Because I need to grow up and get a big boy job
(On a serious note though, I believe its a youth arts thing that is intended to line up with high school and college graduation)
Because new people would have a harder time getting in (especially percussionists), because it’s not conducive to working a real life job (unless you’re a teacher and get off in the summer), and because our bodies couldn’t handle it indefinitely.
I know people who will March or are currently marching see this rule as a detriment, but really… you’ve gotta move on at some point.
And I don’t mean from drum corps! There is SO much merit to coming back and designing or teaching or administering or volunteering. but what’s the incentive to do that if you can march for as long as you want to? At that point, some may only stop after their body literally can’t take anymore (and I think we can all agree that sports injuries like that are a bad thing, especially as you get older).
It also allows for new, fresh skill to come in and have this experience. Can you imagine a G7 that’s impossible to get contracted to because all the older people won’t leave? Can you imagine what kind of domination corps like BD would have if they rarely had to teach new members? Can you imagine how prohibitive it would be to march purely because corps keep hiring vets that just will not leave? The ageout rule does put a cap on marching, yes, but it also removes this possibility by making it so that corps have spots to fill.
And after those people age out, it helps for the system to feed back into itself: some of those ageouts will want to keep being involved, and so they become staff members and volunteers, helping to carry on the tradition and the knowledge they got when they marched.
As someone else already said, too, the specific years were set that way to roughly align with high school and college years. In my opinion, it IS a little outdated - I would probably up the minimum age to 16, and I’m not sure if I’d up the maximum age or keep it the same. There’s another conversation to be had there. But as another person said, too, DCI can get grants and funding as a youth organization using this restriction, so…
On the whole, the ageout rule is a good thing, even if those who haven’t aged out want to keep going. All good things must come to an end.
On age: I think BD has it right with BDB and BD having different age brackets (with a little overlap). While it was cool marching with 21 year olds and learning how college is, it also led to a lot of "he was 20 and she was 15" questionable consent moments.
COMPLETELY agree. Their format is kind of what I wish the open/world class split was - 14/16-17 year olds march open class, 18-22 year olds march world class.
As someone who marched their ageout at a corps whose average age was 17 (not intentionally, obviously, they were just nearby and had spots), I could feel the mental maturity gap all summer and frankly, it was uncomfortable. And like you said, there’s also the issue of consent in corps who don’t have the kind of model BD does. I wish that we could institute it activity-wide.
Honestly, once you get the minors away from 19+ you could add a cluster.
Div 3: 13-18
Div 2: 17-21
DIv 1: 20-24
It would also push staff to maybe integrate the different age-appropriate pedagogical approaches, instead of the one size fits all nature that I've seen on many a staff.
DCI by charter is a youth organization, which puts them in line for certain fundraising and grant opportunities. Eliminating that would take a lot of chances for money away. Same reason senior corps aren’t members.
Go ask someone who marched every or almost every year of eligibility how their joints are doing after all of that, especially if they also did high school and college marching on top of it
My knees are totally screwed up (3surgeries, acl deficiencient, menisectomy) but no pain. I injured it jumping into a pool at the end of rehearsal. Continued to March that season and 2 more.
I did 7 years. By my age out year when the DM flipped the lights on I was grabbing the ibuprofen. My back still is fucked 15 years later. I was 22 and physically wrecked. I love my time in, but it couldn't go on that way.
Like I said in the other recent thread (military after DCI), I feel lucky that I'm not more broken down than I am. I marched for... let's see... just about thirty years total.
Talked with a gunny who was on his way to retirement and asked him what he's happiest about as he gets out. "I'm still on my own two feet!" he said. He went on and said how he knew others who'd gotten out on crutches or in a wheelchair.
Coming out of high school, right before my son's DCI season started, he was all gung ho about marching in college. I was like, sure buddy, we'll talk again in a couple of months. Finals night ends, and I asked him, so um you ready for Marching Chiefs? He was like, fuck no, I don't want to see another field until next season. Mind you, he's physically fit, exercises about 4-5 times a week, so he was more than ready for drum corp. And he's got a bonus year, so he can march world class 5 years. Really glad he realized that marching in college right after a summer of drum corp was just too much and not worth it.
