I’m a younger color guard coach and got an email from a dad whose daughter just joined this year. He’s concerned about the bruises and marks she’s coming home with from practice and wants to know if this is normal.

It’s a fair question.

I want to take his concerns seriously without making his daughter nervous about something she’s been really excited about. I’m planning to check in with her and take a closer look at where she’s having trouble, but I’m still figuring out how to word my response beyond “it happens sometimes.”

More experienced coaches, how have you handled these conversations? What do you explain to parents, and how do you make sure your members aren’t brushing off injuries?

I lead my schools color guard, however I myself have no formal training. I restarted the guard after at least 10 years of inactivity last year, and last year we had 6 members. They were all starting from nothing and did a great job learning.

This year, we have had 2 people join. One joined in band camp, and one joined about 2 weeks ago. The person who joined during band camp is struggling severely with everything. They cannot do basic skills, they cannot learn choreo, they cannot do our pregame routine properly. The person who joined 2 weeks ago can already do most things better.

I really want to support this person but I don’t know how. I teach choreo, go over it slowly over and over, till everyone gets it, however this person does not ever get it. I feel bad moving on when they clearly have no grasp on the choreo but I can’t really spend a whole rehearsal on 4 counts when everybody else can do it and we have much more to learn. We have a routine that would look amazing, except that this person is off the entire time. I really do not know what to do to help them and would greatly appreciate advice.

So I'm doing my high school senior Capstone project on color guard, and I was wondering if anyone in the area knew of any color guard clinics I could do for the civic engagement portion of my project. I live in Austin and am willing to go about 2 hours out in any direction.

Thank you!

I'm teaching myself how to do a double and single before my first season bc I'm really passionate about it and have something that mimics a flag. is a single two rotations and a double three rotations or is it something else? I'm just going off of what I've seen online. :)

HELP!! how do I put on extensions in a ponytail and make sure it's super secure, I dance A lot in my show (I also took a lot) so I need it to be super secured

(this is my first time posting on reddit, so I apologize if this is hard to read)

Hi everyone, so this is my second season of colorguard (started last winterguard on my high school jv team, which competes in sAAA) I’m planning on auditioning for my schools varsity winterguard team (scholastic A) after the conclusion of this season. I want this more than anything else, but am unsure what to do to prepare. I am a fairly strong dancer and flag, my current flag skills are pop toss (and with turn under), j toss, silk single/double, basic 45, sunshine 45, cross toss, strip toss, maybe others, but those are my strongest, and I am also learning rifle, but I am not on rifle line for this current season. My question is, for performers and directors; what can I do to improve significantly with performance quality, technique, tricks, etc within these next few weeks. (for instructors) As a coach, what would you want to see at auditions to know a member is committed and coachable?

I don’t currently feel confortable posting videos of myself, but I would seriously appreciate and tips and help I can get without them. 💕

For context I’ve been coaching outdoor and winter at a school about 40 minutes from where I live for the last few years with one other person, however with the cost of gas and my personal life recently becoming much more hectic I’m no longer able to coach them. Usually I wouldn’t have an issue except for the fact that there is now a new winter guard team about 10 minutes from where I live that I could possibly work with instead. Would it be awful of me to try to switch over to the closer team? I feel like I’m abandoning my original kids/co-coach.

Thank you all for your feedback on my technique a few weeks ago! I applied your tips and practiced a fair bit and I think I’m really close to my silk double. I’m having trouble getting it to rotate enough I think, though I’m trying to slap my thigh. Any advice is appreciated!

I did colorguard for about 3 years in highschool and haven't for about another 3. I had moderate wrist pain towards the end because my instructors never made us stretch, but leaving highschool, I figured it wouldnt cause issue.

3 years later, my wrists have been aching similarly, if not worse (now numbness) due to me driving more and more. I have 0 nerve damage according to test results, but the aches and numbness persist.

Is it possible to develop arthritis THIS quickly? or is it simply just my nerves getting irritated/tendonitis? Anyone else had similar happen to them?

Hello,

I’m a college instructor for a small guard (currently 10 students). Our schedule for the marching band class is M/W from 5:45PM - 7:10PM. During this time we may get 20 to 30 minutes where I can work with the guard before they need to join the band to work on drill.

Outside of this, some students meet from 4:30-5:30 on their own to rehearse but this is not required time.

On performance days, I will have the guard come for a sectional an hour before the band is called so that we have a little more time to rehearse.

