TED Talk- Sabres aren't sharp unless you catch them wrong

PROJECT REFLECTION
I'm normally not great grade-wise. However when people give me autonomy I'm fine. I'm better when I get to choose what I do in all aspects. I think that this project was to make up the brain project and boy did I need it.

I worked so hard on this project, and I loved. Every minute of it. I had to be civil and not profane in my posts but aside from that it's just.... me. My voice, my opinions. I normally write like and it is
b a d.  Olivia, my resident grammar-police friend, constantly bashes me. However, I just imagine I'm writing all this to Emily. Because she's a very good friend of mine, and she has a basic knowledge of all of this and my personality. I would never super dumb things down for her, because she's whip smart. And so, I direct all this like I'm talking to her, which I ironically haven't told her.

Sometimes in school you have projects that help you gain your bearings, or sea legs. And this was it for me. Because of all this, I bumped up my grade, and I think that my classmates' opinions of me have improved.

I'm not going to get guard captain.

I'm too much of a freshman, and to be given the power at that point would go straight to my head- I know myself.

But I do want to be completely candid with my goals. In the questions of the greatest strengths, I was straight up like "I shouldn't be guard captain keep me in mind for 2019"

I keep forgetting I learned a completely new thing.

...it was new???

I was writing this and I was about to type; "It's nto a new thing that I learned, however" but no... it is a new thing.

I worked so heard if feels like there wasn't really a time where I didn't know sabre. Oh my.

If anything, that single thought deems this a success.

YAY!







TED TALK REFLECTION:

Everybody missed my metaphor.

I'm not exaggerating, or trying. Everyone also missed my big point, which I guess was there if you looked for it, but still.

One of my largest skills is public speaking. I can get on a stage and talk all I like, and I can command a room. At the very least I like to think I can.

I've been preparing for this project more than I have for anything except for my midsummer's night dream project. The passion that I have for what I chose was so helpful in all of this. I was less stressed out for less than any other project. It's my new thing which seems stupid but works. Prepare until the beginning of the last moment, and then try and forget. It's what I did for the jazz competition this past friday where I won a solo award, it's what I approached this whole past marking period as.

So I began with a relative metaphor. Sabres aren't sharp unless you catch them wrong. You don't get injured if you start on the right foot. That's the general idea I tried to start with, and I should've said it in my talk, but that relates to what I learned about the project, that you need to control and channel your strengths and efforts.

To be completely honest with you, I think I did really well. Which is kind of pompous, but I think I did, I got some laughs, and at the end everyone was interested in the aspects of my presentation. They all wanted to see if they could do it. And that also made everyone more amazed at the speed, accuracy, and general nonchalance I had about doing spins.

As much as I think I'm good at public speaking, that comes from how much I love it. If you know me, you know I l o v e to talk. I like sharing my thoughts. If I have to keep something in, I just can't (aside from secrets I'm pretty good with those).

I have been practicing for a significantly shorter amount of time than I spent writing and refining my script.

I tried to include jokes, but for most people a few jokes are cool but you shouldn't let it revolve around them. I added in some pictures I found hysterical that others did not find as funny.

 I got on stage, and I think  I did pretty well. However, the stage and the general nature of my project takes out the difficulty of what I was doing, and I missed out on that. However, afterwards, I let some people try and do spins. I know I shouldn't let anyone else toss/ spin my equipment, however, everyone except for one person, were too scared to actually let go of it. And then they reinforced every note I had made in my talk which was pretty cool.

I did a toss on air blade on stage, and caught it, and I did a double on stage. Afterwards, my equipment was sitting there and I was talking to Olivia who deals with staffs in Karate, (she's a black belt go her) so she understand the general nature and control necessary. But other people saw Olivia, and started asking me what to do. It was this really cool feeling, the kind of feeling I bet Anthony and Kate felt when they brought in food and we loved it. It's this satisfaction and validation.

When people tried to do a single spin, which I got down within my first minute of me picking up a weapon, no one could really do it. And that also reminded me that I not only have passion for guard, but I'm good at it too?

What was funny is the general idea of my talk was channelling your strength- specifically wrist strength. And when people tried to do spins they weren't and it was just kind of bittersweet. Yeah, it's cool, but you didn't listen unless it directly affected you???

The talk went really well in my opinion, but grade-wise my opinion isn't the one that counts.

Also, I'm glad I didn't have a clicker. It seems ridiculous, but I am glad. I got to use my hands more, and the note-cards were a "just in case" thing. I seriously doubt any future gifted kids will be reading this but here are tips that I found helped me, and it may turn out that they were wrong and did nothing. Only time will tell.

