This November Drum Corps International CEO Dan Acheson joined seven other speakers in presenting at the 8th Annual Hilliard Discussion hosted by the Huffines Institute for Sports Medicine and Human Performance on the campus of Texas A&M University.

Invited presenters and audience members at the annual event are national leaders and thinkers in the fields of human performance and sports medicine, sharing ideas on what is the cutting edge in each industry.

Acheson’s presentation, “Getting In Step With the Largest Team on Campus,” shined a light on the physical demands of marching band and drum corps, raising awareness of the lack of resources available to and studies on marching musicians that have long been a part of athletes who are involved with more mainstream team sports.

“It's an over-evolved and under-researched activity as it relates to the demands on the performer's body, mind, and spirit,” Acheson said during the November 2 presentation that was broadcast to universities across the country. “It is also not as well supported by current sports medicine resources, as you might expect it would be, related to prevention and treatment issues … Marching music, could benefit greatly from the current knowledge that sports medicine and human development specialists have in this field.”

Huffines recently published Acheson’s presentation in its entirety online.