Corps-Style Marching/Technique/Sliding

Sliding is a technique used by brass and woodwinds when moving sideways (the drumline has their own special technique, crabbing, which is used because of how drums are carried).

Like backwards marching, sliding is a consequence of the desire to always face the audience regardless of which direction you're traveling. The principles of sliding are employed for any sideways movement, including marching diagonally.

Sliding can be done forwards and backwards. The basic motions with your feet are identical as they were during the forwards march and the backwards march; the only thing that makes a slide different is what you do with your hips and upper body.

Stand up straight, with your feet together and both your toes pointed forward. Using only your hips, try to turn your upper body 45 degrees to the right. Now use your shoulders to turn your upper body another 45 degrees to the right (imagine pushing your right shoulder behind you).

Your toes should be pointing at 9 o'clock while your upper body is pointing at 12 o'clock. This is how a slide works—the toes remain pointed in the direction of travel, and the upper body faces front thanks to rotation from the hips and shoulder.

Now try the other direction. Return to your original position, with your feet together, toes pointed forward. Using only your hips, try to turn your upper body 45 degrees to the left. Now use your shoulders to turn your upper body another 45 degrees to the left. Your toes should be pointing at 3 o'clock while your upper body is pointing at 12 o'clock.

Remember how we've talked about good separation between the lower body and the upper body? It's not just for achieving a smooth sound, it also comes in handy when we're slide marching! The techniques used for forwards and backwards marching, whether straight-leg or bent-leg, are the exact same as they were before. The only difference is that now your spine is rotated.

Nevertheless, those differences can be impactful. We will practice some examples to get a feel for it.

When you're doing a forward slide, you will use the exact same forward marching technique that you became familiar with. The only difference is that now your spine is rotated, so you will not be facing the direction that you're traveling.

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By far the most common mistake is not rotating deep enough. If your toes are pointing at 9 o'clock, maybe you're only making it to 11 o'clock when you should be facing 12 o'clock. This can cause problems with not only the visual consistency between marchers, but also with your sound, because it means you aren't pointing your bell directly at the audience. Try focusing on really rotating from the hips and pushing that shoulder back. Spine stretches are also helpful to improve flexibility, like lumbar rotations and washing machines.

Another mistake is trying to focus too hard on the shoulders and neglecting the rotation from the hip. The hip should be the primary point of rotation, because that has the least amount of impact on the integrity of your upper body. Overreliance on the shoulders can negatively impact your breathing and therefore your music. Focus on the hip rotation as much as you can!

It can be uncomfortable to rotate a full 90 degrees. Some marching groups specify a technique where the front leg sort of cheats towards the facing direction. If a forward slide travels in the 9 o'clock direction, and the upper body is facing at 12 o'clock, perhaps the left toes are at 9 o'clock and the right toes are at 10 o'clock. This is a perfectly acceptable way to relieve some of the torsion, as long as all marchers do it.

When should you do a forward slide, and when should you do a backward slide? Usually this question is easy to answer, because at least some component of your motion will be diagonal. In that case, it's as simple as whether you are moving diagonally forward or diagonally backward. But what if you're moving exactly left or exactly right? There are two considerations:

• In general, you always want to be biased in toward the center of the field. If the 50-yardline is to your right, and you are marching to the right, you will probably want to do a forward slide. If the 50-yardline is to your left, and you are marching to the right, you will probably want to do a backward slide. The reason why is because you want to point your bell near the press box where the judges sit, and having this bias in toward the 50 makes that pointing easier.
• The other major factor is what the other people near you are doing. If everyone around you is doing a forward slide, you don't want to be the odd one out who's doing a backward slide. Sometimes this can even be more important than your diagonal; if you're sliding towards the 8:30 direction, you'd normally do a backward slide—but if everyone nearby is doing a forward slide, and you can handle the extra rotation, it's probably a good idea to also try doing a forward slide to maintain visual unity.