1. Don't Procrastinate
      I'm serious, on this project out of all of them you were given a chance to do something fun and           interesting, and so why should you fel the need to put it off? This talk is just recounting your               journey and a bigger idea, just be familiar with your talk.
2. Don't begin with "For my genius project I,"
      In fact, try and avoid the words "genius project" all together. We all know that what you did, you        don't need to tell us again. 
3. Practice
      So my mom (currently) works with 2 TED Talkers, Adam Grant and Angela Duckworth, and at           her conference there was AJ Jacobs, Luke Dubois, Brian Little, Tim Urban, Katherine milkman,         and Geoff DiMasi. And I asked her to ask them for advice, and there only thing was to practice.           They said that if your talk is the worst, and you know it you can use a little creative justice to               make it better. If your talk is the worst you can use inflection and hand movements to make it             more interesting.
4. Visuals
      If your project can be shown and presented, please do. If it's a language, speak a bit of that                   language. If it's guard, do a couple of tosses. If it's art, show your art. This TED Talk is your way         to tie together your project and a theme of life, which you can't do without your project.
5. PLEASE DO NOT NUMBER
      I do not quite know if these get good grades, but they are s o b o r i n g. And my numbering, I             mean saying the stuff on your outline. Yeah, you say your hook. But don't say, first off, I learned        1. and then 2. and then 3. and my application is ____. That's so bad. You're not connecting with us.      Most actual TED Talks have numbers, but they're normally describing a specific process. This            may have been a specific process, and if it was for you, great. But if not, if you were going deeper      into something you liked, or there was no step-by-step thing, don't put in steps!!!!
6. Have faith in yourself.
      This is all mine. If you think it's gonna suck, it will. If you think that your transitions are bad,             they'll be choppier on stage. Even if you think you're lying to yourself, it's better than straight-up         tearing yourself down. You're gonna be great, and if you include the basics you're not going to             fail. Believe in yourself! You've been doing this for upwards of six weeks, you got it.

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Week of March 27th, 2017, what is sleep again????

Monday, March 27th
Today spent a portion of time just generally working on les mis project and the renaissance project. 
Whoops

Tuesday, March 28th

Today spent time straight up practicing after school, and then working on the ted talk out line and the basics of this. 

I started working on my tosses and ensuring my hands were in the right spots. Today was difficult, Because I tried to destress from the Renaissance art project and the Les Mis Soundtrack Project. So I did tosses, and then when I got to guard I started straight up practicing doubles, and got a lot better in my opinion.  

Wednesday, March 29th

I spent this afternoon entirely working on the script for the ted talk, and then tosses. 

I practiced the routine, and specifically the weird under-toss. I took a little video with a great song. 

This has more vloggy aspects to it than my other vlogs. 

Musci: The Distance (by cake)

Thursday, March 30th

I spent this afternoon on my ted talk, and I went outside for thirty minutes. 

I was able to make my doubles even more consistent, and I cut most of the ego out of my blog.

It's pretty cool watching the wednesday video. (I love cake)

Friday, March 31st

I spent after school inside working on my ted talk. I have it all planned out, and it's just editing and memorizing. 

I went to a jazz festival, where I won a solo award! I know this is technically bragging. But I went up to retrieve it in knee-high brown socks, needless to say I didn't think I was going to get anything, so that night we got back late to the high school, around 1 am, and I fell asleep around 2. 

Not a lot of practicing went on that wasn't devoted to the competition

Saturday, April 1st

The competition today was the last before champs. Our championships are on next saturday, April 8th. Today I ran into the friend that convinced me to join outdoor in the first point. When my friend Ash had called me, I was sitting next to a friend that was in his outdoor and indoor drum line. He convinced me to join up asap, so I was trying to show him how I've improved and just generally thank him. It turned out he didn't see the show, but I got to see a friend and that was nice.

The competition gave me a lot of time to think about leadership forms. And I talked to the people that had said in the past wouldn't respect me. I talked to them one-on-one. And they were a lot nicer.

In the past they basically said they wouldn't respect or listen to me, and I just wanted to make sure they knew that I didn't think I would get it. I still don't think I will on a matter of seniority. But I want to make sure that they'll still be my friends, becuase my guard family is important. Tonight I had a sleepover with some friends and also stayed up around 3 am. 

What is sleep?

