Resistance is Futile...but Resistance Bands Are Revolutionary!

It's awesome when we at Ask Mike get to share a new or innovative idea. And we think this week's episode is both! Michael Munoz, head director at Denver City High School in Denver City, TX has integrated resistance bands into his marching ensemble, and the results are most definitely positive. Join us to see how easy it is to make a big difference in your group's core conditioning and body movement strength!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Oh, Mike Lenny. I've I I'm excited to see our friend Mike Munoz. Yeah. Um but I'm kind of nervous too because he's gonna talk about uh physical movement this morning. I'm not sure that I'm makes me nervous. This is this is Ask Mike, obviously, and we're kind of jumping straight into the middle of a conversation. But listen, when I was in high school, uh band was a PE critic, right? I mean that started when I was in high school. Yeah. So I'm I'm old, but it was like the first time they did that. And and I, you know, we thought that was cool because marching band was physical activity way back when. But you guys tell me this, you have much more recent experience. It's really kind of turned into a much more physical activity with the the way that the shows are presented and the the movements that that we expect kids to make these days, agreed. Oh yes, oh yeah, so uh Mr. Munoz, and it's funny we we have guests that are named Mike the same way. So every time I say Mike, everybody goes, What? Mr. Munoz, and then they go, Don't call me Mr. Munoz. I have to, that differentiates. But uh Mike One, I'll be Mike Two. So uh for everybody to know, and we're kind of got national, and we kind of a lot of our conversation centers around what we know, which is Texas. Yes, uh and and you're in a city in Texas called Denver City, historically a a very strong band program. Yes, um you know I've been in the music store business since the 90s, and they've been killing it even then. So congratulations, you guys. I know you're doing a great job there. Um and my curiosity is how have you watched that evolution happen in the physical nature of it? And was it something that you had to go, okay, adapt and let's go? Or was there a period of what is going on here? What do you mean we have to do? Mike has all these fancy names that he uses, but toe points and you know, rendezvous and all that kind of stuff. Did that was that just uh I mean, how do you how do you where does the realization come that you gotta learn how to do some of this stuff?

SPEAKER_02 2:27

Yes, well, you know, band today, it's not marching band, it's it's a marching arts. So you've got to involve, you know, there's movement, not just with marching, but there's the ballet movements that we have. There's some theater involved. Um, you know, you have props and you have stages on there, and and you've got to incorporate all of that, and you've got to and you have to tell a story. And so as we're watching this going along, uh, I was thinking about how do I help my kids uh do this, learn, not only learn this, but do it in a way that that they they feel really successful doing it. And so one of the things that I thought about, and uh from my personal experience, um, as I was I I like to work out and I lift well, I was lifting weights. Well, last year I just my doctor, I went to the eye doctor and discovered I have glaucoma. Well, I couldn't uh he told me I couldn't lift weights anymore. So I had to discover a different way of doing that. And um so I discovered these resistance bands and I decided I'd give it a give it a try, give it a shot. And I as I was working out and and and changing over to that, it just occurred to me I could use this to help my students learn the movements and to feel the movements physically. And not only that, they're gonna be stronger. And as as my mind started running through it, I was thinking, well, not only are they gonna be stronger, it's providing cardio. We need that breath support to be able to play. And if we're asking our kids to do all these body movements, they need some strength, but it's also gonna require air. So we need more cardio, we need more air. They need to be able to do these physical things as as not only precise, but with strength and in a way that it doesn't interfere with their sound. And so we we started taking that apart, and Julie and I were talking about this, and I just started going through and put the these these mini-bands, and I'll show right here, and we started figuring out how do we use this. And and well, I I started last year with my leadership, and so when my leaders came in, we we go for a whole week of leadership camp. And I and I told the kids as I said we we briefly used these last year, but we're gonna use them in a in a greater way this year. And and I told them this is going to be the key to what we do to help us be stronger for everything that that we're trying to accomplish and learn with the all the body movements and and with our with our plan. It's gonna make us be physically stronger. And as we went through the season, I tell the kids we're not getting better at it, we're getting stronger. This is this is why we're doing this. And so, and to be honest, we use this a hundred percent pretty much almost a hundred percent of the time in marching. So it was always on the as soon as we started class, the first thing they would do is put those bands on. The kids would grab one and then we would start up through in in the past, I did marching fundamentals 20, 30 minutes. Now I don't have to do that. This is incorporated, built in, it's functional, it goes straight into what we're trying to achieve. And the kids have immediate feedback from the bands itself. So if they do it wrong, then they feel it. Not they don't, you know, we talk about let me jump in real quick.

