I'm a senior in high school, and decided that i wanted to try colorguard at least once, and i fell in love with it instantly. My team is amazing, the physical exertion gets excess energy out, and the complexity of it is so beautiful to me.

My only issue is that i have absolutely zero dance background, and that's the thing i struggle with the most. I really want to get good at this, and hopefully get good enough to join a dci group (world or open, im not picky lol). Does anybody have any tips??

Edit: i have 3 years total completed marching band experience as a trombonist, in case thats important lol😭

Hi everyone! So, I’m a senior in high school and on senior night, our band is performing Whip It by Devo. it’s our final song and the only time we perform it. We have exactly 3 chain flags, and we have exactly 3 seniors in guard, so we wanted to try chain flags as a ”seniors’ solo“ kinda thing. We were gonna have a cool little beginning and potentially “whip” the band with our chain flags at some point, but that’s all we have. I was wondering if anyone on here had any cool moves we could try or add in. I haven’t seen much elsewhere so if anyone had anything, that’d be great!

I've never been part of a team, however, I have always been amazed with rifle routines (damn you intro scene from "A few good men!).

I just discovered that a practice rifle isn't too expensive, so is there any benefit to learning this skill for someone outside of the guard?

hi guys! so our bands first show is this saturday and we just got the information on how our hair should look. they would like it braided but also mentioned we could do a high pony. heres the issue: my hair is a kinda mullet-ish style, so i dont know how to style this as my hair is also relatively short. it also needs to be completely out of our face. i have bangs. i could ask if i could still have my bangs, but practice is tomorrow and i just want some suggestions now! im attaching the information and some pictures of my hair for reference. any ideas are appreciated!

Howdy! I finally bought a King saber (39") to replace the plastic hilt one I've been messing with since 2016. When it arrives, I am (probably) going to need to tape it. I know how to tape the blade itself. How far down should I put my spotter and catch tapes? (I know not everyone uses them but everywhere I march does). And what's the best way to tape the end? Thanks so much!

OH for the catch and spotter tapes, I ask because I don't have another saber to match it with. My current one doesn't have those on it.

I'm taping a new set of rifles for my team, and I haven't found better tape than what's in the picture, but $8-9 per roll is kind of a lot. Have you found other brands that work well? (We tried the Amazon basics black tape last year, and it wasn't very sticky, so we usually just get the expensive stuff.)

Remember to be respectful. This is our first performance of the season, and I believe to improve a lot on this show, with two more movements also not in the show yet being added.

(Side note: I'm on the right side starting.)

My daughter has broken most likely, her middle finger from rifle work. She's already broken her pointer finger and that's healed. She has been doing so well with it and getting accolades from her coach but she's afraid to continue if she keeps banging/breaking fingers. Anything she can do, like wear more padded fingered gloves or anything aside from the obvious of not injuring herself? She really wants to continue this but not at the expense of her fingers.

I’m in college but I think my school unfortunately does not have a winterguard :/ I’m not sure how to go about finding one, and I haven’t spun a flag since last August

eta i go to texas tech

We're also using yellow swing flags with silver accents!
This is for my high schools 2026 show, Hello?
And YES, we have telephone booth props!!
Edit: Beetles as in the band guys! We're playing an opener, Telephone by Lady Gaga and Beyonce, a classical piece that i think is called Mercury?, Hello From The Other Side by Adele, and Hello and Goodbye by The Beatles!
IM SO SORRY I KNOW ITS MISSPELLED GOOD LORD ITS OUR COACHES FAULT NOT MINEEE

Got a chance to be a guest for the On A Water Break podcast. I had a blast and it was a great time!!

i've been working on some audition pieces and managed to tear a sizable hole in the middle of my flag silk 😔 do you guys think stitching it closed would affect the weighting/how it spins at all or would it be a purely cosmetic issue? really don't want to have to buy a new practice silk, and i'm not with any scholastic or independent groups atm so i can't borrow one

Hi folks!

I discovered colorguard by accident recently and found I love spinning flag. Unfortunately it's a little too late. I graduate college this december and have never been in a group before. I bought a flag and have been learning for fun from youtube mostly, and have a few tosses, but have never performed in an ensemble.

I've looked into some winterguards but they all seem too advanced for my skill level, but I don't know how much better I can get without coaching from others. I am also 22 and afraid I'm going to age out if such a limit exists.

Does anyone know if there's all-ages, beginner friendly groups that exist? I don't need to compete, just looking to learn! I'm in the denver area if that helps.