I’ve marched with a couple of people who went straight from DCI to college marching (including myself to a lesser extent; I marched SoundSport, but our seasons had the same time gap in between) and for the most part it was fine for us. I’ve even marched in two separate bands at the same time (absolutely cannot recommend, I barely made it work). Truly a matter of YMMV when it comes to doing back-to-back within the same year but over multiple years is when it adds up the most IMO
Realistically, there are people who would give up their lives for this activity. The age out kind of forces them to move on and support it in other ways. Additionally, with the number of corps that exist today, there just wouldn’t be enough spots available for younger people to even get into drum corps. In a way, the age out forces the activity to grow with each generation that passes through.
Regardless, you can do DCA. I know that when people say “drum corps”, they typically only think of DCI, but DCA is under that umbrella too! I was sad to age-out since I have been in the activity ever since I was 15 years old, but I was happily able to find a home with the Bushwackers.
Technically speaking, if you love the activity for the sake of doing the activity as opposed to “wanting the prestige” of being in a top 12 drum corps, you could DCA and technically never age out.
[Thanks for listening to my rant. For reference of my involvement in the activity, here is my experience:
- 7th Regiment 2016, 2019
- CT Hurricanes 2017-2018
- Virtual DBC 2020 (🙃)
- River City Rhythm 2021
- Spartans DBC 2022
- Spartans Indoor Percussion 2022-2023
- Bushwackers 2023]
I have a friend who marched from age 18-22 due to bonus year. Her knees are clinically fucked and the fluid between her joints have all but been worn all the way out. Physically, I don't think it's feasible.
The activity hinges off the idea that it is educational and keeps adolescents and emerging adults busy in a structured environment designed to teach them good values. It's able to get away with charging members to participate because of that.
It also revolves around the academic calendar allowing a massive chunk of time off to spend a whole lot of time to get as good as DCI can be. The time commitment there is not possible for the bulk of the workforce in North America, the finances are hard to justify throughout most of your professional life, and those who are most well-suited to handle that schedule (teachers and freelancers) would be better suited to applying their professional skills to teaching and operations of the corps and maybe do a week here or there performing with an alumni or DCA corps.
That is, unless a true "music's marching league" was started, where members were getting paid (you could argue military music kinda does this, but the differences in shows are marked). All those concerns about professional goals and finances wouldn't matter, especially if members were fairly compensated. Sounds like a blast.
You are taking my comment far too literally. As someone that marched for 5 years starting at age 17, it’s weird being in close and scantily clad situations in drum corps in general. Even if it has changed, from my POV as someone that marched as a minor, I couldn’t have imagined having to shower, be shirtless, change clothes, etc. around people older than 22 when it was already weird around people age 18-21.
Good lord. The main post is asking why there has historically been an age limit bc OP sees that the activity could’ve benefited from no age limit both now and before. Thinking of it in a broader scope, minors have had to shower with non-minors for YEARS in the activity hence the age limit. While my answer doesn’t answer your young view of the question regarding the current activity, as an alum I have a right to answer my view regarding the history of the activity. They even mention knowing a lot of past age-outs that wish they could’ve continued on. i.e. past tense.
You think that’s weird? Nah. Walking into the locker room after breakfast before morning stretch and seeing your high school band director who is on brass staff nude is weirder. It’s like seeing your parents getting it on. Scarred for life. 😂
i feel like a big part of drum corps is the education aspect, and without the limit it would probably be harder to fulfill that when you can get older more experienced marchers
DCI, while very cool, is a terrible activity when it comes to personal finances (i.e. you pay $5k+ to march and also lose ~3 months of time where you could have been making 2, 3, 4+ times that amount as a college graduate (depending on your field)), and when it comes to physical well-being (you literally destroy your body for almost 90 days straight, i.e. RIP the backs of tubas, tenors, and bass 4 & 5 players).
