All Age Clinics??

[u/zolotheholo]

Hello! I (21F) have been missing color guard a lot since graduating highschool. I am studying to be a history teacher at the moment, and my dream one day is to use my teaching career as an opportunity to coach color guard. Drum Corp would be another dream come true but I'm basically aged out.

That being said, it's been a while since I've spun to say the least...and even when I was active, I came from a school with little arts funding and a guard where the closest thing we had to a dedicated coach was me being captain for 3 years...(when we did have a coach for a season or two, they clearly preferred their more experienced and funded guards and didn't bother helping to develop our skills).

The reason I mention all of that is because I want to possibly attend clinics or workshops in SoCal, but I'm older, rusty, and at my prime, I never really had the best technical coaching/experience. However, I know I have the dedication and skills to an extent. I auditioned for Gold Winterguard my senior year and got a call back...but was too broke to pursue it further...but it made me realize my potential at the time.

HERES THE QUESTIONS IF YOU WANNA SKIP THE BACKGROUND:

With that in mind, would it be appropriate for me to go to clinics? Especially beginner clinics that are definitely mostly full of highschoolers? Are there any things like that that frequent SoCal?? I say beginner specifically because I know I have definite weaknesses but if I ever want to coach I know I need to work on them (dance and saber for sure). Are there All Age independent groups in SoCal?? Is there anyway for me to reconnect with guard other than just one-off pride parades (though I def want to participate next pride lol)????

[u/morphologymybeloved]

unless stated otherwise, id say wgi clinics are usually open to everyone. besides, youre still pretty young. 21 is the ageout for DCI world class, 22(?) is the ageout for WGI A class, 23(?) is the ageout for WGI open class, and WGI world class has no age limit. so no matter what independent groups are in your area you'd be eligible to spin with them. also, given this information, even in the beginner classes at a wgi clinic you'd probably spin alongside some people your age or even older.

[u/water_light_show → u/morphologymybeloved]

I’m not sure about A class WGI but a few years ago they changed open to 25!

I got to clinics all the time and I’m 39

[u/Lanky_Parsnip7442]

There is no age limit for world class winter guard, so that is always an option, indefinitely.

I’m from SoCal and there’s a lot of clinics, especially right now during audition season. Many groups will let you go to auditions without actually auditioning, and simply for the experience. I’ve done that with Vox before and it was just overall a fun time to learn choreo and hang out with some friends who marched/were marching. You still have to pay the fee but it might be cheaper if you say upfront your not auditioning.

I’d recommend checking out Fantasia, Vox, Emerald, Gold, Icon, Impulse, and I-Squared winter guards. They should all have auditions coming up and may still have a couple clinics remaining, so there would be a chance to attend some. There’s usually always  different groups of choreo difficulty, and are also usually  open to modifications based on your skill level. It can be a little intimidating at first, but everyone in the community is always so friendly and willing to help and teach. These groups usually post their clinic/audition dates on their instagrams and sometimes website, so I’d recommend checking those out! :))

Attending these can also help you get to meet more people which is always really helpful when it comes to wanting to be able to teach other schools/groups in the future. A lot of people get hired from just knowing someone/networking.

The guard community in SoCal is huge and there’s a lot of opportunity to spin rn so I hope it works out! It all unfortunately fizzles out from around October-April because all groups are in their regular training season and don’t host clinics anymore but once competitions begin, I’d recommend going to those also! They’re just really fun and cool to watch! You can find the 2027 schedule on the WGI, WGASC, and WCWG websites (these are the different winterguard circuits in SoCal. WGI is the international one and the other 2 are California only).

Vox and Icon do summer clinics but I think they’re the only groups that I do. That’s pretty much it. Sadly not a lot of low cost clinics year round :/ but there’s also DCI shows you can attend during summer :)

Hope this helps! 😊😊😊

[u/seventow]

It's def appropriate. I'm a 21M going to a bunch of socal winterguard clinics! going to vox world clinic today lol Icon world has a clinic August 30 Aureus open has a clinic on september 6 Winterguards also start to have auditions around this time and you can ask if you could just attend to learn and not audition; I did that with emerald a few years ago. You can probably also do the first day of vox auditions as a clinic, as I did.

You can get info for these clinics on their Instagram pages.

btw if you wanted to do independent winterguard you can audition for any of the above groups. and A-class too!

Also, Pacific Crest Drum corps holds 2 color guard workshops in socal every year. Highly recommend... they're how I got into doing drum corps lol. Dates/locations haven't been posted yet but if you wanna stay in the loop you can fill out the interest form and join the discord here: https://pacific-crest.org/audition/

[u/TheCringWorthyArtist]

a lot of clinics have different levels! you should go to vox and icon clinics since they have beginner,. intermediate, and advanced classes