other sports

[Aviendha]

hey ashcraft, if you were able to do marching band AND football in high school....i have a really hard time believing that your marching band was ANYTHING close to the level that you see at the regional and national competitions...listen to how my school marching band practices...

we start practice in the middle of july (BEFORE the football players begin) with a week of 8 AM- 9PM practices w/ 1 hour for lunch, 2 for dinner. after that, its every weekday morning from 8-noon until school starts. when school starts, marching band is our last class of the day, and then we continue practicing until 4:30. the class starts at 1:30, so thats 3 hours everyday. Anybody in a seriously competitive band would find it impossible to do another sport at the same time. There are bands that practice even MORE than we do. Some start learning their show the January before competitions (competitions usually start late september).

people really underestimate the physical demands of marching band. i think anyone whos actually SEEN a top marching band (or drum corps anthony )can see otherwise though.

[RoySloppy]

umm actually most high schools football programs (including mine) start in may without pads on. also, my brother was in the band while i played football. his band practices were sort of related to yours, and he would come home, not fresh but not dog tired. keep in mind my brother is 5-9 280 hes a big dude. me on the other hand, would come home from my first of two sessions of theday dead. our first pratice was from 8-11 in the very hot summer sun. mornings are hot in pads believe me. you cant even really eat breakfast because you would throw up if you ate to much. then at 4 wed have to go back for another practice, just like it. i dont think anything can compare physically to a football training camp. i aint bashin marchin band cause it looks hard to play an instrument and walk, but dont say its harder than football

[Aviendha]

never said it was. i was just saying don't underestimate the physical demands. there are plenty of people in my band that are athletic, physically fit people (actually, two other polevaulters are in it too ^_^) and while we may not come home from practice completely beat everyday, there are plenty of days we do.

[ashcraftpv]

well, our band had 2 weeks of all day practices in early August (8am-4pm). After that I had 2 a day football practice for 2 weeks. Once school started we had and practice MWF starting at 7am and ran through first period(9am). We also had wednesday evening practices from 6-9pm. I had football every day after school from 3:30-6:30pm, which made me late for band on wednesdays. I marched all 4 years in the drumline, playing quads. We placed in our state competition every year in our class and won numerous competitions. My section also won many caption awards. I was also all-conference in football as well, so i wasn't just a band dork that played football too. I was actually invited to audition for the Glassmen and Star of Indiana, but declined. It was physically demanding, but in no way would i ever consider it a sport. I'm in no way demeaing marching band, as i was a band dork myself, but its nothing more than a competition based on musical performance and visual presentation.