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With the serious foot and ankle injury that my son incurred at the end of a high school half time band performance, it caused me to reflect on how we got there and how lucky we were that it was not more serious.
A conversation with my son’s orthopedic doctor and a reflection upon my own marching band experiences have cause me to form some cogent concerns on where we are today in guiding our young marching band students.
So I am sharing with you some reflections on the the marching band culture and some major issues that are being over looked.
Marching bands from high school to college level perform some highly choreographed, highly competitive routines which require endurance, cardiovascular conditioning, strength and flexibility, and Leyden is no exception. Leyden as any other marching bands’ routines require the students to carry instruments weighing 30 or 40 pounds, march in step and in perfect alignment allover the field at fast speeds while blowing air through instruments for 8 to 12 minutes.
To put this in perspective for the non band performer, imagine running a mile in all different directions while carrying a dumbbell at shoulder level and not letting it drop an inch. Then rest a minute or two and do it again, for a few hours.
Everyone needs to recognize and admire how physically challenging it is not only the day of the event but the hours and hours of practice leading up to each event. But be this as it may, my point is directed to injuries and illnesses band members can suffer.
In my career in high school and college marching bands, I have seen band members with shoulder, neck, lower back, foot and knee pain. The first college football game at Northwestern that I performed in I saw a member of the color guard of the NU Band suffer a patellar dislocation during the half time show, when she was carried to the sidelines screaming bloody murder; ultimately, a trainer on the sidelines popped it back into place. Over the 10 years of my involvement in marching band and drum and bugle corps I saw members with shoulder, neck, lowerback, foot and knee pain. Over that period I saw band members suffer nausea, fatigue and feeling faint related to heat. One trainer told me in my college days that on average 25 per cent of any band including color guard suffer some type of musculoskeletal injury in a marching season.
Some would refuse to believe that marching band should be considered a sport, but everyone needs to recognize the physical nature of the activity. Every major team sport has guidelines to prevent illness and/or injury. Most other high school programs the size of Leyden, which rivals the size of a college band, have such guidelines; yet Leyden does not.
Leyden Marching Band practices in the same heat and humidity as the football and soccer teams, yet unlike the Band these teams have conditioning programs. The Marching Band program unlike the sports programs provide nor directs the students to have available sports drinks that provide needed carbohydrates and electrolytes; not just water. Frankly, the parent volunteers have no understanding of electrolyte and potassium needs of the children. Many programs actually keep in contact with their marching band members and encourage them to work out with endurance type training such as a walks of 20 to 30 minute durations or jogging.
Leyden Marching Band does not have an emergency action plan in place. There should be an AED (automated external defibrillator) available during extensive marching band practices.
With the Leyden Marching Band practicing in the open fields of West Leyden as well as students athletes regularly practice in the fields at East and West Leyden, the Board of Education needs to consider installing lightening detection systems.
The Leyden Marching Band members should have access to an athletic trainer just as the sports players have such access and the students should be educated how to pursue such support.
At some point in the beginning of the marching season, professionals should be available to instruct the musicians on core stability because of the weight of the instruments, its not just about looking good.
Many of the injuries a marching band students have are overuse injuries; therefore they need a professional to guide them on how to make simple changes to relieve the pain without making the problem worse. These young students work very hard.
Generally, I think from what I have seen that at times the Leyden Marching Band program unintentionally is “reckless” with the members’ health especially with regard to heat-related injuries, which can be a cause of cardiac arrhythmia even in young people.
I have concerns that Leyden ascribes to a philosophy which includes many band programs that a “musician must put up with and work through the pain. This philosophy is a common misconception among artists, dancers, gymnasts and athletes alike. The athletic program at Leyden has truly done an excellent job of debunking that myth.
The marching season is relatively short, but is one that involves a high degree of repetition, which can itself cause stress-related injuries (which I and the ortho believe contributed to RJ’s injury). This idea also compounds the fact that too often marching musicians “become conditioned by going through the season,” as opposed to actually going through a condition program.
In many instances, knee, ankle, and heat related injuries are prevalent in marching bands. More and more high school and college bands are providing access to the school’s athletic trainer. The students really need to have a presentation at the beginning of the marching band summer program from medical personnel to discuss injury prevention. Leyden might also consider setting up a voluntary cardiomyopathy screening for band members or require a physical such as all athletes are required to complete.
Marching bands today are embracing many sorts of conditioning and injury prevention programs. A focus should be maintained on providing regular breaks during the 3 hours of marching that at many times occurs for the Leyden students.
In talking to a physician that works with a major drum and bugle corps, he noted that some of the performers pulse have been recorded at 180 to 200 beats per minute. He further shared that many of the performers who are mostly of high school age have an oxygen intake that was 13 to 14 times higher than that of a resting metabolic rate while performing on the field. He told me that a half time show can place the type of physical stress on a performer equal to someone running a 400 or 800 meter dash maximally. The performers work very hard on the field. The high school and college band performers confront the same strains of an athlete.
Leyden Marching musicians face many of the same physical demands as top-notch athletes, often with the same potential for injury but without medical oversight. Leyden needs to team up to improve conditioning and safety for marching students.
This entire injury scenario of my son’s injury brought back an understanding of my past knowledge along with new enlightenment that all these injuries are preventable with the proper conditioning. My son’s ortho actually discussed that with better conditioning my son’s injury would not have been as devastating.
He noted at that this is an evolving understanding in the school environments and as with concussion’s schools are now becoming more aware of the needs of conditioning and medically supporting the marching band students.
Once my son heals we need to plan a better conditioning program so we can provide a better strategy for next year’s marching season; as well as educating my a son a bit more on injury prevention.
All high schools need to treat the marching band students with the same care and consideration as they do with their student athletes.
Roy F. McCampbell's Blog 