The Difference Between Practicing and Training

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Practicing and training seem almost synonymous. But there are subtle differences. Dictionary.com gives us this information: Practice Noun: The actual application or use of an idea, belief, or method as opposed to theories about such application or use. Verb: Perform (an activity) or exercise (a skill) repeatedly or regularly in order to improve or maintain one’s proficiency. And from wikipedia.com: …

How to Run an Honor Guard Practice

DrillMaster Ask DrillMaster, Honor Guard, Instructional 3 Comments

I’ve been asked this and similar questions before and I’d like to give you my best practices from my years working with honor guard units around the world. How to Practice If you have weekly or monthly practice for a couple of hours, make sure that the whole team is grounded and completely standardized in the basics: Standing Manual (everything …

Practice Makes Permanent- Feet

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“Practice makes permanent.” Lt. Col. Bernard C. Lorenz always told my drill team this phrase. He was my AFJROTC instructor when I was in high school and has now passed, but I have always remembered that phrase and included it in my training. Thanks, Sir. Practice makes permanent and education is key. We will tackle both in this article. Many …

Discipline at Practice

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FYI: rehearsal = practice The military (we can count college ROTC in this), LEOs, firefighters, EMS, etc. are all adults and have set rules of which one must follow. In many cases honor guard, color team or drill team is on a volunteer basis and out of 1000 rehearsals you might run across some bad behavior that requires discipline. Situations …

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 …