colorguardeducator.com

Special Edition of Halftime Magazine – Color Guard Sectionals

Catina Anderson — Tue, 15 May 2012 15:49:53 +0000

If you’re a regular reader here at CGE then you probably know that we’re big fans here of Halftime Magazine. For those who may not be familiar with Halftime it is a print magazine specifically for the marching arts community. It was founded in 2007 by Editor/CEO Christine Ngeo Katzman and publishes 6 times a year. As a matter of fact, groups can get subscriptions at just $1.00 per person if you subscribe your entire organization.

What an amazing opportunity to expand your performers’ view of the marching arts world!

What I love the most about Halftime, aside from the fact that it is very well written and researched (and FULL of information and articles) is that as a high school student I can remember desperately wishing that I had a magazine that I could connect to like my friends who were dancers or cheerleaders or sports enthusiasts. I desperately wanted to be able to see “myself” (as in people who loved the activity I loved) featured in a magazine. Now our students have just that.

I was lucky enough to have connected with Christine through this blog at the start of her amazing journey with Halftime and from 2007 until 2010 I wrote a regular column on Color Guard technique in the “Sectionals” department. I also had the privilege of writing a few full-length features for Halftime and, along with that experience, having conversations with some pretty amazing and inspiring people in our activity. In 2011 our very own Chris Casteel took over the Sectionals column and has been writing fantastic advice for young readers ever since.

Some of you may or may not know that I’m also a photographer. I got the chance to photograph this cover so it was a doubly exciting day when my copies arrived in the mail.

This special edition of the magazine is available by clicking here in either printed or digital format.

It includes every color guard sectionals column written from 2007 through 2011. That’s 29 columns with almost 100 tips to inspire your students as they head into marching band season. Here’s a peek inside.

Congratulations Christine and Halftime Magazine on 5 amazing years of celebrating the best activity on earth! We at CGE are excited to watch Halftime continue to grow and serve this community!

If you’d like to order your copy or recommend this special edition to your students click here to order in either printed or digital format.

From the Archives: It’s all about Travel Safety

Catina Anderson — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 13:00:55 +0000

This week we pulled two articles from the archives regarding hotel and travel safety. This is it! If you’re going on an overnight trip this is one of those important moments in your experience as a coach to teach your students something that could serve to keep them safe throughout their lives – well beyond their years with your team. We hope you’ll take a couple minutes to read through and share some travel safety tips with your team.

Hotel Safety (03/03/2008)

Teachable Moment: Travel Safety by Catina Anderson (03/16/2009)

Safe travels!

From the Archives: Can it be TOO clean???

Catina Anderson — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 13:00:42 +0000

This week’s articles from the archives:

A Movement Moment #10: Too Clean? by Cheryl Myers (03/18/2010) Our resident “Movement Chick” suggests that yes… it is, perhaps, possible to be too clean… check out the article to see what she means.

The ‘Winterguard Wand’ and Championships by Chris Casteel (06/09/2008) A very important article by Chris Casteel about goal-setting as you enter championships week – setting realistic expectations and using championships as an education and team-building experience. Everyone should take a moment to read this one at least once a season.

Happy Spinning!

From the Archives: Planning for Championships

Catina Anderson — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 13:00:55 +0000

Earlier this month we asked for your best advice for planning an overnight trip on the facebook page. If you missed it make sure to look it up and check out the best advice from the community if you’re looking forward to your first overnight championships trip.

This week we pulled 2 of our past articles to inspire you to take your championships trip one step further in terms of fun! We hope you’re inspired!

Breakfast of Champions (03/24/2010)

and

Championships Spirit (02/29/2008)

both by Catina Anderson

Happy Planning!

The Movement Chick: “Effort Qualities”

Cheryl Myers — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 15:21:14 +0000

Hello my darlings!! Has the whirlwind of our crazy season swept you up and away yet?

[Why, yes, I WAS in Kansas… why do you ask? Sigh...No, I never did find the ruby slippers. My ~~broom ride~~ flight home, however, was lovely]

And, in the usual shocking nature of The Movement Chick, I digress into a conversation about shoes.

A-hem.

So. I shall take a break from the ~~interminable~~ informative [fingers crossed its informative anyway, bah!] movement block development series in order to discuss movement “tweaking” during the tail end of the season.

