?"

As a technician, I sit back and watch the creation of the design with intent. I know when to speak up and when to simply stay out of the way. I realize that laying out the design is a complex process, as complex as it is while I write my novel, hoping to get each character saying exactly what I need them to say. I watch the writers toil over the phrases that look beautiful, but often sit back shaking my head thinking, "Well that will last 4 minutes. What class again do they think we are writing for?" My personal favorite is when the kid...you know the one...the one that just started spinning yesterday, just MIRACULOUSLY ends up on the 50 in the middle of the flag feature...in the front. "Oh joy for us all this season," I'll think to myself. I'm convinced it's deliberate torture method by the design team to the tech team when they put that kid on the 50 and it's so ironic that it happens...every...single...year.

It's February and it's the time of year when we get to see if the design and technical team built a relationship with each other or if one took precedent over the other. Your score will reflect it when the kids can't pull off the big GE moments or they look as if the character of the show is beyond their maturity as not just performers, but of age as well. Sometimes I'll be the main tech for a show and just think, "My God. I can't even count this. How can the kids?" Sometimes I think, "Well, I'm so glad we get to listen to this all season. Does someone have a sharp implement I can stab in my ears?"

When it's time to start really cleaning the show, sometime in early January (ish), I make a list of every skill in the show and what muscles and joints are engaged in that skill. There are times when I simply don't know how to clean it. I look at the skill and think, "Ewww....how the hell are we going to clean that?" I look at the speed of the show to assess potential stamina issues. I calculate risk and go ahead and start the process of planning my argument if the day comes we realize the risk wasn't worth it and we have to change that moment. I also calculate risk in terms of time. I make it very clear to the staff that if a particular moment is staying no matter what, that we will sacrifice other moments in the cleaning process and those moments might not get touched until close to the very end of the season. Risk doesn't scare me. What scares me, is a staff that doesn't understand how to calculate risk in terms of time and performer mindset. If both don't play into the formula, then the risk will result in a crap shoot at shows.

It's cleaning season folks and I ask this, "What was your process of preparing to clean your show, whether you are the sole designer or you have a team of people working with one program?"

As a technician, every count of the show lies at my feet so the vision can come to life. I take that responsibility very seriously. I've learned that I can impact the score by doing so much more than counts, but by making sure breath and effort change is not cleaned out, but enhanced upward. I don't make excuses for lack of time, because the design team had to fix a major moment. I just sit back taking notes and thinking about how quickly and in what ways I can make up the time.

For just a little tech humor on this warm Sunday mid-February afternoon, I want to share some of my favorite designer/tech moments with you and the internal dialog that went through my head.

Designer

"This year's show is a look into the mind of a baby in the womb of its mother in the aborigine regions of Australia."

Technician Internal Dialog

"Oh for the love of God. Can't just once we do a show on something simple like the color blue?"

Choreographer

"Girl this is going to be fabulous. I have written you the best flag feature you've ever seen."

Technician Internal Dialog

"Great. We have 12 females who weigh 75 pounds wet and the entire feature takes place at the end of the pole. I'll be moving that hand down the pole in two weeks."

Designer

"I don't have a clear vision on the ending yet. I want it to be just right."

Technician Internal Dialog

"Do we have the same calendar? You know it's February right?"

Designer

"I'm thinking that the ending flag feature needs some tweaking."

Technician Internal Dialog

"Tweaking my ass. This will be a total re-write resulting in me having to clean this in the parking lot of the Dayton arena before prelims."

Designer

"I don't understand why they can't catch their s***!"

Technician Internal Dialog

"Because you took all our technique time to spend 18 hours trying to figure out the opening pose."

Designer

"The judges don't understand what they are looking at."

Technician Internal Dialog

"Me neither."

Designer

"I want to open the show with an ensemble rifle 6, that builds into a major moment on the back prop where Johnny (the only boy) throws a 7 while tilting the body under it and the rest of the guard falls to the ground upon impact."

