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 …
The Difference Between Training, Practice, and Rehearsal
It may seem strange, even silly, to define practice, training and rehearsal down to the “nth” degree. Always remember, “Education is key!” Note: there are JROTC units that do not have the luxury of an experienced drill coach. Many JROTC instructors have never marched much past their Basic Training or Boot Camp days and that’s OK. Our military jobs came first …
How to Restart a JROTC Drill Team
DrillMaster answers a cadet’s question on restarting her school’s JROTC drill team
A Graph of Military Drill
A Graph of Military Drill Over the years, I’ve been asked by high school students for information on drill teams so that they could write speeches, research papers or something similar. This article is just another step in that direction. See also, What is a Military Drill Team? ,The Seven Parts of an Exhibition Drill Routine and Where’s the Power? plus many more. This …
All about “Color Guard” and “Color Team”
I received this question: How and why does a military color guard and marching band color guard differ? My answer: This is a great question and one that I’ve dealt with for several years since I have been a judge for marching bands, winter guards and military drill teams/color guards. So here is a detailed explanation and a little history. …
The Column Movement For Each Service
Here is the column movement: The picture below shows the steps as I count them: without pivots. See your service manual for specifics, but you get the idea from this which is much easier to digest: pivots are pivots and steps are steps. This would apply to the Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Coast Guard. This applies to the …
Ask DrillMaster- Colors and Spacing
Question: Hi, I just found your website. I have an urgent question. How many steps do there need to be from the head judge before and after executing eyes right, regarding colorguard? Now, I have read both AFMAN-36-2203 and FM-3-21.5, and in the Colorguard section, there is no statement addressing my question. However, in the category regarding the Squadron/Platoon, there …