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)
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
You're doing so well!!!! are you hoping to get to do saber next year for marching unit?
ReplyDeleteI hope so, I'm also trying for guard captain, which is going to be d i f f i c u l t. I'm most likely not going to get it, but I still really want to try. Part of my audititon for guard captain is doing the indoor sabre routine, So I think that might help me out.
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