It’s beginning to look a lot like {are you singing the tune now? You’re welcome}

CHAMPIONSHIPS!!

Yup. They’re right around the corner, my darling readers. And, while I’m hoping you are all done with the writing and the staging and the costuming and the make-up-ing [that is TOTALLY a word] of your performers, that does not mean you are “done” with your show. Oh, heavens no. The fun is JUST beginning. No, seriously, it really is. It is time to

NUANCE

Okay, it’s also time to clean, but let’s just skip over that pesky little detail for the moment, shall we?

Here’s the idea. Take a moment to watch your show with your “effort qualities” eyes on.

Say them with me now:

WEIGHT ~~ TIME ~~ SPACE ~~ FLOW

And what exactly I do want you to do with the aforementioned qualities? Use them, my lovelies! Use them!

In terms of expressive qualities, what I want you to look for is RANGE. When you are analyzing weight force changes, take advantage of the differences in heavier, bound moments and those which are lighter. Use breath to advantage, especially during lighter moments. Are you exploring gradations of time within your movement and equipment book? When layering movement on body, on form, or exploring the triad, is it clear what quality is driving the moment? Are you highlighting changes in direct to indirect space?

Pull back, review the ranges you have in place now, and take notes as you go. Perhaps there is a moment when you utilize a skater turn. Use a demi plie to drop down into the term, and bingo! Change in weight and space. Taking the body off center in a lunge? Engage the shoulders, neck and head to fully complete the line of the 45 and suddenly, you have a much grander exploration of space.

Moving backwards in a form responsibility? Try it in demi pointe. This elevates the body, smoothes out the travel and, yes, provides another level change.

There are SO many ways to subtly tweak your production, and I assure you, you will be AMAZED at what a change in level can provide. The skater turn I mentioned earlier? Try half of the unit in plie, and half pulling into a pirouette. [A-hem…ONLY if they have the training in place to effectively complete said pirouette, pleaseandthankyou]

Play around with your expressive range and the effort qualities and HAVE FUN.

Engage the performers in asking for suggestions to develop and deepen your movement book. Keep it fresh, keep it expressive and keep your momentum all the way through to Championships, Nationals, and heck, the Memorial Day parade if you so desire.

Good Luck, my darlings.

Kisses~

TMC

Get Subscriptions to Halftime Magazine for only $1.00 each!

Catina Anderson — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 19:09:52 +0000

Halftime Magazine has a fantastic program we wanted to share with our readers.

Directors can purchase a group subscription with copies for every student and staff member of your group for just $1.00 per person, per year.

We love Halftime Magazine! And what better way to get your students excited for the next season while helping them understand the worldwide marching activity?

Something like this would be a great welcome gift for your performers at your fall season tryouts or a fun gift for the end of the winter season.

Visit www.halftimemag.com/articles/subscribe for more information!

From the Archives: Mid-season motivation and a little charm…

Catina Anderson — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 13:00:57 +0000

March is here – hard to believe!

Every point in the season creates it’s own unique challenges. We hope that these weekly articles pulled from the archives help you to find the information that might speak to something you’re facing right now. With a little over (or less than) a month left in the season (depending on where you compete) we know some of you are thinking ahead and planning for end of season awards while others may be stuck amidst the challenge of mid-season motivation or moving past a plateau. With those ideas in mind here are our three featured articles this week.

Bring on the Charms! by Catina Anderson (11/10/2077) a girly-fun awards tradition turned keepsake that performers will surely treasure their entire lives

Pushing Through the Performance Plateau by Chris Casteel (04/02/2009) Wonderful advice from Chris Casteel on overcoming mid-season challenges.

The Many Roles of the Instructor: Keeping Performers Motivated Mid-Season by Chris Casteel (05/09/2008) Maybe it’s not a performance plateau you’re facing but a lack of motivation during rehearsals… check out Chris’s advice for changing things up and getting back on track!

Until next week… Happy Spinning!

A Peek at Pacing

Chris Casteel — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 13:55:54 +0000

So what’s all this talk about pacing? At this point in the season, you may have heard the term ‘pacing’ as part of your General Effect feedback. It truly is an important benchmark in the General Effect criteria given that it is listed second in the Repertoire section on the WGI sheets.