Sunday, April 2nd

Because of my lack of sleep I got sick. Like nauseous, headache, the works. I couldn't work on anything. I tried doing spins and then I just went outside and practiced. I tried to take some of the stress of the looming tuesday away. It was also announced that leadership applications were now due by the latest on Tuesday after guard practice.  I haven't handed in my leadership application for guard captain, and I'm pretty sure the due date was pushed because no one else had. Funny isn't it?

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Week of March 20th, 2017 get ready it's a long one ( e m o t i o n s are present watch out)

Monday, March 20th

~this is the emotion post~

Honestly, I'm terrified.
I've always watched marching band happen from the sidelines.
And then, I joined up. I found friends, and that I was surprisingly good at this thing that I always ruled out for myself. And here's why; the best way to get out from a parental shadow? Go into their exact field of expertise. But I'm good at color guard, at least for my experience level.

And I'm terrified because I'm being too cocky.

This project I want to use to get on sabre so I (wow this is a long shot I know) could become guard captain. And then, leadership application went out. I have one problem, I haven't finished mine because I'm too scared, which is just idiotic. Look at this video

I'm good. I'm not amazing, but I'm good and I care. I think I have a real future in this. It combines all things I've always loved. I've always been in theater or some sort of performance, and I've always been able to do anything (physically) I set my mind to. I'm rather flexible, and when I did play sports I always did well. (except for track and xc, but I was forced into that and I have asthma so)

In this project, we need an academic aspect. So when I got the notification for leadership applications, I started immediately. And then my usual bout of self-doubt came around and I haven't finished it, or I've relied on a date or a circumstance.

So today, I looked at resumes.

For the application we need,

- a resume of past experience
- a piece of paper that answers these questions:
               What are your greatest personal strengths?
What are some areas in which the organization could improve and how would you improve them?

- a performance

- a service project

I don't have a lot of past experience, I have two seasons of guard, my dad as a resource, apprenticing at my camp, and just general project where I really stepped up, and practices where I did the same.

And my greatest personal strengths? Ladies and gents, drum roll please, um maybe I like guard? (ta da!) Just kidding, I would say passion. I care for this. in so many ways, it's one of my favorite things I've done, I've hyped it up so much I got people to join that never would otherwise. I think organization should have captains within the guard, weapons and flags and general. I think it works the best especially with the varying levels of expertise. To be perfectly honest, what I am going to do to show anyone that I am good at guard? I'm learning the sabre routine from the least experienced sabre, and the videos. But I"m doing it.I think that's the key part here. And the service project would probably be how organization could improve, or just a general set of fundraisers. The chocolate is good, but having it be longer is i m p o r t a n t. We need to stake our territory.

But the academic side of this is what a massive leadership opportunity this is. Recently I've had to arrange a lot of things for my french trip, and it's been pretty difficult, but I've done it. I did it. I applied for a passport, and I'm handling (albeit late) the packets. This side of the massive learning opportunity is important. Because I have so much to learn. But one thing I've always relied upon within myself is my ability to lead, especially when I care about the topic. Today was ~deeper~ for me, because it was my mom's birthday and I had robotics. I spent the time in robotics leading, even though I'm not team captain, or even my sub-team coordinator. And when I went home I practiced the routine. I feel like I'm missing something and I can't remember what.

This post is so very long, and I very much apologize.

Tuesday, March 21st

I was definitely missing part of the routine.

This video is not from tonight, but it's from the near future.

I talked to my friend, and showed her what I remembered. In the video in my other blog, I basically did the snippets of the routine missing the whole up - up - down - down - spin thing. But I have been practicing doubles, and once I'm warmed up I can do one pretty perfectly. Example A:

Guard tonight was more refining our show, and I was on mat/ door/ crate duty, and didn't have a lot of time to warm up and practice doubles. On friday I'm planning on going to the gym and filming and practicing again, which is where most of these videos probably come from (time warp, I know)

The leadership applications are due on the third, which is in two weeks. So I'm trying to get my dad to help with the resume, he can help me make a resume in the way that is needed. It's an easy thing, that every other person has access to, I've just got more time.

Today was more kinetic aspects, working on tosses when I had the time, and just thinking about the show. Mental rehearsal is the key.

Wednesday, March 22nd

Our Coach gave us the music of the show to mentally rehearse to, and physically, and she also gave us the video form the last competition.

Normally on wednesdays I have no time to do anything, except for a snippet of homework. However, during the break on jazz band I went over the dance with the Jazz man (Jasmine)

She and I worked on the opening dance, which is something I normally don't give a lot of attention in practice. But we also worked on her individual part that I have really, really, obnoxiously made it my business to assist with. The four people who do this group show, do this right in front of me, so I mutter little reminders and tell them when to go, and also just generally try to get them all on the same page.