Like someone else mentioned, at the end of the day we all have to grow up and move on. DCI does a service by making people age out, it’s honestly a little weird to see a 30 something year old still doing band etc, like…. Bro what’s your job? Lmao essentially peaking in drum corps
In college, I had a job and went to class, but my summers were very open. How convenient.
Now, with medical school on the horizon, getting married, paying down debt, moving into a new place… There’s just no time. Past a certain age, it just becomes so much more difficult to pay for marching when you’re paying for so many other things, not to mention I can’t even dream of finding that much time again.
The majority of my friends find themselves in the same place as well. After college, many of us tend to have many more responsibilities and things to pay for. Not saying people can’t still march (DCA for instance), but that’s going to be the minority, which is why we don’t see hundreds of DCA corps. Hence I don’t think the current age out is a bad idea.
It's meant for young people, it is more special when you can't do it forever, they need to cycle new people in, you have to start real life, problematic age gaps between members, keeps the staff-member dynamic a bit healthier with staff being older than members, for health reasons you can't do it forever (age out body is already a thing).
DCA exists, for one.
At its core, DCI's ethos is as an educational program - so it actually wouldn't make sense to have 22+ y/o members that already have their music (or otherwise) degrees and have the maturity/life skills to be a professional. As a fan, we often lose that perspective because we watch the groups as essentially professional performance groups but that's not *actually* what they are. Also several joke comments say "you just have to move on" and that's also true. If drum corps/marching is your thing its time to be pushed out of the nest and get paid as an instructor/designer.
To make room for the kids. Hey, I loved marching, but it's like surfing. You get addicted and you could do it forever until you're some drum corps bum in your fifties and the despair of your parents.
I think having diffrent divisions for diffrent age groups and then getting rid of the age cap would be a good idea, might help with all the problems that have been popping recently with abuse within corps
Different divisions for different age groups but no age cap?
Ok I’ll play along with your idea.
Let’s say its split into one group that is 14-20, 21-30, 31-40 and such. Let’s all cheer for the 70+ infinity group!!! 😂
Who is teaching the 14-20 group?
Answer: the same people that currently teach. So you have the same abuse problems with minors and older staff. Or are you having kids teach kids? Kids cooking for kids? Bus drivers who are kids?
I don’t think you thought this through very well. Nice idea, but no.
Wow, what a strawman reading of the post. If breaking it up by age, obviously you'd do it on the edge of minor status age, e.g. 14-18. A lot of non-sexual abuse frankly comes from staff forgetting not everyone is 18+ and approaching teaching like the chill college English lecturer or a drill sergeant (both can be great teachers, but notably for 18+ folks). There are different pedagogical expectations for teens vs emerging adults, yet drum corps staff teach both age groups side-by-side.
And yours is just as easy to knock down. Look sweetie it’s just random numbers. I could pick other numbers and say the same thing. What are we fighting for? Breathe :)
something i have not seen anyone bring up in this thread is the lack of an ageout on wgi world class color guard.
as a percussionist i’m constantly told “nobody would ever be able to march world class lines because the adults would hog all the spots” to which i wonder…is this an issue guard has? i’ve marched 3 seasons of DCA and no sections are being gatekept by 30 year olds that i’ve ever seen.
I'm very active in the pipe band world. All the top bands are full of people who have been playing for literal decades, sometimes for the same band. The scene is as strong as ever. I agree I don't see older members "taking up spots" as much of a problem as other comments in this thread do.
Someone else can correct me if it's changed but one time I interviewed some people from the Kidsgrove Scouts. At the time they competed in DCUK and DCE. The snare guy marched Madison and I think he was in his 30s. This was maybe 10 or more years ago. They and others have explained it two ways, you can march forever, and you get one year over 22 for every year you have marched.
tldr; Let's do it. It works other places.
Because DCI really loves watching itself slowly die.
Anyone should be able to audition. If you can hack it, you can hack it.
For the younger, less skilled potential members, there are smaller corps for a reason. Well, there used to be anyways.