But before I move any further, let me define the word ‘pacing’ as it is used in our activity. Pacing speaks to when and where planned effects occur in a show and often determines the flow, or rhythm, of effects that are delivered through the show design. However something that is often overlooked when considering pacing is what happens between the effects. If one understands that everything on the gym floor is constantly being compared and evaluated, then it would seem that the evolution of effects becomes almost as important as the effect itself. Most often we refer to these between moments as transition, either between ideas or equipment.

A few years ago, I had the honor of interviewing Karl Lowe for a WGASC webinar that focused on his creative process over the years with the World Class guard, Fantasia. One of the many things that came out of that is the fact that the pacing of his shows is a total compilation of effects and developmental moments. He referenced transitions as developmental moments! It spoke to creating a whole show that is designed with effects that are appropriately placed based on musical or design influence which are strongly supported by developmental (throw out that word ‘transitional’) moments. If you think of pacing in this way, the chances are that pacing will work to your benefit and not against it.

One more thought on pacing before I close. Often times we get caught up in the word “flow” within the definition of pacing. The word suggests sequencing or an expectation of progression. The development between effects acts as a connective matter that holds the whole of your program together. However, this flow does not always have to occur via an expected design. Development can be created through opposition or conflict that could possibly heighten the effect of which it precedes or follows. I guess what I am trying to say is that there is more than one way to create a successful and strong sense of pacing within your show.

When and if you hear the word pacing as a part of commentary realize that while it does directly speak to the placement and success of effects within your show, you may also need to look at bit closer to determine if you have developed into the effects in a manner that suggests a perspective that everything is constantly being evaluated and compared; not just the ‘big’ moments.

The “Coach’s Eye” App. – A User Review

Heather Johnson — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 13:00:42 +0000

“Coach’s Eye” is a video app by Tech Smith for iPhones and iPads (sorry, Android friends). Techsmith, the app developer, touts it as “the ultimate video analysis app you can take anywhere”…and I must say, for me this app has lived up to the hype! I downloaded the app after reading about it in WGI Focus, and started using it by taking video of my flag basics block during practice. The user interface is visually organized, easy to use, and the application has clear tutorials. The graphics are stylish (the fire that burns up your video when you delete it is a nice touch).

Start with the tutorials…

I was always one of those kids that threw away the directions to new toys on principle; figuring out how to use it was half the fun. This trait has followed me into adulthood, which is why I feel a little stupid for not using the app tutorials right away. They really led me to discover key features I didn’t stumble onto initially so I strongly recommend starting with the tutorials.

Testing things out…

I thought it might be a good test of the app to target my guard’s toss initiation skills, specifically the inconsistency of the space between the push and release.

I used the flywheel—a cool tool for skimming through your video—to show my kids the exact moment of their toss initiations. After recording an eight-count toss exercise, the app allowed me to play back the video very slowly and then add my narration on top of it. I couldn’t gather the girls around my iPhone to look at the screen, so I used the program’s share features and could send it by e-mail, text, or YouTube.

Reinforcing Individual Corrections

When you review a video on Coach’s Eye, there is a red rectangle button at the top of the screen that says “Record”. I assumed incorrectly that hitting that button would start recording whatever was in front of my camera. Instead, the record button creates a new video with the clip you were reviewing adding an audio overlay of your commentary. While making audio commentary, you can use the drawing tools to illustrate your point, then erase the illustrations and continue.

I used that feature to review and comment on one of my rifle soloist’s tosses. I used the squiggle tool to clarify the pathway from her dip to her release. Then I showed the same clip and used the arrows to show how she was contracting into her shoulder. Then I showed the same clip again and used the line tool to show her that her dip was going past full.

The app allowed me to isolate three major errors in the same motion…the contraction and her release pathway was causing the toss to rainbow (squiggle tool again), thereby causing her body to buckle under the catch.

I had given her all this information many times before at practice, however, the pace of rehearsal necessitates quick corrections, and my performers can’t always internalize information that fast.

Creating a video provided visual evidence of all the things I’d been telling this kid all season, and she could review it on her own and get a better understanding of my corrections.

