Color Guard FAQ
HOW DO I START A COLOR GUARD?
WGI has two booklets that will guide you in this process. Creating a Winter
Guard and The Art of Making Winter Guards by Shirlee Whitcomb
HOW DO I BECOME A JUDGE?
Judging at a Local Level
- Get the current adjudication manual and study it.
Determine which caption you are most suited for.
- WGI offers a home study program for each caption.
New judges are wise to obtain it and complete that process.
- Locate and join the closest judging community in
your area.
- Go through their local training and trialing process
- Gain accreditation and then actively judge for
a minimum of 4 years.
Judging for WGI
- To apply to judge for WGI, submit a sample of your
judging tapes and scores to the WGI Education Director.
- After review of your work, the Education Director
will provide you with a mentor should you wish that assistance, and recommend
the appropriate steps for your further process.
- You might be encouraged to attend one of WGI’s Regional Judging Academies.
- Students at the Academies are then reviewed by
the Education Director and by the WGI Task Force for consideration to be
admitted to the WGI judging staff.
- Individuals brought into the WGI judging staff
are mentored and worked with closely during the indoctrination period of
their involvement.
- Judges work their way up to the level where they
are given traveling assignments, and invitations to judge world championships.
HOW IS MY CHAMPIONSHIP PERFORMANCE TIME DETERMINED?
This is a two part question – The WGI office places the 6 preliminary
events at the multiple sites being used at World Championships. In doing
this, they consider whether there will be a semi-final contest for the
class and try to provide adequate time separation between the prelim and
semi-finals and finals events. Actual performance times are then determined
by a “seeding” process (which is described next.) The actual
starting time for a contest is often impacted by whether or not the facility
is in use (some schools are still in session). The office is also sensitive
to how late a contest will run and frequently will work backward from an
ending point to provide guards with as late a start in the day as possible.
New for 2008: Prelims performance order for World Championships will be determined by the following method: Units will be randomly placed in groups of four or five, depending on the number of units, and grouped according to ranking (four or five highest ranking, next four or five highest ranking, etc.) Units will then be randomly drawn for performance order within their groupings with the group of highest ranking units performing last.
If there are more than forty (40) entries in any class by January 1, a semi-finals contest will be held with units equally seeded and then placed in a predetermined order based on placement and prelims score. Preliminary appearance position for those classes using rounds will be determined by a formula (complete explanation is in addendum to the 2008 WGI Adjudication Manual and Rule Book).
All Color Guard finals contests without rounds will be in reverse order of prelim finish position. If rounds are used, appearance in finals ("wild card" process) shall be used. See the 2008 WGI Adjudication Manual and Rule Book for explanation.
WHAT DETERMINES MOVING A GUARD TO ANOTHER CLASS? WHAT IS THE WGI REVIEW
PROCESS?
There is a review committee consisting of the 4 World Class Steering Committee instructors,
Education Director, Chief Judge and Color Guard Coordinator.
These 7 people are charged with assuring that guards are in the most competitive
class for their students.
When the season begins, a guard could be requested for review if they
are perceived to be in the wrong class. This review request can be made
by the Color Guard Coordinator, the Chief Judge of the contest, a Task
Force Member, a Regional Director, the Task Force Coordinator or the Education
Director. A video tape of that guard is made at finals and distributed
to the committee within a very quick turn around, usually within 10 days. The committee
views the guard and considers the training and development level of the
performers, the challenges they are achieving, and to a slightly lesser
degree the quality and depth of the program. The students are the primary
emphasis in considering any move. One of the things that is not considered
is "who is on staff". The committee is charged with carrying
in a good understanding of what the next class “norm” represents
in order to have a barometer to measure whether or not the potential promotion
will permit those students to achieve and be competitive. The decision
is voted upon independently by each member and the Color Guard Coordinator
then informs the guard of the decision. This process is usually completed
within one week.
At the end of the year, all finalists are reviewed by the same committee
using the same criteria. Promotions are made on that basis.
WHY ISN’T THE JUDGES’ SCORE THE BASIS FOR PROMOTION?
The judging process involves a complex set of responsibilities. Their
priority is to rank every group within a given contest and to rate their
performance based on a criteria of what is being done and how well it is
being achieved. If a judge must also consider giving a “promotion
score” there is the risk that the rating process might be compromised.
