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Military Drill Team
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A Military Drill Team is a marching unit that performs routines based on military drill. These teams often perfect their proficiency and then choose to compete against other programs. These competitions are generally called "Drill Meets", and are held all across the world. The top American independent drill meet is the International Association of Exhibition Drillers' Pro America Drill Meet.
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Encyclopedia
A Military Drill Team is a marching unit that performs routines based on military drill. These teams often perfect their proficiency and then choose to compete against other programs. These competitions are generally called "Drill Meets", and are held all across the world. The top American independent drill meet is the International Association of Exhibition Drillers' Pro America Drill Meet. It is currently the nation’s only professional drill meet that features Drillers with bayonets. The Isis World Drill Championships is held in conjunction with SNI's Nationals. For high school Drillers, the ultimate competition is the National High School Drill Team Championships . This meet is hosted by event manager Sports Network International of Daytona Beach, Florida. Military drill teams may perform either armed or unarmed.
Description
Every Drill Meet is different regarding exactly what events are offered and what division(s) of competition are presented. Drill meets generally include both an Armed competition division along with an Unarmed competition Division. Events offered generally include several different phases: In section, Regulation Drill, Exhibition Drill, Color Guard Regulation Drill.
- The Inspection phase: Each team goes through a standard military inspection for an up-close critique of their bearing, knowledge and overall appearance.
- The Regulation Drill phase: A fixed list of verbal commands, armed or unarmed, given by a single cadet commander. This cadet commander must memorize these commands and the team must perform these movements as per regulations.
- The Exhibition Drill phase: Different categories are included in this phase; not only the standard armed and unarmed for a team, but also Solo, Tandem (two Drillers), Tetrad (four Drillers) and Squad (element in Air Force vernacular) which varies greatly according to drill meet but generally a team formation with less than 12 total cadets) and/or Platoon (Flight in Air Force vernacular) which is generally 12 cadets plus a commander minimum (or three or more squads (elements) of any number of cadets.
- The Color Guard (Color guard) phase: (The military color guard is not to be mixed up with a marching band’s color guard (see Color guard (flag spinning) for more information), although music-related color guards have their roots in the military version.) This is similar to the drill team Regulation phase in that there is a fixed list of commands that the cadet commander must memorize and execute with his/her color guard unit. Units are often asked to "case" (commands required to cover the colors for transport/storage), and/or "uncase" (commands required to uncover the colors for competition/display) as a part of color guard competition.
Each of the above phases can be marched by an armed (with a military sword, saber, or rifle) or unarmed team. NOTE: Many drill meets allow the use of a sword in the unarmed division, but never a rifle of any kind.
- Standard drill team rifles are the M-1 Garand, M-14 or the M1903 Springfield rifle. Armed teams usually use a demilitarized version of the rifle or a facsimile.
- Unarmed teams concentrate on varied body and arm movements with intricate steps. Armed teams then add manipulation of the equipment.
A new judging system is currently in the testing phase with a possible debut date during the 09/10 American school year.
United States
All of the United States military service branches have an official drill team part of their respective service Honor Guard. The service academies have drill teams, as well as many college and university ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps) and high school JROTC (Junior ROTC) units. Additionally, many "Community-based Cadetting" organizations such as the Army Cadet Corps, Naval Sea Cadets, Young Marines and Civil Air Patrol maintain military drill teams. In addition to Regulation Drill (drill based on a service's manual), drill teams also perform Exhibition Drill in which they march intricate maneuvers along with manipulating rifles, sometimes with fixed bayonets.