Technician Internal Dialog

"Great. You know he hasn't been consistent at shows in the past three years and our best girl is falling to the ground directly under his toss. I'll make sure 911 is programmed into my phone."

Designer

"You're going to love this year's costumes. They are going to have a white stripe down the arm to bring out the idea of peace on earth."

Technician Internal Dialog

"I could care less why the white stripe is there, but don't yell at me when the judges see every wrong arm position like a lighted beacon in the middle of a black ocean. Oh...peace on earth? Wth!"


This post is obviously all in fun, but I just wanted to send a shout out to all the techs out there that I get you and I've got your back. May we all endure on the road to championships and I'll see you in the parking lot in Dayton cleaning the newly written flag feature. :)

Training: A Return to the Old Days

I had an interesting experience last Saturday. I took my guard to the local show here in Florida and had a miraculous and eye opening revelation. I'm watching the guard in warm up. High energy. Positive mindset. It was a beautiful night in the middle of Florida. What could go possibly go wrong?

This guard is a pretty good nationally based A guard, with a staff that's been together for over a decade in and out of world class, open, and A. We know each other. We can calculate the other's moves without blinking an eye. We aren't new to the world of color guard and in fact, we have easily 200 years plus teaching experience between us. That's a lot of years to get it right. It's a lot of years to learn and grow. Too be honest, it's a lot of years to become too confident. From the moment we walked into warm up, something changed in the guard. The energy fell flat and the body language changed. It was the sound of the first drop. One rifle hit the ground and then it started. A sabre went down. Then another rifle. A flag. Another rifle. The performers were feeding off of that one drop. They were dropping like flies so to speak. However, it seemed o.k. actually. I somehow made myself believe they would pull it together. I gave the right speeches. I mean, of course a speech would make the show go well. I'm that powerful. I'm the great and powerful Oz. With one flap of my gums, I can make the guard catch their equipment. We had trained them well. Phrases such as, "Trust your training," "Breathe," and the ever positive..."You go girl," flowed like syrup from my tongue.

Warm up ended and we headed to the gym. They would pull it together. I was sure of it. The gym was the size of my living room. It was like performing inside a box, with its 8 rows of stands and sound table practically serving as an additional prop. The crowd was loud and it made the performers excited. The music started and I was unusually calm. For some reason I just thought they would pull it together. I mean...I gave a speech. Then there it went. Our first GE moment...a sequential 5 on rifle. BOOM! The drop deafened the crowd almost instantly. Then another drop. "Here we go," I thought. The show had its ups and downs and in the end wasn't really that bad, but the guard never quite recovered from those initial rifle drops. There were other problems. Half catches, a sabre drop here. Flag sail there. The show was o.k. Well...except for that fun moment when that one flag fell out of the hands of a girl on the 50...in the middle of the flag feature...and rolled on the floor. Watching her crawl to get it was fun. I enjoyed that moment immensely. The crowed cheered. The crowd liked it, but remember that this gym was the size of a dog house. Three people screaming would sound like a Dayton standing ovation. We pulled the floor out of the gym and threw equipment on the ground. We thanked the 87 guard kids helping us off the floor and proceeded to talk to the guard. I thought about the words and tried to get the right blend of positive attributes and phrases for "room for growth." When it came time to speak, I opened my mouth and what came out was something that sounded like I was speaking in tongues. I don't remember quite what I said, but I do know the phrase, "...AND TOMORROW EXPECT AN OLD SCHOOL 1977 MEDIEVAL BUTT KICKING TO OCCUR!"  I was angry. Throughout the night and next morning I thought about what had happened. Mostly though, I thought about what training actually means today for the A class. How do you marry ideas of blended body elements with the equipment into one training program, with rehearsal time that pretty much hasn't changed in decades? We've been training these kids all season and our technical staff is strong. Many of the performers are veterans. So what happened and how do we keep it from happening again?

