Overview
In both our Armed & Unarmed Exhibition Drill Masterclasses, we discuss a method for routine design that looks something like this:
- Create a Variety of Base Sequences
- Teaching & Practice Those Sequences Regularly
- Outside of Practice, Draw Out a Routine Floor Plan
- At Practice, Teach Portions of the Routine Floor Plan
- Layer Base Sequences on Top of the Floor Plan
This method is extremely helpful, especially in the early season, and its primary benefit is that exhibition can be taught, practiced, and refined WITHOUT needing the context of a routine!
But there is another method that can be effective depending on the point in the season in which you decide the team needs a routine.
Perhaps you are entering a competition and the overall championship requires exhibition. Perhaps you’re tired of just marching your regulation routine in the exhibition phase. Or perhaps you’re just getting a later start than you’d like and you need to accelerate the process!
The “Floor Plan First” Approach
Just as in the method above, the key to creating an exhibition routine is good planning. In this particular case, however, we’re going to start with JUST the floor plan design. Utilizing the same principles found in the video above, we’re going to draw out the floor plan on paper.
Here, you can be as specific as you’d like to be: you can map each individual step for each individual cadet or, on the other side of things, you can diagram in general terms what you want the routine to look like. In either case, the most important thing is that you walk into practice with a plan in hand so you can help everyone through the process of putting it on the deck!
Next, you’ll spend a few (probably arduous) practices putting the plan into action!
In this phase, you’re going to be primarily concerned with three items:
- Where, and in what formation, do the cadets begin this portion of drill?
- How, and in what formation(s), will the cadets travel across the floor to the next stopping point?
- Where, and in what formation, will the cadets transition to once they’ve changed positions on the deck?
It’s important to note that right now, we’re not concerned AT ALL with the following:
- Rifle Movements or Unarmed Sequencing
- Ripples, Transitions, or Other Effects
- Literally Anything But Marching from Point A to Point B, etc.
The most important factor in this method is quickly and efficiently getting the cadets marching on the floor. Even if every single segment begins with “Forward, MARCH” and ends with “Drill Team, HALT,” we’re not yet concerned with building transitions, rifle/unarmed moves, etc.
Instead, think of the “skeleton” of the routine being the floor plan: where are we, where do we go next, how do we get there, etc.?
Practice marching through the routine until each individual is familiar with the count structure and has begun to memorize how the routine moves on the floor. Ensure that this base is solid and understood by all FIRST.
The next portion of this process involves layering the rifle or unarmed sequences on top of your existing floor plan. We recommend starting with the big items first:
- Sequencing in the Ready Area
- Report In
- Report Out
- Major Stationary Formation Sequences
From there, we can move into the marching transitions. It’s important to think about adding sequences in that order because if you fall short on time or run out of material, you can likely compete just fine without sequencing performed while marching but it’s incredibly difficult to justify just moving into a formation and standing before moving on in the routine.
Finally, and we need to stress – FINALLY, we’ll smooth out the routine using transitions. This is the last step because it can be easiest to get bogged down in the process of trying to make the routine smooth while, at the same time, a stop-and-go routine with good material is still something you can compete with on the floor. Creating your masterpiece should be the last step in this process, not one you work through as you put the routine together!
Conclusion
Using this process can streamline getting a routine on the floor. Again, we have to stress that the most important component is planning: the process of putting the floor plan together can be somewhat tedious and having a good plan and vision will go a long way in keeping cadets engaged throughout the process!
If you want us to help you with this, we do offer services that will take this toughest part and put most of the burden of being interesting on our team vs. you or your leaders. In this way, this process can be accelerated greatly while we still work WITH you to create the design of the routine!