Canada
The Canadians have the Canadian Cadet Organization. The organization consists of the Royal Canadian Sea Cadets, Royal Canadian Army Cadets and Royal Canadian Air Cadets. All three branches of the organization have drill competitions throughout the year. Some of these competitions are hosted by the Regional Cadet Support Units
Candian Drill Competitions consist of the following:
- Fall in
- Drill Team dress and deportment
- Drill Team Commander’s dress and deportment
- Compulsory drill procedures at the halt
- Compulsory drill procedures on the march
- Drill performance in a precision routine (optional)
American Drill Teams
US Military:
See also
- Military parade
- Drill Meet
External links
- [https://www.cnic.navy.mil/ndw/Programs/CommandandStaff/CeremonialGuard/CNIC_041898?ssSourceSiteId=Patuxent Official U.S. Navy Ceremonial Guard Drill Team website]
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The Drill Meet
A Drill Meet is a competition for Military Drill Teams. The US military’s Honor Guard units have drill teams; however they do not compete against each other in a drill meet such as this. The only exception to this is Pro America where individuals compete, but not the full drill teams. What is common across the US is high school JROTC and college ROTC teams competing against each other.
Phases
Each meet has different phases:
- Inspection (I) : Each team goes through a standard military inspection for an up-close critique of their bearing, knowledge and overall appearance.
- Regulation Drill (RD) : A fixed list of verbal commands, armed or unarmed from a service’s drill and ceremonies manual (see also Military parade), given by a single cadet commander. This cadet commander must memorize these commands at most every meet and the team must perform these movements as per regulations.
- Exhibition Drill (XD) : XD is based in RD, but is then infused with a Driller’s imagination. XD has different categories:
- Solo (A single Driller)
- Tandem (2 Drillers)
- Small Team (4-8 Drillers) (Note: this category replaces Tetrad and Squad)
- Platoon/Flight (9-26 Drillers)
Weapons
Each of the above phases can be marched by an armed (with a military sword, saber, or rifle) or unarmed team. Independent Drillers/drill teams may also attach bayonets to their rifles. All drill teams (Platoon only, armed or unarmed) can march a guidon, see guidon (United States).
(Note: Some drill meets allow the use of a sword in the unarmed division, but never a rifle of any kind.)
The process of demilitarizing a weapon involves welding a lead tube through the barrel of the rifle and adopting some measure that interferes with the operation of the action to ensure that live rounds are not fired.
- Color Guard Regulation Drill (CGR): The military color guard (Color guard) is not to be confused with a marching band’s color guard (see Color guard (flag spinning) for more information), although music-related color guards have their roots in the military version. This is similar to the drill team RD phase in that there is a fixed list of commands from a service’s drill and ceremonies manual that the cadet commander must memorize and execute with his/her color guard unit. Units are often asked to "case" (commands required to cover the colors for transport/storage), and/or "uncase" (commands required to uncover the colors for competition/display) as a part of color guard competition.
- A new Color Guard phase of competition is coming to drill meets (if it chosen for adoption by individual meets) soon.
Antiquated Judging
In previous years a typical score sheet would have a space where the judge could score an aspect of the routine and add his or her comments. Aspects include:
- Floor coverage: Routine effectively uses the majority of the drill area.
- Originality - Routine independent and creative display.
- Difficulty - Routine looks as if it required lots of practice.
- Precision - Routine appears to be "exact".
- Variety - Routine contains many different types of marching sequences and displays.
- Showmanship - Routine is performed with effort, enthusiasm, and snap.
- Bearing - Team members perform the routine with military bearing.
- Weapon handling (armed) - Team members manipulate their weapons smoothly with pride and precision.
Modern Judging
Now, XD, along with the other marching phases (also the Inspection Phase, to a slight extent) is judged like any other visual pageantry art: using the “what” and the “how” of visual design. This new judging standard is much more effective at assessing the quality and effectiveness of a routine. More information to come.
Judging (five judges per Phase) is now broken down into four Captions with one judge per caption:
- General Effect (GE: The Head Judge, looking at the performance as a whole)
- Performance Analysis (PA: Looking at the teams abilities from Driller to Driller)
- Movement/Marching (MV/MA: Also known as Movement. Looking only at aspects of marching)
- Equipment (EQ: Looking only at aspects of equipment use. This judge is not used in the unarmed categories)
- Demil (Demilitarized, a “real” non-working rifle)
- Alternate Arms (a facsimile of a rifle)
- Sword/Saber
- Flag (Some drill teams use a small “swing flag” in competitions)
- Timing and Penalties (This is not a caption, but a judge is assigned here)
See also
External links
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