Welcome to Gaia! ::

Okay so I'm just curious the different ways bands set drill and mark the field. We seem to change ways every year, some being successful and others... not so much. sweatdrop

Freshman year: We used poker chips to set our spots. We would like write our drill number on them too. We didn't do drill sheets this year so only the drum majors and staff would set us. It kinda took forever and people usually forgot to pick their poker chips up. I think our BD lied about football players slipping on them and us losing because of that. XD

Sophomore year: Flags. This was probably the WORST IDEA EVER. We had colored flags that stuck up out of the ground via skinny metal poles. Those biatches were hella dangerous! On a backwards move I scrapped up against one and it cut my leg pretty badly. We never set these only staff and drum majors. We did use drill charts for like a week.

Junior year: We have these round plastic things with holes in the middle and we stick em in the field with nails. This one actually works pretty well because they stay in the ground and don't pop up (unless noobies aren't roll stepping). And there's like a bunch of different colours. We also kinda use drill charts and mark em on a grid sheet we each have which makes setting a lot easier. This one wins! biggrin

Now share, you don't have to be as detailed as me hahah I'm just bored.

We have coordinate sheets for nonstudent staff/nonstaff. They tell us what yard line we are on or how many stps we are off of which yardline, and then how many steps off hash, front side or backside(whichever is closer). Oh, and whether we are on side 1 or 2. The student staff and BD have drill sheeets with the form and dots on it saying who is where. We set ourselves

We use what our band affectionately calls POGs. Why? They are washers painted Pink(P), orange(o) and "Green(g)" Though many(me included) rgue that the greens are more yellow then green. We put them on corecct drill spots after we are chekked by someone with a drill sheet. They don't always stay, and we only have 1 of each color each, so you can't always rely on them, which is a good learning process. After we get to green, we go back and run it, picking up the pink ones before we start.

My first year, we used colored chips. I hated them xP They would always magically end up on the other side of the field.

Second year, We used chalk. That was probably the best idea lol We only had to worry about rain.

Third year, We used spray paint! It was effective, except for when you sprayed your set to find out that it was in the wrong place xP

Fourth and Fifth year, we've went back to using chalk. Although, today we used spray paint to mark our circle drill.

We used the flags. Always worked with us.

We use coordinate sheets that tell the exact location of your spot on the drill chart.
Literally.
"1.75 steps in front of visitor hash, 2.5 off left 45"

Granted, we tend to round. You can't step a half step. :l
Section officers, drum majors, and our director have drill charts to check the form.

We have our dots and everything so we set the charts by ourselves and the dms and other people check to make sure we're in the right place. Unfortunatly, they just tell us to put something on the ground and go back to a different chart. So far I've lost my pencil and valve oil XP
I don't think this is very effective...

Yea, we just get a print out of all of our sets for each part then we go out ont he flied and test them out. Then we just work up to playing and marching.

We all get copies of the drill, and we find our spots individually, then the director makes sure it looks good and we put down a poker chip. Then we find the next and go back and forth between the first and second, then second to third, then all together, etc. It works pretty quick.