HOW DO I KNOW WHAT CLASS TO ENTER MY GUARD?
There is a description of each class in the adjudication manual that
should help you to determine
where your students are most suited. That’s the best place to start
in determining where you will
be most competitive. Consider the average age of
your students, how many hours you have for
rehearsal each week, the experience and the talent
level of those who will be creating and teaching
your guard.
Regional A classes are designed for the very beginning or very young
students. Here is where
they learn the most elementary skills. This level
of guard is not ready for the National level
of competition. The local circuit is where they are
nurtured and where they grow. Once proficient in
that class, they are ready to move up to the A class.
The A class students are ready for bigger challenges both in show design
and in technical skills.
They have an understanding of the time commitment
involved in this level of competition. You
and your staff have a good understanding of their
potential and a support mechanism capable of
assisting in their growth.
Continuing in the progression of classification, Open class students
have demonstrated their
readiness for that next set of challenges and so
on into World Class. The most important
consideration is to place your group where they
will be challenged, where they can compete and
grow. Winning the class is not the measure of your
ability to compete in that division.
DO I NEED TO HIRE OUTSIDE STAFF IF I MOVE TO WORLD CLASS?
If your group has been promoted to the World Class, it indicates that
your current staff and performers are competent at the level that will
allow them to be competitive with the groups currently in that class. It
should be viewed as a natural result of a process of growth and development.
You were able to arrive at this point through your own design and technical
skills. It is reasonable to believe that this process will continue for
you as you move into the next class.
WHY DO SCORES SOMETIMES CHANGE SO RADICALLY BETWEEN THE LAST REGIONAL
AND CHAMPIONSHIP?
WHY DO SCORES SOMETIMES DROP BETWEEN PRELIMS, SEMI FINALS
AND FINALS?
HOW CAN MY SCORE DROP WHEN WE HAVE CLEARLY DONE THE BEST JOB OF THE YEAR?
These three questions all involve understanding the meaning of the scoring
process.
The application of a score is a fluid process that is guided by a criteria
reference that guides the judge to a scoring range based on descriptions
of what the guard is doing and how well they are achieving. That scoring
range will give the judge as much as from one to three full points within
each progressive level of growth in which to assign the score. The judge
calls upon their experience and awareness of guards in that class all across
the country, and determines where in that scoring range he/she feels the
group belongs. Each subsequent guard within a contest will be compared
to that first group and all others as the contest unfolds. Within that
process, the judge will rank (place in order) each group, assuring that
their rating (score) falls within the scoring range described by the criteria
reference.
Several things influence early season scores. Most significant is the
degree of completion of the programs being judged.
The scoring system was not designed for incomplete shows, yet guards frequently
present a very
incomplete program in January and even into February.
The other contributing factor is just how many groups the judge has seen
that season within that
class. If one judge has been in 3 parts of the
country and another judge has not traveled, then they will no doubt place
the score in the proper
scoring range, but might have a different sense
of where in the National “mix” that
group might fit. As the season
progresses, the judge works to determine who each
guard’s competitors are, how close or how far they are from one another,
and reflect that in their score.
The other contributing factor has to do with the number of groups competing
within a class. The A classes, especially scholastic A are huge. Suppose
there are 12 groups across the country who are scoring a 16.5 in one caption;
when those 12 groups meet at Championships, the ranking within that caption
will result in an opening up of that particular scoring range and might,
for example, fall anywhere from a 15.8 to a 17.5 in order to RANK each
group in the proper order. When that happens, even the “best performance
of the year” might earn a slightly lower score. The judges’ first
priority is to RANK the groups in the proper order.
WHY DO MY SCORES VARY BETWEEN TWO RESPECTED JUDGES, ESPECIALLY IN A TECHNICAL
CAPTION?
This has to do with what we call “tolerance” and relates
to how much exposure the judge has had to groups in that class. If one
judge has seen 80 groups in the Scholastic A class at 3 Regionals and another
judge has seen only 15 guards locally, the second judge’s scoring
application will not have expanded or grown to the same degree as the judge
who has seen the greater number. Always look first at how the guards are
RANKED. It is the ranking that is the greater priority. There is a far
narrower separation in rankings than there might be in the rating process.
