I teach color guard (if you didn't know already). Usually when I say that to people who have never been involved in it I get a few responses, "Oh yeah! I know what that is" "YOU were in guard? The girls at my high school's guard were weird/sluts/ugly etc." or "Is that the thing with the girls with the flags and the guns and stuff" Yeah, the thing with the girls with guns and flags and junk...I have some observations about it.
1. It's really hard.
I knew this already as I went through the toughest technique training probably in the entire country when I was young but even at a smaller school, it is really difficult if you want to be a great group. I noticed yesterday how hard some of my girls were working and how tired they were and I thought "why do people do this?!". I should be able to answer this question...
2. Why do people do it?
I really don't know. I always like to hear how people got involved in the activity. Whether it be they had a friend in it, or they just decided one day that they would be in color guard. Something attracted me to it at a young age and I started to learn little things here and there on my own and from friends' sisters who were in my future high school's guard when I was about 9 years old. I was also given my first rifle by the equipment manager and flag/uniform designer when my sisters were in marching band. When I auditioned at 14, I really had no idea what I was getting into...approximately 16 years later after being introduced to the activity I am here, still writing about it.
3. Being an instructor/coach/teacher/whatever you want to call it is waaaay easier.
No. I thought this when I was in high school mostly. I would see my instructors standing on the sidelines in fall or sitting in the bleachers in winter watching our run throughs and would be envious that they were getting a rehearsal long break but it isn't as easy as it looked. Here are my current observations as to why it is harder 1. You have to do almost as much work if not more than the students. 2. Little pay 3. Loss of free time 4. Having to deal with many different conflicting personalities and 5. They never did anything because they already had...sort of like "paying your dues". SO, just so my kids know that I worked my butt off for quite sometime, I tell them how awful it was for me "back in my day." Hopefully one day they thank me...
4. I learned in a RIDICULOUS guard. Like, outrageous, intense, hard core (hard corps hahahah get it??) top of the line, great training, technique etc. etc. I never realized this until I had moved out of my suburban bubble and started to explore the other aspects of the activity. Also, as a some sort of statistical fact...there are probably only about 4 other guards in Indiana with similar training and championship records and probably about 20 high schools in the ENTIRE WORLD with this sort of rigorous thing going on. As a matter of fact, not only has the place I was trained been a WGI finalist in the top class since 1984 but was the first high school to win according to historical scores. On this note, I also noticed that there was another world out there outside of WGI world class (the highest level or advanced level for non guard people) and there was actually some great stuff going on! I learned that it has a lot to do with support from parents, family etc. etc. and money sadly...but true talent and training cannot be bought.
5. I love labeling and making bullet points with numbers... :)
Anyway, with this being said, it is a wonderful, terrible, amazingly awful, beautiful, depressing, time consuming, fabulous, fantastic, outrageous, scandalous, demanding, lovely activity that I have a undying love/hate relationship with that has made me who I am today that I can't wait to continue on with.
I love guard. (Depending on the day, you can read this with sarcasm)
photo from Forever 21