January 2013

ALASKA

JROTC DRILL MEET REGULATIONS AND SCORING GUIDE


TABLE OF CONTENTS

SECTIONPAGES(S)

Administration1

General Regulations2-1 thru 2-2

General Scoring Instructions2-3

Regulation Drill/Definitions3-1 thru 3-2

Exhibition Drill Regulations4-1 thru 4-2

Judges Responsibility5

Score Tabulation, Timing, Penalty Sheets6 thru 6-2

Regulation Drill Score Sheets7

Exhibition Drill Score Sheets8

Exhibition Penalty Judge Sheet(All Categories)8-1

Exhibition Sequence Judge Sheet(All Categories)8-2

Armed Exhibition Head Judge Sheet8-3

Armed Exhibition Execution Judge #18-4

Armed Exhibition Execution Judge #28-5

Unarmed Exhibition Head Judge Sheet8-6

Unarmed Exhibition Execution Judge #18-7

Unarmed Exhibition Execution Judge #28-8

Unarmed Exhibition Execution Judge #38-9

Administrative Note:

Academic Awards: All cadets who participate on one of the school’s drill/color guard teams will count towards the school’s average GPA. The minimum number of cadets competing at the state drill meet to be eligible for Academic Awards will be 10. The total number of eligible schools will be divided equally separating large and small schools. If an uneven number of teams are present, the large team category will include the extra school.

GENERAL REGULATIONS

Movements not in accordance with respective service manuals will result in penalties assessed by the head judge. This includes extra flourishes (non-regulation), three-count about faces, shortened length of step, and any other movements that are accentuated such as column and flanking movements. The head judge will confer with the senior service judge of the performing service for any questions relating to service specific regulations. The intent of this is to ensure that service specific differences are accounted for and that the service being judged is held to the highest standard of that service. If it is not authorized, it is not legal.

Performance for the Regulation Drill Phases of the competition will be conducted in accordance with the following service manuals:

U.S. ARMY JROTCFM 3-21.5, W/CHANGES, July 2003

U.S. NAVY JROTCNJROTC Cadet Field Manual

U.S. AIR FORCE JROTCAIR FORCE MANUAL 36-2203, 2004

**NOTE**

Regulation Team Commanders must specify the Service Manual(s) that they are using during “Report-In.” Failure to do so WILL result in a penalty.

Specific Information:

In addition to the requirements set forth in the General Information Section, the following rules are established to ensure a safe, smooth-flowing, and impartial drill competition. Your cooperation is requested in adhering to the procedures set forth in the following paragraphs:

  1. ORDER OF PERFORMANCE. The hosting school will determine the order of performance. This will be accomplished by holding a lottery. This lottery should be held as soon as it is determined which schools are going to participate. Emphasis should be placed on advising schools as to their prescribed times as soon as practical. This will allow for coordination and maximum parent involvement.

2-1

The use of bayonets, blank ammunition, and/or pyrotechnics of any kind is strictly prohibited. The spinning of swords/sabers is also forbidden. In general any act that is considered unsafe, or may be considered unsafe, must be approved by the Anchorage School District PRIOR to any performance.

  1. Team Commanders that report in with a sword are reminded to ensure that they have sufficient distance between themselves and the Head Judge.
  1. Only authorized Service Uniforms will be worn, when worn, during the competitions. Higher Command authorized modifications to the uniforms are permitted if supplied to the Drill Meet Coordinator prior to the start of the drill season. At no time during the competition, or on the competition premises, will cadets be in partial or disheveled uniforms. The judges will be encouraged to observe the personal appearance of all cadets, to include inappropriate haircuts, styles, and colors. It should be stressed that the cadets continue to represent their school and their service at all times.
  1. Team composition. First year teams must be comprised of cadets in their first year (1st or 2nd semester) of ANY JROTC program. Cadets who transfer from one program to another are not considered First Year Cadets unless they have completed less than 2 semesters. Failure of any cadet to follow this rule will result in the disqualification of the entire team.
  1. Cadets mayperform in more than one event i.e. Armed and Unarmed Regulation Drill, Armed Exhibition, Color Guard or 1st Year, and if required by enrollment, Regulation Unarmed teams. These are all different events.

Coaches/Instructors are asked to stay off of the drill floor during the competition. This includes anytime that the judges are present. Questions concerning judging, scoring, or rule interpretation will be directed to the Drill Meet Coordinator ONLY. Questions that are intrinsic to the school hosting the drill meet should be directed to the instructors of that school. Verbal coaching/prompting from the bleachers is prohibited.

2-2

General Scoring Instructions For All Categories

(Head Judge and Execution Judges)

BE STRICT AND STINGY WITH YOUR SCORES!

For each of the general scoring categories, you should score a team on the following basis:

1 point / Unsatisfactory (poor) “F”
2 points / Marginal (fair) “C or D”
3 points / Satisfactory (good) “B”
4 points / Excellent (great) “A”
5 points / Outstanding (no apparent flaws) “A+”

Only teams that perform well below average in a category should receive less than 3 points for that category. Remember, only a “D” or “F” level performance should receive 2 or fewer points. Judges, DO NOT total your scores! The scoring table will do this.

