Technique
Glide step seeks to restrict all motion above the upper-body to a smooth unchanging motion in the direction of travel and to restrict all motion below the waist to that which is completely necessary. Before the glide step can be learned, the general posture of the body must be normalized. This is called "attention". The important aspects of attention for marching are having a tall, straight posture with hips shifted slightly back, keeping weight distributed slightly forward and off the heels, and general relaxation of all major muscles. A general guideline for the body's position relative to the rest of the body is the ears should be over the shoulders, the shoulders over the hips, and the hips over the ankles. In the "attention" position, the feet are either together and parallel to each other, or each foot is approximately 30 degrees off of parallel to each other. This call and response is commonly used by bands that follow George N. Parks' training examples to standardize posture: "Feet! (Together!) Stomach! (In!) Chest! (Out!) Shoulders! (Back!) Elbows! (Frozen!) Chin! (Up!) Eyes! (With pride!) Eyes! (With pride!)"
The position of at attention, or standing at attention, is a military posture which involves the following general postures:
Call and response is a form of interaction between a speaker and an audience in which the speaker's statements ("calls") are punctuated by responses from the listeners. This form is also used in music, in which it falls in the general category of antiphony.
George N Parks was the director of the University of Massachusetts Minuteman Marching Band at University of Massachusetts Amherst from 1977 until 2010. He also led the George N. Parks Drum Major Academy, a summer workshop program for high school drum majors that he founded in 1978.
From attention, the next step is to learn mark time. This involves alternately picking up the left and right legs from their position at attention to the "check" position. At "check", the leg is bent slightly, the heel is approximately 1-2 inches off the ground, and the toes are in line with each other. Important aspects of marking time are that the hips should not shift as the legs are lifted and that the weight is kept forward on the balls of the feet. A common command, often called out by a drum major, usually consists of, "Mark time, mark!", followed by four beats of marking time (left, right, left, right) and then the first step with the left foot.
Marking time is a military step in which soldiers march in place, moving their legs as in marching, but without stepping forward.
A drum major or field commander is the leader of a marching band, drum and bugle corps, or pipe band, usually positioned at the head of the band or corps. The drum major is often dressed in more ornate clothing than the rest of the band or corps and is responsible for providing commands to the ensemble, leading them while marching, and directing them what to play, when to play, and what time to keep. The commands may be given verbally, through hand gestures, using a whistle or a baton, or with a mace.
The first step to moving forward is to move the leg from a "check" position to an "extended" position. The heel of the extended foot should be placed slightly inside of "straight ahead" so that about 1/3 of the foot is in front of the stationary foot. In the "extended" position, the weight has not yet shifted forward, but the leg-in-motion has been straightened forward so that the heel is on the ground and the toes are pointed in the air as high as possible. While the body itself should be moving smoothly along, this motion should be very snappy, emphasizing that the toes are stuck in the air so that the bottom of the extended foot is exposed. A common instruction is to "dig in with the heel", which emphasizes starting the step as far back on the heel as possible. This, in turn, should lead to higher toe lift.
Next, the weight is shifted forward from the ball of the stationary foot to the ball of extended foot. This motion is called "rolling through". Because this is the primary "stepping" motion, it is important that it be as fluid as possible. Even after "rolling through", the stationary leg should still be as straight as possible. Only after the weight has been shifted from one foot to the next should the back leg be bent slightly to allow it to glide forward (while the foot remains as close to the ground as possible) into the next "check" position. From this check position, the leg smoothly transitions into the next "extend" position, and so on. At the halfway point of the motion, the moving foot should be passing the ankle of the stationary foot.
Generally there are two standard sizes for a roll step. First, the most common is 22.5 inches (570 mm) from heel to heel, in the extend position. When executed at this size a marcher that started with the balls of his feet on a yard line will end up with the balls of his feet on the next yard line, five yards away, after taking eight steps; thus, this step is known as the "8 to 5 step". The second increment is slightly larger at 30 inches, and will move five yards in six steps. In order to correctly march these sizes, a performer generally uses muscle memory to execute these steps. The step sizes called for can sometimes be larger than a 6 to 5 step, but generally a marcher will switch to jazz running if the step needs to be larger than a 5 to 5 step.
Muscle memory is a form of procedural memory that involves consolidating a specific motor task into memory through repetition, which has been used synonymously with motor learning. When a movement is repeated over time, a long-term muscle memory is created for that task, eventually allowing it to be performed without conscious effort. This process decreases the need for attention and creates maximum efficiency within the motor and memory systems. Examples of muscle memory are found in many everyday activities that become automatic and improve with practice, such as riding a bicycle, typing on a keyboard, entering a PIN, playing a musical instrument, poker, martial arts or even dancing.
Jazz Running is a unique technique used in marching bands and drum corps that is used to counter a dip in height commonly experienced when covering long distances at speeds that would not be practical for standard marching techniques. Although all marching styles are different, Jazz Running is done by pushing off with a leg, causing the performer to lunge forward, landing on their toes, and pushing off with that leg and so on.
One incorrect tendency of glide-step marching is bicycling, or the tendency to lift one's foot too high off the ground when taking a step. This leads to extra bending in the knees, which gives the impression of riding a bicycle.
A bicycle, also called a cycle or bike, is a human-powered or motor-powered, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A bicycle rider is called a cyclist, or bicyclist.
Other skills utilized in glide-step marching are facings, sliding (keeping the upper body facing a different direction than the lower body), adjusting stride length, back-marching, and matching all of these motions to a specific tempo.
In musical terminology, tempo is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece and is usually measured in beats per minute. In modern classical compositions, a "metronome mark" in beats per minute may supplement or replace the normal tempo marking, while in modern genres like electronic dance music, tempo will typically simply be stated in bpm.
