Exhibition Drill For The Military Drill Team, Vol. II

By John K. Marshall

Exhibition Drill For The Military Drill Team, Vol II, is an excellent resource for those who have very little to no drill experience and yet still contains information for those experienced in drill. Written in an easy to understand style, one could actually build a team from scratch using Volumes I and II and be extremely competitive. With John Marshall's vast amount of experience in pageantry arts, and specifically military drill, this book is a valuable asset. Exhibition Drill for the Military Drill Team, Vol II is a continuation of the new canon in drill performance theory developed by The DrillMaster.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Feb 17, 2024
• ISBN: 9781304610348

Book preview

Foreword

This, my fourth book, is a continuation of my first, Exhibition Drill for the Military Drill Team, Vol. I, (Let’s call it XDII and Vol. I, XDI) published in 2009. In that book I tried to lay down a foundation from which mainly unarmed soloists and teams could work, now I’m trying to build on that foundation. Using these two books will give you a firm understanding of the fundamentals of routine creation and performing. You will also gain a beginning understanding of visual adjudication.

For a complete understanding of military drill routine creation and performance of all kinds and the best in visual adjudication, read all of my books; they are the very first and, so far, the only ones available addressing all aspects of military drill.

I want to pass on my knowledge and years of experience as a Driller, instructor, designer and visual adjudicator to you, the reader. It is my pleasure to serve, teach and write and it is my honor that you have purchased this, my fourth book.

John K. Marshall

The DrillMaster

CHAPTER 1:

DRILL TEAM/DRILLER INFORMATION

The Professional Driller

I started a group on Facebook in December 2008 called, Military Drill Professionals (please join, if you’d like). My aim was to get Drillers together to discuss the professional aspects of drill including the Driller, competitions and judging.

What is a professional Driller? When one thinks of the word, professional, one can think of the idea of getting paid for what one does, but that is not the direction of where I am thinking professional Drillers are. I’m looking at the word as opposed to a Driller being, unprofessional.

A Professional Driller is one who acts in a professional manner. One can create a code of conduct, which may actually be of some use, however, I’d like to look at the word and then attempt to have you, the reader, make up your own mind. The following is from Merriam-Webster, www.m-w.com, taken December 13, 2010.

Professional

Following a line of conduct as though it were a profession

Professionalism

The conduct, aims, or qualities that characterize or mark a profession or a professional person

So, the conduct of a Driller is essential to this definition. When you are a Driller, you are an example. Actually, you are an example to others no matter what you do, but in this case, being a Driller, you are an example to even more people. Establish acceptable parameters for yourself as an individual Driller or for your team.

Exhibition Drill: Building from the Foundation

Defining terms: We can define the word, Exhibition, as, A public showing. So, technically, all drill (Exhibition, Regulation & Color Guard) is exhibition drill.

The word, Exhibition, has been given a narrow definition (what some call, ugh, Fancy Drill), but we still have the broader definition as mentioned above. We can say that all teams are exhibition teams because for Drillers, exhibition is anything not specifically spelled out in a service's regulation on drill and ceremonies and teams are created for public showing. So a service drill team is in fact an exhibition team, but has a non-competitive purpose (only for show) which leads us to a sub-classification of Ceremonial. We can now begin to fully classify teams.

All teams are exhibition teams.

All mostly-non-competitive teams are more ceremonial (This is not to say that this type of team could not compete, it's just not their main function as seen in the writing of their program.)

We could say the following examples are Ceremonial Exhibition Teams:

King's Guard, Hawaii

The US service Drill Teams

HMKG, Norway

New Guard America

A good rule of thumb for the length of a noncompetitive performance is:

Solo, 2-3 minutes

2-9 Drillers, 5-7 minutes

10+ Drillers, up to 10 minutes

The creation process starts with knowing what you want to accomplish. Four to 8 Drillers is a big difference when you actually sit down to put something on paper. Pick a number, stick with it and go from there. Writing movement first can help lead the way to layering equipment on top.

Things to consider for a performance:

Size of the performance area

Height of the ceiling

Lighting

Competitive or exhibition?

Audience type

Nothing but Drillers out there? Have a routine that breaks boundaries.

Retired military and their spouses make up the audience? They will be happy with whatever you present.