Tie Breaker: The first criteria used to decide a tiebreaker will be the team with the fewest penalty points per the score tabulation sheet for that event. If a tie still exists, the head judge’s cadet commander score will be used. The head judge should be briefed on the importance of his/her score and to not assign the same score to more than one team.

2-3

REGULATION DRILL

Regulation Drill is a platoon/flight drill event with the formation containing a minimum of three (3) or four (4) squads/elements and other attached members as prescribed by the appropriate service manual. There is a minimum of ten (10) or thirteen (13) marching members, including the platoon/flight commander. Teams with less than 10 cadets willbe penalized. A team must consist of a minimum of 7 + 1 to take the floor.

There is an 8 (eight) minute limit for regulation drill. If a team runs over this limit the penalty judge will access a mandatory penalty of up to 30 points.

Drill floor size is as follows: 85’ x 70’ for a 12+1 team; 70’ X 60’ for a 9 + 1 team; and 42.5’ x 70’ for color guard teams.

  1. When instructed to march the team onto the drill area, the platoon/flight commander marches the team in and centers him/herself and the team on the Head judge. The Platoon/Flight Commander (only) will “Present Arms” at the distance prescribed by the respective service manual and the commander will report in by stating, “Sir/Chief/Sergeant…name of school, requests permission…( reporting statements are not standardized) but should include…in accordance with NAME OF SERVICE MANUAL”. Judging begins when the Platoon/Flight Commander renders his/her salute.
  1. The movement of, “Present Arms” is considered an integral part of the regulation drill routine and is graded, as well as “Ready Front” after “Eyes Right.” Judging ends when the platoon/flight commander either reports out or cuts his/her salute.
  1. After receiving the report-in, the head judge commands: “Proceed with Regulation Drill” at which time the platoon/flight commander proceeds with the prescribed drill sequence for armed or unarmed units. All movements must be executed in the correct sequence and from memory.
  1. Each movement highlighted on the score sheet must be held a minimum of five (5) seconds.
  1. The head judge is responsible to ensure that the performing team is following the service manual completely. Unauthorized/illegal movements WILL be penalized

3-1

  1. The Head Judge is responsible to ensure that the performing team is following the service manual completely. Unauthorized/illegal movements WILL be penalized in the “Overall impression” category of Head Judge’s score sheet only. This penalty shall be 10 points per occurrence, with a maximum of 20 penalty points assessed.
  1. All regulation drill categories will be timed for cadence. See the Cadence Timing Matrix for details on Page 6-2.
  1. The ability to perform the prescribed drill routine without the use of cadence is considerably more difficult than with cadence. To that end, the judges will award fewer points for routines that do use cadence. For scoring details, see the Instructions to the Judges section.

DEFINITIONS

Demilitarized Weapons-are weapons that contain both a trigger guard (if trigger is present) and an adjustable sling. They must weigh a minimum of 8 ½ lbs.

Facsimile Weapons - are weapons whose look and feel closely mirror a demilitarized weapon. Note: to be used in any competition category, rifles must weigh a minimum of 8 ½ lbs.

UNIFORM APPEARANCE- This category should judge the cadets’ pride in their uniform, their school, and the service they represent. The judging should include all facets of uniform appearance to include: proper haircut, shave, proper fit of uniform, cleanliness of uniform, unauthorized jewelry, or unauthorized fingernail length or color for uniform. Each service’s member judges are responsible to enforce their service specific rules in this category by informing all judges of uniform/appearance infractions.

SNAP- Is the overall crispness of individual and team movements. This includes rifle movements, arm swing, and hand movements. Snap also includes the performance of stationary and moving pivots.

BEARING- Is the carriage, posture, and overall deportment of the marching unit. Pay particular attention to the reaction of cadets if they make a mistake. Do they maintain their posture, and correct themselves, or do they shake their head, shrug shoulders, etc. Any extraneous movement should be downgraded.

3-2

ALIGNMENT-Is the way the formation lines up maintains position relative to each other throughout the performance. Dress (side to side), Cover (front to back), interval (space side to side—an arms length) and distance (space front to back—40”) should be graded with a keen eye during regulation drill. It is suggested that for the sake of time, that as a judge you make little” tick” marks somewhere on your grading sheet keeping track of any alignment violations that you observe. This will allow you to be paying attention while the performance is occurring, and still allow you to reflect any errors that you observe at the end of the performance.

ARMS ALIGNMENT- As the name implies, this category grades the alignment of the rifles during the Armed Regulation phase. Rifle alignment should be considered as one of the major grading points in this category.

USE OF ARMS- The use of the weapons should be an integral part of any armed exhibition demonstration. This scoring area reflects the use of the rifles in a manner that compliments the overall performance. Complexity of rifle movements, weight of the rifle used, and general flow of the armed movements, should be considered in this grading area during the exhibition routine.