I thought about it and realized that yes, we had trained them all season, but we made one fatal mistake. Once the season got here and we got past Premiere, we turned training time into just warm up and the cleaning of the show took priority. I broke my own philosophy. Training is an ongoing process that never stops. You cannot do enough reps, because what we call muscle memory is also a training of the mind. When they needed us the most, we let them down. You never stop the training process. Never! Professional athletes never stop training, so why would we?

Sunday morning came and as I drove to rehearsal I tried to get in my mind what an "old school 1977 medieval butt kicking" would look like. I texted a few friends and decided that we were going back to the old days. You know those days....like 1988. I call them the days of David Baker. David Baker was my high school guard instructor and had no problem putting us up next to a wall to spin or on our knees to throw quads. I even think I remember a rehearsal when we were told that we would toss until our hands bled. Awesome. In my mind I had images of David wearing the executioners mask, while he drank coffee on the side. Those were good days. So I went to my partner in crime Mike Palau and said, "Mike...we are going back to the old days today. I will need some pliers, thumb screws, and farm implements with sharpened edges." He asked me how far back in the old days we were actually going. I said, "Far. When we all walk out of the gym today, they will understand why catching is important." I told Ben, the designer, that we were going to toss today. Cleaning and design of the show would take a back seat to training...and so it did. We removed the flag line from the gym to go outside for a sectional and left the rifle line in the gym. I simply told them that they we were going back to my day and I dedicated the day to David Baker. We threw tosses for 2 and a half hours. We threw them standing up, on their knees in the bleachers, by themselves, and on their knees on the ground. We tossed and we tossed and we tossed. Nothing was off the table. It wasn't just about drops. Half catches were not allowed. Moving was strongly discouraged, hence the knee tosses. Free hands and timing were addressed. Fidgeting of the fingers was addressed swiftly and harshly. Subdivision of counts was mandatory. The bar had been raised and it wasn't being lowered. Two and a half hours of tosses. That's a lot of tosses.

Two and half hours of tosses does more than train the body. My goal the entire time was to train the mind. They needed to understand that catching correctly and with intent was always within their power. They had it the entire time, because there was nothing we said in rehearsal that they hadn't heard before. It was their mind though, that needed the training. So I proceeded. I took a risk. The risk was that we were giving up precious cleaning time in the middle of the season to go back in time and fix their hands and mind. I've said it before and I'll say it again, "The show is nothing without a strong foundation of training." With that philosophy we proceeded to go old school and stop the drops. That was the phrase I used over and over and over.

Stop the drops!

In this rehearsal there was, what I believe a good mix between constructive information and simply, "Do it again. It's not good enough." At one point I went behind the block and laid on my back and closed my eyes to simply listen to the clicks of the straps and aggressiveness of the catch. I cleaned by my ears only. I made them subdivide and when they didn't...I did it for them. When they got tired, I kept going. I say I, but it was a staff effort. Kara Brady the consummate tech, clapped until HER hands almost bled. Another thing I did...I eliminated that silly phrase, "You got it," yelled by the entire guard when someone drops. Clearly they don't "got it." I understand the team spirit behind it, but it forces a break in character and a break in the count structure. I told the performers to focus on themselves. The guard needed to be toughened up.

You can toughen up a guard without extreme anger.

When the sectional ended and we moved to cleaning the show, they threw the first big GE toss, the one that fell apart the night before, and low and behold...the equipment hit the ground. I was livid. Two and half hours wasted, but it wasn't wasted and that's what 200 plus years as a staff gets you. Perspective. The first thing that happens after a rehearsal such as the one they just had, is that they put so much pressure on themselves that they almost will always drop. The pressure is good. They need to put that level of pressure on themselves, so they understand what pressure really feels like...such as the type of pressure at WGI prelims. I just said, "Do it again. You are better than this." I got mad here and there, but for the most part we as a staff just kept saying, "Do it again. You are better that this," and you know what? They got better. You could see it in where they placed their hands in the air and you could see a count structure coming through the tosses. They weren't perfect, but their minds were stronger. I could tell.

