How’s your recovery?

During a performance anything can happen. If you haven’t yet, read, Learning to Drop and then come back here. Also, read these: Appreciating Creative Ability, “Military Flavor.” and especially, Regarding a Driller’s Bearing.

Military bearing is one of the keys to a good performance, this cannot be emphasized enough and it has much to do with your recovery.

Recovery

1. A return to a normal state.
2. The action or process of regaining possession or control.

Whether you fumble with or drop your rifle, flank to the right when everyone else on the team flanks left or forget what move comes next, your ability to roll with the punches and communicate to the audience that everything is exactly the way it should be is part of recovery.

For instance, a member of my drill team during my junior year in high school (SY 81/82) flanked the wrong way and was the only one heading straight for the head judge. He was cool, calm and collected as he halted right in front of him, saluted and, amazingly, seamlessly rejoined the team for he rest of the routine. His recovery was unique and spectacular for those of us who knew what was going on. The audience was none the wiser and thought it was a well-choreographed move.

Don’t anything else less than perfection. Keep your bearing and recover as quickly as possible.

I Dropped (Fumbled) my Rifle!
Whatever you do, do not hesitate to pick it up and get back into the routine. You don’t even need to come to Attention and then pick it up, just do it and minimize the drop. I’ll repeat that: MINIMIZE THE DROP! And please, please, please do not salute your rifle before picking it up!

Don’t roll your eyes, make a face or even huff in disgust at yourself. Make everyone in the audience believe that you (and your team) are doing everything that was programmed in the routine.