Making the Most of Equipment: What to Choose, When- Part 1

One of the challenges band directors and color guard directors face is deciding what equipment should be used at different points in the show. Everyone has a different degree of comfort when it comes to making these choices, and for some it’s one of the more stressful parts of early-planning for color guard. While there is never ONLY one correct answer for choosing equipment, our goal is to give you a starting point: How to make equipment choices given the style of music and the overall considerations of the movement (tempo, variety, performer skill level, etc.). 

In Part 1 I’ll be outlining the most common equipment types, their uses, and equipment-specific considerations when using them during a season. 

In Part 2 (Coming Soon) I will talk more in depth about the considerations that go into actually deciding and designing these choices as well as putting it into context with a few different scenarios. 

Types of Equipment

• Flags
  • Description: The most common type of equipment- usually on 6’ poles for high school programs, and occasionally shorter (5.5’ or 5’). If a program has a color guard, this is usually the standard minimum equipment. Standard flags have the widest degree of variance because the silks can be ordered to look like anything you want and the poles/tips can be painted or covered in colored tape.
  • Common Use: Flags can be used during any part of a show 
  • Other considerations:  Flags are considered to be the most universal piece of equipment for color guard- programs usually have more fundamental training on this piece of equipment and choreography can be extremely versatile to fit a wide range of music. 
• Rifles
  • Description: Color guard rifles are usually white with black/silver bolts and white/black straps. Rifles are usually the 2nd most used piece of standard equipment. There are many companies that produce rifles and are usually in the affordable range (between 30 and 50 a piece). 
  • Common Use: Rifles are often used to express strength or intensity, but can still be used for delicate parts of a show. Rifle often shows up in openers, but can find a home in any movement if it feels right for the music. 
  • Other considerations: Rifle can be challenging for beginning performers and many programs have a separate group within the color guard that performs the rifle work. Alternatively, some programs commit to training the whole team on weapon and adjusting choreography based on performer ability. Having rifles in a show means that they will need technique training to build the fundamental skills. 
• Sabres
  • Description: Color guard sabres are usually a curved piece of metal with a hilt (handle) on the end. It is used in similar ways to a rifle and has its own technique. 
  • Common Use: Sabres are often used in a more lyrical setting (slower tunes/emotional moments/ballads). Appropriate choreography can be used to make it feel at home in other musical settings.
  • Other Considerations: Good quality sabres are $$$. While you might find more affordable ones made of cheaper materials, they are more likely to break and cost more money in the long run. Sabre is also a challenging piece of equipment for spinning, and like rifle, requires dedicated technique time. Choosing to use sabres with your program is not a choice to be made lightly- adding sabre to your program takes dedicated training and care.   
• Swing Flags
  • Description: Shorter poles (usually made out of PVC pipe or other lightweight material) with silks attached (sometimes normal sized and sometimes oversized). 
  • Common Use: Swing flags are often used to present a large visual impact during a powerful ballad moment. Swing flags can also be used during other moments of a show to make a very big colorful impact where the visual weight of swing flags will match a significant moment in the music. Usually programs will have each performer use two swing flags for bigger visual impact, but some programs will use just one per performer often for budgetary concerns.  
  • Other considerations: Swing flags don’t need the same level of training as standard flags or other pieces of equipment- this makes them a simple addition to a show without a massive amount of training needing to go into it.
• Air Blades/Sickle Rifles
  • Description: This category is for all the equipment that is spun similarly to a rifle, but is not a rifle. 
  • Common Use: Air Blades and Sickle Rifles are commonly used as an alternative for schools where administrations have made a big deal about color guard rifles looking too much like real guns. Advocacy for your color guard can only go so far with certain administrations, so groups often turn to air blades or sickle rifles in lieu of standard color guard rifles. 
  • Other considerations: While these can be used in most Fall circuits with no consequence, the Winter Guard circuits (WGI and your local circuit) does not recognize these as officially sanctioned pieces of equipment. That means, if they use these pieces of equipment in the winter, they will not count towards your equipment time/equipment score and they will be viewed as props. 
• Specialty Silks/Poles
  • Description: There are other effects that can be used/created with specialty silks or poles. To list a few available, there are 10 foot flags, T-Poles, curved poles, and non-standard shaped silks. 
  • Common Use: These are used to create special effects and are often “the” special effect because it’s non-standard. Usually, ideas like this will come into play when trying to make a special moment in the music even more special. Maybe it’s beefing up the dramatic coda to the closer, or adding a delicate magic to an emotional ballad- these effects are the gold-luster-dust on top of the sprinkles on the cupcake of band design. 
  • Other considerations: Non-traditional equipment usually comes with a non-traditional price point and can sometimes mean special staging/storage/travel considerations. 
• Movement
  • While movement isn’t a piece of equipment, it can be used effectively to express all emotions and styles of your show. You can use movement through soloists, dance lines, or as a full group alternative to equipment. I will illustrate some further uses of movement in Part 2 of this topic. 

While this list covers some of the types of equipment and their uses, there are still many other items and props you could use as part of your color guard. This list can serve as a stepping stone towards making equipment decisions for this next season. To see these in action, be on the lookout for Part 2 (coming soon) where I put these skills into the context of a show.

Questions? Comments? Please share them in the comments below!