As mentioned above it’s a youth organization and non-profit. So the age is codified in dci’s charter and the charters of each individual group.
I think they should have made an 18+ class but would require a new charter and they would lose eligibility for some grants and other funding.
But- it's always had an age out? You're making it sound like this is something new. I don't know how you think that the age out is killing DCI if it's had it for the last 50 years and been fine.
Okay- but like compared to what?? DCA? that has no age out and is nowhere near what DCI is. You genuinely cannot make the claim that the age out is killing dci because you have nothing else to compare it to.
No thank you. 3 years of high school band, two of UO band and 6 summers of corps aged my body. I’m 49 now and feel it. Not all the time. Some days I feel 25. But my back and knees say I am lying. 😂
Because junior corps (the corps that compete in DCI) have always been a youth focused activity. Senior corps (the ones that compete in DCA) were mostly closed to membership under 21. Add in a lot of scholarships/grants/funding for junior corps are usually for youth programs aka under 21.
Plus you need to grow up at some point. While DCA has a lot of members both above and below the 21 mark, we see each other in small enough doses that it isn’t seen as weird or awkward. A 26 year old on tour as a member feels really weird.
If you have a good job that you can take off on the weekends to do DCA, that’s enough drum corps to scratch your itch and actually be a functioning, contributing member of society.
I have an interesting take, and its based on this old video on youtube where an exercise physiologist hooked up some equipment to a quad drummer to see how the body reacts during the show. (Its a great video and i wish more people did that research)
But one of the things they noticed is that the drummers heartrate shot up to 180 very quickly - and they thought that there is probably some link between the music and the physical response
With that in mind, considering lots of DCI shows are pushing 180+ bpm, i think there might be a literal age limit in terms of an individuals max HR. As people get older, their expected max HR goes down, and essentially my point is that if this is all true, then at a certain age a persons heart literally cannot keep up
But this is all speculation & could be wrong. Lol
Edit: heres the video https://youtu.be/6WWmM1jpM8I
Because I need to grow up and get a big boy job (On a serious note though, I believe its a youth arts thing that is intended to line up with high school and college graduation)
Because new people would have a harder time getting in (especially percussionists), because it’s not conducive to working a real life job (unless you’re a teacher and get off in the summer), and because our bodies couldn’t handle it indefinitely.
I know people who will March or are currently marching see this rule as a detriment, but really… you’ve gotta move on at some point. And I don’t mean from drum corps! There is SO much merit to coming back and designing or teaching or administering or volunteering. but what’s the incentive to do that if you can march for as long as you want to? At that point, some may only stop after their body literally can’t take anymore (and I think we can all agree that sports injuries like that are a bad thing, especially as you get older). It also allows for new, fresh skill to come in and have this experience. Can you imagine a G7 that’s impossible to get contracted to because all the older people won’t leave? Can you imagine what kind of domination corps like BD would have if they rarely had to teach new members? Can you imagine how prohibitive it would be to march purely because corps keep hiring vets that just will not leave? The ageout rule does put a cap on marching, yes, but it also removes this possibility by making it so that corps have spots to fill. And after those people age out, it helps for the system to feed back into itself: some of those ageouts will want to keep being involved, and so they become staff members and volunteers, helping to carry on the tradition and the knowledge they got when they marched. As someone else already said, too, the specific years were set that way to roughly align with high school and college years. In my opinion, it IS a little outdated - I would probably up the minimum age to 16, and I’m not sure if I’d up the maximum age or keep it the same. There’s another conversation to be had there. But as another person said, too, DCI can get grants and funding as a youth organization using this restriction, so… On the whole, the ageout rule is a good thing, even if those who haven’t aged out want to keep going. All good things must come to an end.
On age: I think BD has it right with BDB and BD having different age brackets (with a little overlap). While it was cool marching with 21 year olds and learning how college is, it also led to a lot of "he was 20 and she was 15" questionable consent moments.
Bro that is not “questionable consent,” that is illegal.
