"Truths and myths about penalties"

"As a contest director, your job is to check that participating corps stick to the rules properly. If this is not the case, you are in a position to issue penalties. In the more than 10 years that I have held this position within various organisations, I have noticed that there are many misconceptions regarding penalties." By Kees Kopmels.
 
"In order to understand their origin, we must delve into the history of Drum and Bugle Corps. We must therefore go back as far as the 1920s, when Drum and Bugle Corps were started on a massive scale via the veteran organisations in America. These corps competed with one other on the annual veterans days (the conventions) and so it was that a national judging system was implemented in 1933 under the management of the AADBCBA (the All American Drum and Bugle Corps and Bands Association).

Understandably, this system had a strong military character: First, there was an inspection of the corps off-the-line, when the entire corps stood in a single line to the left of the field and were inspected with regard to uniform regulations, polished shoes and instruments. During the swinging sixties, hair and beard styles were also inspected. A flag presentation was one of the requirements of the show, and in it the national colours had to be carried and displayed in accordance with strict military tradition. In addition, there were considerable limitations in terms of music due to the stipulations specifying that tempos had to be in the region of 120 steps per minute.

In America, these strict military rules were contended mainly in the sixties and seventies. The corps wanted to develop this activity on a more creative basis and the strict military rules stood in the way of this. This can be illustrated by a few examples:

In 1964, the Racine Scouts made a reference during the flag presentation to the famous Iwo Jima photo. (This is the photo in which four American soldiers raise the flag on the island of Iwo Jima during the Second World War.) This entailed actions with the American flag which were not permitted and therefore resulted in penalties.

The 1971 season saw the introduction of the total show concept. The Madison Scouts presented their "Alice in Wonderland" show and The Cavaliers performed a circus show. Both corps used extras and costumes that could not be qualified as directly belonging to the uniform. During the VFW Finals in Dallas, it was made clear that for every costume that deviated from the corps uniform a penalty of two points would be imposed. This, together with the dissatisfaction with the military inspections, the prescribed tempos and other issues restricting creativity, ultimately led to DCI being set up in 1971.

After this incident, the VFW further tightened its rules for the 1972 season. For instance, dancing in particular was not permitted, while in that first DCI season, the Santa Clara Vanguard became the talk of the town with its "Bottle Dance". This example teaches us that ridiculous rules do not contribute to development and do not hold back advancement in any case.

When Drum Corps Europe was set up in 2000, I was extremely pleased with the introduction of a new philosophy. The competition rules had to satisfy three specific principles:  it had to ensure that corps are able to perform under as identical conditions as possible, it had to ensure that judging can be carried out as fairly as possible and it had to ensure that creativity is not restricted, but rather stimulated. In the current rules, penalties are almost only possible to receive for exceeding the time rules. Penalties can also be given for incorrectly entering or exiting the field. And finally, penalties are also possible for using illegal instruments.

However, it is still evident that the idea of penalties is deep-rooted in the minds of people. This means that as contest director I am regularly confronted with questions such as: "I won't get penalties for that will I?" or "Was I penalised for that?"

I'd like to say to the corps: In your creativity, make optimum use of the freedom provided by the rules. But always act with full responsibility towards the sport that Drum Corps has become. And always do this in the knowledge that when searching the boundaries of these rules, the organisation, through the contest director, will consider whether the use of this freedom occurs in complete sportsmanship, with due observance of equal chances between the participants."

Kees Kopmels
Contest Director for DCN and DCE and previously for DCH, CGN and KNFM