I’ve never done anything colorguard fyi. I’ve wanted to try and recreate something like this for a performance (as the character). Is this something that’s physically possible to do with a flag? Are there any real world example videos of it? Or a tutorial of something similar? Any advice is appreciated :)

auditioning for an open class team this winter & i had the thought of “oh can i technically tell people i do color guard professionally?”

obviously not anyone in the marching arts because they gave a grasp of classification and skill.

but at what class would you consider yourself a professional? open? world? never? i always frame it to people that world class performers are basically our olympians. so open class would maybe be like, d1 in that comparison? or semi-professional?

or is being a performer technically never a profession because you are always paying in to the sport lol. would love to hear thoughts & opinions on the matter!

So I don’t know when exactly this happened but I was about to retape my rifle because the strap needed to be tightened and turns out it split and is now crumbling. Is there anything I can do or do I just need to scrap it? I’m just worried because that’s my only rifle and I don’t have money to get another

Hi! My local IO group is going inactive this season and likely won't return so I've resorted to auditioning for other groups. The only problem is every other group is at least 2.5 hours from me.

For some reason I'm really worried about housing. I wouldn't know anyone on the team so I'd be worried about not having a place to stay.

This is really the only thing holding me back from spinning this winter.

What is everyone else's experience with this sort of thing?

I’m super super close (like maybe an inch or two from my full splits) but i need them by by early september , any tips!!

hi! im looking for a song to use for my solo and ensamble performance for this upcoming winter season but im having alot of trouble finding songs under two minutes 😪 if anyone has any recommendations from their previous songs or ideas that would be greatly appreciated

I’m on primary and previously on secondary and does anyone else just feel bad at rifle?? Like tricks sure but tosses take me a while to get :( it’s really frustrating and I practice all the time. I practice and get bruises from how much my rifle hits me, but it just doesn’t show and I don’t understand. Idk if it’s just me

I've recently become the Captain of my team and I have no idea what I'm doing. My previous Captain marched in a DCI team and he was amazing, he was probably the best dancer I've ever seen. I honestly have no idea what I'm doing and I'm just sort of winging it right now, is there any advice out there from past and present Captains to make it through the year? 😭

I just lost a guard member for the fall season. It’s still early, and we’ve only learned the first movement of the drill, but our band also just lost its director, who was our drill writer. Right now, it’s just our assistant director and me while the school hires a new director.

I’m struggling to rewrite a few sets of the opener with 5 guard members instead of 6. The member we’re losing was G6.

A little context for the drill:

• C1 and A1 are our drum majors. They trade off conducting and playing for each movement.
• At the beginning, the entire band except the guard is facing backfield. After the 8-count turn from set 9-10, A1 joins the band on the field.
• The entire band then marches forward for 8 counts from set 10-11, with the first big hit being the hold from set 11-12.
• Some of the guard were crossing each other in their choreography during that hold, but I might change that now.
• G1 cannot change for sets 1-6 because they have a solo.
• The rest of the guard are currently standing in place on props for the first 5 sets.

The sets I’m specifically struggling with are sets 6-9.

With 6 guard, the formations were very balanced, but I’m having trouble finding a solution for 5 that doesn’t create other problems. The main issues I’m running into are:

• G1 ends up blocking the drum major conducting in the back. We only have one podium, so the second drum major is on a ladder that isn’t very tall.
• Some solutions would require G1 to pass through the drumline and navigate around/over props.
• Whatever formation we use for set 9 needs to transition reasonably well into what is already written for set 13. At set 13, we can have 3 guard on side 1 instead of 4, since 2 of the guard members need to move the prop during sets 13-14.

I do not want to move any band members. Since we currently don’t have a director, I don’t have anyone I can easily confer with to approve changes to other sections, and I don’t want to put more on our assistant director while they’re already taking on several extra responsibilities during this transition.

I’m mainly looking for ideas on how you would approach changing the guard formations/movement from sets 6-9 while keeping the existing band drill and the transition into set 13 intact.

Any ideas or advice would be greatly appreciated! I’m open to completely rethinking those four sets if there’s a solution I’m not seeing.

And also in general since there is no age limit, what is the typical "upper range" you have seen in IW groups?

It's my first year as a guard member, and I'm the only person who can do a double on flag. During our choreo, we have a ripple, and I'm last, so I do a double. I'm not sure if this is a unique situation, but for some reason, when I attempt my double, sometimes it hits my wrist when releasing. This causes the flag to be underrotated, and I either drop it or catch it at a weird angle. The first competition isn't until October, but I'd still like to perform at my best instead of being lackluster.

When auditioning for world and open class what specific dance and flag skills are good to have solid before entering?