While some JROTC units have a busy first semester that includes drill meets, for many across America January is when the competitions begin. Some states, like Florida, do not have any drill meets until the end of January, leaving the first semester to Raider meets. Maybe, like the school where I teach, Merritt Island High School, you have been having …
Do Standards even Matter?
The picture at right was sent to me by a Facebook friend who is an Army JROTC instructor in Texas. He sent it with the note that, at this particular drill meet, the SOP stated that only authorized service uniforms were to be worn. He told me the reason for the strict uniform requirements: One year I saw a color guard …
Flag Drill Teams: Making Lemonade out of Lemons
The reason some of the drill teams in San Fransisco and other areas of California use swing flags instead of rifles is due to anti-gun sentiments for many years. According to their website, “The Flag Team, or FT (formerly Boys Drill Team, or BDT) descended from the Rifle [Armed Drill] Team, which was discontinued in 1994 by the San Francisco Unified …
You Don’t Really Need to Practice?
You don’t really need to practice! You will be able to throw a rifle around in just a matter of weeks, especially if you sleep with your drill rifle under your pillow. OK, enough sarcasm, you need to practice. Every day. For a couple of hours at least and then wake up and do it again. World-class Driller Sam Gozo …
The Essence of Judging Military Drill
DrillMaster explains how to judge military drill.
The Drill Meet
What is a Drill Meet? In America, the drill meet, after putting in hours of hard work designing, choreographing, practicing, rewriting and practicing some more, is a competition for drill teams, Drillers and color teams (NOTE: military-based: “color team;” music-based: “color guard“). The organizations that compete are each services’ Jr., high school, and Sr., college, Reserve Officer Training Corps, Army …
JSDC12
Yes, it is another Joint Service Drill Competition that is now in the history books! This year’s competition also included a performance from the Tulane University Mardis Gras Drill Meet champions, the Merchant Marine Academy Drill Team. I judged each team on the World Drill Association Adjudication System’s Overall Effect caption. The scores I gave each team are in the …
Military Drill Judging
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 …