Cleaning Ensemble Moments

Another useful feature of the application is the Review tools. When you select Review on the Original videos page, a shapes menu appears in the bottom right corner. It looks like any basic drawing program, with squares, arrows, circles, squiggles, etc. in five basic colors. When you’re done drawing, the shapes peel away when you touch the little “clear” button.

I used the line tool to show the differences in the release angles of my flags. The bright red lines on the video were obviously not perpendicular to the floor. I took a screen shot of that one moment, saved it to my phone, and sent it via mass text it to the performers.

The result was amazing. Within twenty minutes I had eighteen texts from my thirteen students with their reactions. The visual perspective on a single moment of time was access to information they thought they never had before, and gave them a new appreciation for the precision this activity requires. Video is an excellent addition to a training program, and gave my students a new perspective on how to apply their training. Being able to see the slow-motion video themselves made a big difference.

The Line Tool and Movement Instruction

I started using Coach’s Eye to record brief snippets of dance class, flag basics, weapon block, and the show. For movement purposes my favorite tool is the straight line—it’s a great way to point out inconsistencies in body lines and curves.

For example, I recorded two girls (my Captain and a rookie) doing a tendu exercise. I drew one line from their hips straight to the floor, flywheeled forward, and drew another line where their tendu ended to make an angle. The new girl, while watching, said, “Oh! My leg is bending and Megan’s stays straight! Oh that looks bad. Ew!”

Fully Integrated

Now we use this app for everything. The circle tool is great for showing performance in our faces and our port du bras (red circles show incorrect technique, green circles are correct-our goal is to get a completely green video). The arrow tool helps us see where we sink in to our hips or contract away from our extended legs or equipment, and the square tool shows the difference in size between their second position, toss heights or check points. I use the line tool all the time to illustrate the importance of pointed feet.

Drill and Staging

We were lucky enough to get a new floor this year, which makes my stage look clean and beautiful. However, we spent the first month of rehearsal using an old painted floor, with colors and lines and those little circles your feet make when you turn. On the new floor I don’t use tape spots or floor markers because I think my kids should learn how to move in forms. However, without paint spots or lines or even small holes to help them see their dots, my performers were getting lost.

Out came Coach’s Eye.

I used the line tool to show how a gate turn was to revolve, the squiggle to illustrate a particularly complicated pathway, and the square tool to show the differences in spacings. We took a video of our opening movement phrase, and I used the line tool to explain the differences in their body facings. The first time we analyzed our set our shoulder lines looked like a good game of Pick-Up sticks, the third time we got close to parallel.

They are learning!

I love the color choices for working on staging. I use green lines to show when the kids move correctly, red for illustrating mistakes. Amusingly, this has snuck in to our rehearsal lexicon. I used to say, “You could drive a Mack truck through that space!”, now it’s “Whoa, big red square!”.

Coach’s Eye Game

I also made a Coach’s Eye game for my kids. I review a video from rehearsal and count the number of corrections I see. Then, I post the original video (no corrections) to our facebook group. The kids watch it and write a comment on the number of mistakes they see, why it happens and how to fix it. 24 hours later, I’ll post the reviewed video and whoever comes closest to my number gets a prize. Occasionally, a kid will see something that I do not-in which case, they get another prize and I become a better instructor.

The absolute best part of Coach’s Eye is how much progress we’re now making outside of rehearsal. A lot of my kids have bought the program themselves and are using it to critique their friends while they’re practicing. Beyond making them better performers and making my guard cleaner as a whole, this app is helping my kids develop an understanding of how to clean technique that took me years to learn as an instructor. I hope this knowledge will help them strengthen their appreciation of the activity as a whole, so when they grow up and teach guards of their own they will creatively contribute to the evolution of our art form. But in the meantime, at least they’ll have pointier feet.

From the Archives: Goals… and a little comic relief

Catina Anderson — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 12:00:46 +0000

Sometimes all you need mid-season is a little comic relief… so we have some here in an archived article by Darcie Gudger.

Colorguard, Clones, Cat Litter and a little Comic Relief! by Darcie Gudger (2/8/2010)

And after you’re done laughing it’s time to re-evaluate your goals mid-season.

READY, FIRE, AIM (Re-evaluation and Goal Setting Mid-Season) by Chris Casteel (2/16/2009)