After the break, I just went over sabre in my head. I thought about the routine I knew, and just mentally practiced it. During outdoor season, I wouldn't be able to sleep because all of the routine would be running in my head, which is a tad weird but really helped.

When I got home (the time I'm writing this) I looked at the video, and the second part of the beginning part of the sabres. Basically, this little snippet.

I know everything up until the toss, and then it's kind of new. It's easy though.

However, when learning routine of course you learn more things. Sabre isn't just about the finesse and the body movements and control, the sabre is curved. You have to ensure that the curve is facing the right way, or everything gets off. It's been really fun learning all this myself, it's probably one of the reasons I love legos so much. The self-teaching nature is just so exhilarating when you get it. It's probably my favorite part of this project, the moment when olivia's reed made a noise, the moment I did 100 spins and then my first triple, it's all so exhilarating. The newness of it all, and how for some of us it'll help us improve even more, and learn even more new things to perfect. It's just so incredible.

Thursday, March 23rd 

Ordinarily, I spend thursday afternoons playing Dungeons & Dragons with my friends, almost like clock work. Today, our DM (Dungeon Master) cannot make it, so it's cancelled.

In other words,

I  HAVE A COMPLETELY FREE AFTERNOON UNTIL 6:10

My goals for this afternoon are: 

• to film the bits of the routine I know
• to film the bits i'll teach myself from the video
• film them together
• practice a bunch of doubles
• attempt another triple
• additional class things

Additionally, this saturday is the Pasta Dinner (come on out it's this saturday dinner is served at 5:30 and 6, it's $7 for students and $10 for adults, we perform around seven it's great, A Miss Olivia Bamford in my class has stated in reference to this event,

  "I love pasta more than I love my family" 

- Olivia Bamford, 3/23/17 1:57 PM

It's in the place of a home show because of the Natatorium construction (major shade @ the man™) We have to have some sort of fundraiser for future years. I'm trying really hard to perfect my performance for this. The other day during practice we split up between Underclassmen and Upperclassmen. We were in the circle gym, so first Underclassmen went to the higher bleachers and watched and made comments, and then we switched. I was really, really, grateful and proud that when the upperclassmen picked out who everyone else should look to for counts, I was one of them. I sometimes implement myself even if I really shouldn't and affirmation was really nice and gave me a lot of gusto. 

If I'm practicing guard today, I'm doing (sadly) the bare minimum for sabre, and just going over the entire show with music like 20,000 times. Tomorrow, I'm bringing in my sabre during this period and going over all the routine I know.

One major goal I have, is to try and learn the entirety of the sabre routine by the TED Talk. I'm not quite sure if I can do this, but I'd like to do a little bit of it. I think it's cool, I really, really do. And the best way to get people involved and interested in your presentation is to shake it up a little bit.

With all this, you can only do so much with your supporting slides, with your voice and clothes. But if you bring in a prop, or a certain action it's so much more poignant. It resonates more clearly, at least in my opinion, and it gives me time to really show what I did. I can't just describe it, and showing videos is weird, because if you're looking at the audience you take the attention away from the video, and it's a little blocky to just watch the video too. 

At the bottom of this post I'm going to put a revised timeline. It's important that I have it somewhere I can reference, because my approach to this has been looser. I had a specific timeline, but I had to significantly change it, and I haven't put it anywhere so you can find it at the bottom of this post. 

It is cold outside, this morning all the melted snow had refroze, it was ~precarious~ to say the least.

During rehearsal, I was practicng tosses with 3 really killer weapons. (pun, k i l l e r weapons [rifle and sabre] also some really talented people!) I was tossing, and we were in front of the coaches. I started tossing, and Danielle said that I was tossing really weirdly. So I turned around, and she gave me a bunch of really good tips. 

You can't really see in this video, but when I toss my hand goes down and makes the "italian meme" hand. Instead of that it's supposed to be flat. 

To describe this I'm going to do something real weird.

Imagine every time you tossed a sabre it dematerialized in the air. This way you could see the form of the toss. After you throw it, your right arm is supposed to be at your thigh, and your left arm is supposed to be perfectly parallel to the wall in front of you, almost as if you're giving the girl scout promise (minus the fingers being crossed)

I haven't been doing that. I've been putting my hand really, really weirdly. So I tried tossing with a rifle, and I was doing the hand thing, and I couldn't toss it right. When I adjusted my hand, I was doing some pretty ~mediocre~ tosses, on a weapon I've never done before. (yay me! With looondon tipton!!!)

