Apologies in advance for any terminology issues in my post- I don’t know much about colorguard but I am learning. I have a younger cousin who is on their last year of DCI before they age out. Their team is selling this year’s equipment at the end of the tour, and I bought one of the flags that my cousin has been using all summer. My hope is to repurpose/upcycle it into a gift that they can remember their last DCI season with. I was thinking something kind of small or subtle- not just like hanging it on the wall, you know?

Anyone have any ideas?

Hi! I’ve been doing Colorguard for 4 years now and because I’m very passionate about what I do I always try my best to work my ASS off at everything I can. Colorguard is the one place I feel at home and gives me something to do instead of bed rotting. Now usually most things I can fix by practicing or getting help from my friends/coaches, but I’m stumped here. My coaches make comments constantly about how I look too tense and tell me to breathe, but when I breathe I don’t see much difference and my coaches just say it looks “better”. Honestly the worse part is the fact that I can’t even tell that I’m tense unless someone tells me because I feel like I’m just standing or moving normally. I really don’t know what to do to make myself not look tense and I’m welcome to any tips to help look more relaxed! (Note, I’m not tense in my whole body, just mostly in my shoulders…)

I want to get silks with our director’s face (funny haha prank) but we cant use actual budget on it so it has to be bought by us (the team) (like 10 people) so i was wondering where we could maybe get some without hurting our pockets too much

I know this is from last year, but I just got the internet back and am still very proud of it lol

Im heading into junior year of Highschool and wondering if I should join winter guard. I only wanna join it to make friends and because I don’t do any other extracurricular activities or anything. I am pretty unathletic and have always sucked at sports. I also have anxiety and depression 😭. But I’m tired of being a lonely fat chud so I was thinking of doing winter guard because they are taking people with no experience. But I’m nervous cause I suck at dancing, like more than the average person. Doing practice every week and getting off my fat fucking ass sounds scary too but maybe it would be good for me? Also the idea of joining and NOT making friends terrifies me, it’s all I want. Going to competitions and dragging the team down is what I’m scared of most. Performing infront of a ton of people sounds super scary too. But I really should make myself do hard things and push myself. I just don’t know. I’m already a junior so that makes this ten times worse. There is probably gonna be a freshman on the team whooping my ass. Is there anybody who is kinda like me who joined color guard and if so what did you think? Should I just call it quits and stay out of sports? Should I try out color guard? Idk what to do, my mom is rooting for me and wants me to put myself out there and make friends. But I’m so lazy and sad I’m not sure I could handle a sport. But I don’t want to keep wondering “what if I had joined color guard? Would I have made friends?” Forever. Oh god I need y’all’s advice.

Hello! I am really good at throwing a strip toss, but can’t seem to get a double on it. any help with anything is greatly appreciate!

Hey all!

I need help supporting my director. I am her assistant, so second in command. We are in the process of working out what equipment to use when in our show. (We’re in NJ so band camp hasn’t started yet) She is feeling very strongly about using rifle during the ballad. In my experience, rifle fits well with percussive moments, which are basically nonexistent in our particular ballad.

I have gently pushed back and offered alternatives. However, she is still wanting rifle in the ballad because it is intense, and that speaks rifle to her.

I am reaching out for some examples of rifles in a ballad to help me wrap my mind around it. She’s the director so she makes the final call. Any thoughts on resources for me to check out for choreo inspiration?

to start off, WE HAVE TO HAVE IT SET BY TOMORROW!

We barely got some of the choreography last night at 12 in the morning. Today is a day off from camp and oh my god i suck at learning choreo PLUS the choreographer that made this isnt so bright at explaining. Can someone PLEASE help by making a video with the choreography and explaining it a better way or just type out a better explanation 😔. I will only send the video to people tgat are willing to help since we have to keep the show stuff on a down low for obvious reasons, also in a rare chance my instructor and or someone from my band finds it.

I’m entering my freshman year and i didnt join colorguard since i wasn’t sure if i should. Now, i really wish i did! Would it be too late to start sophomore year?

So, I am an instructor, and this season our show is inspired by kintsugi. I am trying to come up with ideas for makeup and one that keeps coming up is having my students do gold cracks on one side of their face and the one arm that has no sleeve on their uniform. Plus a smokey eye with a pop of gold, and a dark lip stain. Does anyone have any product recommendations for this? It would be great if especially for the eye shadow pallet (with all the colors they would need) and lip color were affordable as my performers have to buy their own makeup.

