Overview After over a decade of teaching drill teams of all experience levels and services, as well as judging and facilitating drill competitions around the world, we have naturally developed ways of speaking to a team’s ability level, performance output, or even overall conduct. Essentially, we believe it helpful to…
Overview In this video, taken from a “Competition Tune-Up” workshop with a program competing at the highest levels, we share a lesson that is important for ANY team regardless of competition level!
Overview In this video, we discuss proportional scoring, a common way of determining an overall championship winner at many drill meets across the country! The takeaways might surprise you but EVERYONE who attends a meet using this system should be aware of the nuances of the math and, therefore, how…
Overview Whether you’re preparing to be a DTD Teaching Assistant (TA) who will be at least partially responsible for conducting Armed Exhibition teaching or you’re just looking to level up your understanding of this facet of our activity, this short course of study is designed to get you ready! Our model…
Army & Air Force Teams: Marine Corps & Navy Teams: This exercise focuses on isolating Half Steps! Not only can it be used to make clear the difference between Quick Time marching and Half Stepping but it is of great value in terms of maintaining a consistent cadence. Drill teams…
Freeze-on-4/8/10 Uncasing Hand Synchronization For our COLOR GUARD friends, you can use any of the relevant other exercises in this program: 8s-and-8s with Halts 8s-and-8s with Mark Times (MCO teams utilize BOTH versions since the “rolling” Mark Time simulates entering Turns!) But the exercises here will prepare you for the…
This one is a money-maker! We LOVE this one because it makes working on something mundane SO much more fun! Now, in this demonstration video, we utilized a metronome with a drum beat. We did this SOLELY to avoid copyright issues with background sounds. In reality, we use ACTUAL music…
Right Oblique (Demonstrated in Ranks) Left Oblique (Demonstrated in Squads) Obliques, obliques, obliques! First of all, the word “oblique” is pronounced to rhyme with “strike.” Second of all, these are the bane of EVERY drill team who encounters them in their drill sequences! But worry no longer. This exercise is…
This exercise focuses on isolating Marching to the Rear but ALSO halting out quickly out of that turn as is commonly required on many drill cards nationwide. Sequence:16 Steps Forward (16th Step is the to the Rear Step)8 Steps to the Rear (8th Step is the to the Rear…