Friday, March 24th

Today I went to the gym last period and practiced. 

See, I expected something completely different. My good buds, Ellie, Emily, Joe, etc. have wellness the same time I have history. I was totally expecting to go into the gym and walk right up to my buds and chat with them while I spun sabre. It's good feeling, to work really hard at something, and know you're okay at it, and then be able to impress your friends. Most of my friends don't look at my blog, and I don't do sabre in the guard show, so it's completely lost on them. During class today I did the most basic thing; spins, and two people were really into it? For the unaccustomed eye sabre is flashy and cool, and to the accustomed eye it's precise, dangerous, and still really, really, cool. 

I was really excited to just show my friends my hard work, and get a little bit of recognition. Because as cool as I think guard videos are, it doesn't have the same punch as seeing someone, before your eyes, throw and catch a sabre. 

Needless to say, my friends have Health this cycle. So I went to the gym, expecting to be left alone so I could focus on sabre and deal with my own emotions. As you can imagine, your success tossing the sabre is determined on your emotions, resolve, and general energy level on that day. Today I have pretty high energy level, and I had a very nice time with my friends at lunch.

There was a sub for the class that was in the gym at the same time as me, and there were people walking the track. Some of the people were acquaintances, some didn't actually know that I went to this school, and then there were these people who I'm okay with, but we don't exactly run in the same circles. So I got annoyed, because they started messing with me, so my emotions went all wack. And then I was putting so much anger to the strength needed, I wasn't focusing on the key; finese. I was just angrily throwing a very heavy, very large, silver, dangerous, metal object into the air. (Note: the sabre is only dangerous if you don't catch/ throw it correctly. And so I got angry, and this happened. 

(this isn't an injury, I'm just proud I've been doing this so much I have callouses even though I've been wearing gloves)

I took a video, and because of the interruptions, most of it is edited out. I kept in some parts that interesting to say the least, and those people totally were like "yo you should add this" and I couldn't tell if they were joking, so here we are. 

(it was too long all together, for some reason 5 minutes of video can't be uploaded together go figure)

(part two)

(part three sorry)

(part 4/4)

Saturday, March 25th

This morning I spent working on multiple projects with the Emily.

She dropped me off at guard practice at three, and there began the day of guard.

We practiced for about two hours, with three people missing. One would arrive for the performance, however.

During practice I didn't get any time to work on sabre except for in the very beginning.

The whole practice was great, there were a couple new parts that we narrowed down, and generally brought the whole show together. I hope to find some sort of video of the performance, I saw three people videotaping it.

The whole thing was a lot less stressful than I anticipated.

We practiced, and since we were performing and practicing in the same place, we didn't have to move a bunch of things.

We went back to the lower caf and ate pasta. I left early because the prior night I had my mom bring two friends of mine and I to giant at 8:30 at night to bicker about Lucky Charms in french.

So I left early, and went to be almost immediately. I had to shower and shampoo my hair twice because of the amont of Hairspray.

Sunday, March 26th

Today is a work day. no sabre today, I woke up at noon, and needless to say, I still smell like my hairspray. 

________________________________________________________________________

Week of March 27th

Monday, March 27th

- work on leadership application
- run through entire routine I know once

Tuesday, March 28th

- Video tape routine, compare my video to the one from Saturday the 25th or from the previous              saturday
- make rough draft script for ted talk
- Practice what I know of other routine
- Show abby and ask for more of the routine

Wednesday, March 29th

- work afternoon for Les Mis @ emily's
- that night practice existing guard routine I know for sabre, work really hard of consistent threes
- leadership application work
- refining ted talk script

Thursday, March 30th

- no guard practice, practice as much of the routine as possible, all with soundtrack
- revisit previous blog posts and see what I have and have not accomplished
- t e d talk p r a c t i c e

Friday, March 31st

- Practice guard for as much time as I have before the jazz scholarship concert

Saturday, April 1st

- knock out leadership application with dad, specifically resume
- devoted to leadership application

Sunday, April 2nd

- ted talk preperation
- leadership application
Week of April 3rd
e n t i r e l y working on
T     E     D     T     A     L     K

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Week of March 13th, 2017 I'm actually completing goals (I know! strange!! So v e r y ~strange~) (5)

Monday, March 13th
Today, this afternoon was spent trying to do the toss and handoff they do in the squad.

