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 School District. So instead of using rifles, the Flag Team drills with metal poles with flags. Both the Flag Team and the [female Unarmed) Exhibition Drill Team perform in various parades and the Annual Spring Review Competition [among other drill meets].”
This is Washington High School’s Flag Team.
Many moves similar to exhibition drill performed with a rifle.
This is the female Exhibition Drill Team.
Quite a bit of singing/chanting with unorthodox movements.
And something very unique, what the JROTC units in the area call a “Drum Corps” (actually a marching percussion section).