SPEAKER_00 5:49

And and Mr. Lenny, I'm gonna bring you back into this too. One of the things that uh that Mike Lenny's talked about in his marching, we we've done a series of episodes on marching and successful marching, but one of the things that uh that Lenny has said repeatedly is you can't just do this stuff, you have to work. And and Mike, I'm asking you to jump in here and agree with me. You can't just tell your kids to do this, you have to do exercising, you have to do um teach them how to make these movements. And there's really a lot of core strength involved in what we're doing now. It's so I guess I'm saying that from the standpoint of people that are just now kind of going, well, I guess I I need to figure out how to get my kids to do some of these body movements. You're gonna hurt them if you just start making them do some higher level stuff without any kind of training to it whatsoever. I you'd both agree with that, yeah?

SPEAKER_01 6:47

Oh, yeah, no doubt. And just for the people who are on the audio end, the bands he's he was showing us are it says iron core fitness, ordered them off of Amazon. Yes, and they're like uh it's a single band, not with none, not those resistance bands with handles. I use those, but uh but not for me personally, not for a band. Um but this looks like a really incredible situation because you have one band that's basically fitted to the kid, and that performer works with that band. So I think it's it's genius, you know, because yeah, we have to be strong enough to uh be able to do all the movement, as simple as getting up on a stage without making it look awkward, and it has to be habitual, you know, where it's like they don't have to think about it, you know, we don't want to look like a bunch of really old people trying to go up the stairs. Easy, you know, we we want it to look that way. So so Michael, you mentioned uh in our previous conversations, not to jump the gun on this, but you know, you mentioned how you use them not only just for warm-up for fundamentals, but throughout the uh the rehearsal. So then continue on. Tell us how you implement this.

SPEAKER_00 7:54

First, tell this ignorant guy what what do you do with that band? Where I mean, where does it go? How do you use it?

SPEAKER_02 8:01

Okay. The and it's a mini-band, and so if it fits right around the legs, we slide it up and we put it right above the knees. Now I put it above the knees. You can put them halfway up the thighs, but I put them above the knees because we uh we are a straight leg marching band, and because it's above the knees, it will not let you uh butter uh you know, bicycle. You're gonna uh sorry, my I'm diabetic of my my beeper is gone.

SPEAKER_01 8:32

I I know that sound, Michael. Sounds like as well. You're in good company. Critical blood sugar alarm. If you pass out, we'll know what's going on. We'll call 911 for you. But go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 8:43

Okay, sorry. Um legs go in that band. Yeah, yes, they go in the band and they they go right here. I'll I'll just show you kind of what it looks like.

SPEAKER_00 8:58

So is this a one-size-fits-all kind of thing? Yes, it is.

SPEAKER_02 9:02

Can you kind of see the see? There's my legs right there. Okay, that's it. So if I stand, if I stand attention, it's right there. Okay. And as I march, then immediately you feel that pull. And you can feel exactly where it's at. It helps you if you do this in a way that's off balance, then you feel that. Right, you have immediate feedback from the resistance.

SPEAKER_01 9:29

Oh my gosh. So it makes you stabilize by using all the smaller muscles.

SPEAKER_02 9:34

All the smaller muscles, everything. And you know, we we do the exercises here. The the mobility for your hips, it's built in because it the band itself is using all the muscles around, you know, your hamstrings, your thighs, it up into your hips. I tell the kids to use all the way up through your glutes and to your back so you can feel that. So arching everything's right there. It core, it just keeps everything and engaged.

SPEAKER_00 10:00

So when you say bicycling, you're saying it won't let you lift your knee up. That's it, because you you feel that. You see that right, right?

SPEAKER_01 10:08

Yeah, it'll pull you back.

SPEAKER_02 10:10

So you you're good, you're just going to step out and immediately just go straight. And whatever, whatever you use, whether you're landing on the heels or however you teach that, you won't take a larger step than you need to without feeling it because of the resistance there. If you need a larger step, then you're gonna you're going to use that larger step, but it's also gonna give you resistance so you can feel so you're not off balance. It keeps you in between your feet. So if you go, you know, sometimes you take a large step and they're leaning forward. Well, you can it really puts it on the bottom half of what you need to feel.

SPEAKER_00 10:45

Yeah, and it gives you something to actually reference. I mean, you know, the brain's incredible. When it knows the right distance to move, I mean that what a great, what a great actual concept. You know, what am I trying to say? A physical thing to help teach that.

SPEAKER_02 11:01

Yeah, it's like muscle memory, so to speak. You know, and here's this. We we we talk about horn angles. Well, if you put it here, we used to do, you know, there's different people, they would do the do the box, and you know, and some will do this, and and we still do some of that too. But if you if you're having trouble with that, you want the kid teach the kids to do that. I'm right here.

SPEAKER_01 11:27

Yes, or audio listeners, he has the band uh around his just above. Yeah, with his hands up in uh up position for the horns.

