Overview
This article covers the fundamental principles that underpin all of our work with drill teams, regardless
of service, experience, competitive level, or geographic location. All of our strategies, teaching methods, etc. proceed from these basic understandings. If you’ve arrived here from our work together on-site, we recommend continuing to help your team(s) maintain alignment with these assumptions throughout their time together. If you’ve arrived here via our Coaches Network, these are fundamentals of our organization’s pedagogy.
The Goal of Being Good at Drill Team Is Being Good at Drill Team
Until meets employing judges who are SMEs in the realm of both D&C and the JROTC drill team activity becomes not an exception but an expectation, our contests will always be less sound than almost any other student competition experience. The participants almost always know more than both the graders and the meet hosts. Because of this reality, in many cases our competitions are a poor gauge of our team’s successes or failures and as such our PRIMARY mission should be to be great drill teams comprised of great drillers! Competitive success should follow this greatness. But regardless of whether our meets are capable of seeing and rewarding our work, learning to be great at something will teach us how to be great at anything all while we learn to appreciate this uniquely American athletic pageantry art.
Drill Is Drill
Because ALL phases of drill rely on a common set of fundamentals (i.e. standing manual, marching, pivoting, and rifle handling), we can begin with whatever phase is most engaging first; generally, this means we can start a brand new driller on exhibition as we teach them the fundamental skills. This allows maximum developmental time on the most involved phase AND promotes engagement/retention by letting drillers do the most enjoyable part first. This then makes the Regulation events more prestigious as the mental maturity and attention to detail demand more mature performers to excel.
Drill Is Alive
D&C is not a static activity. Manuals change, those training drill change, trends come and go, competition rules change. Because drill is changing constantly, we cannot “hard lock” ourselves into the “one way” to do things. We must be ready to adapt and change with the times meaning that any training method that halts our ability to adapt should be highly scrutinized.
Competition Drill is “Military Drill Theater”
Our competitions do not test teams on the traditional applications of military D&C. Rather, these applications – moving the troops in an organized fashion, leadership, followership, confidence, teamwork – are the basic minimum requirements for a functioning performance or competitive drill team. In reality, our activity asks us to bring to life authentic military performances and our competitions are looking for the aesthetic of D&C in the same way we attend a theater production and expect to see authentic acting well-polished through rehearsal. Because our version of drill team is performative and not functional (as drill largely is in a basic training environment), we must practice in a way that mirrors like athletic performing arts.
Compliance Is NOT Discipline
While JROTC is designed to expose cadets to military culture in short bursts, being a successful performer means existing in a space where proactive thought is encouraged consistently. A performer will make hundreds of decisions on the fly in the heat of the moment and those teams who cultivate an environment where proactivity is expected will thrive in our athletic performing art. That means that on a successful drill team, we do NOT want cadets who just wait to be told what to do before doing it. Doing something because you’re told by someone of authority to do it is compliance and compliance is not what makes great performers. True discipline is CHOOSING to do what’s expected of you on purpose and without prompting. This frees leaders up to LEAD rather than micromanaging the team!
Health Over Everything Else
Drill is a strenuous, athletic activity when done at the Performance-Grade level. We prioritize good physical health and well-being any other factor when making decisions about drill team. In Regulation events, this looks like physical health being the ONLY thing that is prioritized above authenticity (i.e. the “natural bend” of an Army facing movement leaves the joint less protected under the rigor of Performance-Grade snap and pop). In Exhibition it means prioritizing safety and well-being in the design of our performances.
Muscle Memory is an OUTCOME, Not a Goal
Muscle memory takes into account ALL factors including those we can’t control for (i.e. environment, clothing, weather, etc.) and therefore, if we strive for muscle memory, rarely do our performances feel like our practices. Instead, we should aim for deep learning/understanding of our craft, a side benefit of which will be muscle memory for the fundamentals (i.e standing manual, marching, pivoting, rifle handling) vs. the application of those fundamentals (i.e. drill cards, sequences, routines, etc.). If you’ve ever experienced your practices being far superior to your performances, the likely culprit is muscle memory.
Authenticity of Performance
In any phase involving Regulation, the primary objective is to bring to life the words, spirit, and intent of a team’s chosen service manual(s) in the most authentic way possible and to the highest degree of excellence in that order. This means we prioritize procedural correctness and authenticity above what might “win a competition” because this is the only way we preserve the soul of the activity as an inherently military one.
Energy In, Energy Out
An integral part of drill team leadership is the flow of energy throughout practice. Because our activity requires engagement and motivation, leaders need to be ready to output as much energy in their words, actions, and body language as they want to receive from their teammates in return! The higher the energy of the leaders, the better the team will respond and therefore perform!
“On” vs. “Off”
Drill team takes a great deal of physical exertion and mental focus. Because of this, we don’t expect that cadets be “on” all the time. This leads to frustration, burnout, and stress. Instead, we encourage teams to clearly define when it’s “go time” vs. when we are relaxed as BOTH states are crucial to the success of a drill team!
Each Individual Is Responsible for Their Excellence
Done wrong, drill team can be a lot of the leaders dragging their teams behind them. If the commander needs to physically correct and adjust every cadet on every movement, they become solely responsible for the excellence of the team. In a strong drill team program, every cadet is responsible for their excellence meaning that we believe they are capable of identifying issues in their performance and applying appropriate fixes once the right information has been provided. In practice, this looks like creating space for everyone to fix their own errors leaving the commanders and leaders free to address the smaller percentage of issues that still remain rather than every single possible issue.
Being a Constant Observer
Being great at anything requires you to be a learner. Open eyes, open ears, and constant thought are the hallmark of someone who is constantly seeking to understand how to better themselves and their teams. A great driller should be able to see the strengths of another group and dissect the process by which they arrived at that success. Or conversely, a driller should be able to observe a team executing something in a way they wouldn’t like to replicate themselves and use it as a learning opportunity. Being a constant observer is key in being successful!