I offer three pieces of advice at this point of the season for training.

Manage the Time

Only you know how much time you have a week to practice and only you know what your show schedule is. Manage the time based on those two criteria. In every rehearsal decide to devote a percentage of time to training. NOT WARM UP!  Warm up is not training. It's not. It's not. It's not! Train. Decide that one day will focus on body and one day will focus on equipment. Spend one day doing nothing, but tendu's. Spend another day doing nothing, but tosses. I don't know. It's your rehearsal and your show. Know what your kids do well and don't do well and go from there. Whatever you do and however much time you spend, the kids must know that poor training is not an option. When I don't have enough time, I choose one element of the training program and spend my time doing that one element. Sometimes it is body and sometimes it is equipment. Additionally, I don't waste time. Don't waste your time. Remember, the clock is ticking and whoever manages their time the best will win in the end. We all have the exact same amount of time between now and championships. Don't waste it. If you get snowed out of a rehearsal use technology and make the kids show you a particular skill through posted video's. Address technique from home if you have to.

Don't let perfection be the enemy of good

Your kids will never be perfect so don't ask them to be. However, expect them to raise their standards at every rehearsal and don't accept quality that is less than the day before. One of the strongest aspects of being a good coach is understanding that kids want you to raise the bar and they want to strive to reach it. Don't be afraid of raising the technical bar at each rehearsal. As the season goes on, you should continue the mantra, "It can get better." I love football and my favorite player is the kicker. I love hearing how kickers challenge themselves to get further and further back from the goal. So today they can do a 35 yard field goal, but tomorrow that won't be acceptable. Continue to force the kids to get further and further away from the uprights. It can always get better.

Technique is a game of the mind as much as it is of the hands and body

When you are training your color guard, it should always be intentional and direct. Ask yourself, "Why are we doing this exercise and how does it help the show?" When the kids stand in a basics block to throw tosses or do a set of spins, they are training more than the hands. They are learning to train to your expectations and they are learning to form a unison identity. In a nutshell, they are learning to think alike. Training programs don't have to complicated. In all seriousness, you can literally spend 20 minutes at a rehearsal focusing on posture only and the show will go up in points by at least 2 tenths in each caption. Why? Because now they are focused on control of body and breath. That will carry into the equipment and drill. They will be thinking about it. When I don't have time in a rehearsal to spend on in depth training, I gravitate towards posture. Posture can be worked on and focused on while you clean the show. You know all those kids standing around while you figure out how to get the three sabres off the ground without looking funky? Have the rest of the guard stand up straight and think about posture. Boom! Training in the middle of design. The worst thing you can do is say the phrase, "Everyone needs to be spinning while we figure this out." Why? Because, young performers don't practice well on their own. They reinforce their own bad habits. Give them something very specific to do from your training program.

To close, I offer this to you. If you have not trained your guard properly up to this point, then you have an uphill battle ahead of you. If you used time and snow and lack of space as an excuse to not train, then you have no one to blame when your kids make excuses for dropping. Many of us have had the same kids since band camp and the same problems of space and snow. Many of us have programs with 2 and 3 year veterans. Not every guard out there has 20 brand new, never spun members. Don't make excuses. Figure out who you have, the time you have left, and where you are at and go from here. There is nothing at this point that you can write into the show that will make your show better if they kids can't catch their tosses. Your score will flatline. With this, you have to know the difference between cleaning the show and training for the show. Many guards I consult with in critique don't know the difference. I always ask this question. Are your kids cleaned to the show or are they trained for it? The answer to your question should guide you for the rest of the season and if you feel you can't spend time training, then figure out where things went awry and learn from it for next year. I believe that you can train. I believe you can always find the time to train your guard if you are prepared in advance and know how to NOT waste time. With this final thought I say this. I don't make excuses for my guard. I don't make excuses for myself. I look in the mirror and figure out how to fix the bleed. I am calculated in my rehearsals and I'm prepared. I'm not always right and I don't always do things right, but I don't make excuses for their drops, bad catches, and dangly bodies lacking control. Are you sure you want to take me on as a competitor and just hope that your design beats mine? Let's decide as a nation to raise the bar and #stopthedrops!

