I started to experiment with my own marching to notice what might be the problem, and some of the transitions that we do can put them on the wrong foot. I talked to the freshman and told them what foot they should start with for certain moves. After a while I still saw some of them messing up. So I asked the freshman that were still having problems, what they were still confused about? One of them stepped up and said "Were not confused its just... we don't have confidence in our step. Our feet glitch out and start on the wrong foot". Now I understood there just not confidant,(which is the most important step in marching,) So I told them what our band director always tells us "You don't have to be nervous to take a step the ground is always going to be there. If it isn't we have bigger problems than marching. You just have to remind yourself you know what your doing."
They immediately fixed there feet, they started to make the drill better and better every time we ran the performance.
Sounds like a metaphor for life. "You have to take risks."
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me so much of ROTC, and the struggle of training the LET 1's how to march. Day after day, I'm outside on the football field repeating the words "left" and "right", which gets tiring after awhile. Therefore, I completely understand the issues you are having with those freshman. Best of luck to you guys.
ReplyDeleteThe freshmen can be very stubborn. I have never noticed you guys marching. I always have my back turn because you know i'm in pit. Its nice that you are helping them. It really makes a difference.
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me much of what hunter had to say about "freshman limbo" except you showed the freshman where to go from limbo. I have a great amount of respect for that.
ReplyDeleteI think that it's very sweet that you take the time to help the freshman out, not many students will put up with them. The quotes were really good too, especially what the band director says. This was a good post, and did I find advice within this? Very good.
ReplyDeleteI remember freshman year Patrick would tell us stuff like that just to reassure us that its okay to mess up. It still makes me laugh when he tells us stuff like that during rehearsals .
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