SPEAKER_02 11:36

That's cool. When we're doing it, you know, most of the time kids do this. Well, you've got feedback, I can use my lats to lock it in. So you're teaching the kids how to feel the correct muscles on the back to help you hold the instrument the way it needs to be for posture, also. So with that involved, then it doesn't you the kids build this build the strength, but they're also feeling how to do it correctly, so they know which muscles to use, and then you can take that off. Of course, you got to take those off when you're doing visuals and everything else, but you want them to feel that they have some immediate feedback. If if you have some time during summer ban, then you can do a little bit of this, and you know, you're building that back so they can really feel what it feels like to do uh what it feels like to do it correctly. What are those muscles? Well, those these are the muscles we talk about it. Well, they need to know what it feels like to actually use them and engage them as as they're doing this, and so that that provides that that physical and that you know, I'm again per se the the muscle memory so they can feel that and and and repeat it.

SPEAKER_01 12:43

Now I think one of the really cool things about it, Michael, is that it's uh um it's not intimidating. You know, when you get kids out on the field who say we're gonna do planks, we're gonna do Superman, we're gonna do this, we're gonna do lunges. Um, that's kind of intimidating if you have a a kid that's kind of plays video games 20 hours a day. Yes, sir. You know, and they haven't seen the light of day, they haven't seen the sun until summer band, you know, kind of kid. And you know, it might be a great player, but that's so intimidating, but it's so easy. I could see giving them that resistance band and say, No, you just put it, put it right there above your knees, and then we're gonna work on this. So they're not going, I can't run a marathon, I can't lift weights. That is really cool. So even kids who are uh more uh um have more weight on their body, have more ballast. Um it it it's not intimidating to them either. Because uh, you know, because uh it it that's always an issue because the kids are already in shape that are cross-country kids. Yes, they're the ones that jump to your calisthenics and your physical training, and then the other kids are like, I joined band, so I didn't have to do this.

SPEAKER_00 13:45

Right.

SPEAKER_01 13:46

So this is why I joined band, Mr. Lenny. I did not want to do this, so this this is really cool. And just for our listeners, um Mr. Munoz is gonna do us a big favor, and he's gonna do a series of little video clips of doing these different exercises, and we're gonna post it on our page so you can download them, and that way we can get that done. So we really appreciate your time and effort on helping out. But go ahead, Michael.

SPEAKER_02 14:10

Okay, so here's you think about this. We're learning how to do plas. When you step out, you're trying to teach them the distance, and you know, because uniformity we all have to look the same. When they do this, they can feel this. They have immediate feedback, what it feels like to be that far, that spaced apart with your legs, however, you do that. And you know, some want to be a little bit wider, some toes, however, you want to do it, that way they can feel that. And there's resistance built in. So you're you're you're getting some strength built in with it at the same time. So immediate feedback, this is what it feels like to get here. And if you need that strength, when you when you're doing your plas and you're working on that, you can work that. And they not only that, it's like a squat, but they're building the strength. And if you do your your warm-ups to it, which we do a fundamental warm-up with ours. So um, you know, backing up just a little bit, the another reason we we had we had to come up with with things like this is because our demographics, our kids live out of town. We have a lot of kids that ride the bus. So we don't we don't really get extra time. You know, so we have bands that that I've been at schools that we were able to start at seven in the morning or maybe 7:30 in the morning. Um, we we start five minutes before the bell rings, and that that is it. That is all the extra time that I get. I get a Monday night for for two hours. So we've been we're we're able to accomplish what we're doing with uh with uh, I guess a small amount of time, minimal amount of time. And so I have to, we we're trying to come up with something that would be functional and would transfer into our rehearsals, but would also transfer, it wouldn't take a lot of time away from the actual playing and learning drill. And so we developed a fundamental warm-up and to play, and we put the bands on. We have marching with it, and so uh five minutes before the bell rings what we do. We can do all this in that 10 minutes before we start the actual rehearsal, which uh so five minutes before, and then the five minutes from bell to bell. So we have 10 extra minutes, and we're able to accomplish all that we need to do with that with our fundamental warm-up playing and and work on all those things together with the bands, and then we continue with the bands throughout the rehearsal to to continue with the physical part. And so my kids, you know, at the beginning, they were like, wow, this is kind of tough. But they understood as they went along that it got it well, it was it was getting they were getting to where they could perform these uh movements with strength and and we could hold them a little bit longer. You know, that's part of the the physical part. We can we can get down and maybe play some more warm-up right there and get in a plie and you can kind of see that and and just play through maybe rimatin warm-up. You know, I'm going through all of that, and they're building strength, but they're also in the place and and learning how to how to consistently have that strength and still have a good good sound, so they're able to concentrate on that without having to do it with the squats and push-ups and everything else. But the resistance is there built in, so that it's and so the functionality of it is what really helped us out this year.

