What is Vocabulary?

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Armed/Unarmed When speaking in terms of drill and performance, vocabulary deals with the amount of different movements displayed in a routine. For the body there is vocabulary for your feet, the head, arms and hands, and the torso. When armed, vocabulary adds on the manipulation of the piece of equipment (sword/saber, rifle or guidon). Vocabulary means each individual movement. A …

“Military Flavor”

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‘Our drill team does a Stomp routine for our program this year.’ ‘Our drill team does cheer-like movements and we sing/chant throughout our routine.’ What is “Military Flavor” This is a term that we cannot define so that it is crystal clear. We can define it, but it is more of a subjective term. Military flavor is a “uniform.” Why …

WDA Adjudication System

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‘We won with 13 million points! Second place had a score of 12,000.” I pose this question to you all: In all of the military drill competitions across the USA, and probably into other countries as well, what do the scores mean? What do the point gaps mean? I have an answer: The scores and point spreads mean nothing. Then …

Military Drill Judging

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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 …