Marching Band is a Sport. First things first, marching band is an endurance sport and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.  Endurance, endurance, endurance.  This will be the main focus of everything that you will need to do.  Back when I was marching I got my hands on a pretty accurate GPS unit just to see how far I marched during a given rehearsal.  I was pretty amazed to find out after rehearsal was over that in a one hour visual rehearsal I had marched something like 2 miles.  Now, multiply that by many typical summer rehearsal schedules and you can easily be marching 5-10 miles a day, everyday, in the sun, oh and it will probably be pretty hot out.  I don’t know about you but if you asked me to go outside today and march around for 10 miles in 90+ degree weather I would probably pass out.  So keeping this in mind you need to get your body ready for long term muscle usage…

I am fond of my days in NROTC at Notre Dame and nothing was more motivating than staff sergeant running laps around us while we were trying to get better at running.  While straight up military methods are not necessarily the best approach to marching instruction, the parallels are still there.  In many respects, the fitness and health of the students is the marching staff’s responsibility so getting in shape is great for everyone.  The students will be more likely to respond to running exercises during the season if they are led by the staff than if the staff is simply ordering the students to run around while they watch.  So it’s time to motivate and lead by example starting now.

Chris Mader – Dynamic Marching