What are chicken arms? - Chicken arms are a improper technique that flaggers do when their flag is being used on in one hand/or the flag is tossed. Arms should be at your side in blades when not on the flag. When a flagger has chicken wings/arms one or both arms are not in proper position when not touching the flag, e.g. flat at your side in blades.

Why does this happen? - Most new flaggers tend to do this simply because they are not used to keeping their arms and hands flat at their sides. Otherwise, I see it as an unintentional fear response; Sometimes flaggers don’t feel confident in a move and feel the need to keep one of their arms up in case the flag hits them or they drop it. I see this most often in tosses, someone is scared of the flag hitting them, so instead of keeping their arms and hands at their sides in blades, they keep one or both arms slightly up in chicken wings because they are worried about how the move will turn out.

Why is this improper technique? - You need to remember that we are not colorguard, we are a flag team which means we are a drill based sport. We focus on cleanness and sharpness of moves, and part of what makes our moves clean is where we place our arms and hands when they are not being used. Uniformity and sharpness are key to having a successful and dynamic performance. It also is a safety measure, you are much less likely to ever hit your arm if it is flat at your side.

How do I fix this? - First thing I suggest is that flaggers take a video of themselves performing moves or a routine. Often times, new flaggers aren’t quite used to where to put their hands and so they don’t notice that what they are doing is improper and why it doesn’t look clean. Performing in front of a mirror is also very helpful, noticing how your body looks when you are doing the technique properly can be

Sharpness

Chicken Arms