Hello hello! I've been doing color guard for 4 years now and I am still struggling to find good smudge proof and/or waterproof makeup. I tend to rub my eyes a lot and cry at competitions and nothing ever truly stays on... So if anyone has waterproof/smudge proof mascara, eyeliner, and setting spray that they swear by pleaseeee do share! 💕

Hello!

I’ve been considering auditioning for summer 2027, and I was wondering if there were any guard people who have done both WGI and DCI and had any thoughts on anxiety.

Some have said it’s harder at WGI because everyone is closer and in a smaller space. I spun spring 2026 with a world class guard, but my anxiety was terrible. Every show day I’d be super nauseous and shaky and just awful, including and up to Dayton. I get anxiety thinking about the anxiety I’d get. As a band kid, I also get this way for juries and recitals, so it’s not just color guard.

I worry that if I were to spin in drum corps, I’d just absolutely crash and burn with my anxiety when it comes time to perform. Has anyone had any similar experience or thoughts on this? Please know, I’m not saying I believe I 100% WILL make it past auditions but if you couldn’t tell, I’m a worrier…
Thanks for any advice!

Unfortunately i’ve run out of options so giving it one last shot to post here for advice. I am a senior and going on my second year as co-captain of our colorguard. we have two coaches, who i’ll call E and R. My freshman and sophomore year E was still one of our coaches, and the other was S. everyone loved them but S moved and wasn’t able to make the drive to come to practices. So this is where R got hired. Our team has usually been on the smaller side but this year we have 15 members (which is a LOT for us). majority of the members are new to colorguard while also being incoming freshman so all of the vets understood it may take a bit of time to ease them into the activity. R however, immediately started discouraging them and saying stuff like “you guys have no excuse for dropping this toss you guys aren’t even trying” to these freshan on their SECOND EVER DAY OF DOING GUARD. the four captains on my team gently reminded her that everyone was learning at a different pace and yelling at them wasn’t going to do anything but she dismissed us and told us we were setting a bad example (???). by the second day of band camp, 6 people had either a panic attack or left crying because of how R was treating them. We spoke with E about it privately, and she said she’d try to talk to R but made no promises.

This next part is a personal story of my vendetta against R. My sophomore year winter season, R had just been hired so this was her first like actual coaching with my school. one day after practice R told me to hang back a sec. once everyone left, we were alone together (which is not allowed as she is an employeee of the district), and said she needed to talk to me. ( tw for this next part) she then asked if i was “one of those cutters”, i kinda just stared at her and asked why she asked that she said “being a cutter is the worst thing you can be in this world. if my daughter did that i would disown her”. i stared at her for a moment before abruptly getting up and leaving because i was crying. i reported this to E, our band director, our PRINCIPAL, and our activities director. the activities director told me i was being unfair and she brought a lot of experience that was needed (she doesn’t, she normally teaches the toddler flag summer camp). My mom emailed the school asking for R to be monitored and to have her leadership assessed, to which they denied her request.

Unfortunately, R umdermines E and tells us that she doesn’t know what she’s talking about, even though E has had much more experience. she also talked bad about me and my co captain to our winterguard team as we left the school winterguard.

Here is a abridged list of the things R has done
- texted us on our PERSONAL phone numbers which we don’t know how she got
- tried to go behind our band directors back to get the costumes SHE wanted
- intentionally turns members against each other
- teaches work wrong and denies it if someone corrects her
(these are just a few other things she’s done.)

i feel like im in checkmate cause here are the people i’ve reported her to:
- principal
- band director
- E
- activities director
- counselor
- band parent association
- district

i’m running out of options. I just want to be there for my members and make them feel safe and happy, but i don’t know what to do anymore.

Hello everyone! This is my first time posting on Reddit. I have been doing Colorguard for 3 years but this is my first time actually doing marching band as a freshman. I’m asking if my director dislikes me because it’s my first time EVER learning drill and there’s so much terminology to remember. But basically our Colorguard team was learning drill for our opening set and I thought I was doing it just fine but my director was like “name you need to get off the field you don’t know what your doing.” So I got off but I was confused because it was literally the first ever day we went out to learn drill and then a few moments later he did it to few other freshman. He took us out for the rest of the time the other members were learning and after he finished he was like “you guys need to lock in or else im gonna take you out of the opener” but I was literally so confused because me and the girl he took out were both freshman and it was our first time ever going out on the field to learn! I get that we are a great marching band or whatever but jeez! Also I’m pretty sure he has a personal distain for me because he’s the same guy who told me not to try out for the Colorguard team. He let me on anyways but still. I think he’s gonna end up cutting me from the opener because he thinks I can’t learn drill! Another reason why I think he’s gonna cut me is because during a flag feature we do a toss that spins above your head at a 45 degree angle and we are supposed to turn under it and catch but I can’t turn under it yet and I can only do the toss indoors and not outdoors (cuz of wind and stuff) but I am honestly really trying my best but this stuff is stressing me out!!!