Basically, I was doing them inside because it was freezing™. However, I needed to do spins with a really tight spin. It had to have precise rotations so that I didn't hit my ceiling, myself, or I didn't drop it with a really dramatic thud.

Tuesday, March 14th
Today I did the same thing as yesterday. However, while I did these tosses I watched an entire season of 30 rock, so needles to say I spent a large, large portion of the day doing this smaller tosses.

The way that the captains of black watch explained the spins to me I haven't been able to implement. I can visually remember how she did everything, and I have the audio, but my memories aren't exactly a citable™ source. 

Kimberly talked about how the sabre is really about wrist strength, and it really made me think.
In a whole bunch of my history, my niche exercise field has always been arm strength. In seventh grade (on the weird machine) I could bench-press 70 lbs, and eigth moved me to 80 lbs and then 90 lbs. Brute arm strength is more rifle. Because you need more strength and it's bulkier, and sabre is all about finesse. It's quite odd, really.

My friend Diana and I are both in color guard at about the same level.  She is way more elegant than I am. She would do much better on sabre, she dance for years. Out of all the equipment in guard, the sabre is the most that matches you if you have a high aptitude in dance, rifle and air blade are more often brute strength and control. Flag is a beginner and expert piece of equipment. It's very interesting to look at the relations of the weapons. It's curious to me as to why I was drawn to sabre to do for this project. Out of all things I most likely should've chosen rifle.

Logically, there were no more rifles to use. My friends Adam and Diana, who are incredibly talented at the finesse and wrist strength that comes with flag, and have the poise and experience to excel in dance, both were drawn to rifle. It's truly curious.

Wednesday, March 15th
Today was not spent doing much. I looked at the history of WGI which was extremely interesting.

It just reinforced the relatively choppy synopses my dad gave me.

Which is basically:

"the Color Guard guarded the flags, the american flag, the state flag, and another one I can't remember.

And that was boring so they tried to make it more fun by spinning their guns and swords they had to protect the flags, and started spinning the flags and ta da!"

- An Interview with a professional with multiple music degrees who ran the Wissahickon Marching Unit for twelve years.

(thanks dad. He is a jazz and music historian so I guess?? he's a citable™ source??? perlman assisted me it's great)



Thursday, March 16th 
During guard today I looked at the sabre routine. 


 Today was also the Indoor Percussion preview, so practice was a little skewed. However, the time we did have was spent blocking things out in scary specifics. In the way of marching band, we all have dot books, and then cheat sheets. The dot books show each set.

A brief description of dot books:

The marching band show is split into songs, sometimes 4-5 it generally takes up eight minutes. And so, each sixteen counts is split up. In each set of sixteen counts, you're supposed to be in one part of the field. There's a little diagram of the field on these pages, and there's a number you're given in your section. And there's a little number that is on a d o t. (get it)

 And so, there's not really as specific spots on the indoor guard mat as there is on the football field. Thus, you are extraordinarily required to know where you're supposed to be. Danielle, our coach spent a large amount of time on this so we could work on the specifics of the routine on saturday before the competition.

Friday, March 17th
H A. Today was entirely devoted to the jazz festival. I stayed in between to set up, and around 11:30 my contacts melded to my eyes and I couldn't stop crying. I wasn't sad or anything, but it took and hour and a half before I could get them out and close my eyes without intense pain.

Regardless, no guard went down today. Whoops

Saturday, March 18th
Today's guard competition began at 12:30. It began with practice until two, and we loaded the trailers and the buses and went to Cheltenham. We arrived and had around an hour, and then saw the Indoor Percussion's Show Coconut Grove, and had about an hour and a half before we went to move the mat and move the crates and the door.

We then performed.

It was a rather great performance for me, personally. I smiled the whole time, and I got the routine down. We as a whole group jumped F O U R T E E N points. That is a large amount. We got 73.92!!! And now we've jumped a large amount. I'm very proud of us.

Here are some pictures!

(I'm in the blue dress right here)

(and here)

(just remember the blue ok)

(I'm not in this picture but it still looks cool right)

(there the me)

Sunday, March 19th
I didn't practice a lot. I spent 20 minutes practicing doubles because of the routine I was taught on thursday. Underneath here is a video of me doing the first 16 counts and then the first 8 counts of the next set.

Music: Cover of Drive by Oh wonder by Dodie Clark

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Week of March 6th, 2017 i did so much I promise (I'm definitely not lying)

Monday, March 6th - Wednesday March 8th
Nothing reallyhappened in this time period for me, I haven't practiced because it's been pretty cold and hectic for me.