SPEAKER_01 17:36

Yeah, so let me say if you got this right. When you uh the resistance band, they memorize the muscle memory of how far it's pushing back to them, much like a brass player would know how to play a certain note on their horn, how they set their ombusure. So it's a muscle memory thing in that regard. Okay, so it doesn't really designate how far you can do the the feet apart. What it is is they memorize what it feels like with the resistance band, which in turn makes their feet correct. That's like the coolest thing I've ever heard. Yes, well, everything's exploding right now.

SPEAKER_02 18:10

I mean, it's like you're saying uh when we're playing a trumpet, but everything that we do is physical, even playing an instrument is physical. So, and you learn how to do that as you as you do it over and over. We needed something to help on the marching part of it because it's it's a short time. Kids, we don't see them for the summer, and then they come back, and then we're expecting them to do uh the things that they're doing and still play well. Play so you know this past year and it really helped us out. If you if you watch the videos, and we were fortunate when we were we made it to to state this year, and uh, but I only had four trumpets. I had one French horn, and if you listen to the kids playing, they sounded they sound like it's a larger section.

SPEAKER_01 18:54

Nice, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:56

A lot of people would would say, oh, you have uh you know a great trumpet section. That's it. Well, we have four kids and they all play really well. And then we had one one mellow player that that plays extremely well, and then meant and the kids just really worked at it. It just built that physical part and uh for the marching, but it uh it also showed up through our plane as we went through the season. We we uh realized that how all this was just working together. You know, we started off with one thing, but it just the functionality of it, and it just every bit of that showed up uh through our plane also later on.

SPEAKER_00 19:30

So well, Michael, can you talk to me a little bit about the buy-in on this? Uh, how did you I mean you show up with these bands, you're like, guys, look at this. And they're like, Oh man, but I mean, my assumption is not having worked with them before, after a while you don't think about it. I mean, you put them on, and that's just kind of how you go through rehearsal. But was there any buy-in involved in explaining why and what and how?

