Sports are overvalued

Applying to College
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<p>Tennisgal, let me go into detail about the typical marching practices I had during HS. And yeah…I pretty much hate marching with a passion as you will be able to tell by my complaining.</p>

<p>1) You can’t breath normally because you’re playing an instrument…doesn’t seem like that big a deal, but try being winded and still having to play a horn. Not to mention having to memorize three or four marches and then pop songs for the majorettes to twirl to…and drill team to dance to.</p>

<p>2) At least in Military style bands, marching does take coordination and physical fitness on top of being at least intelligent enough to memorize ten minutes of marching and music for the typical UIL performance (the fat and stupid kids are almost always alternates in my HS’s band). Want to see some amazing Military marching? Look to A&M. They do things in their drills that their marching program deems as impossible because it requires more than one person to be in the exact same spot at the exact same time.</p>

<p>3) You’ve got to worry about people with drums, tubas, bartitones, and trombones hitting you with their instruments if someone misses a turn or is out of line. I’ve known people who got teeth knocked out over missed turns…as well as smaller things like stitches, bruises, busted lips, getting knocked over, passing out, etc. Doesn’t hurt as much as football does, but there is pain involved.</p>

<p>4) Actually carrying your instrument and doing snappy turns with them pretty much sucks (not so much with clarinets because we have the most comfortable position and weight, but tubas…oy…).</p>

<p>5) There is no such thing as walking back to our places. It’s run or #6 comes in.</p>

<p>6) If someone does decide to be lazy and walk to their place, everyone runs a lap around the track…if anyone complains, we all get another lap. Individuals also have to run for chewing gum and other stupid junk like that.</p>

<p>7) Texas summers are brutal…I feel sorry for anyone (sports, marching, exercising, whatever) who has to deal with 110 degree heat…and then the added heat of the artificial turf which can be as high as 10-15 degrees added onto the already hellish heat (I feel real bad for the football boys in their pads down there for summer practices). And marching in those heavy uniforms with goofy hats on your head make it quite a bit hotter at performances as well.</p>

<p>8) Summer marching before school starts is pretty much all day with the only breaks being for lunch and sleep.</p>

<p>There are definitely more physically challenging and painful things out there than marching band, it’d be real dumb to say there aren’t, but marching is not as simple as people in with no experience may think (or people in bands that are not as good/strict as mine was or is Core style).</p>

<p>::edit::</p>

<p>The only thing I’m gonna miss about marching is that I wear a size four during marching season and a six the rest of the year…so not fair. The tan was nice, too.</p>

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<p>And sports require you to be a genius don’t they? And no coordination? What are you high on? I bet the farthest you got was Fur Elise. There are plently of people at my school in the orchestra who have been playing since elementary school who can’t even handle the beginner stuff that we do, and I agree, not all people who you see carrying a violin or flute case around are intelligent. But I don’t see how much intelligence you need either to hit a shuttlecock around or swing a baseball bat. Yeah, all those little leaguers must be geniuses. They’re much more brilliant than Mozart and Beethoven and the MLB players have contributed much more to the beauty of this world than the great composers and musicians. Psssh…</p>

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<p>Haha, the furthest I got on piano was Fur Elise! I think that was after a year or so of playing? I dunno, but I pretty much hated piano.</p>

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<p>^I was referring to oracle1…</p>

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<p>Oh, quick question. What do all of you die-hard sports folks think about dancers? Is what they (and by they I mean the awesome ones) do extremely challenging?</p>

<p>::edit::</p>

<p>I know, virtuoso. I just thought it was funny cause that’s all I could manage back in the day.</p>

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<p>I know this may sound gay or whatever, I think sports like dancing (ballet, ballroom, whatever), figure skating, diving, etc. DO require talent and A LOT of training just like a classical pianist or violinist. I mean it looks very intricate and demanding and it looks like the routines take a lot of time to master, but I just don’t see how sports like basketball, baseball, or the others require that much skill. Okay fine you need endurance but it’s mainly you need a built body and being very tall (which no one can determine) helps as well.</p>

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<p>I think what SERIOUS dancers do is the equivalent of a hardcore athlete. My friend is a crazy good dancer (leaves school early to go to NYC every day, goes to some really good dance thing in San Francisco every summer, etc) has the most muscular calves I’ve seen on any girl ever</p>

