JROTC Class Regulation Drill Sequences

DrillMasterDrill Teams, Instructional, Judging Leave a Comment

JROTC Class Regulation Drill Sequences Each JROTC has an annual inspection and for that inspection the inspector watches each class (platoon or flight) go through a sequence of commands. Some JROTC units use a standardized sequence from a drill competition and some use a sequence created for first-year JROTC cadets. I decided to create score sheets for the latter based …

Astronaut High School Drill Meet 2013 Performance Critiques

DrillMasterDrillCenter News, Judging Leave a Comment

My critiques for each of the female performances (squad and platoon, RD and XD) at the first annual Astronaut High School Drill Meet. Click the titles for each school and the audio file should begin to download for you. Congratulations to all of the schools that participated! And a big thank you to all of the judges: local Army recruiters, …

How to Switch from Regualtion Drill to Exhibition Drill

DrillMasterDrill Teams, Instructional, Judging Leave a Comment

A short time ago a student friend of mine sent me a video of his armed solo performance asking for feedback (I give real-time audio feedback on performances of Drillers and teams in the WDA Adjudication System: Overall Effect, Composition Analysis, Marching & Equipment- usually a combined critique of a little from each caption). To preface the video, he told …

Ask The DrillMaster: Commander Procedures for Columns?

DrillMasterAsk DrillMaster, Drill Teams, Instructional Leave a Comment

Let’s begin with defining where a team commander has control. This is called the “Span of Control.” As yo can see from the diagram below, a commander’s “span of control” is 180-degrees all around the formation at 3 steps from the formation. However, in competition team commanders are to maintain a position to the left side of the formation. Having …

Regulation Drill: What I would like to see

DrillMasterCommentary, Drill Teams Leave a Comment

Ultimately, I’d love to see Open Regulation Drill and Open Color Guard, both from the World Drill Association, incorporated in any drill meet that would want to take on this awesome and exciting replacement to the standard RD and CG phases. For now, though I’d like to see more moves that are listed in the drill and ceremonies manuals actually …

The Column Movement For Each Service

DrillMasterCommentary, Drill Teams, Honor Guard, Instructional Leave a Comment

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 …

What is a Military Drill Team?

DrillMasterCommentary, Drill Teams, Instructional Leave a Comment

A military drill team is an armed or unarmed marching unit that performs routines based on military drill. All drill teams, no matter what size, perform or exhibit their routine.

15-Count Manual Arms and Moving One’s Head

DrillMasterAsk DrillMaster, Drill Teams, Instructional Leave a Comment

A question I received: how can you not move your head when your doing the 15-Count Manual of Arms? Answer: The 15-Count Manual of Arms (the command is: “15-Count, Manual, ARMS“) accomplished either stationary or while marching is, from Order Arms: Right Shoulder (1, 2, 3, 4) Left Shoulder (5, 6, 7, 8) Present Arms (9, 10, 11) Order Arms (12, …

The Drill Meet

DrillMasterAsk DrillMaster, Drill Teams, Instructional 1 Comment

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 …