Some other countries use a separation of terms: Foot Drill and Rifle Drill. At The DrillMaster, we use “Drill” as meaning the feet; Unarmed Exhibition Drill (UXD) and Armed Exhibition Drill (AXD) to mean the body and equipment movement layered over the drill for the feet. On with the question.
In General
There isn’t such a thing as a “complete list” of XD moves, those moves are in your head. In my first book, Exhibition Drill For The Military Drill Team, I list the moves that my drill team in high school used to perform (and no, we did not write all of our moves on stone tablets- I’m not that old!) and the moves that I designed over the years since then. Is it a complete list? Not even close, I added the moves to the book as a starting point for new drill teams and, for more established teams, as a way to see moves on paper and then redesign them if needed.
Armed Exhibition Drill vs. Unarmed Exhibition Drill
There isn’t much difference, drill moves are written (for the feet) and then body (and equipment) movement is/are then layered over top. Obviously, some drill formations, for instance reporting-in or out, could be differently designed/staged to facilitate whether the team is armed or not, but the rest of the routine could be exactly the same. What an interesting concept: write one routine and use it for an unarmed and an armed drill team to see what could be layered over the drill.
Writing Drill
Yes, you can hire me and I will write a routine for your armed and/or unarmed drill team(s). But why not learn to do it yourself and then pass along that knowledge? Here are some ideas to help you get going on writing your own routine for your drill team.
The 16-member team (plus commander) is common, so we will use this configuration.
This is our Standard Drill Team Block Formation
The following formations can help you imagine what could happen next. Use your imagination. You have to take into consideration that these formations can start from the halt or while marching. Another very important issue to think of is that in order to change direction it takes two counts (facing movements or To The Rear March). If everyone is changing direction, fine. If one group is not changing direction, they either stand in place or Mark Time for those two counts (or something to take up those two counts). Remember, what I am going over in this article and my other on How to Write Drill, are the basics of routine construction/design.
How to make a circle that doesn’t take forever. Follow-the-leader can be an effectiveness killer, so thinking outside of the usual is what XD is all about. Here is a variation on what I included in my first book:
These four diagrams do not convey forward movement, but that is how the circle would be make- while the team is moving forward in a circular motion and then merging together. The circle could be as large or small as desired.