From: rwberry@hubcap.clemson.edu (Robert W Berry)
Subject: Re: precision or lack there of...
Organization: Clemson University
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 23:16:37 GMT

dugan@wpi.WPI.EDU (Robert Francis Dugan) writes:

>And if you read the sheets, equipment = 20 points and movement
>= 20 points.  So they should be balanced in your show.  I still have a
>tough time with that when I write work being  brought up in the 80's
>colorguard world.  It just seems to me that lately a show that is
>heavier on the movement/body work than on the equipment work gets more
>credit than being heavier on the equipment than on the body.  Seems to
>me that a 60/40 show is a 60/40 show no matter if the 60 is body or
>equipment. 

But the sheets carefuly relate the equipment work to the body work.  The
two are very closely intertwined, and the upper boxes on each sheet
insist on the additional demand placed upon the performer by layering
the two captions on each other.  Since we've seen some of the most
difficult equipment work possible, the advantage is to add difficulty by
placing body demands on top of the equipment demands.

As far as precision, I feel that there has been a trade off in that a
little sloppiness in a pike angle can be forgiven if the rotating,
3-planar, carving move that got to it is clean.  Guard work (equipment
in particular) has come a long way in the last decade, things may not be
a straight-foward hard as they used to be, but there are lots of factors
which make "easier" work a lot harder than it seems.

>My guard's name is Q.E.D.  We are really laying it onto them this
>week.  Sometime I wonder if we should go to Boston.  If we go and 
>do poorly, WGI will categorize us for the rest of the season.  I don't
>think they do this on purpose.  But when you have to judge 50 guards,
>you have to do something to keep them all straight.  If your first
>time out you do poorly, it's an uphill struggle the rest of the season
>to overcome people's first impressions.  

IMHO, it depends on what kind of poorly you do.  Early in the season a
lot of your score comes from the potential your guard demonstrates.  Is
the work and drill readable?  If so, don't worry about having a bad
showing, the judges understand where you're at.  What class are you
competing in?  If you're in Class A, don't worry at all.  I think what
will stick out more in their minds at this point in the season is the
overall quality of your design.  (As long as the design is
*readable*!!  Have a friend who knows a little about guard watch your
show from up top.  While you may "fill in the blanks" watching your
show, a third party can't.  If they can't read your show, maybe it is
too early to hit the floor for competition.  Did you attend a field day?
How did you do?  Could the judges read the concepts in you show?)

And even if you do start out poorly, as long as you improve from week
to week, your show will start to stick out more and more in the judge's
mind.  By WGI you may be cracking finals!!

HTH,
Bob

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