So last year we got new instructors. Most of our non-competition saturdays, mostly in the beginning, were 9am to 6pm. But this year we started having 9am-9pm practices. We rehearse 9-12 and take an hour for lunch. Then we rehearse 1-5 and take an hour for dinner. Then we rehearse til 9. It may seem OK for one saturday but this is almost every saturday up until competitions are consistent every week.
It's very exhausting but we get alot accomplished and our dinner is always cooked by the guard mommies.

Has anyone ever experienced a strait 12 hour practice?
What are your practices like?

We have 10 hour practices on saturdays. usually from about 8am to 6pm. We started out with hour long lunches but slowly our coaches shortened them to half hour/15 min lunches, we've never had dinners though.

Like you we got alot done, but near the end of the season we started to fight from spending so much time together, but my guard doesnt' get along too well to begin with. We also have a major problem with burnout cause it requires so much time than our coach usually tells us to begin with.

Yup, when I marched in an independent guard we did 12 hour practices every saturday, 9am-9pm. We would get 30 minutes to an hour for lunch and dinner as well as 10 minute breaks every couple hours. We also had 5 hour practices friday night from 7-midnight, and then sundays usually another 5-6 hour practice, like 9am-2pm. It made for some crazy busy weekends, but I loved it! I'm so glad i had the experience, because now with college and work, there's no way I'd be able to give that much time to guard, as much as I love it.

When I did my high school winter guard, we would do 8 hour practices every sunday from noon - 8pm. Then we'd also have 3 hour practice on mondays and thursdays after school, so not as much, but we were at a much lower level and it was our first year competing. It was still fun though!

ive gotten my share of twelve hour practices....9-9. theyre brutal but not impossible. what stinks though is on the last week of winter break, we have 5 9-9s in a row! those are always fun lol. but as long as you love what you are doing it isnt bad at all =]

When I marched, we rehearsed from noon to midnight every Saturday.

For marching band, band camp for us is two weeks, 9AM to 9PM. We got 9 to 12, one hour lunch break, 1-4, two hour dinner break, and then 6-9. Our all-day rehearsals are the same, and then normal 6-9 rehearsals.