SPEAKER_02 19:55

And well, two years ago when we were beginning to implement it, that was there's like, oh, this is hard, this is hard. So we thought, we'll we'll start next year and I'll make sure that I'll start with my leaders. So in that leadership camp, we put them on. I explained everything that um all the things it was going to do for us. I, you know, I have all these written down kind of like this. Uh, the things I'll show you this. I have what we call, I told my kids I came up with this, I wrote everything out, our seven pillar systems to our great band. So came up with the first things and to get the kids going and thinking the same way. We came up with our culture and came up with seven things that we were looking to uh for all of us to to follow. And so there, and we just kind of embraced that. And one for one of the very first things I told them is be a thinker, you know, be passionate. It was another one about what you're doing with your God-given gifts. You know, be be feel your emotions. I tell the kids, feel your emotions, let it let it come out through your music, let it come out through the body movements. You need to show that passion. Um uh have a heart for others. We spend a lot of time together, we work together, we travel together throughout this football season, make sure that we're being positive with each other, we're building each other up. Um, you know, we talk about progress over perfection. It's always about progress. Just just continue to to uh try to improve. And and I added this on number seven was keep your lamps filled. Of course, you know that from the Bible about the keeping the oil in the lamps. Well, I told the kids, keep your lamps filled because we are on a time schedule. Contest is here. If you want area, if you get the area, the contest is here. If you're going to stay, contest is here. So you need to be prepared, just like that story in the Bible is, and have your oil prepared, ready as you get ready for those things. You know, we we everything is set up on that time schedule. We know when it's going to happen. And so we don't want to any time, we don't want to waste time. We talk about that and make sure that everything that we do with the little amount of time that we have, always always point out it's important because this is our block of time. Others have twice as much time. So our time has to be really efficient and it has to be, you know, we got to progress, and we can't waste any of that. We need to make sure we're always striving to get better. And I tell the kids, let's rep greatness. You can't be great unless you rep it. So let's do our best every day. And and so that was part of the buy-in. We we talked about that and we the kids agreed. And then we just started using the bands and we started uh to uh go through the movements and made sure they understood it. Uh we try to get our our leaders are required to teach the others an intersection, especially the freshmen as they're coming in, uh the fundamentals, so we can get that bonding between the the leaders and and uh the rest of the band. And we always talk about having a heart for others. So one of the big quotes we have is uh a mind when stretched to a new idea never goes back to its original dimensions. That's awesome. And so we anytime we learn something, I'll ask the kids, what did you just learn? And the kids will say, We stretched our minds. I said, You'll never be the same, you'll never be the same. So anything we learn or anything, whether it's drill related or music related, if we accomplish it, if we if we've gotten through it, we've we've done something different. That's one of the things we talk about. And the kids they recognize I said, Well, you'll never be the same. You've learned something, you've expanded your thinking. And that was part of it. And I'm not going through the whole thing, but I I have a the next thing was seven pillars to performance. These are seven things, and I'll tell my kids we're multitaskers, and so because we're we're multitaskers, but and for us to be great performers, you we're doing seven things at the same time, if you think about that. So if you do, if you miss one, you'll be good. If you miss two, maybe three, you're okay. If you're missing more than that, you're we got a lot to work on. So if you want to be a great performer, we talk about you got to have steady pulse, you know, you gotta be you gotta have good tempo, is how fast and how slow. So we tell the kids it's not the same as pulse. Pulse is one thing, you got to have good tempo. Tone, you got to have a great tone, of course. And there's other little things we talk about, but this is the uh part of it. Uh rhythm, rhythm, and uh rhythm accuracy, you've got to have that. You got to be balanced with your section, with your band, and you're always listening. So we're always doing those things. You got to understand your style, and everybody's playing the same style. And then we talk about musicality, is one of those. And it's not in order for seven, it's just the seven things we have. Then under musicality, we put what part are you playing? Melody, harmony, accompaniment, is it rhythmical, is it percussive in nature? Is it a drone? Is it a pedal point? Is it a color tone or is it chordal? Is it non-chordal device? Is it a passing tone? Is it dissonance? Is it suspension? And then we got to talk about dynamics and length of notes. So all of that under that heading. So tell the kids all of that is happening while you're playing to be a great performer. Well, here's the next thing. We tell them we have seven things to become a great marching band that you have to do marching-wise, on top of the seven things we have to do to perform. So if you don't do the seven things marching, then the performance, the music will be affected. And so the bands, we tell we tell the kids these are what this is what the band's going to is going to help us do with the marching portion. So we talk about being in step, having correct horn angles for marching, the body posture for you know, our body movement, uh, being on temple, having your ankles crossed on on the upbeat, the heel placement. Um, what part of the beat does that happen? Um, uniformity, making sure we're all look the same. Um, your set placement where you're where you're arriving, your form, your spacing, and then the choreography, the counts, the uniformity, all those things have to happen. There's seven things right there, along with the other seven things. So we have 14 things I tell the kids to be a great marching band, you have to do simultaneously to make sure. And so that's what we're working on every day. So we we we talk about rehearsal being in focus. We need to make sure we're in focus so we can make sure we can cover as many of these things on every rep that we take to make sure we're we're repping greatness. Otherwise, if you leave out steps, then it's gonna be harder and harder as you go along to create that. So I always tell our kids, whatever we will never outperform what we do in a rehearsal. So we have to rehearse at a certain way if we want to have a great performance later. So, and then I went with seven more things to tell them, seven more things for the resistance bands. This is what the resistance bands do for us. We said I told them um you feel the physical movement, which is the left and right, because not everybody has that pulse, you know, if they play video games, like as you were saying earlier, we've got to teach them how to feel that. Everybody has that because they they do play video games. And I told kids, you know, you guys are really smart. Those video games of today are hard. It's not Atari, you know, one button, one little joystick. And so, and they're able to process that and and figure those things out pretty quick. I said, you should be able to do seven things with the marching, seven things with music. It's just just teaching your brain what to think about so you don't have to think about it later as you go through the process. Because we we can't stop and think about each one, but those are all things that that as you're going through, you're firing through all that sequence to make sure you have those things going. So the next thing on on the resistance band, I told them it's gonna help us learn to be a better straight leg marching band. It's gonna give us cardio, which in turn is going to give us better breathing. So we're gonna be able to provide uh with a better tone and everything. Um, it's gonna strengthen our legs, our core. It's gonna help our posture. So we talked about that. The next thing is it's gonna strengthen our arms and our shoulders, as if you're using on your upper body. Um, and we're gonna have great balance. We're gonna have strength, stronger body movements because of it. And here's the thing that we discovered through the season it helped us with our foot articulation. So the foot didn't show up in our sound as much as it had in in previous groups or previous bands, previous years. So that helped out with that because with the bands above your knees, you can't really lift your legs, like we said, the bicycle and everything else. So it helps to keep that in in place. And that's that's how we we kind of incorporated that. And I went through all that and explained all those steps to make sure that they understood what what we were clearly going for.

SPEAKER_00 28:59

All right, Mr. Mooney. There's some assumption here on my part. So you are welcome to say no and correct me. But see if see if I'm following somebody's along. See, I'm in my 60s now, but I can still, if you say I need to know five yards, give me eight steps, I'll nail five yards for you because that's how I did that for 15 years in high junior high, high school, and college. So my body knows how to do that. Right. What I think is so cool about these bands is it kind of takes some of the mental process out of how far should I go? Because it teaches you. I mean, when you feel that resistance, you're you're subconsciously learning. Is that a right term? Is there a better term for that? You're learning it, but without going, wait, am I learning that? And so your seven parts of performance, you can think about other things once your body gets used. Am I saying that right? Once your body gets used to what it's supposed to feel like, you don't have to think about that part anymore.

