Last summer William Chumley took on the position of Education Director of WGUK and we posted his article describing his plans for adjudicator education for the 2008-09 season. This week we checked in to find out what progress has been made. Click read more below for his full report.
Here we stand at the dawning of a new team. Auditions are over, the team has been selected. If you think about it, you have a clean slate in front of you! How exciting! Now is the perfect time to make decisions about the best way to build your team for the coming year. Considering this, I have decided to write a 3 part series to take you through the summer months that will hopefully give you insight and tips on how to build the ultimate color guard team.
Color guard instructor Amanda Gilanyi from Southern New Jersey has started a new blog for her own reflections and musings on the everyday life of a guard coach. In her article (reposted here with permission) "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" [June 5, 2009] she talks about her process of choosing the perfect uniform for her fall field show. Read her article and link to her blog - or follow her on twitter!
This is an article originally written as part of a student leadership manual. It outlines practical advice and strategies for student leaders (which may also be helpful for new instructors) on ways to teach and clean routines.
Before you spin those new rifles make sure you have prepared them for the abuse they are about to receive! Without the proper taping your rifle can go from "shiny and new" to "split in two" with just one bad toss! This article gives step-by-step instructions for taping your rifle as well as tips from experienced instructors for keeping it in tip-top shape.
We just went through the yearly task of weighting our flag poles for the fall season. In the past, I didn't know exactly how to do this and was quite haphazard in choosing weights. I dreaded the task and found it tedious and frustrating. This year I did some "asking around" and "experimenting" and came up with what I think are some pretty good solutions for my group in the outdoor season. Here is what I learned!
Most practice flags are a simple, solid-colored rectangle made from a lightweight flag fabric such as polychina silk or nylon lining. Using practice flags for fundamentals and during muddy rehearsals helps extend the life of your show flags! You can purchase inexpensive practice flags from equipment supply catalogs (some provide free practice flags with the purchase of a show flag) or save a few dollars making them yourself!
Here are easy-to-follow instructions for a simple, rectangular practice flag to fit a 6-foot-tall flag pole.
NEW!!! Many groups add tape markings to their flag poles to assist with uniform hand placement throughout the ensemble. These tapes are so helpful in cleaning up routines that those new to the idea might exclaim in disbelief, "Hey! That must be cheating!" Not to worry! "Cheater tapes" are perfectly legal and just may be the tool you need to clean up a messy routine. This article describes how to determine the placement for your cheaters and gives sample placements used by the author for 5 1/2 through 7 foot flag poles.
Designer Angela Khebou, StellaUSA.net , has written a wonderful step-by-step how-to on painting a faded colorguard flag. It's a great first project if you've ever wanted to give painting flags a try!