To Publicly Answer the Questions of Coaching and Training and What's Going on With the Kids

Just recently, WGI sent out an email by Shirlee Whitcomb asking questions regarding training and requesting a response from the community about what methods work and what methods don't work in terms of managing the performers in a rehearsal scenario. The email seemed sincere and in the best interest of the activity and in response to her request; I would like to answer her questions here in an open forum.  I have been writing this blog for a little over three years and in that, I've discussed on multiple occasions the issue with training, rehearsal etiquette, and a new millennium of  kids raised in a different world and of a different time. In my professional life, I'm a youth development expert. I work for a funder of children's services that gives millions of tax dollars a year to organizations that serve children in a variety of capacities. As the youth development expert at my company, it is my job to know kids. It is my job to know parents. It is my job to read research and then read and read more research. It is my job to conduct interviews and listening communities regarding issues surrounding adolescents. My days are spent trying to get a handle on the influences of children from media to school or church and neighborhood. It's complex and it's complicated, but the following is what I have learned and hope to pass on to others in my professional capacity.  In the letter sent, there were four points stating current dilemmas that instructors are facing today. They are: attention span of students, retention and comprehension of verbal instruction, application of direction forcing more and more repetitions, and retention from rehearsal to rehearsal.  These aren't new dilemmas. They have been discussed in open forums at education, youth development, and workforce conferences for over a decade. Research on these issues is off the chart in terms of the amount of research that is coming out of places like Harvard, Pew, Aspen, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and as reported in places such as Child Trends, Youth Today, and the Journal of Youth Development. My argument for years has been that we as a multi-million dollar activity with thousands upon thousands of young men and women participating every year throughout not just winter guard, but marching band and drum corps as well, are not doing enough to ensure that the instructors have the knowledge base to effectively coach youth. I see attempts, but many of those attempts...most in fact, have more to do with design of a show and competitive aspects of the units, than the coaching of the child.  Kids today are raised different. Like it or not...they are. When as a coach you accept that, it's easier to work with them and to respond. Kids today are inundated with media. It's not just social media. It's music, video games, television, the internet; with access to unlimited amounts of porn and violence. The average child receives their first cell phone at the age of 10. By the time they get to us; let's say as a freshman in the local marching band, they have had approximately 4 years of unfettered access to the world around them, often times unmonitored. They are also immersed in a world where they are learning in the classroom through media. We now have kids educated solely on-line.  This generation of kids is a generation of access. Let me repeat that. They are a generation of access. This is not their fault. It's a fact of the world we live in today. It is 24/7 access to anything and everything they want by the tap of a phone or click of a button. They can fast forward through commercials and don't have to wait any longer to binge watch their favorite television shows. They have 24 hour access to their friends and many believe they should have that same access to the adults in their lives such as teachers and coaches. Their ego's flourish within a world where they grew up on-line with their first photo shown to the world before they were even born. Their world has existed with unlimited amounts of photo's and video's taken of them since birth, but the online ego counters the natural ability for the adolescent's innate low self-esteem and within that comes the dilemma of us vs. them. Kids today. They have been tested and tested and tested to death. Their world exists in a time of political rhetoric that sets them smack dab in the center of the yearly shifts of political madness. They are raised in a time of school shootings, stranger danger, the elimination of much of their free time, and the slow eradication of opportunities for creative play. We know through research by PEW, that parents are monitoring and organizing the free time of youth at the highest rate ever in U.S. history. It's a result of parents who feel they have to create a "resume" for their children at young ages, so they will stand out during college admissions. Right or wrong...it's happening. Finally, the past decade has seen a significant shift in how many children are actually participating in extra-curricular activities nationwide. This issue has come to the forefront as research out of the Aspen Institute reports that more and more activities are becoming less community based and more private; forcing poorer students out of mainstream activities. This shift took its toll on families, especially during the recession. This impacts a child's ability to learn to be coached; so by the time they do find their way to the local marching band or winter guard, some are being coached for the very first time in their lives.  