SPEAKER_02 30:00

That's right. That's exactly right. And so a lot of a lot of the movements that we have are marching, it's adjusted step. And so we tell the kids, and you know, a few years ago I was doing boxes. I don't do boxes anymore, I do triangles. I do version, I do different uh versions of a triangle, and and we incorporate as we're doing our warm, I can do my warm-up with our marching warm-up that way with the triangles. If I need to work on something, articulation or whatever else is built in into it, or dynamics, uh, whatever that we're doing, we can we can put it into there and put body movements into it. So instead of doing 32 count box, I'm doing triangles, which really mimics more of what we're doing on the field. And the the way you do the triangles, you can do them in different ways. So there's all the different triangles, and it works really well, and it translates really well to what we're doing on the on um as we're marching and learning our show. So I I do have a degree in uh psychology and sociology. That's what I did and and before I became a band director. I went back and got a music degree, so I worked in that in a psychiatric institute for a few years. So the psychology part of it is really important. So training the kids' minds and teaching them to think. And I'll tell the kids we we need to think. You know, we talk about our phones, and I said the phones weren't meant to be our entertainment, or the phones were meant to be just a way of communicating. Utilitarian, right? Yes, and now uh, you know, a lot of everything, a lot of things come through that. And so I just tell the kids we're we're just trying to train our mind as we're doing things musically, because we, you know, and I always tell my athletes this. I said, I'm not dissing football or any other sports, but ban is the intelligence sport because you are required to do all of these things, these 14 things you have to do, the movement that you are doing and carrying all the instruments that you're doing and and still play very, you know, as precise and as musical as possible, that requires a lot of intelligence happening at the same time.

SPEAKER_00 32:08

Mike, Mike Lenny, yeah. Can you see the practicality of this as you look back, how this could have shaped or helped or um the just the positive, I can't see any negative to the band.

SPEAKER_01 32:24

Yeah, I tell you what, once we're through with this podcast, I'm gonna get on Amazon and order me some uh resistance bands from Iron Core. Yeah, it it does so many things that uh that we articulate to them, but it only goes to the front part of their brain. You know what I mean? Engage your quads, you know, engage your core muscles, stabilize this, you know, kind of thing. And it's it's with a resistance band, you don't have to say all that. It's just like uh now trying to.

SPEAKER_00 32:54

Even when you say all that, I've never done that before. I don't know what that means. Yeah, I don't know what I'm what I'm doing, but what am I trying to feel? How do I know that I've done that?

SPEAKER_01 33:02

So the difference, the big difference is to me, the difference is trying to explain to someone how to swim by talking to them or by throwing them in the water and the resistance bands, and not to be too blunt, but it's like throwing them in the water. It's like it's like, okay, you got this on. Now you can't move your leg that way. We don't have to talk about that anymore. You know, now how did that feel when you did your rhom de jam? Exactly. Now, now copy that feeling in your legs. Now, let's do that 10 times. Now, when you take the band off, because you're not going to wear them in performance, then you should have the same feeling in those muscle groups. The other thing it does for you is uh, to me, what I see it, is it doesn't just engage the larger muscle groups, it's all the little tiny muscles that help stabilize our balance and our spine and our shoulders. It's not just the the glutes and the lats and the deltoids, it's it's like all those little tiny muscle groups that uh that are they're so important in what we do, and we try to teach that to them, but man, this is such a better way of teaching them. You know, it's like a toddler learning how to walk. You don't explain to the toddler how to walk.

SPEAKER_02 34:17

Right.

SPEAKER_01 34:19

They memorize what it feels like to be on their feet, and they memorize what it feels like to balance their body. We don't explain to a uh 12-month-old child, now engage your core. Now make sure that your feet are flat and have equal weight on both feet. You know, you just let them walk and fall and walk and fall and walk and fall and walk and fall, and finally they walk. And the resistance bands kind of do that for us in marching. I think it's absolutely brilliant. I can't see the one thing we talked about previously, too, was uh you mentioned that you use this not just as a fundamental warm-up thing, but they'll wear it in in rehearsal during times in order to replicate that same feeling. Could you go into that a little bit for us, Michael?

SPEAKER_02 35:02

Uh honestly, we keep them on 90 about 97% of the time.

SPEAKER_01 35:08

Wow. So I wouldn't I wouldn't have guessed that. This blow my mind.