(my apoogies)

Thursday, March 9th
Tonight was guard, as in practice

During my interview with the Black Watch Capains, Kimberly had shown me how to do a blade toss. It's like a spin however it spins more? I know that's vague, but it's basically all there is.

Today's practice was based around the sabres, and I got to see them do their rotutine many, many times. It was really interesting. However, I have realized that my sabre might be broken... Like just a little broken... I may have made a mistake.

So I brought my sabre to the squad, and it turns out it was loose. I didn't break it, it was just naturally getting loose from being repeatedly dropped. I watched their routine and I am now able to do a certain toss of theirs, it's a sabre lollipop, and then a double blade toss, which you catch one handed and then spin. Once the sabre was tightened it was so much easier??? to do everything???

Friday, Marth 10th
This afternoon was spent looking at videos of run throughs from practices. We have a Wissahickon Indoor Guard facebook group, and there we post all of the run throughs, and see what people did wrong. I looked mostly at the sabres, and what they did in general.

It's a very good learning tool, because then I mime what they're doing as I watch in real-time

Saturday, March 11th
I made up a little practice for myself today, A single from the hilt, a single from the blade. The way you catch a normal single leaves your hands in the perfect position for a blade toss, and likewise. It takes a lot of strength on both sides, but it's evened out. I also practice the move I saw they did on thursday, and thought about logisitics of guard captain for next year.

This week I will admit hasn't been my best, but it's something. It's been too cold to really be able to practice on my own, and champs for indoor are in a month, so I'm really trying to focus during guard practice, leaving me little to no time to practice. Next week will hopefully be better, even though we might have a snow day. This week really shouldn't be the defining week.... whoops

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I N T E R V I E W

A little bit of foreward;
This post contains an audio recording of an interview with Kimberly Kinden and Diana Kostrubiak, captains of Black Watch Color Guard

The audio recording has all of my responses and little quips, so I made it more of a conversation by accident.
Today was incredible. The Black Watch color guard hosted a clinic at our school. We started off doing their warm ups and stretches. Their stretches were kind of incredible, and we really in depth. However, their across the floor were incredible. We did their version of a box, and then watched them do the rest.

They go in lines, just like we do. Their box was just a little different, in the sense that it was smoother. the "box" consists of this:

This is our box. We fall at a certain point, and it's more like we're pushing through a lot of jello. Theirs, however, was only one hand, and when they rose it's like they stood there, and then did four steps and then the spins instead of us, when we fall. 

We then watched them do their across the floors, which incorporated aspects of their show into it. It was incredible, because we then noticed the really cool parts in the show and felt like a bunch of little sherlocks.

Afterwards we watched them practice like 20 seconds of their show for two incredible hours, no this is not sarcasm. It was incredible. I watched this one girl emily catch a six perfectly every single time she tossed it. She tossed it every single time they began the routine. It was astounding, they went through it so many times, and she threw it with poise, and expression. She kept her hand up great, and supun around and then caught it went it into the routine it was astounding.

We watched them go through it. And the key point about the clinic was that we got to hear the critiques. There was a key difference between our critiques and theirs. At one point the instructor just straight up said "That was crap do it again" it was truly the best thing that could've happened. 

Their instructor had them echo back and forth,

Instructor: Are mistakes bad?

Black Watch: No

BW: Mistakes make you better

(stray BW member yelling) not bitter!

It was really funny, but the idea was the stronger thing. Becuase even though they were constantly crtiqued, they had that core idea. It gave me a lot of good ideas, along with the interview. Watching them, and the way they practiced made me really disapointed in some members. One of my favorite things that was said in the interview was that caring, and being commited to guard was the key to success. And that was something that made me so intrigued to  try out and look into the people in our guard, the really talented people in our guard were really committed and had a lot of history within it. 

We then had a practice with their flag coordinator. He looked at all of our routine. My only regret is that I didn't do too great.. I wasn't quite warmed up. and so I was basically terrible. I did most things wrong.

It was so valuable and interesting, I loved watching it. Their falgs were different than ours, they were kind of rubbery and bounced, they were able to toss it and be able to spin it much better. It was incredible. Their sabres were entirely taped. It was so cool, I loved just being there and experiencing all of it.

This was a really good day, and It kinda bugged me some people were thinking that they had to be there. because it was a little mandatory, but not in the same way of the competitions and practices. 

