Overview
Let’s be real here: there is NOTHING in JROTC Drill Team Land more daunting than starting unarmed exhibition drill. The reason is really simple, too! Every single other phase of drill has a reference point based in the military that helps us understand what it’s about. Regulation and Color Guard have drill manuals and Armed Exhibition has the service drill teams. If we understood nothing else about those events, we could go somewhere, see what was happening or required, and get started.
But what about unarmed exhibition? Is it dance? Is it close-order, fancy regulation? What in the world IS it…
While we never advocate copying others for the sake of taking a shortcut, we DO offer everyone the same advice that is given to novice players when they pick up an instrument for the first time:
Find someone who you enjoy listening to, listen to everything they’ve ever played, and try to play like them.
Drill is no different. If you want to advance, it pays to take a look at other groups, styles, and levels of excellence to help frame your own practice.
This playlist is specially curated to show a variety of styles, approaches, and levels of excellence so that YOU can start (or continue) your journey in better understanding what unarmed exhibition “is” at the highest levels!
How To Best Use This Playlist
Ready to watch some cool drill? Yeah, us too. We had to resist hitting play while writing this article. Maybe we’re just nerds…
But that’s step one! You just need to watch and enjoy. Don’t think too hard quite yet and fight the urge to form any lasting impressions or opinions.
Again, let us stress: you need to watch these videos with an open mind. Your personal likes or dislikes will be amongst the driving factors in how you choose to make a routine but it’s very easy to accidentally throw out the good with the bad when it comes to unarmed exhibition!
As you watch these videos for the first time, ask yourself…
- What stands out about the performance in a positive way?
- What things grabbed my attention right away?
- When did I find my attention drifting?
- If I had to summarize the routine in a single sentence, what would I say about it?
These are the big-picture questions that will help you start your journey into understanding what you’re seeing.
The next time you come back to this playlist, we’ll get a bit more critical. Not critical in terms of nit-picking mistakes made but critical in sense that we want to understand what we’re seeing a bit more in-depth. This time, ask yourself…
- When I get to something I really like, what senses are being engaged by the routine?
- How much of what I enjoy in a particular routine/sequence/piece do I enjoy because of HOW they are executing the movements? How much of what I enjoy is because of WHAT material they are performing?
- How does the skill level required compare to the skill level of my team? Are there movements we could do? Are there movements we could modify to fit our skill level?
Then What?
Make a list of the sequences you like (complete with timestamps so you can find them again…Hint: feel free to comment a timestamp such as 4:23 to quick-link it in the comments of the video!)
From there, start by learning them yourself.
Don’t just learn WHAT the team is doing, try to emulate HOW they are moving. Do they move quickly and freeze? Is it more flowing? Is it powerful? Precise? Both?
Once you’ve learned the movement(s), bring others along. Teach your teammates. Try and time it out. Show THEM the video so they can see how it “should” look when performed “correctly.”
Finally, once you’ve gotten a good grasp of the movements, modify them. Do SOMETHING to them that changes them from their original form. You might change what spins you perform. Or perhaps the timing. Maybe even the groupings of cadets or formation.
By observing first, dissecting second, learning third, and changing last, you’re working through a natural process of learning that will help not only strengthen your ability-level but ALSO help your creativity!