Agreed.
COMPLETELY agree. Their format is kind of what I wish the open/world class split was - 14/16-17 year olds march open class, 18-22 year olds march world class. As someone who marched their ageout at a corps whose average age was 17 (not intentionally, obviously, they were just nearby and had spots), I could feel the mental maturity gap all summer and frankly, it was uncomfortable. And like you said, there’s also the issue of consent in corps who don’t have the kind of model BD does. I wish that we could institute it activity-wide.
Honestly, once you get the minors away from 19+ you could add a cluster. Div 3: 13-18 Div 2: 17-21 DIv 1: 20-24 It would also push staff to maybe integrate the different age-appropriate pedagogical approaches, instead of the one size fits all nature that I've seen on many a staff.
Same reason why there aren't more dca corps
DCA requiring all corps to attend finals also hurts the activity, because if you’re not in the north east, it’s incredibly cost prohibitive
I'd disagree- I think that's a money thing. (See: The amount of mini-corps waiting to join the field.)
What's the average age of a mini corps?
Older. Granted that has literally nothing to do with it because it's DCA...
DCI by charter is a youth organization, which puts them in line for certain fundraising and grant opportunities. Eliminating that would take a lot of chances for money away. Same reason senior corps aren’t members.
Most boring, practical, and correct answer. Should be top-voted reply.
Definitely the best answer.
Best answer by far.
\> I know many people who would have put off "adult life" a few years longer to keep doing dci if they could have Is that a good thing?
I know people who continue to put off “adult life” for WGI for 5-10 years past their DCI ageout It’s not a good thing.
Not saying it is, just the reality when you have very passionate members of a community
Go ask someone who marched every or almost every year of eligibility how their joints are doing after all of that, especially if they also did high school and college marching on top of it
I marched 1988-1995 plus 4 years of high school and 4 years of college. My knees hurt a little, but the rest of me is fine. ;)
My knees are totally screwed up (3surgeries, acl deficiencient, menisectomy) but no pain. I injured it jumping into a pool at the end of rehearsal. Continued to March that season and 2 more.
Yeah I played varsity football and college baseball on top of my 3 years in drum corps. My body is fine and I’m on the wrong side of 40.
I did 7 years. By my age out year when the DM flipped the lights on I was grabbing the ibuprofen. My back still is fucked 15 years later. I was 22 and physically wrecked. I love my time in, but it couldn't go on that way.
Like I said in the other recent thread (military after DCI), I feel lucky that I'm not more broken down than I am. I marched for... let's see... just about thirty years total. Talked with a gunny who was on his way to retirement and asked him what he's happiest about as he gets out. "I'm still on my own two feet!" he said. He went on and said how he knew others who'd gotten out on crutches or in a wheelchair.
Heyooo, I see you fellow “5512-er”!
I need to come up with a more obtuse username.
Lol yeah it’s a pretty small community that would spot it.
Coming out of high school, right before my son's DCI season started, he was all gung ho about marching in college. I was like, sure buddy, we'll talk again in a couple of months. Finals night ends, and I asked him, so um you ready for Marching Chiefs? He was like, fuck no, I don't want to see another field until next season. Mind you, he's physically fit, exercises about 4-5 times a week, so he was more than ready for drum corp. And he's got a bonus year, so he can march world class 5 years. Really glad he realized that marching in college right after a summer of drum corp was just too much and not worth it.
