Recently at rehearsal our drum guy messed up an example of a right crab step. The drum line preceded in correcting him, but to our dismay we were all wrong. Our bd teaches when crabbing, the left foot always goes first (even when crabbing right) and always goes behind the right foot. Our drum guy told us that no other band he has seen marches this way. So my question is, does your left foot always go behind the right? or the other way around.....

Basically, whatever direction you're moving, that foot goes behind. When crabbing left, the left foot goes behind the right. When crabbing right, the right foot goes behind the left.

Tory's correct. The norm is to cross one leg over in front of the other leg. If you're moving left, the right crosses in front. If you're moving right, the left crosses in front. Don't cross behind unless you're moving diagonally backward.

If you're going to move to the right from a halt, many groups use a "prep step" one beat before the stepoff to get the right foot out of the way. Assuming four beat measures, take a small step backward with the right on beat four so that you can take a normal crossed-over step with your left on beat one.

Our line always did the oppposite of what Tory said before I got there. My freshmen year we started going the other way. I agree with Tory..

we always marched until this year,
if your going left, then lefts in front

but we got a new percussion director so we changed styles
it just takes a bit to get use to

It's terribly awkward to do it any other way than the norm. I had a lot of shallow diagonal moves that required the other foot behind, like going to the right with the left foot behind. It was really uncomfortable, and I don't know why anyone would ever want to march this way on straight side-to-side crabbing.

opposite goes in front
you go left right is in front
you fo right left is in front

Wow this totally makes a lot of sense, three years back we were taught to always have the left in back. Now I think that I'm going to go to rehearsal and have 'em start to try the opposites in front.

"The norm" for crabbing seems to change every 5 to 7 years. When I was in high school it was mostly "trailing foot behind" (e.g. right foot behind when moving left) and drum corps started using "left foot always behind", so after a while that became "normal." Now corps have gone to "trailing foot in front" and *that* is becoming "normal."

It's all in what you're used to doing.

Nailed it. Except for backward diag/oblique moves.



Really...guess I haven't noticed "the norm" changing like this. I think what HAS changed is that there is better instruction and more attention to detail in the way the battery moves.

From the way that you describe the high school technique you used, it seems like there would be a "hitch" in the crab step because you couldn't extend all the way.



Did you march in a corps that did this? I would love to hear where you received your information on this one.

My thing is, I highly doubt that anyone in drum corps would subscribe to the "left foot always behind" method. On certain moves (uhm, moving right at a forward diagonal!) they wouldn't be able to extend as far, thus limiting their movement...or mashing their taters. Either way doesn't make for a good summer!

The activity is just too fast to have any limitations of movement.

The information is from my own eyeballs, late '80s to '92 or so. I'd have to check tapes/DVDs for reference to actual corps. One doesn't need to switch feet when changing direction this way, so it's hard to forget to do so or otherwise get mixed up.

Obviously, oblique movement often requires something different; for example, an oblique back and to the right wouldn't use the "trailing foot in front" method that has been described.

Crabbing directly sideways works fine with any choice of which foot is in front of/behind the other since one foot is *always* offset behind, regardless. The important thing is for a program to pick one method and stick with it.