SPEAKER_02 35:13

You know, Monday night rehearsals, we keep them on then, you know, for warming up. I even use these uh in the parking lot getting ready for for uh read for region band. You know, we're out in the parking lot warming up playing. We're still using them. Take them off, then we'll go perform. Uh at state when we're in the tunnel downstairs, we used them there. We we carried them with us because it's just something our kids are used to and they, you know, we expect it now. And so we use that to really warm up the body, get the legs moving. Um, and then we took them off and went out and performed. So, and and you know, last year what I was really impressed with with our kids. We only had 12 seniors, and I had more than half of my band were freshmen. So think about that. Freshmen performing that way and doing all these, uh, all the body movement that we were learning, and it just helped shorten the time for that. Um, our freshmen were really involved in it. Uh some of the visuals that we had that we performed on the field, uh, were actually uh I I give the kids, I give them a bank of uh movements that we we were going to perform, and then they come up with the choreography. And the kids were the ones that were doing. They watched DCI, they watched, you know, the the winter guard and uh winter winds and all those things, and they came up with this. And I'll, of course, we approve it and we make sure that if they can't perform it and they can't show us, then that's probably something we're not going to use. They need to be able to do this to show us they can do it, and as they're playing their music, show us how this would work. And if you can do it, then yeah, then others can do it.

SPEAKER_01 36:46

And so what you're doing with them there is is awesome because that's kind of uh feeds into their TikTok mindset. You know, they want to learn the TikTok dances, so it's like if they watch DCI and WGI or whatever, and then they say, Well, we can just copy that. You know, we're not getting so far into the weeds of count 14.6 is where you know, no, just do what they do, just make it make it fit. I like that.

SPEAKER_00 37:12

But the other thing I like that you said, Mr. Munoz, is and and again, this is me thinking all the time while somebody else is talking, so that's my trumpet. Sorry. Um, but you you bring the familiar with you to those unfamiliar places when the adrenaline's rushing, when the oh my gosh, here we are in in San Antonio is and suddenly you're like, it's the same step. It's the same, you just do the same thing, but when they put that band on, they're like, Oh, okay, there's the familiar. I got it, I can relax. Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01 37:42

Yes, and logistically, Michael, um, what you said they carry them with them. How do they carry them with them like when they're in the tunnel? Because when we were in the tunnel, we just took selfies. Oh well, we actually have a you're you're much more uh efficient than Mr. Lenny was. I know they bring their phones. I said, just take some selfies, just relax.

SPEAKER_02 38:05

We can add just a milk, you know, just a crate.

SPEAKER_01 38:08

Ah I see so they're not they're not physically carrying them on their body anywhere. Should they just grab them and use them and they throw them back in there?

SPEAKER_02 38:15

Back in here, yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01 38:16

Are there different bands for different size kids?

SPEAKER_02 38:19

Uh no, there's only one size fit fits all.

SPEAKER_01 38:22

Okay. Um and that makes sense because they just have to memorize their muscle memory. Right.

SPEAKER_00 38:27

Everybody learns what that feels like for themselves. So yes, sir.

SPEAKER_02 38:31

And so one, these are the two that I use. This is heavy. This was extra heavy. So the extra heavy is pretty tough on the upper body. Great on the legs, but this works great on the legs too. This because this has enough resistance too. The extra heavy may be a little bit too much at the beginning.

SPEAKER_01 38:49

Okay. So, but yeah, that makes perfect sense because when you first showed those at the beginning of our podcast, I was thinking maybe the extra heavy was for kids that were stronger. And the, but no, it's just like you tell everyone get the heavy band. Yes. Or everyone get the extra heavy band. Okay, I'm with you now. I'm with you.

SPEAKER_00 39:06

I bet your kids have hip flexors that won't quit.

SPEAKER_02 39:10

It's it's helped out a lot.

SPEAKER_01 39:11

And you know, as we went along, the better dates to homecoming and everything, man. They're just in shape, man. They're they're looking slim and trim.

SPEAKER_00 39:21

That's funny. Well, it's just a matter of finding them, buying them, and and getting after it. And I don't know an easier way to say that. What a great concept. Uh, Michael, I appreciate you taking time um fighting through some of the uh the the thought processes for us of because you know, I've sat there listening this is transparent moment, sorry, Mr. Lenny, listen to him talk about all the physical movement they do, and I'm like, I couldn't keep up. I could you you guys do so much now that you know we bowed with our instruments and thought, man, we are awesome.

SPEAKER_01 40:01

Importance for the bunnies was our choreography.

SPEAKER_00 40:04

Lenny's talked about they're one of the first groups in DCI that just raised their hand and looked at the sky and everybody freaked out because that body movement.

SPEAKER_01 40:12

Yeah, the judges were pissed. They didn't know what to do with this.