<p>Center Stage is one of my favorite guilty pleasure movies lol</p>

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<p>I’d love to be awesome at dancing. When I was a kid I really was into it, but there weren’t really any decent dance studios around here (the one I was at for two years didn’t even teach a bit of technique). I might take some beginner-type classes in college as electives. There’s no way I’d ever be that good at this point, but it’d still be fun.</p>

<p>Oh, and Center Stage is awesome! I love dance shows and movies. Minus Hip-Hop/Pop stuff…ew. Street dancing’s pretty cool, though.</p>

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<p>Physical pain and exhaustion? I’ve suffered it. Try practicing piano for four hours in one session. You will be exhausted. My fingers have hurt plenty from practicing.</p>

<p>Pass out after running for 5 minutes in the heat? I’m saying sports are overvalued. And guess what? I’ve run 10-mile courses and haven’t passed out once.</p>

<p>Look, I’ve played piano and clarinet for years. I have also done Cross-Country, Track and Field, and swimming, so I think I have an idea of what the two entails. Have you seriously played a musical instrument before?</p>

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<p>And how far did you get? You can play for 7+ years, just practicing the same songs over and over, and not get any better. Have you tried music theory? I have stacks of books about music theory and more stacks of workbooks that I worked on for years. Why don’t you outline the recurrent subjects and countersubjects in a typical Bach fugue, or play for me Fantasia Impromptu, in which one hand constantly plays triplets while the other plays 16th notes, and then come say something about not needing coordination or intelligence.</p>

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<p>^Owned! 10 char</p>

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<p>Sports like ballet dancing or diving DO require skill… Sports like basketball don’t require any… Just gotta have endurance, run fast, jump fast, and be tall… I was on a basketball team so I know what I’m talking about</p>

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<p>so why aren’t you playing for the knicks? actually the way you put it… why isn’t every 6’2+ guy playing in the nba?</p>

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<p>^^
Actually the way the Knicks are now, Isiah Thomas might draft him.</p>

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<p>haha yeah i don’t follow basketball</p>

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<p>I was on a basketball team so I know what I’m talking about</p>

<p>must have been fairly attached to the bench</p>

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<p>Kathos, thanks for your ten points on why band marching makes you tired. But do you honestly, in all faith, believe that music is just as physically taxing as playing football? And if that’s true, why don’t we ever see the clarinet-players in the weight room, and why don’t the flutists have bicepts the size of drums?</p>

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<p>um actually both are kind of overrated. i weigh 104 lbs and I play JV football wide reciever, cornerback, and DB… I play varsity tennis and I’m undefeated 30-0… and starting VAR soccer next year… and i play club badminton, hockey, and ping pong! hahaha! weight and strength have nothign to do about it. I can bench 50 lbs… nobody cares. I also play 3 kinds of saxaphone and i’m in the orchestra and jazz band … those both take nothing to do… any idiot can do everything i’ve done and still be good at each. And football isn’t as bad as it seems… All our coach made us do is sprint 6000 yards each day…if we stopped, we’re cut… anybody can do sports and music give me a break. Now my good EC is Eagle Scout oh yeahhh 10 years of dedication… that’s a REAL ec my friends.</p>

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<p>OP: I can’t believe you just compared video games to sports. I would’ve built argument, but your saying that makes me think you will never grasp it. All I can say is that I am thankful admissions officers value Varsity Athletics - they couldn’t be more right.</p>

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<p>Did you miss the part where I said it wasn’t the mosting physically challenging thing out there? Or how I feel sorry for the football boys that are on the same awful turf, plus pads? </p>

<p>But when marching practice makes the boys that play football tired, a girl who runs 5 miles a day tired, and all the other people in other sports (or just in band) tired it must be physically challenging. Not to mention how much most of the people out there sweat during practice…gross.</p>

<p>By the way, I’m pretty sure my friend that played flute could take most people in a fight. She surprises people with how strong/tough she is (5’5, thin, and very pretty) but it comes from her having two huge older brothers and always being so active.</p>

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<p>Sadly, nobody uses fists to fight they use bats or guns… you really don’t need to be strong… unless you want to impress the girls. now LOWER BODY! thats a different story</p>