This is a list of dance terms that are not names of dances or types of dances. See List of dances and List of dance style categories for those.
Because ballet became formalized in France, a significant part of ballet terminology is in the French language.
In terrestrial animals, plantigrade locomotion means walking with the toes and metatarsals flat on the ground. It is one of three forms of locomotion adopted by terrestrial mammals. The other options are digitigrade, walking on the toes with the heel and wrist permanently raised, and unguligrade, walking on the nail or nails of the toes with the heel/wrist and the digits permanently raised. The leg of a plantigrade mammal includes the bones of the upper leg (femur/humerus) and lower leg. The leg of a digitigrade mammal also includes the metatarsals/metacarpals, the bones that in a human compose the arch of the foot and the palm of the hand. The leg of an unguligrade mammal also includes the phalanges, the finger and toe bones.
The deadlift is a weight training exercise in which a loaded barbell or bar is lifted off the ground to the level of the hips, then lowered to the ground. It is one of the three powerlifting exercises, along with the squat and bench press.
The cha-cha-chá, or simply cha-cha in the U.S., is a dance of Cuban origin. It is danced to the music of the same name introduced by Cuban composer and violinist Enrique Jorrin in the early 1950s. This rhythm was developed from the danzón-mambo. The name of the dance is an onomatopoeia derived from the shuffling sound of the dancers' feet.
The snatch is the first of two lifts contested in the sport of weightlifting followed by the clean and jerk. The objective of the snatch is to lift the barbell from the ground to overhead in one continuous motion. There are four main styles of snatch used: squat snatch, split snatch, power snatch, and muscle snatch. The squat snatch and split snatch are the most common styles used in competition while power snatch and muscle snatch are mostly used for training purposes.
Dance position is a position of a dancer or a mutual position of a dance couple assumed during a dance. Describing and mastering proper dance positions is an important part of dance technique.
The front kick in martial arts is a kick executed by lifting the knee straight forward, while keeping the foot and shin either hanging freely or pulled to the hip, and then straightening the leg in front of the practitioner and striking the target area. It is desirable to retract the leg immediately after delivering the kick, to avoid the opponent trying to grapple the leg and to return to stable fighting stance.
Taoist Tai Chi is an exercise form of t'ai chi ch'uan which is taught in more than 25 countries by the non-profit International Taoist Tai Chi Society and associated national Taoist Tai Chi societies. It is a modified form of Yang-style t'ai chi ch'uan developed by Taoist monk Moy Lin-shin in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Moy incorporated principles of Lok Hup Ba Fa and other internal arts
to increase the health benefits of practising the form.
Footwork is a martial arts and combat sports term for the general usage of the legs and feet in stand-up fighting. Footwork involves keeping balance, closing or furthering the distance, controlling spatial positioning, and/or creating additional momentum for strikes.
Tap dance makes frequent use of syncopation. Tap dance choreographies typically start on the eighth beat, or between the eighth and the first count.
Karate has many different stances, each used to for different types of power and movement. In Japanese the general term is tachi (立ち), changing to dachi when used as a suffix. Some stances focus more on mobility than stability, and vice versa. These are the most common stances in karate:
Crossovers are a basic stroking technique in figure skating for gaining impetus while skating along a curve or circle. They may be performed while skating either forwards or backwards.
The jumping position is a position used by equestrians when jumping over an obstacle. It usually involves what is known as the "forward seat" or "2 point" because the rider's legs provide two points over which the rider's weight is balanced on the horse. It was first developed by Captain Federico Caprilli. This involves the rider centered over his or her feet, with the stirrup leathers perpendicular to the ground. Continuing a line upwards from the stirrup leathers, the head and shoulders fall in front of the line, as do the knees, the hips fall behind it.
The ankle knee step is a type of high step used by marching bands. It is named such because when executed properly, the ankle of one leg should be at the height of the knee of the other leg. This step is chiefly used by marching bands which consider themselves traditional or show style bands, although drum corps and corps-style marching bands may use this step sparingly for effect.
The evolution of human bipedalism, which began in primates about four million years ago, or as early as seven million years ago with Sahelanthropus, has led to morphological alterations to the human skeleton including changes to the arrangement and size of the bones of the foot, hip size and shape, knee size, leg length, and the shape and orientation of the vertebral column. The evolutionary factors that produced these changes have been the subject of several theories.
Squatting is a posture where the weight of the body is on the feet but the knees and hips are bent. In contrast sitting involves taking the weight of the body, at least in part, on the buttocks against the ground or a horizontal object such as a chair seat. The angle between the legs when squatting can vary from zero to widely splayed out, flexibility permitting. Another variable may be the degree of forward tilt of the upper body from the hips – see particularly here and here. Squatting may be either:
The function of the lower limbs during walking is to support the whole-body against gravitational forces while generating movement patterns which progress the body forward. Walking is an activity that is primarily confined to the sagittal plane, which is also described as the plane of progression. During one gait cycle, there are two major phases: stance and swing. In a healthy individual walking at a normal walking speed, stance phase makes up approximately 60% of one gait cycle and swing makes up the remaining 40%. The lower limbs are only in contact with the ground during stance phase which is typically subdivided into 5 events: heel contact, foot flat, mid-stance, heel off, and toe off. The majority of stance phase (~40%) takes place in single-limb support where one limb is in contact with the ground and the contralateral limb is in swing phase. During this time interval, the lower limb must support constant changes in alignment of body weight while propelling forward. The hip, knee, and ankle joints move through cyclical kinematic patterns that are controlled by muscles which cross these joints. As postural changes occur, the body adapts by motor tuning an efficient muscular pattern that will accomplish the necessary kinematics required to walk.
