One of the most common phrases used when cleaning drill is "Keep your heads and eyes up."

For young or inexperienced marchers, it is a regular practice to look down at the ground to find your dot marks, yard lines, or hash marks. That is great because you are showing that you are trying to hit your spot.

But it can also easily develop into a crutch and lead to a lot of other bad habits down the road. So learn to march with your heads up and your eyes up. Here are a couple of tips and reasons why you will want to break this habit as quickly as possible.

Be Aware of Your Surroundings

Crazy things will happen on the field when you are in a marching ensemble. Sticks will get dropped, flags, rifles, and members will fall. So you might be saying to yourself isn't it better to look down to see what is happening at your feet? If your head and eyes are down, you'll be able to see about 6-8 feet to your left, front, and right. But if you're head is up, that range now extends about to 15-18 feet to your left/right and as far in front as you can see. Seeing further out will let you be more proactive about anything coming in your direction.

Posture and Balance

When your head is upright, a couple of things tend to happen to your body below your neck that impact your performance. Your airway becomes more open, which allows you to not only breathe oxygen in easier. But it also allows you to push more air out when playing. The alignment of your spine will be straighter and taller. This again helps with air flow, but it also keeps your back in a better position to control your upper body for movements, keeps your posture tall, and also keeps you light on your feet.

The biggest advantage now is your equilibrium is better balanced. A trick I learned was if I was walking along a curb on the edge, I had a much easier time of staying on the curb if I were looking up several yards in front of my next step, rather than immediately down in front of me. The ground is not going anywhere, so trust your feet and let your eyes be looking further ahead. 

Silent Marching or Ghosting

Over the past 10-12 years in Texas, bands are using parking lots or having concrete practice fields built. It's easier maintenance, and they do not have to compete with the football team for the field. One thing I used as a teaching tool is the sound of tennis shoes scraping or scuffing on the concrete. When you start to hear that scuffing sound getting heavy and more pronounced, that means the performers are marching heavy. That also means they are being hard on their feet, knees, backs, and slow.

So I would introduced them to Ghosting. Basically the idea is that when they march up, I should not be able to hear their feet contact the ground. And just as importantly, they should mentally picture themselves being as weightless as a ghost. This means keeping their heads/eyes up, posture tall, and separating their upper body from lower body. When they reset themselves in that mentality, their marching improved immediately.