Overview
What do we do when it’s hard to drill? Whether it’s due to weather forcing you indoors when you’re used to drilling outdoors, a higher-than-normal ratio of missing cadets, or losing the gym moments before practice only to discover the hallway is the next-best option, there is always something that can be done!
In fact, this is so useful, we recommend doing it periodically even if you’re on your drill area in perfect conditions with everyone present!
Partner Work
The secretly under-leveraged, easiest-to-overlook tactic in these situations is partner work.
We tend to think about drill team as a GROUP activity requiring everyone in the group to practice successfully but it’s really more of an individual activity PERFORMED as a group.
When we start to view drill just as much about the individual abilities of each driller as it is about the collective ability of the team, we start to realize that we can be just as productive with two drillers as we can with 20.
Read that again: you can be just as productive with two drillers as you can with 20.
Here, we change the focus. Instead of focusing on the ability to synchronize movements between an entire formation of drillers, we focus on individual technique. Let drillers pair up and work on specific movements, receive feedback, and improve!
The key here is structure. Leaving cadets to their own devices can lead to a lack of productivity so make sure to put parameters on the partner practice such as:
- Time Limits (i.e. “You have 10 minutes to work on Port Arms with your partner before we circle up and do it together!”)
- Rep Limits (i.e. “Work through the report in sequence 5 times with your partner and then fall back in so we can do it all together!”)
As pairs work, circulate around and check in. Prioritize your rotations around the groups as follows:
- Keeping Groups Focused – Spend your time nearest to the groups that seem the most distracted and check in with them most often.
- Groups That Need Help – Surprised this isn’t priority number one? We aren’t. Focus trumps skill when it comes to productive practices. Spend the next most amount of time here but NOT at the expense of keeping groups focused!
- Groups That Are Nailing It – Make sure not to neglect groups who are on-task and performing well! They need feedback and support as well even if it’s just to let them know to keep up the good work!
Creating Groups
We recommend pairs because two drillers are always most likely to be focused than larger groups. Groups of three (when there is an odd number of cadets present, for example) are acceptable as well.
We do NOT recommend always allowing drillers to pick their partners. Rather, we want to strategically group cadets based on our desired goal for the partner work!
Here are some common groupings:
- Experienced/New – Group less experienced cadets with more experienced ones to help the new ones improve and the experienced ones see their tendencies as they teach.
- Similar Ability – When the goal is to have both drillers contributing equally to the feedback throughout their time together, grouping drillers of similar ability levels can be beneficial.
- Similar Part of Formation – When you’re working on something that relies on timing groups (i.e. exhibition drill) or uniformity, grouping cadets based on where they’d appear in that particular formation can be a useful tool.
- Personality – When the goal is to keep practice productive and positive, taking into account individual drillers’ personalities can be a powerful grouping strategy.
Change It Up
To keep things flowing, moving into and out of partner work can be hugely helpful! This allows us to change different variables to keep practice engaging and productive.
Bringing all cadets back together to perform the skill being practiced in partners is a good practice and creates a level of accountability! Then, feedback can be given to the entire group before…
- The partners go back to work on the details presented to them
- Partner groupings are changed
- Skills being worked on are changed
- Grouping partner pairs together to form larger groups (this is also a great way to work your way back to having everyone present go through the skill together!)
Conclusion
Never again should we lament a lack of participation at practice. There is always productive work that can be done if we change our perspective and tailor our goals to meet our situation!