So how does this answer Shirlee's questions? Knowing the research and knowing the trends helps guide the direction of training for instructors. I have written over and over in this blog that without proper data collection we cannot as an activity see where we have been or know where we are headed. Knowing for instance the percentage of boys vs. girls in the activity can help us guide instructors in what's called, "gender specific programming." Female based sports associations have been training coaches for years on the best ways to manage teenage girls and how to foster their growth, because girls respond differently than boys and many of our instructors are male.We as an activity have not actually had an open forum of discussion for this particular issue and it is an issue. In fact...there are grants out there that are looking for programs that are specifically targeted at girls. We also haven't openly discussed the higher propensity for young males to be gay and how that impacts their lives within the school. Many boys in guards across the country for years have been removed from color guard, because of parental disapproval. Open dialog on this topic would help the local guard instructor manage that situation with the parents or the bullying that the child might receive for being in a female dominated activity. Do kids have attention span issues? Do they have communication issues? Maybe. Maybe not. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has been looking at this question for years. In the world of youth development research, those questions go back and forth and the panels of debate at conferences are fascinating. We know this. We know that the the Millennial's, which encompass the ages of roughly 18-34 are the largest generation since the baby boomers. The field of youth coaching is being profoundly impacted by youth coaching youth. Those new coaches need guidance that is strong and intentional in its direction.  So what do we do? What's the answer? Well, this is my solution. Begin what's called "Listening Communities." Create a culture where instructors and directors can get together to learn from each other. This can be actual live conferences, webinars, conference calls, etc. They can be local, regional, or national.  Create panel discussions with experts from the fields of education, coaching, youth development, and behavioral science. It's important to bring outsiders to the table as it raises awareness that we as an activity are a part of a larger community of youth development. Soundly acknowledge the fact that our mentoring of young instructors in this age of strict risk management, social media, and educational shifts has been weak at best.   Take lessons from other sports or sports associations that have been looking into the issues of effective coaching for the past decade.  Invite other sports experts to the proverbial round table to share expertise and lessons learned. Create a culture of discussion where our talking points are no longer primarily centered around how to write a show or understand the criteria. Read research and push that information out into the community with ways we can incorporate that research into our daily practice of coaching color guards.  Work closely and openly with the local circuits in creating a strong education program for young instructors. Oh...and make it cheap.  Learn and share information that impact youth such as current trends in media, education, and free play.  For the love of God! Collect data and make it public. We are a multi-million dollar industry. Surely we could hire an analyst.  We need to know who the instructors are, experience levels, pay, hours spent in a gym, turnover rates, and the qualitative information such as "what does training mean to you?' Did you know that anytime any judge mentions "well trained" it is a language that has yet to truly be defined by the activity? Well trained for me is very different than well trained for you. What your tolerance for let's say...tossing and catching...could be very different than mine. We won't know without the open discussions and formal collection of information. The Aspen Institute reported that retention of kids in youth sports has more to do with fun and the engagement of coaches as mentors, than it does with competition. In fact, in their ground breaking report released last year, it is stated that 9 out of 10 kids state that "fun" is the main reason they participate in sports. Winning and getting medals is at the bottom of the "why" in sports participation. With this knowledge and research to back it up, we can teach instructors how to set goals with their students as opposed to for their students, so program retention is higher. We need a better form of communication when it comes to understanding what is happening in the gym. How we teach. What we say. How we coach. What is training. How we retain youth from season to season. How we manage parents. How we interact with administration. How to advocate for your right to gym time. These are all important and necessary conversations that must happen in open forums. We must bring people to the table who are the local guard instructor, the national choreographer, the flag sewing band mom, the costume making vendor, and everyone in between to discuss what it is that is important in the training of our kids. The judges get 3 minutes IF THAT with a young instructor. Most circuits are strapped for cash and time to really make a difference in effective training and data collection. This is a collective effort that needs collective impact guided by a strong backbone of an organization.  