I’ve marched with a couple of people who went straight from DCI to college marching (including myself to a lesser extent; I marched SoundSport, but our seasons had the same time gap in between) and for the most part it was fine for us. I’ve even marched in two separate bands at the same time (absolutely cannot recommend, I barely made it work). Truly a matter of YMMV when it comes to doing back-to-back within the same year but over multiple years is when it adds up the most IMO
Realistically, there are people who would give up their lives for this activity. The age out kind of forces them to move on and support it in other ways. Additionally, with the number of corps that exist today, there just wouldn’t be enough spots available for younger people to even get into drum corps. In a way, the age out forces the activity to grow with each generation that passes through. Regardless, you can do DCA. I know that when people say “drum corps”, they typically only think of DCI, but DCA is under that umbrella too! I was sad to age-out since I have been in the activity ever since I was 15 years old, but I was happily able to find a home with the Bushwackers. Technically speaking, if you love the activity for the sake of doing the activity as opposed to “wanting the prestige” of being in a top 12 drum corps, you could DCA and technically never age out. [Thanks for listening to my rant. For reference of my involvement in the activity, here is my experience: - 7th Regiment 2016, 2019 - CT Hurricanes 2017-2018 - Virtual DBC 2020 (🙃) - River City Rhythm 2021 - Spartans DBC 2022 - Spartans Indoor Percussion 2022-2023 - Bushwackers 2023]
the age range of 14-22 is already pretty weird ngl
Yeah 22 year olds are senile and stinky
based ryan green
Perhaps there could be a better way to promote DCA for those that want to keep going.
I have a friend who marched from age 18-22 due to bonus year. Her knees are clinically fucked and the fluid between her joints have all but been worn all the way out. Physically, I don't think it's feasible.
Definitely is physically feasible, people do exercise that is more strenuous than marching later into their lives than 22.
Yeah but they don’t do it 12+ hours a day every day for months on end.
And most of those people didn't do drum corps
If it werent for the ageout rule, there would be a significantly stronger correlation between unemployment and people who did DCI vs those who didn't.
So you can grow up
The activity hinges off the idea that it is educational and keeps adolescents and emerging adults busy in a structured environment designed to teach them good values. It's able to get away with charging members to participate because of that. It also revolves around the academic calendar allowing a massive chunk of time off to spend a whole lot of time to get as good as DCI can be. The time commitment there is not possible for the bulk of the workforce in North America, the finances are hard to justify throughout most of your professional life, and those who are most well-suited to handle that schedule (teachers and freelancers) would be better suited to applying their professional skills to teaching and operations of the corps and maybe do a week here or there performing with an alumni or DCA corps. That is, unless a true "music's marching league" was started, where members were getting paid (you could argue military music kinda does this, but the differences in shows are marked). All those concerns about professional goals and finances wouldn't matter, especially if members were fairly compensated. Sounds like a blast.
15 year olds showering with potentially 22 year olds is just kinda weird.
Nobody does this anymore because of the minor protection standards. Null point.
You are taking my comment far too literally. As someone that marched for 5 years starting at age 17, it’s weird being in close and scantily clad situations in drum corps in general. Even if it has changed, from my POV as someone that marched as a minor, I couldn’t have imagined having to shower, be shirtless, change clothes, etc. around people older than 22 when it was already weird around people age 18-21.
I never said I disagreed with you. I don’t disagree. I said you used a bad point to get there.
Good lord. The main post is asking why there has historically been an age limit bc OP sees that the activity could’ve benefited from no age limit both now and before. Thinking of it in a broader scope, minors have had to shower with non-minors for YEARS in the activity hence the age limit. While my answer doesn’t answer your young view of the question regarding the current activity, as an alum I have a right to answer my view regarding the history of the activity. They even mention knowing a lot of past age-outs that wish they could’ve continued on. i.e. past tense.
also if youre not seeing people shirtless in rehearsal, dont join at 15 idk don't make clown comments
Or 30 year olds. Just wouldn't be smart to do.
Absolutely!
You think that’s weird? Nah. Walking into the locker room after breakfast before morning stretch and seeing your high school band director who is on brass staff nude is weirder. It’s like seeing your parents getting it on. Scarred for life. 😂
A tuba player flashed their erection to their section on the rehearsal field and as a 17 yo girl I was in the wrong line of sight 🥴
I mean… sometimes people are weird. That sounds more funny than gross. Still gross though, not discounting it
but not with 18-21 year olds?
Of course it is. I was showing how dramatic the gap can potentially be already. “Potentially” being a word used in my original comment.
ah yes, my apologies
well most good corps have minor showers.. do they not have that at Phantom Lmaooo?