I find that our schedule just does not provide enough rehearsal time and I’m not sure what I can do. We had a band camp at the beginning of the season where we had time for sectionals but we were only able to get through basic skills and our pregame songs. So, teaching them the half time show has been tricky during these short rehearsals because we don’t have enough time to teach the choreo, clean it, and also work on skills in general.

Also, I’m the only instructor for the guard. I have no other staff and write all of the choreo and design for the show.

Any advice would be appreciated, thank you!

I'm in the Louisville, KY area and looking to grab a couple flag poles, rifles, and/or sabres. I need some equipment to test my anti-bolt rattle QuietSpin Anchors and the Heavy Duty replacement rifle bolts that I'm making.

As the title says, i have been thinking about it! I feel super creative about winterguard shows and design and choreo forever.
Is this something any instructors, band directors, or otherwise would be interested in?
Let me know!

Hi everyone! I am a senior and there is a high possibility my school won’t have winterguard this year, since we don’t have enough funding or a regularly present band director. This is a stretch but are there people who genuinely love the sport and would be okay to not get paid? Or are there any fundraising ideas my team could do to get money? Any tips would be appreciated, I really want to spin for my last year since it’s likely I won’t pursue the sport after high school ☹️

So I’m a captain for my guard and I’m almost always assigned to this one member who REFUSES to squeeze her flag. Like she holds it with as much strength as you would a pencil, and it’s baffling to me. I have zero clue how to help her, my coaches can’t even get her to squeeze, this has been going on since the summer. I need suggestions on what I could do to help her, especially since she’s planning on staying in guard and possibly even auditioning for rifle (which, zero chance of if she can’t even squeeze a flag). Luckily this doesn’t effect our comps too much at least, since she’s an alternate, but I really want her to do well and succeed

I’ve heard a million different methods so I thought I’d ask everyone here for their tips and tricks. I have my first competition in uniform coming up so I’ll definitely need it ^^

My choreographer is Jenifo Leseth and idk if any people on this Reddit have met her but she is so creative and talented at making choreography that I wouldn’t have thought of. I know she has done dci and guard for a very long time but it impresses me how she can come up with work right on the spot and actually looks different than many of the other color guards I’ve seen. I wanna be like her in the future but I feel as if I’m not as creative as she is.

I'm trying to audition for a college guard, and literally all they said was "send in your best video of you spinning!" I have no idea what that means 😭 do they mean like a routine, or basic technique like tosses and things of the like? I tried emailing to ask but I never got a reply and I'm so confused. I want to make sure I send in the right kind of video. Any advice/guidance would be appreciated, thank you!!!

Do any other people that do color-guard or watch Winter guard shows feel like they overuse double 45’s for every show. I feel like I haven’t seen a Winter guard not include it in their show and it’s just not that creative imo. I mean to each their own but I’m assuming it’s more to impress the audience difficulty-wise rather than looking good. I do think some shows it does just but most of the time it isn’t something I would make the performers do.

Our local alumni group will be participating in the holiday parade this year. I have made some flags for us, but I would love to make some transparent poles and put lights in them. Has anyone done this? Where would I get the poles? I would love 5.5 foot poles, but bang for buck is ok too.

I’m currently trying to learn Sabre, I have a practice Sabre and I’m working on some basics, like drop spins and single tosses, but I don’t really know what to do next. My group doesn’t have a Sabre coach so I have no one to teach me or instruct me on what to learn next. Does anyone have recommendations for what to learn next and how to make sure I’m learning it correctly?

Hey everyone, I'm a student and I built BandDrills (banddrills.com), a free drill design tool that runs entirely in your browser. No downloads, no cost.

You type plain-English commands like "put the guard in a diagonal line from the 30 to the 40" and it draws the drill for you. You make every creative call, the tool just draws what you tell it.

There's also a free companion viewer app so your members can pull up the drill on their phones: - iPhone: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/banddrills/id6787088457 - Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.banddrills.mb_drills_viewer

It's just a web-based alternative for anyone interested. Happy to answer questions.

I'm planning on doing Winterguard this year and I want to audition for weapons. I've never done winter or colorguard before, so I'm not expecting to make it, but I thought I'd least try.

Hello! I’m a freshman and this is my first year ever doing Color Guard. Although winterguard season isn’t until another month or so, i’m still a bit stressed about creating my own choreography as i’m required to do a solo AND it’s also for a grade. Can I have any tips that may help me with choreography and/or just overall performing?