Improvisation or What We Call, “Monkey Drill”

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In the military drill world improvisation is called “Monkey Drill.” If you ask any Driller who has competed more than once they will probably admit that one of their routines was “Monkeyed,” meaning that they made it up on the spot as they were performing. Angel Solis just finished the Texas Drill Competition (TXDC) and won with a Monkeyed routine. …

Bayonet, Bayonet, Who’s Got the Bayonet?

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The DrillMaster Bayonet is for the M1 Garand and M1903 rifles, it is a real bayonet, but the blade tip is rounded, it does not have a sharp edge and has welds for extra stability- there is also an unwelded version. Armed drill has a certain amount of danger; drilling bladed ups the ante considerably. The DrillMaster Bayonet is a ‘safer’ …

Drill Team Training: Ripple Lines

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Drill team training: Ripple lines (not dominoes, they fall once and that’s it) can be fun and exciting during a drill team’s routine. However… Please use imagination during the design process! Here are some tips for a ripple line, armed or unarmed. What is a ripple? For military drill purposes, it is an action that begins at one point and …

Does Drill Team Style Matter to Win?

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Q: I am the coach of a High school in MA and former captain of the armed drill team. Northeast drill seems to vary drastically from other parts of the country. We are a bit slower with more emphasis on military bearing, style and flavor, than much of the speedy Texas style drilling. Is this us not being with the …

The Drill Meet

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What is a Drill Meet? In America, the drill meet, after putting in hours of hard work designing, choreographing, practicing, rewriting and practicing some more, is a competition for drill teams, Drillers and color teams (NOTE: military-based: “color team;” music-based: “color guard“). The organizations that compete are each services’ Jr., high school, and Sr., college, Reserve Officer Training Corps, Army …

How to Switch Sides During a Column Movement

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This will be for XD (Exhibition Drill) and is fairly easy. We need to number each of the elements/squads as usual: the far left squad is number 1 and the far right squad is number 3 (or 4). The movement is called as two consecutive right steps are taken. On the first left, the first squad leader executes a right …

Hard Work, Discipline, Desire and…

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I was introduced to a speech by Eric Thomas, “The Hip-Hop Preacher” (more motivational speaker than preacher) yesterday. I appreciate where he has come from, the struggles he has overcome and most of the message that he preaches. Much of what he says is inspiring and one of my friends made a great motivational video and placed it on his …

Why do we Practice the way we do?

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Sometimes students have a hard time understanding why it is we spend so much time working on individual skills, when it’s easy to see that most of the team can do the skills. I tell them it’s a lot like a sports team. Every experienced baseball player has skills – they already know how to run, how to hit, and …

Becoming a Professional Driller

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Q: How can I become a professional Driller? A: What you are talking about is becoming an Independent (Indie) Driller which very few people have done successfully. Why very few? Most likely because the military drill world is relatively small and there hasn’t been anything offered to anyone who would like to drill after high school or even college. Within …

How to Become a Certified Visual Judge

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The World Drill Association and DrillMaster now offer a training and certification program for judges for the military drill world. All aspects of military drill come under the visual category and should be judged as such. That is where the program comes in. There are four visual captions: 1. Overall Effect 2. Composition Analysis 3. Movement 4. Equipment Also a …