How to Do a Color Guard Toss

The toss is a basic of any color guard routine. Flag moves usually make up most of a routine, while combinations involving rifle and saber tosses make up the rest. Good scoring depends on a team's ability to execute tosses. Read on to learn how to do a color guard toss.

Things You'll Need

  • Color guard rifle
  • Color guard flag
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Instructions

  1. Do a Single Rifle Toss

    • 1

      Hold the rifle in front of you, belly high. Your left palm should be facing up and your right palm should be on the butt of the rifle, facing down.

    • 2

      Push down on the butt of the rifle with your right hand, while pulling up with your left hand.

    • 3

      Release the rifle when the butt is front of your face and the nose is pointed at your feet, so that it does one full airborne rotation.

    • 4

      Catch the rifle with your right palm at the neck and left palm at the nose. Learn about rifle tosses by watching toss tutorials at the Color Guard Central website. See the Resources section below for a link.

    Do a Double Rifle Toss

    • 5

      Hold the rifle the same way you did in the single rifle toss.

    • 6

      Push down on the butt of the rifle with your right hand, a little bit harder than you did with the single toss so that it will rotate twice in the air.

    • 7

      Release the rifle when the nose is pointed toward your feet as you did in the single rifle toss.

    • 8

      Catch the rifle as you did in the single toss, with your right palm on the neck and left at the nose.

    Do a Single-and-a-Half Flag Toss

    • 9

      Hold the flagpole, flag pointed toward the ground, with your right hand, palm-up, at the point where the flag and the pole meet. Your right hand should be at your right hip.

    • 10

      Take your left hand and grasp the pole, palm-down so that your left hand is at your left shoulder and the pole is in a diagonal line with your body.

    • 11

      Push your elbows out and push down with your left hand while pulling up with your right hand so that the flag moves above your head.

    • 12

      Let go of the flag, tossing it so that it rotates in the air.

    • 13

      Catch the flag so that the flag is at your left shoulder and your hands are in opposite positions from where you started.