This day was an incredible learning oppurtunity, and I'm really excited for future years in which I can get help on weapons. I love guard and I care for it so much. I just love it s o  m u c h.

It's incredible how much I still care for guard, and the family it brings. All my buddies are in it. This clinic was one of the best things that happened for us, learning wise. It was really interesting and pretty breathtaking. It gave me so much hope, and a game plan

I need to be able to:

- do the sabre routine. This is getting ridiculous how much I've procrastinated this

- blade toss. really? how did I not figure this out???

that's it

I hope you found this ~interesting~

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Week of February 27th, 2017 what is p r o g r e s s (4)

Monday, February 27th

Today I spent most of the class period looking at other guards, and other sabres to understand fully the capcities. I now know that a four isn't super incredible in the long run, but watching those videos made me more excited.

However, I had another slightly gigantic thing come to my attention. The leadership application for 2017 outdoor season are out. I'm going to apply for Guard Captain. I quite understand I won't get it. I don't have a lot of experience, and I don't have seniority. However, the more times I put my hat in the ring the more times I have to be picked.

Right now, my only problem is the fact that I have two season of guard experience, air blade for practicing, and sabre for this project, for that very reason. I quite understand that I missed most clinincs, and the first week of band camp.  But I want to try this. It's the first step forward towards one of the (two) biggest things I want to accomplish in high school, leader ship wise. I want to at some point be a GSA officer, and I want to be the captain of the guard, it doesn't matter if I'm a co-captain I want to be up there. And right now, I think I have a real shot for maybe two years from now. 

This week is focused on my interview. It's on sunday. I started writing questions, and I came up with a really killer one after a two minute conversation from Olivia, the true muse and person that makes all nonsense less nonsense, and also tells me what I say is stupid when it's stupid (thanks btw) I didn't practice physically, after robotics I got home at 6 and started working on other things (sorry) 

Today was mostly mental. I looked at guards, did some research on routines and tosses. I think for the "impress me" i'll try and do a bit of the sabre routine by cypress guard, and then I can also complete a goal for this project. Kill two birds with one stone (sorry birds right acivits twitter account run by a bird). Tomorrow at guard is mostly focusing on.... focusing. Being able to plant seeds about how "responsible" I am. (lol)

Tuesday, February 28th (!!!!!MARDI GRAS!!!!!!!)
I know mardi gras is unrelated, but I ate upwards of six pieces of king cake today so I think that's an accomplishment. (after six I lost count)

Today at guard I did a couple of doubles and a triple. It turns out, that what I thought was a four was a triple, and what I thought were triples were doubles. I did a bunch of tosses, and was able to watch most of the sabres' routines so that I could try and attempt it with the help of assorted videos of competitions

Wednesday, March (wowzers it's a new month how ~rad~) 1st
Today I didn't work as much as I have in the past, I did a bunch of spins and switched them and did small things inside. I looked at a lot of videos of sabres, and did a lot of research and looked at assorted guards. It hasn't been the most productive day, but it was close.

Thursday, March 2nd
Yes, there's guard today.

Here's something weird that was revealed to me; Sabres are left handed?

So take a look at this hilt:

It's smaller on the left side??? So when you hold the hilt in your left hand, the smaller part of the hilt it facing you? It's better for the left hand? This is so weird?

I was doing left handed and right handed tosses, and two of the Sabre Squad™ told me that I was so odd, and I was doing it correctly which got me some ~street cred~, I'd like to imagine. 

I only did a few doubles, and few tosses. 

Friday, March 3rd
I researched! A.K.A. Watched a bunch of guards on youtube.... however, I saw some really cool ones!

I learned that a necessity to learn is a blade toss on sabre.  I don't know how to do it, and there's only so much I can learn from youtube. One of my interview questions for sunday, is the certain basics you have to be able to do on sabre. I'm going to be asking the Captains of black watch, and hopefully one of them will have an answer. Today is mostly refining my interview questions, and looking at different guards and their techniques. One of my personal favorites has to be Mechanicsburg High School, for everything. They don't have very many sabres, or any at all, so I think my #1 favorite from today's research is University of Georgi'as 2015 Show

Saturday, March 4th
I'm aware I can't do much today except look over my interview questions. I haven't been the most productive this week. Tomorrow will be an individual blog pose- so look out for that!
Next week's little projection is:
- learning a bit of the sabre routine from the video of the pennridge competition
- do whatever blackwatch advises
- really think about everything.
- make a decision on leadership applications
( I have seen become skeptical that I should do it, and if I do what I should put on the sheet)

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