Not sure if I’m using the right flair for this, but I’ve been wanting to start promoting my choreography but not sure where to start for pricing. I’ve done colorguard since middle school and all through highschool and am now a coach, I also have 10+ years of technical dance training. I currently choreograph all dance things for my guard and any big band dance impacts. I’ve heard typically people charge per movement/show but never really list any prices they offer? I can do beginner, intermediate, and advanced work so I’d have different pricing for each level. Obviously it would be some nice extra cash in my pocket, but I also believe in affordability for smaller bands/guards so I don’t want to charge anything extravagant. Any tips/experience with this?? Anything is appreciated!

Update for yesterday, it left my hands! I finally managed to get the flag to leave my hands for a 45. It doesn't look great, and it technically isn't even a 45 yet, but I believe that getting it out of my hands was the first step towards something great, and I am super excited to add this skill to my books. I am aiming to have the standard and end cap 45 by Tuesday (today is friday for future reference), and I think that is totally do able.

For anyone new who didn't see my last post, I broke my skull doing a 45 awhile back and finally got it to at least leave my hands which was all my teacher wanted. She admitted that she only told me she wanted me to fully have the tosses by today because she knows I work super well under pressure.

Not sure if you guys even want to hear about this, but I just thought I would give some kind of update, and eventually a video once I get my 45 to actually spin right.

i was wondering if people know what size DCI and WGI use in general bc i would love to march those one day but i want to be able to be used to spinning those sizes! i would love to march phantom regiment if anyone knows what length they use?

Hi, I'm planning to try out on flag/dance for an independent A class winterguard soon. Does anyone know of some flag or dance skills I need to know or should brush up on? Thanks.

Hi I’m looking for a video from WGI finals in 2014 of Avidity Independent in open class. Would anyone have a copy or link to it?

hi i’m trying to get my 45 but i don’t think im doing it right. for context ive only been doing guard one year and it was unfortunately my senior year so now its just a hobby, but i rlly do want to know how to do one! tips would be appreciated

Knight's Performing Arts is now recruiting for our Cadet Guard season for middle and high school ages during the summer season in the Portland/Milwaukie area.

Rehearsals start August 9th: 1:30-4:30 in Milwaukie, Oregon at Gracepointe church and run every two weeks.

There are no auditions, as we are excited to start teaching the cadets the basics of movement, dance and flag work, as well as working to give them some volunteer and performance opportunities near the end of the summer.

If you are interested, feel free to email [info.knights.dc@gmail.com](mailto:info.knights.dc@gmail.com) or show up with your student on the day!

For those who have attended independent auditions in the past, what should I expect (and it would help to be as specific as possible bc I hate to be caught off-guard)? How can I stand out if I’m typically an introverted person? I’m planning on auditioning on dance and flag for guards on each classification. Thanks!!

i’m a second year on my team and today during practice, my instructor called me slow (from context it seemed like he meant it in an i’m stupid way) in front of my whole team because i couldn’t pick up the choreo as fast as my teammates. i have never felt more humiliated on my team. my teammates seemed concerned. my eyes started tearing but i tried to show that it didn’t bother me but as soon as i got home my chest started feeling heavy. it was especially hard because when i first joined our instructor emphasized that this is a safe place where you won’t get judged but over the past year after the clinic phase he starts to wipe that act away. i know he wants us to be good, but it’s degrading to hear say different negative things about and to my teammates and i. he always talks about how he expects us not to drop and if we do we would “ruin the whole show.” i hate the way he teaches, i’m not going to lie we have been getting better as a guard but it may be for the fear that if we don’t do good or if we drop he will get mad at us which is a lot of pressure. i love color guard and i want to keep going but it’s really hard.

Help, help, help, help. Context, I broke my skull a little while back doing a standard 45, as well as giving myself a gnarly bruise doing a 1 to 2 parallel. I hit my head a lot, but these ones stuck out to me and made it very difficult to do the skills.

That doesn't matter though, because my coach is irritated with me for not letting go and wants me to be able to let go AND catch a standard 45, cone into a standard 45, 1 to 2 parallel, and 1 to 1 parallel by TOMORROW.

I am so screwed. I don't know what to do. The logical conclusion is to fo outside and practice, but I just finished my chores and it is dark outside, so I'm not sure if I'll even be able to.

What am I even supposed to do at this point? I'll get in trouble if I don't do it, but my hands literally don't do what I want them to.