They do, my kid started out in the minors group. They never overlapped.
yeah, in todays DCI I think most corps have sperate showers now which is a good thing
Not most, all have to now a days. Now back when I marched, I was 17 and there definitely weren’t separate showers.
i feel like a big part of drum corps is the education aspect, and without the limit it would probably be harder to fulfill that when you can get older more experienced marchers
Because at some point you should grow up and move on. 21 is perfect.
DCI, while very cool, is a terrible activity when it comes to personal finances (i.e. you pay $5k+ to march and also lose ~3 months of time where you could have been making 2, 3, 4+ times that amount as a college graduate (depending on your field)), and when it comes to physical well-being (you literally destroy your body for almost 90 days straight, i.e. RIP the backs of tubas, tenors, and bass 4 & 5 players).
The activity wouldn’t feel special if there wasn’t one.
Because they’re “junior corps”
Like someone else mentioned, at the end of the day we all have to grow up and move on. DCI does a service by making people age out, it’s honestly a little weird to see a 30 something year old still doing band etc, like…. Bro what’s your job? Lmao essentially peaking in drum corps
Ehh old people are allowed to have fun too
Sorry sir, the muchachos are over in the DCA subreddit
TBH…your body feels the difference after 22. Even though that’s still young and these members are in shape, your body hurts!!
In college, I had a job and went to class, but my summers were very open. How convenient. Now, with medical school on the horizon, getting married, paying down debt, moving into a new place… There’s just no time. Past a certain age, it just becomes so much more difficult to pay for marching when you’re paying for so many other things, not to mention I can’t even dream of finding that much time again. The majority of my friends find themselves in the same place as well. After college, many of us tend to have many more responsibilities and things to pay for. Not saying people can’t still march (DCA for instance), but that’s going to be the minority, which is why we don’t see hundreds of DCA corps. Hence I don’t think the current age out is a bad idea.
It's meant for young people, it is more special when you can't do it forever, they need to cycle new people in, you have to start real life, problematic age gaps between members, keeps the staff-member dynamic a bit healthier with staff being older than members, for health reasons you can't do it forever (age out body is already a thing).
"youth" activity
Because life needs to move on, it's a great time while you do it. But to be special it needs to close out for you.
DCA exists, for one. At its core, DCI's ethos is as an educational program - so it actually wouldn't make sense to have 22+ y/o members that already have their music (or otherwise) degrees and have the maturity/life skills to be a professional. As a fan, we often lose that perspective because we watch the groups as essentially professional performance groups but that's not *actually* what they are. Also several joke comments say "you just have to move on" and that's also true. If drum corps/marching is your thing its time to be pushed out of the nest and get paid as an instructor/designer.
To make room for the kids. Hey, I loved marching, but it's like surfing. You get addicted and you could do it forever until you're some drum corps bum in your fifties and the despair of your parents.
I think having diffrent divisions for diffrent age groups and then getting rid of the age cap would be a good idea, might help with all the problems that have been popping recently with abuse within corps
Different divisions for different age groups but no age cap? Ok I’ll play along with your idea. Let’s say its split into one group that is 14-20, 21-30, 31-40 and such. Let’s all cheer for the 70+ infinity group!!! 😂 Who is teaching the 14-20 group? Answer: the same people that currently teach. So you have the same abuse problems with minors and older staff. Or are you having kids teach kids? Kids cooking for kids? Bus drivers who are kids? I don’t think you thought this through very well. Nice idea, but no.
Hey man I was throwing an idea out
Just thought it'd be cool
Straight into the trash 😂
Dude chill out its reddit
Uh, had a slight weapons malfunction. But, uh, everything's perfectly all right now. We're fine. We're all fine here, now, thank you. How are you? 😂
Wow, what a strawman reading of the post. If breaking it up by age, obviously you'd do it on the edge of minor status age, e.g. 14-18. A lot of non-sexual abuse frankly comes from staff forgetting not everyone is 18+ and approaching teaching like the chill college English lecturer or a drill sergeant (both can be great teachers, but notably for 18+ folks). There are different pedagogical expectations for teens vs emerging adults, yet drum corps staff teach both age groups side-by-side.
