Drill team

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The U.S. Marine Corps Silent Drill Platoon performs the rifle inspection routine in front of spectators seated in the Reviewing Stands during the Battle Colors Ceremony held at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, California.

A drill team can be one of four different entities:

  1. A Military Drill Team is marching unit that performs routines based on military drill. Military drill teams perform either armed or unarmed.
  2. A Dance Team that creates routines based on dance movement rather than military drill. These teams usually do not carry anything and may perform to recorded music.
  3. A team that execute routines carrying either one or multiple flags or pom-poms. This team's movements are also based in dance and may also have a heavy influence of gymnastics as well. These teams also may perform to music, either live or recorded.
  4. A team that is mounted (horse, motorcycle, etc.) or advances some type of mobile object (library carts, lawn chairs or even garbage bins).

Contents

[edit] Military Drill Team

A Military Drill Team is a marching unit that performs routines based on military drill. These teams often perfect their proficiency and then choose to compete against other programs. These competitions are generally called "Drill Meets", and are held all across the world. The top American independent drill meet is the International Association of Exhibition Drillers' IAXD Pro America Drill Meet. It is currently the nation’s only professional drill meet that features Drillers with bayonets. The Isis World Drill Championships [1] is held in conjunction with SNI's National High School Drill Team Championships [2] in Daytona Beach, Florida.

The 3rd U.S. Infantry’s U.S. Army Drill Team

[edit] United States

All of the United States military service branches have an official drill team part of their respective service Honor Guard. The service academies have drill teams, as well as many college and university ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps) and high school JROTC (Junior ROTC) units. Additionally, many community-based organizations such as the Army Cadet Corps, Naval Sea Cadets, Young Marines and Civil Air Patrol maintain military drill teams.

[edit] Canada

The Canadians have the Canadian Cadet Organization. The organization consists of the Royal Canadian Sea Cadets, Royal Canadian Army Cadets and Royal Canadian Air Cadets. All three branches of the organization have drill competitions throughout the year. Some of these competitions are hosted by the Regional Cadet Support Units

Canadian Drill Competitions consist of the following:

  • Fall in
  • Drill Team dress and deportment
  • Drill Team Commander’s dress and deportment
  • Compulsory drill procedures at the halt
  • Compulsory drill procedures on the march
  • Drill performance in a precision routine (optional)

[edit] The Drill Meet

A Drill Meet is a competition for Military-style Drill Teams. The US military’s Honor Guard units have drill teams; however they do not compete against each other in a drill meet such as this. The only exception to this is Pro America [3] where individuals compete, but not the full drill teams. What is common across the US is high school JROTC and college ROTC teams competing against each other.

[edit] Phases

Each meet has different phases:

Many drill meets differ regarding what events are offered and what divisions of competition are presented. Drill meets generally include both an armed and unarmed divisions. Events offered generally include several different phases: Inspection, Color Guard Regulation Drill and, in addition, (drill based on a service's manual) and Exhibition Drill in which they march intricate maneuvers along with manipulating equipment including rifles, sometimes with fixed bayonets.

Musicians of the His Majesty the King Guard band and drill team (Norway)
  • Inspection (I) : Each team goes through a standard military inspection for an up-close critique of their bearing, knowledge and overall appearance.
  • Regulation Drill (RD) : A fixed list of verbal commands, armed or unarmed from a service’s drill and ceremonies manual (see also Military parade), given by a single cadet commander. This cadet commander must memorize these commands at most every meet and the team must perform these movements as per regulations.
  • Exhibition Drill (XD) : XD is based in RD, but is then infused with a Driller’s imagination. XD has different categories:
  • Solo (A single Driller)
  • Tandem (2 Drillers)
  • Small Team (4-8 Drillers) (Note: this category replaces Tetrad and Squad)
  • Platoon/Flight (9-26 Drillers)
  • Color guard Regulation Drill (CGR): The military color guard is not to be confused with a marching band’s color guard (see Color guard (flag spinning) for more information), although music-related color guards have their roots in the military version. This is similar to the drill team RD phase in that there is a fixed list of commands from a service’s drill and ceremonies manual that the cadet commander must memorize and execute with his/her color guard unit. Units are often required to "case" (commands required to cover the colors for transport/storage), and/or "uncase" (commands required to uncover the colors for competition/display) as a part of the competition.

[edit] Weapons

Each of the above phases can be marched by an armed (with a military sword, saber, or rifle) or unarmed team. NOTE: Many drill meets allow the use of a sword in the unarmed division, but never a rifle of any kind. All drill teams can march a guidon (United States).

  • Standard drill team rifles in the United States are the M-1 Garand, M-14 or the M1903 Springfield rifle. Armed teams usually use a demilitarized version of the rifle or a facsimile, which may be light-weight for spinning (such as for marching show band use).
  • Unarmed teams concentrate on varied body and arm movements with intricate steps. Armed teams then add manipulation of the equipment, known as "manual of arms" in regulation drill events.)

[edit] Judging

  • The old system relies on all judges looking at the same things in a performance. Judges have not necessarily been trained on how to judge and a standardized system has not existed.
  • The new system takes advantage of sister marching arts visual adjudication. Judges are now required to learn how to judge as graduation from a service's Basic Training or any other service-oriented training does not qualify one to judge. Today's judges are divided into different captions for judging. The system is based on a written standard so Drillers, coaches and judges all have the same information as to what scores actually mean. (See the World Drill Association Adjudication Manual)

[edit] Dance Teams

High school drill teams were started in 1928 by Gussie Nell Davis. She created the first drill team, then called a pep squad, at Greenville High School in Greenville, Texas. They were called the "Flaming Flashes" and they performed at every halftime show. After creating the Flashes, Davis was called to Kilgore College to form a college drill team. She created the world famous "Kilgore Rangerettes" to perform at halftime at the college. The Flaming Flashes and the Rangerettes now consist of a line of performers with the officers in front of the girls leading them at every game. The second college drill team to be created in Texas was the Tyler Junior College Apache Belles in 1947. Ever since then then there has been a fierce rivalry between the Apache Belles and the Rangerettes. Most high schools in Texas are either an Apache Belle Style team or a Rangerette style team. The only four year university in Texas to offer a drill team is Texas State University with the Texas State Strutters.


In Washington state, the phrase "drill team" usually refers to high school performance/spirit teams that compete in the "Drill" category at local, regional and statewide "Dance/Drill" competitions. Drill routines (sometimes referred to as "drills") typically entail (indeed some argue should entail):

  • highly regimented procedures for entering and exiting the stage;
  • precise symmetry and/or spacing in the teams' formations (a.k.a. line straightness);
  • precise transitions between formations that do not compromise line straightness;
  • perfect or near-perfect synchronization and sharpness in the teams' marching and other bodily movements; and
  • interesting music selection.
  • (Many drill teams incorporate kicklines into their routines; many other successful Drill routines have been accomplished without them.)


A Washington drill team member, or "driller", is not a dancer, but a dancer can be a driller. Since the foci of Drill are presentation and spatial precision, drillers do not necessarily need attributes typically ascribed to dancers, such as a high level of flexibility or an aptitude for expressing emotions with the body. This generally allows for larger team sizes, with most teams having about 20 or more members.

[edit] Flag and pom drill teams

Main article: Pep flags

[edit] Mounted drill teams

Main article: Equestrian drill team

[edit] Notes


[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drill_team"
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