For decades the only requirement to be qualified to judge a military drill competition was graduation from a service’s Basic Training. That’s it. You’re now able to rank and rate and assign a score to what you see on the competitive field. And what’s better is if you are a Drill/Training Instructor or on an honor guard. Somehow, you are …
Armed Driller Alternatives
‘Part One’ of this post is here: Psst, Hey Buddy. Armed Exhibition Drill Rifles for Sale The above blog post is great if you want to buy a demilitarized rifle or even a working 1903, M14 or M1 Garand, but what else is out there and are these alternatives right for military drill? Well, let’s look and see: Let’s start …
How to Switch Sides During a Column Movement
This will be for XD (Exhibition Drill) and is fairly easy. We need to number each of the elements/squads as usual: the far left squad is number 1 and the far right squad is number 3 (or 4). The movement is called as two consecutive right steps are taken. On the first left, the first squad leader executes a right …
Why do we Practice the way we do?
Sometimes students have a hard time understanding why it is we spend so much time working on individual skills, when it’s easy to see that most of the team can do the skills. I tell them it’s a lot like a sports team. Every experienced baseball player has skills – they already know how to run, how to hit, and …
Becoming a Professional Driller
Q: How can I become a professional Driller? A: What you are talking about is becoming an Independent (Indie) Driller which very few people have done successfully. Why very few? Most likely because the military drill world is relatively small and there hasn’t been anything offered to anyone who would like to drill after high school or even college. Within …
How to Become a Certified Visual Judge
The World Drill Association and DrillMaster now offer a training and certification program for judges for the military drill world. All aspects of military drill come under the visual category and should be judged as such. That is where the program comes in. There are four visual captions: 1. Overall Effect 2. Composition Analysis 3. Movement 4. Equipment Also a …
Regarding Colors
Colors (meaning a color guard or, more precisely named, colors team), are a little different today than a few years ago, the honor guard standard is being used everywhere you look and, in my opinion, this is a very good thing: soon to be gone are the days of a color team unceremoniously stomping through a formal dinner setting or …
The Six-Man Flag Fold
I’ll begin with this statement: Just because the word, “man” is in the title does not necessarily mean, “male”. There is a right way and a wrong way to fold the American flag and there re a couple of different ways in between. to learn how to do it the right way, pick up my latest book, The Honor Guard …
Sword Maintenace and Care
While stationed in Germany from ’07-’10, I had the chance to visit WKC sword makers in Solingen, Germany. I never could coordinate a good time to stop by to say hello and meet some sword makers. They don’t give factory tours anymore since their processes were being stolen and (unsuccessfully) copied by other companies. This is their info for caring …
Dipping the American Flag
I read this short article that was sent to me by a retired Marine friend of mine: The 1908 Summer Olympics were held in London, England were extremely controversial. Many of the medals were won by Irish and Irish-American athletes who were not only members of the Irish American Athletic Club of Celtic Park in Sunnyside, Queens, but also members …