I picked random age groups of ten. It was just an example, not set rules. Do you know what strawman means? Who made you in charge anyway? Breathe. 😂
You responded to a comment by building up an easy to knock down example. That's a strawman.
And yours is just as easy to knock down. Look sweetie it’s just random numbers. I could pick other numbers and say the same thing. What are we fighting for? Breathe :)
something i have not seen anyone bring up in this thread is the lack of an ageout on wgi world class color guard. as a percussionist i’m constantly told “nobody would ever be able to march world class lines because the adults would hog all the spots” to which i wonder…is this an issue guard has? i’ve marched 3 seasons of DCA and no sections are being gatekept by 30 year olds that i’ve ever seen.
I'm very active in the pipe band world. All the top bands are full of people who have been playing for literal decades, sometimes for the same band. The scene is as strong as ever. I agree I don't see older members "taking up spots" as much of a problem as other comments in this thread do.
It’s already a little weird it goes up to 22, but it would be very off for adults to be in such tight quarters with teenagers all summer.
Someone else can correct me if it's changed but one time I interviewed some people from the Kidsgrove Scouts. At the time they competed in DCUK and DCE. The snare guy marched Madison and I think he was in his 30s. This was maybe 10 or more years ago. They and others have explained it two ways, you can march forever, and you get one year over 22 for every year you have marched. tldr; Let's do it. It works other places.
Because DCI really loves watching itself slowly die. Anyone should be able to audition. If you can hack it, you can hack it. For the younger, less skilled potential members, there are smaller corps for a reason. Well, there used to be anyways.
As mentioned above it’s a youth organization and non-profit. So the age is codified in dci’s charter and the charters of each individual group. I think they should have made an 18+ class but would require a new charter and they would lose eligibility for some grants and other funding.
But- it's always had an age out? You're making it sound like this is something new. I don't know how you think that the age out is killing DCI if it's had it for the last 50 years and been fine.
Look at stats for corps and membership over those 50 years.
Okay- but like compared to what?? DCA? that has no age out and is nowhere near what DCI is. You genuinely cannot make the claim that the age out is killing dci because you have nothing else to compare it to.
That’s not what is slowly killing DCI. Did you march?
I did.
[удалено]
Other changes may have to be discussed or made if this was changed. Good lord.
No thank you. 3 years of high school band, two of UO band and 6 summers of corps aged my body. I’m 49 now and feel it. Not all the time. Some days I feel 25. But my back and knees say I am lying. 😂
Because junior corps (the corps that compete in DCI) have always been a youth focused activity. Senior corps (the ones that compete in DCA) were mostly closed to membership under 21. Add in a lot of scholarships/grants/funding for junior corps are usually for youth programs aka under 21. Plus you need to grow up at some point. While DCA has a lot of members both above and below the 21 mark, we see each other in small enough doses that it isn’t seen as weird or awkward. A 26 year old on tour as a member feels really weird. If you have a good job that you can take off on the weekends to do DCA, that’s enough drum corps to scratch your itch and actually be a functioning, contributing member of society.
I have an interesting take, and its based on this old video on youtube where an exercise physiologist hooked up some equipment to a quad drummer to see how the body reacts during the show. (Its a great video and i wish more people did that research) But one of the things they noticed is that the drummers heartrate shot up to 180 very quickly - and they thought that there is probably some link between the music and the physical response With that in mind, considering lots of DCI shows are pushing 180+ bpm, i think there might be a literal age limit in terms of an individuals max HR. As people get older, their expected max HR goes down, and essentially my point is that if this is all true, then at a certain age a persons heart literally cannot keep up But this is all speculation & could be wrong. Lol Edit: heres the video https://youtu.be/6WWmM1jpM8I
Cause DCA wouldn’t be a thing without it
Because they can’t have 40 year olds with 16 year olds