And to answer her questions she poses at the bottom of the email?  Here are my responses. Have you experienced this type of response from your students? Yes I have.  If yes, how did you handle it? One. I grew up and realized that it wasn't just about the competition. It was about the kids, the program and the parents and what they wanted. I took my ego out of the gym and set the expectation that the kids would achieve at the highest level, but I was no longer going to push them based on my goals. I let them set their own goals with guidance from my history in the activity. Two. I work closely with the parents in fostering a better relationship so they may be my advocate for more time in the gym. I listen to them and respect their time and money. This in turn puts the parents center stage in encouragement and support. Three. I studied. I studied coaching techniques from other sports such as baseball and karate. I watched coaches interact with my son through his activities and I learned from them. I took what I liked and threw out what I didn't. Four. I set rules in place and live by those rules. No cell phones during rehearsal...even on breaks. I got the buy in from the parents (which was super easy), who in turn helped me with the rules.  Five. I use technology to my advantage and as a tool. I try to bridge the gaps between my world and theirs. I use coaching apps and even the stop watch on my phone to time how long staff members spend talking to the students as opposed to running reps.  Six. I don't fear repetitions. I fear staff who talk too much. More reps and more reps is my motto. Build muscle memory and teach the body how to consistently achieve. Martin Gramatica was once a kicker for the Tampa Bay Bucs back in the 90's. He was a great kicker. Once, he told a reporter that since a small age, he spent hours upon hours kicking the same kick day after day. He made goals to repeat the same kick from the same distance at least a thousand times a week. Then he moved the ball further back. Repetitions. They are crucial in the training process. Does this have any impact on our expectations of students in areas of achievement in competition? No. If students believe in themselves, then they will believe in the program and will have support at home. This will then encourage them to push themselves to achieve at the highest level possible. How, if at all, should judges be involved in this situation? I'm not sure they should. Their job is to evaluate what was presented, place a number on that presentation and then offer feedback. Does the growing focus on demand play into this subject? Absolutely it does. Rehearsal time has stayed roughly the same for decades based on the individual classes. The books/choreography however, have gotten harder. We gained no time, but increased the skill base. We recognized as an activity that stamina and strength were crucial to the training process so much so that many guards have added strength classes such as weight lifting or crossfit. As the books got harder, training got less so we could teach to the book as opposed to the skill. We see this problem when the kids come out of their high school programs and enter independent programs with the inability to throw basic tosses, but the ability to do something strange under the leg and through the nose.   The impact of dance layered with equipment seems to increase in its synergistic qualities each year. With more dance comes more dance training. With more dance training comes the need for more fitness based conditioning...and we haven't even begun to discuss the equipment. Here's the thing. We are no longer a cute little activity waving flags and guns in a gym. We are an industry. We are a multi-million dollar industry where CEO's are making 6 figures, and where costume companies, equipment companies, and consultants are selling their services at a premium. We ask parents everyday to entrust us with their children's well being and safety. They give us money to produce a product, but they also give us money to look after their kids for the few hours a week we have them. We are no different than the teachers in a classroom, the youth worker at the YMCA, the little league baseball coach, or the dance teacher with her own studio. It's time we take coaching seriously and to the next level. We are an activity of intelligent and well educated individuals. We can and should make this happen. We need to look at ourselves and figure out how to adapt and merge our worlds with theirs. It doesn't mean we give up our values, but it means that we try to reach into their lives and build a partnership. I would like to close with the words of my coaching hero Pat Summit: “It wasn’t just a job; it was my life, my home, and my family, and the players were the second-deepest love of my life.”