BOA Plano - October 8th

[whitewing09]

Does anyone know what the practice limits are like for other states? I remember hearing some bands getting as much as 10-12 hours of after school practice a week, which sounds insane.

[principalagent]

Broken Arrow does up to 20 hours a week depending on if they have Saturday rehearsals or not. A lot of others trend around 10-11. Some calendars are readily available online to see.

[takigan]

[snares]

  On 10/20/2016 at 2:18 AM, takigan said:

[image]

Wowza...

[azn]

  On 10/20/2016 at 2:18 AM, takigan said:

[image]

I'm pretty sure other states have limits too maybe not an 8 hour rule but probably a 10 hour rule or something

[principalagent]

Texas is actually the only competitive state with hard, prescribed limits. That's because of an arms race of sorts decades ago that led to some bands even practicing on Sundays. Indiana, Florida, Georgia, California, Ohio and Oklahoma all have no such limits from their major marching circuits - all of those states being perhaps the most consequential in band besides Texas.

 

On occasion, band would also skip UIL entirely to get around the 8 hour rule. TEA still limits school week practice to 8 hours, but it opens up Saturdays for practice.

[takigan]

  On 10/20/2016 at 2:49 AM, principalagent said:

Texas is actually the only competitive state with hard, prescribed limits. That's because of an arms race of sorts decades ago that led to some bands even practicing on Sundays. Indiana, Florida, Georgia, California, Ohio and Oklahoma all have no such limits from their major marching circuits - all of those states being perhaps the most consequential in band besides Texas.

 

On occasion, band would also skip UIL entirely to get around the 8 hour rule. TEA still limits school week practice to 8 hours, but it opens up Saturdays for practice.

 

It's true.  All of it.

[Nny14]

It's stuff like this that always makes me wonder just how good Texas bands would be without any restrictions. Of course I think the restriction makes efficiency a staple in Texas marching bands which is a great lesson to be learned. Not that bands like Tarpon or Broken Arrow dont take their rehearsals seriously.

[PSHSMom]

That much rehearsing plus all the traveling to competitions, playing for the football games, and the costs associated with that is crazy for kids in high school.  I wouldn't want that for my kids (and I love band!).   
I'm not even sure how the kids at many of the Texas schools manage.  Plano East doesn't compete in as many of the local competitions as the others in this area, and I know as a mom who works
full time with 3 kids I had a hard time managing that schedule (and paying all the band fees for two kids at the time).   Looking at that Tarpon Springs calendar, that is like a part time job, plus those
kids still have their school work to do. I wonder if they have private tutors to help the kids with their school work!    I just never realized that the other states didn't have the same regulations as us in Texas.

[Hard Core Band Fan]

  On 10/20/2016 at 2:18 AM, takigan said:

 

It's good to see that they are rehearsing less than one complete day per week!

[Jackson1]

How do those kids do it? My kid was exhausted during band season with a measly 8 hours. Wow!!!

[takigan]

Lassiter (GA) and Plymouth Canton E.P. (MI) boasted similar schedules (20 hour heck week) for the years they won nationals in the late 90s/early '00ts.  There was an old thread on the BOA forum about it. So that's '98, '99 and '02. We know Broken Arrow used such a schedule when they won in '06, '11, '12 [essentially] and '15, and we know Tarpon likely used it when they won in '14.

Was Westfield doing Saturday rehearsals in '03 when they won?  I doubt they were putting in hours anywhere close to what Tarpon and BA are doing, regardless.  Anyway, it seems like the "20 hour heck week" is par for the champion bands of the past 20 years.  It's admittedly more impressive that Bell and The Woodlands won and Avon 3-peated with much less rehearsal time.

[Xenon]

Westfield 2003 did have a few Saturday marathon rehearsals but Reagan stayed inside the UIL 8hr Rule and ended in 2nd by only 0.05.

[Hard Core Band Fan]

  On 10/21/2016 at 2:12 PM, Xenon said:

Westfield 2003 did have a few Saturday marathon rehearsals but Reagan stayed inside the UIL 8hr Rule and ended in 2nd by only 0.05.

 

Do you think that Westfield was going over the 8-hour limit? The rule was still fairly new then and a lot of people were being watched to see if they complied. Of course, the 8-hour rule doesn't apply to BOA events and is therefore voluntary. Some school districts impose the limit for all activities UIL or not.

[Xenon]

Westfield 2003 did exceed the UIL Marching 8hr Rule on a few weeks, but they never broke the TEA 8hr Rule which is State Law. They did not attend any UIL events that year so they were perfectly compliant with all rules and laws that applied to them.

 

The next year, UIL changed the rules such that you must fully comply with the UIL Marching 8hr Rule for the entire season of both years of a State/Non-State rotation to be allowed to participate in UIL Marching events.

[NTxBandMom8]

Can someone clarify the difference in the TEA rule vs the UIL rule for me? I know that many bands have times on the calendar with earlier call times and later release times. The 8 hour rule must be the "on the field" time, right?

[Xenon]

The TEA 8 Hour Rule is a State Law that requires that any extracurricular activity (not just Marching Band) cannot have non-classtime practice of more than 8 hours during the school week (start of school Monday morning to end of school Friday). However, it does not limit practice hours outside of that time, so you could practice as much as you want early Monday morning, Friday after school, or Saturday/Sunday in addition to the 8 hours allowed during the school week.

 

The UIL Marching 8 Hour Rule only applies if you are going to attend a UIL Marching event at any time within the 2-year State cycle. It extends the restriction to 8 hours of non-classtime practice per calendar week plus an additional allowed hour on any performance day. Movement to/from the practice area does not count towards this time.

[takigan]

  On 10/22/2016 at 11:07 PM, NTxBandMom8 said:

Can someone clarify the difference in the TEA rule vs the UIL rule for me? I know that many bands have times on the calendar with earlier call times and later release times. The 8 hour rule must be the "on the field" time, right?

 

Basically if you want to participate in UIL you're stuck with 8 hours in a 7 day week, no matter what.  If you withdraw completely from UIL, you're still limited by State law (TEA) to 8 hours per M-F school week, but are unbound on the weekends.  In 2003 Westfield did 8 hours M-F, then did marathon Saturday rehearsals to maximize their time as Daniel explained.

 

As for your other question, it's not necessarily "on the field" time.  I'm not clear of the exact wording, but I will say that the scheduling that appears on a calendar or verbally agreed upon time does NOT directly contribute to the 8 hours, only real world practice does.  A band director can schedule 10 hours (or whatever) of rehearsal, but if it goes even 1 minute over 8 hours from start time to release in practice, they are in violation. 

 

For bands trying to maximize their time, it would probably be practical to schedule 2 1/2 hrs Monday, 3 hours Tuesday, 2 1/2 hours Wednesday and 3 hours Thursday (11 hours), with the intention of canceling your Thursday rehearsal if rehearsal is held on all 3 of the previous days (8 hours).  If there's a Monday Inservice that canceled practice, you would let out Wednesday rehearsal 1/2 hour early (8 hours total). If practice got rained out on Tuesday you could hold Thursday practice in full, and if it rained on Wednesday you would let Thursday out 1/2 hour early (8 hours total).