As the season wears on, and the responsibilities outside of color guard add up, some potential negative habits may impact your performance in rehearsals and shows. Outside commitments like work, school, and other activities on top of busy color guard schedules can make it difficult to manage time and take care of yourself.
Get Enough Sleep
One of the first things that many performers sacrifice is sleep. Homework often gets put off until after rehearsals and keeps students up until the early hours of the morning. Fatigue has severe consequences in rehearsal though.
If you’re already tired when you arrive, you may have a hard time maintaining a sense of spatial and situational awareness and exerting the necessary energy to rehearse at a high level. In addition to being less productive, you’ll also be more likely to injure yourself due to decreased focus and reaction time.
Decreased focus can also prevent you from making the needed tweaks to your choreography. When focus is down, we tend to go into autopilot, affecting the execution of fundamentals as well as the ability to apply those fundamentals to show work. At the midpoint of the season, you may have established a decent sense of muscle memory for your choreography, but any mistakes that are still embedded into the show become difficult to change if you’re not highly focused.
Stay Hydrated
As temperatures drop during outdoor rehearsals, you may forget to keep drinking extra water. While you won’t dehydrate as quickly in cooler weather, you’re still going to be sweating through rehearsals. Make sure you always have a full water bottle and are drinking from it regularly—in rehearsal and outside of it. Maintaining hydration is easier than rehydrating once you become dehydrated.
After starting strong during pre-season and band camp, make sure to follow through with good habits as you push through toward the end!