Twirling Baton

As embarrassing as it may sound, and look for that matter, I used to twirl baton. You may usually hear from your friends how their parents enrolled them in gymanstics, basketball, or piano lessons. And while I participated in a few of those activites, my main focus was baton twirling. I would perform at fairs, in pageants, community events, all while wearing hand-sewn crushed velvet and sequenced outfits with frilly skirts and fringe. Yeah, I was a big deal. So I gathered up a few of my roommates, grabbed my baton case, and tried to teach them how big of a deal I was.

While trying to teach my friends the art of twirling, I thought back to the little tricks and helpful hints my teacher would give me. Phrases such as "stir the witches brew" and "one scoop vanilla, one scoop chocolate," came back to me in familiarity as I attempted to relate my knowledge to my students. Simple explanations such as these phrases made the learning experience much easier and more relateable. I found that as I explained things at their level that they were able to follow along easier, which I can see being true in most learning experiences. Especially as a seven year old holding a baton for the first time, learning by example and familiarity improved the rate of my knowledge and the quality of my knowledge. It wasn't from any book or complex lingo that I was able to learn most effeciently but the one on one experience that comes from the mother tongue.


By slowly guiding my roommates along through simple or complex steps, they were able to catch on to the baton jargon and techniques such as "double spins" or "thumb flips." I could also see that by teaching the basic steps of twirling first, I was able to lead them to harder tricks with more ease, which is true in most teaching I would believe. It was interesting to see the different ways in which my friends responded to me as I showed them different tricks or techniques. They were more ready to do things that they were comfortable or familiar with.


Baton started originally in dance festivals where they used different objects such as knives or torches. Those instruments then progressed to maces which were used by the leader of an army and later by the leader of a parade. It further evolved to the international sport it is today through the perfecting of the baton instrument. (History)