Readers of this site will fall into one of two categories. One group will argue that marching band is a physical activity as demanding as any sport. This group probably consists of former and current band members, or their parents. The other group will instantly reject that idea, likely feeling that marching band is for people not athletic enough to play a sport.
I have no interest in the debate over whether marching band should be considered a sport. Interestingly, in response to that question on debate.org, 78 percent of the respondents said it should be considered a sport.
One person who recognized the physical requirements of marching band was Hall of Fame basketball coach Bobby Knight. In a 1987 interview with Sports Illustrated, Knight explained how he took his teams to watch drum corps to observe the hard work.
“If a basketball team trained as hard as these kids do, it would be unbelievable,” the former Indiana coach said. “Besides, once they see them practice 12 hours a day, my players think I’m a helluva lot easier.”
Marching band no longer consists of people standing in one place and playing a song before moving to another place to play the next one. From the drum corps level to colleges and many high schools, it has transitioned to highly choreographed, highly competitive routines requiring cardiovascular conditioning, endurance, strength and flexibility.
Today’s routines require members to carry instruments weighing up to 30 or 40 pounds, march in step and in perfect alignment all over the field at fast speeds while blowing air through the instrument for 8 to 12 minutes. Imagine running a mile in all different directions while carrying a dumbbell at shoulder level and not letting it drop an inch.
My interest in the physicality of marching band lies in the fact that it’s an activity where its members can suffer injuries or other medical problems.
In a study presented at the Royal College London Sports Medicine’s 56th Annual Meeting, Dr. Gary Granata studied the 172 members of the St Colon’s Pipe Band Edinburgh, which won Grand National Championship in 2008.
He found that 95 percent of the members reported muscle stiffness or soreness after practice. More than 38 percent suffered an injury. Many participants suffered nausea, fatigue and feeling faint related to heat.
A 2015 study of 21 college marching bands (USA) found that 25 percent of the band or color guard suffered a musculoskeletal injury.
To me it’s clear that we need to recognize the physical nature of the activity and create guidelines to prevent injury and illness. We have them for every major team sport. Marching band should be no different.
The National Athletic Trainers Association recently released recommendations to keep marching band members healthy.
Most of the NATA recommendations correspond to good practices for other sports. Develop an emergency action plan with access to an automated external defibrillator (AED) and communication plans should a band member go down with a heat- or heart-related event. Prepare for weather issues like hot and humid conditions and lightning. Drink plenty of fluids and eat healthy foods.
Regardless of how you feel about marching bands, we should all recognize how hard these young men and women work and take steps to keep them healthy.
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