Distance from the audience

You don’t want to go onto a stage with a great deal of distance from the audience with a tetrad (4-5 Drillers) with two members having their backs to the audience for most of the performance.

Always, always, always think of safety: how far is the audience away from you on every side. Obstacles on the floor or hanging from the ceiling, etc.

Display a wide vocabulary and minimize repetition. Of course, for a competitive performance, use the competition’s Standard Operating Procedure.

Work for balance in the routine:

Depending on the team size and drill area, mix drill with weapon handling instead of standing in one spot and working on weapon handling alone. Try to avoid, march-stop-spin, march-stop-spin, etc. Body movement, marching and equipment manipulation is called, layered responsibilities.

Vary the tempo in the performance. A constant 90 beats-per-minute cadence for 8 minutes can cause the audience to lose interest very quickly.

One more thing to consider: There is no such thing as filler in a performance unless you are just playing around and have not worked on your routine. Filler = monkey drill = impromptu/make-it-up-on-the-spot drill. You want to plan each and every moment of your routine.

Practice Does Not Make Perfect!

Practice makes permanent!

What you do in practice is what you will do in a performance.

A great example of practice not making perfect is my old high school rival drill team, Tolleson High School (AZ). The year was either 1982 or 1983, at the competition at the end of the Regulation phase, the Tolleson Unarmed Drill Team, while still in the competition area, split and either flanked or executed a column movement with squads one and two going left and squads three and four going right. My team from Agua Fria high school won. But why would the Tolleson drill team do such a thing? After all, they’re Marines and were so extremely sharp! I’ll tell you why: Their practice drill area was right next to a wall and they had positioned the team so that their exit was toward the wall and all of the girls on the team knew exactly what to do and when to do it without a command and that’s what they did at every single practice, split while inside the drill area. Big mistake. I bet it never happened again!

Reporting-in or -out:

Whatever you say, ENUNCIATE! I hate it when I'm judging and the first word that comes to mind after hearing a report is, What?. Don’t scream, don’t pump your shoulders up and down, and don’t run your words together!

An excellent example of a perfect report-in is Norwich University’s drill team commander; no matter what year or who the commander is, the report-in is methodical, interestingly informative, very well projected, enunciated and clear enough for everyone to hear within a large area.

Use your diaphragm which is right under your lungs. Put your hand on your abdomen while practicing giving commands. When you feel your muscles tighten and pushing the air out of your lungs then you know you are not calling commands from your throat.

Take care of your voice! Before a competition, don’t have any dairy products as they tend to create mucous that can impair your voice. Eat foods that will have lasting energy benefits and don’t drink sugary drinks that will give you a short energy boost and leave you flat.

Speaking When Spoken To

Question Responses

Have standard responses for the questions that you may be asked; especially questions that a Driller may not know:

Sir (Ma’am), this cadet does not know the answer to that question, but will make every effort to ascertain the answer. Sir (Ma’am)!

Don’t let the judge bully or fluster you. The questions are a mind game. Treat it like that, but always be professional. Study, answer to the best of your ability and practice!

What not to Say

You may have seen the video posted on YouTube where a Marine Sergeant is screaming at the cadet commander of the West Point drill team. All the Sergeant wants him to say is, Aye, aye, Sir! But that is not an Army saying, that is a Navy/Marine Corps saying. The cadet does not have to say that. The Marine is dead wrong. However, there is something else that is very apparent in the video: possible arrogance on the part of the West Point cadet when he says to the Marine (his inspector/judge), As you were, Sir. This sends the Marine into a fury that cannot be recovered from since this is tantamount to an insult.

Nowhere in any military manual is anyone ever instructed to tell anyone else As you were, Sir (or Ma'am). The statement, as you were, is only used when a commander of an element (platoon, color guard, etc.), makes a mistake and wants the members of that element to return to the previous position or the position.

On a similar note, there is no such thing as the statement, As I was. This, to me, doesn't even make sense.

Commands

When I was stationed at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona I was assigned to the base honor guard and served on the team for many months. When I first arrived I saw the drill team practicing. The commander of the team was an Airman who had JROTC experience. He did a fine job with what he knew in creating the team's routine. I eventually modified the routine and the first to go