SPEAKER_00 40:16

So, but what a great practical way to say, listen, even to our young directors who are just starting this, or to somebody that's you know, one of the purposes of what we do, uh, Mr. Munoz, is for people that, and you know, Denver City is kind of one of those cities. If you're out there kind of on your own trying to figure this stuff out, what a great tool. Yes, what a great tool to teach your kids, and especially some of these guys, like you say, you got kids coming from way out. Yes. Uh there's some schools I know that the school is the town, and nobody lives in the town, they just come to the school. So while you've got them there, man, how a great facilitator, and it probably speeds the process up tremendously. So it does. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 41:05

Michael, how much does each band cost approximately? Because I know band directors will be thinking budgets and whatever. Do the kids buy them? Does the band buy them?

SPEAKER_02 41:14

Uh the band uh has bought these, so I actually don't know that's a lie. Uh honest, I'm gonna tell you, Julie and I bought them. Julie and I bought them. I wanted to get these and I didn't use my budget. Yeah, we bought those. They come 10, 10 for uh in a package for 19. Oh my gosh, that's yeah. So that's an I don't care, it's an investment in my kids, and it it's helped them. And you know, and yeah, we we we went ahead and got them, bought them because I wanted to make sure that the year before when we were trying to do this, they brought different bands and they were all different. They didn't all fit the same, they weren't all the same resistance, and and that doesn't necessarily build to me. I thought about it, build in unity. We we look different. We were trying to teach them we have to look the same and do things. So I thought, well, I'm gonna buy these and make sure. And I'm not saying that you need to buy them personally, but uh I just wanted to repeat it. It was worth the money. Yes, yeah, we look the same, and no one, you know, that that sort of thing that yeah, we're starting with unity. We're all using the same band here, so we're gonna all look the same and we're gonna work at this.

SPEAKER_00 42:21

And it it probably takes the stigma away from mine doesn't look like yours, is mine as good as yours. Everybody's got the same thing. Yeah, yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01 42:29

And Michael, over the years, you know, we've we've judged each other's bands, we've been colleagues, we've competed against each other. I've always been so impressed by you and Julie's bands, um musicality-wise, obviously, but it's still a marching band, just the sheer physicality of your band has always been a notch above most bands. And I can only see this like giving you even more of an edge in uh just performance, not even competition. Um but I I tell you what, there's situations where I was working a 3A band like the week before state marching, and the director asked me, said, How can we fix this moment here in the show? And I just had to turn off the mic and tell him, said, You can't.

SPEAKER_02 43:09

Right.

SPEAKER_01 43:10

Your band does not have the simple strength to make this happen. So you're either gonna have to change it or live with it and take the hit and the rubric. So, uh, and what you're presenting is a system in which we're not spending 30 minutes of PT and uh beating kids down to the asphalt, you know, or the the deck, you know, to do it. It's like to them, I could see most kids seeing it more as a a game. You know, it's like what can I do with these on? So I I tell you what, the you listeners out there, man, jump on this if you want to compete with uh Denver City. The other thing I would do is you better get after it.

SPEAKER_00 43:47

The mental side of that too is they're not telling themselves to create we're exercising.

SPEAKER_01 43:52

They don't even think about whether they're exercising or I'm glad you said it that way, Derek, because that's exactly what I was thinking. Because my band, every time we'd start PT, they're like, this is why we join band to avoid this crap. You know, now let's do little forward lunges, let's do planks, let's do uh half and half drills. It's like, put on your band and let's march. Let's do our brilliant. I know your wife tells you that all the time, but you know, because you are brilliant.

SPEAKER_00 44:19

Do you have a problem? I'm sure there's gonna be more questions that I didn't have.

SPEAKER_02 44:23

Yes, uh you okay with people reaching out to you to yes, you know, we all teach kids, we all need help with our programs, and I'm I'm all for kids being successful. That's how you know we're gonna we're gonna be a group a better uh place in the world, you know. And so we want our kids to be successful. I want a band kid's a band kid, you know. Yeah, if we compete against them, okay. We just have to do our our do our thing, and then they're doing their thing. But we want all kids to have a great experience with this as 100% agree, man.

SPEAKER_00 44:57

Appreciate you taking your time this morning, sir. I know it's uh as we record this, it's summertime. You got plenty of stuff that you can be doing. So thank you for sharing some time with us. Uh, Mike, any last things you want to throw in there?

SPEAKER_01 45:09

Man, I just appreciate you greatly. This has just made my mind blow, and it's 63. It's hard to make my mind get blown. You know, because everything's like what we've already done, and let's reinvent the wheel. This is something brand new. So, man, I appreciate you helping us. We need to get together and work out together, man. We're we're both on a fitness journey.

SPEAKER_00 45:28

You know, I I throw cliches out all the time, but this sure does fit the mold of smarter, not harder. Yeah. So awesome. All right, brother. You have an awesome day, great summer. I hope you'll come back and visit with us some more if you if you uh are willing to do that. I enjoy listening to you. Mr. Lenny, hope you have a wonderful week. We'll all talk again soon. It'll be fun.