I have never marched bent leg. but in my 12 years marching in this activity, I can say that my knees are not the same anymore in terms of strength, and shin splints are a frequent occurrence with straight leg. Especially on extended step sizes/stoping on a minus one etc. Side note: boi, that straight leg technique in the video? 🔥🫡
After coming home from the 2023 season, my knees were in so much pain for 3-4 days. I had no problems at all during the season really, but as soon as I stopped using them it was just a lot of stagnant pain. Part of that might have been from poor techinque, but straight leg causes so much long term problems as well. Hoping to see bent leg return more not just because of staff movement through the activity, but also due to people realizing it's physical benefits, especially in an era where marching safety is taking such a high priority over other things. Awesome video
I’ve watched all your videos before and I remember being so confused when you first subbed, but I guess it makes sense now. That’s so awesome It would be nice to learn some of your editing techniques because your videos look sooo professional. Thanks for watching!
As someone who started bent leg this year in Corps I love it! We march straight leg at my university and my knees were killing me during football season. I didn’t realize how big of a difference it can make.
i’m going into my second season with the crossmen and we marched straight leg last year and are marching bent leg this year and so far, i am loving the bent leg technique and the way it looks as well as the way it feels
Corps place such a large emphasis on running during the off season. While that's typically to reach a cardio/endurance goal, I would not be surprised if those who run the most have the most conditioned knees and as a result don't feel as much pain during and after the summer. I find people often have pain to the point that they have to take 4+ ibuprofen a day, or don't have much pain at all besides tiredness/soreness. Wouldn't be surprised if that is a result of impact training the knees via running (or the lack of it)
I prefer the Bent leg technique. I remember when Jeff Fiedler left the Cavies and went to SCV and I saw SCV doing their Les Mis show I could tell right away that they were doing the bent leg technique like the Cavies🤣 Awesome show… I Love when a Drumcorps tells a story… SCV, Phantom & Crown used to be good at that. Nowadays it’s slim pickings for those kind of shows… what ya gonna do? Keep up the Great work!!! Good Luck at Boot Camp!!! -Nick Giardiello
You could get into the philosophy, if there is one, behind some groups choosing to lead with the right foot. The Cadets for example. Not sure if there’d be enough info for a full video though.
Dawg that would probably be like 1-3 groups at most Stepping off with the right foot comes from Roman military tradition, where stepping off with the left was seen as bad luck. Funny enough, the word for “left” in Latin is “Sinister”, which was shortened to “Sin” when steps were called out on a march lol
the issue of physical pain/discomfort in marching is a pretty common one. i wonder if the implementation of more intentionally-designed training programs in modern corps will see a change in that, or maybe corps might popularize a new approach, where technique changes at different tempos to accommodate the performer’s well-being. who knows!
As someone marching an all-age (formerly DCA) corps, I'm not sure anyone in our class marches bent leg, simply because of the time it would take to break down the technique, like you mentioned. Especially considering that all-age only rehearses on weekends. I'm sure other corps in the class march a more relaxed straight leg, but we try to emulate the Blue Devils style. That being said, our visual staff has also put a lot of emphasis on dots when learning drill the past couple seasons, but that philosophy might be changing as we get later into the spring. We'll see.
I've never marched straight leg, but it looks like your hips have to absorb all the impact of movement in order for the instrument/head to "float". That's a LOT to put on that one joint in terms of not just flexibility/mobility, but also wear and tear. Again - that's just how it LOOKS to me. I could be wrong.
Gauging from other comments here (and from people I've know who marched straight leg), yes, that's indeed what happens. I think it's an unnecessary technique, and should go to the bin like high-stepping did.
Seeing so many people affected by pain from straight leg technique always has me second guessing myself. I marched exclusively straight leg for my 7 years of the activity, never had pain as a result. There were times when I accidently tweaked a muscle in the offseason but it was never marching related. I just wonder what could be done to decrease the number of people suffering with something I had the good fortune to escape
very epic video. idk if you'll have enough experience with it but i'd love to see a similar shorter video about straight leg vs bent leg CRABBING. bent leg crabbing is extremely rare, but any person who has done both has told me that they prefer bent. seeing the bent leg crab at 8:30 in the video from the cavaliers is probably the first time i've seen bent leg crabbing in a while. i don't even think any drum corps have used it since pacific crest 2019
My girlfriend’s daughter was cut from a corps she was trying out for due to the lack of experience in straight leg marching. The positive in this was that her actual playing wasn’t a factor in getting cut. She’s so bummed and now I’m trying to figure out a way to help her practice so she has a better chance next year against seasoned drum corps members. She loves everything about drum corps and her dream is to march with the Blue Coats one day. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
For straight leg I like to imagine as leading with the hips as that’s where we want to keep our body centered over. In terms of pushing off we push off with the platform of the back foot and that’s where all motion is created and initiated from.
Can anyone who’s marched bent leg and straight leg tell me how direction changes “feel” for lack of a better word. I only did straight leg in high school and seeing that bent leg doesn’t do the stab when doing direction changes just makes me think that sharp direction changes would be a lot more sloppy especially at faster tempos. Please let me know I’m very curious!
I personally feel like the bent leg variation allows momentum to carry a lot more. Straight leg is 100% a better pivot point but when you are marching at fast tempos and some awkward direction changes you can definitely feel the extra needed energy. Both have their own strengths and weaknesses.
Great video CJ, as a teacher, what would be a good way to explain backwards marching straight leg to keep the leg straight, and would it be an issue if shoes are scraping the floor when marching? - A band dude
I have a little exercise that I nearly always do with my students. I start off with a backwards reach run with a few modifications. When doing the backwards reach run the goal should be to keep the legs straight the entire time and land on the platform only which we do by flexing the feet. The body should also have a lean forward while we move back just like the normal backwards reach run. Just kicking the legs back and keeping the weight on the platforms. I do this because I want to eliminate ANY possibility of members rolling weight into the heel when marching backwards. That habit is commonly followed by members rolling up the toes which we don’t want(unless you’re the cadets). Once members get ahold of that. I move on to marching backwards in slight releve. I have members get to set in the slight releve and march 8 backward hold for 4, while staying in releve the entire time even through holds. At this point corrections should be made as to how high the releve should be as many members may have a tendency to over do the lift and stand on tippy toes. Following that we finally do normal backward marching. And the final corrections if there are no other outliers in your ensembles technique should be to remove dragging the feet. The idea should be to keep a flexed foot the entire time of movement so that you can have members slightly lift the foot off the ground without lifting from the toes. If you find it necessary you can have the members do leg swings with flexed feet to identify the feeling of that motion. I have found that this process works well because I can take the ensembles idea of backwards marching and funnel/mold that idea into a fairly even technique. hopefully this answered your question and if you have anymore I am always happy to answer questions. I also have my email linked in my channel so if you would like to have a more in depth discussion you can contact me there and we can set something up!
A proper straight leg technique requires a slight bend in the knee to look good because this past marching season my visual coordinator wanted us to do straight leg and it was awful because you can’t at all march fast movements with it. There is no such thing as straight leg because it is impossible to keep your leg perfectly straight and march because then you look like a penguin. Bent leg is just cooler honestly.
Bent leg is a more involved technique movement wise and thus so requires more time spent teaching definitions. Due to that it’s less prevalent in the marching arts depending on region. It kind of creates a snow ball effect of fewer people being taught and knowing the technique style which leads to less people being able to teach it.
