A new Season has started, so I hear this a lot.

This is a topic that tends to get on my nerves---very quickly.



Marching Band:

Is it a Sport, or just a Show...?



Yes. It is a Sport. And I can back that up. Easily.

I don't know about other schools, but in mine, it's one of the sports given the most emphasis.

Out of the 1200 students in my high school (small city...), over a third are involved in Band. About four fifths of that number are involved with the Marching Band in some way (Flags, Drum Majors, etc.). And all of our Middle Schools (4 of them) have Marching Bands (they don't do Field Shows, though) of about 80-100 kids each.

However, in the HS MB, we don't just do Parade Blocks and the like. We do full Field Shows. This year, we are doing Music from the Band Styx; "A.D. 1928/Rockin' the Paradise," "Mr. Roboto," "Too Much Time On My Hands," & "Best of Times".

Early August, our full Band got together every day for a week to practice from 6 am to 3 pm. That's nine hours straight. Every day. With 5 minute water breaks about every 1/2 hour to an hour and an hour for lunch. Here in Central Illinois, we had temperatures of 98-102 degrees that week.


Every morning for Practice, we had stretches and runs. Those runs consisted of anywhere from one lap to a full mile.

Every practice now (2 and a half hours at night--2 nights a week), we have stretching and running.

During Camp, we learned various Techniques (Glide Stepping, Crab Stepping--a Drum Major made us do Prance Stepping for disciplinary issues once (BTW, a Drum Major is basically the Conductor; s/he leads the Band, not just the Drums.) Box Drills, Lateral Slides (Those KILL for Flutes!!!).)

You definitely gain muscle from all of this. Oh yeah, don't forget the "Victory Push-Ups." I've asked around here, and almost everyone involved in other sports has told me that we work out way more than the basketball or football teams do.

And now, many of us can estimate how long distances are just by looking at them. (football field has 50 yards, 8 steps per 5 yards, 1 step equals 22.5 inches.) (So even math is needed in MB.)

In our actual field shows, just about anything can happen. For those not in Band, I would sincerely like to see you even try Marching with a stick for the first time. Actually, I taught my gym class how to March last year--so I know exactly how that turns out. It wasn't pretty, for anyone wondering.

Try playing an instrument while walking backwards. Then run forwards and do the same thing. Then run backwards at a Lateral Slide and see how much concentration and muscle power/control you need.

You people have no idea just how hard it is to get ten people to March a diagnal (or even just a straight line) across a field, and have it perfectly lined-up the entire time. (Us Flutes at WCHS are priding ourselves this Season in our beautiful diagnals and curves and circles.)

Most of our shows are done in fast tempos, so we're basically running the entire time. Last Season, we had a show where (for the closing set) the Flutes had to slide/run backwards half way across the field, with our shoulders/Flutes/tops turned left towards the Judge's Box. During one show, I actually (accidentally, of course) caused a domino effect in the line. The field was extremely muddy. I slid and slipped backwards a good five feet or so and fell, which caused the next girl to fall over me and the next guy to fall over her and so on....

We go over our shows about 50 times a night. We're involved in all the top Tournies. We Marched at Disney's Magic Kingdom last New Year's. Our Band scares the football players. My best friend and I will start singing the parts to our songs, and we've actually had some of the biggest guys I've ever seen run screaming from us. And I'm serious about that.

For those of you who say that rules are needed to be a sport, or that MB doesn't have any rules, that's very untrue. We have to follow certain regulations, uniformity, even down to some of the music we play.

We aren't one of the richest communities, so we don't get new equipment very often---we usually work with things that are 10+ years old. We only recently got new uniforms. But we lost our Capes.....they took them from us...it was so mean of them....they were the coolest part of the uniform.... We used them to keep warm during long football games where no one is winning, making halftime seem like forever to come....

Even so, we are one of the top Marching Bands in Illinois State. We compete against schools that practice with the Bugal Core and can afford to get new equipment and uniforms every year.

And it's not like we all play concert music while running around on a field. Our school happens to be very well known for our Rock Shows. (Alice Cooper's "School's Out" got us some very high scores a few years ago--as did Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody." Last year we performed "American Woman" by Guess Who.)

October is usually the month of our biggest competetition at the University of Illinois. The stands are packed with nothing but Bandos and fans. Standing out on the field looking up at all of them before and after our show is one of the best experiences I've ever had. Seeing all those fans standing and clapping for you.

Marching Truly is the Ultimate Team Sport. Everyone is accountable for their own actions, if even one person if off a step or slouching, it shows. Everyone has to play their part in order for the entire Band to look it's best. Looking at a performance from above, you can't pick out any one person unless s/he screws up. All the Judges see is the over all picture. They notice the flaws. Everyone has to be thinking the same things, doing the same motions, following eachother, and paying attention to every detail.


All of this isn't to say that we don't have fun. We've done some pretty whacky things. I've gotten strange looks from Non-Bandos after I say something in passing that sounds completely innocent to a Bando's ears, yet obviously not to others (what would a Non-Bando think "Double Tongueing" is...?). We've had March-Offs to find out who the best Marcher is. Up until this year, we made Skits. This year we did a Music Video instead. Every Thursday in Band Camp, the Drum-Line comes to practice in short-shorts (the guys started it 7 years ago) ... We have pool parties and section parties and the like. People with bigger yards invite the entire Band over. We have park picnics. Stuff to take it easy after exhausting days in the sun. We name some of our more major Drill Sets ("Yaa Mom" and the "Octopus") to help with memorization. To help improve spirits and our "inter-sectional relationships" we have mini-competitions among the sections--such as making section t-shirts and seeing which is the best, and costume day (we've had full-decked Pirates and Robot Pirates and Ninjas and Ninja Turtles marching on the field), and Crazy Tie and Hat Day. And Oh the Drama. I've been giving serious thought to writing a book based on it.


So, now you know my standing. I think it counts fully as a sport; yet, it also counts as a show. Ice-Skating is considered both a sport and a show (and I love it, too)---so why can't Marching Band?




</rant>


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