Relentless Run-Throughs

“And reset!” The coach’s voice echoes through the room. A groan ripples through the sweaty, exhausted bodies of the performers. The most crippling part of the winterguard season is a section I have christened “relentless run-throughs.”

Once the creation of a winterguard show commences, it consumes you with choreography, counts, bloody feet and sore limbs. The scheduling of six hour practices on Saturdays begins. Run-through after run-through of the show, you practice routines until they embed in your muscle memory. The second equipment touches the ground when it’s not supposed to signals the beginning of yet another run-through. The bloody, bruised bodies of the victims of peer lifting walk warily around their mistrusted partners.

It’s painful and difficult, but strengthening. It degrades and mentally strains but also exhilarates. This is what winterguard members subject themselves to, a whirlwind of formidable practices, a love and hate relationship, a passion.