PRECISION/UNIFORMITY- This area, when judged in exhibition, is not straightforward. It is not always clear what the intent of the performing unit is. The ripple effect that you see may or may not be intentional. Height of throws and kicks, timing of the spins, timing and synchronous movements of the cadets will apply in this category.

CADENCE/VARIETY- This category is used during both regulation and exhibition phases of the competition. During the regulation portion of the competition, verbal cadence is a penalty. Cadence of the team should remain consistent throughout the routine. Speeding up then slowing down or vice versa should be considered in overall impression.

During the exhibition portion of the competition, the grading criterion here places emphasis on the performing teams use, or non-use of auditable cadence, and the variety of formations and changes of speed during the performance. Because exhibition drill is more difficult when commands are not given, a team that performs without verbal cues, slapping and banging of rifles, or stomping of feet should be graded higher, in this category. This rule cannot be etched in stone for the following reasons. Some teams may use a variation of the above-mentioned

3-3

devices to move through their routine, while other teams make a great use of cues. The decision of the judges concerning the use, partial use, or non-use of these cues is the criteria used to award points. The bottom line is that, silent drill is more difficult than drill with full commands. You, as judges, are likely to encounter middle ground on this and must use a consistent judging method to ensure fairness.

FLOW- This category is also used in the exhibition phase of the competition. The grading criteria here are to judge the routine’s flow from position to position. Observing the transitions that the teams use from formation to formation, or movement to movement. Intricate transitions that require simultaneous movements from team members should be rewarded with a higher score that a team that simply changes formations in a standard military fashion.

ROUTINE- This category, used only in the exhibition phase of the competition, should reflect the complexity of the routine. If a routine has many variations, complex movements, and a variety of “tricks” it should be graded higher than a routine that is ho-hum and lacks imagination and repeats the same moves continuously. Imagination and creativity are the keys to exhibition. A team that performs one or two “good” moves ten or twelve times should not be considered as creative or complex as a team that sprinkles different moves and changes the footwork throughout the routine.

OVERALL IMPRESSION- This grading category gives the judge a chance to speak to the overall performance of a routine. Was the routine entertaining? Did you enjoy and were you impressed by the performance? That is the question. It is likely that this grade will be a direct reflection of the other grades and that is fine. You may find fault in a specific area, yet still think that an “overall” performance was noteworthy. This category applies to both regulation drill and exhibition drill.

3-4

EXHIBITION DRILL

Exhibition drill is a derivative of regulation drill. This drill displays the imagination and resourcefulness of the team leaders and members. It exemplifies the spirit, pride, and dedication to excellence necessary to be successful.

The judging and/or grading of the exhibition drill phase are a difficult task and are in reality a pure judgment call on the part of the judges. This judgment call should be based on the foundations of traditional drill. The team performing unarmed or armed exhibition are encouraged to use their imagination without presenting a "dance or step team appearance" that would traditionally exist in a civilian setting. The following areas should be used as guidelines when judging armed or unarmed exhibition drill:

Complexity/Originality of the drill

Military bearing and Precision of the team

Precision of the rifle manual/Precision of the marching movements

Overall smoothness of the drill

Please note: Vocal commands/ques make drill easier. This should be taken into consideration in your overall impression when judging this category.

SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS
  1. When instructed to march the team onto the drill floor, the platoon/flight commander marches the team in and reports to the head judge by stating, “Sir, the Name of the team/school is present to perform the exhibition with/or without arms routine, Sir.”
  1. Teams may use any imaginative manner of marching in for the report. The only requirements are that the team be in front of the head judge and that the appropriate courtesy is rendered to the head judge, (i.e. hand salute, rifle salute, etc.) by the team commander and the team, You may request that the head judge stand in a special location to facilitate this requirement.
  1. The time period allowed for the exhibition drill is a minimum of six (6) minutes and a maximum of eight (8) minutes. There is a penalty for performances less than six (6) minutes or greater than eight (8).

4-1

  1. Timing of the exhibition routine starts at the Beginning of the report-in by the team commander and terminates at the Termination of the report out. The presenting and dropping of the appropriate salute determines the beginning and termination of the report-in/out.
  1. A penalty of five (5) points is assessed for each piece of equipment dropped. Equipment is considered to be rifles, rifle parts, covers, ribbons, badges, hairpins etc.
  1. When the exhibition routine is completed, it is not required that the team be in the same position centered on the head judge as when reporting in. It is required that the team renders a proper courtesy to the head judge and that the team commander states, “Sir, the Name of team/school has completed exhibition drill.”
  1. The head judge returns the courtesy and acknowledges the team commander’s request.
  1. Blind throws/kicks of any kind are prohibited. A blind throw is defined as a throw or kick of a weapon to a person or persons you cannot see as you make the throw. Additionally, any throw which cause the weapon to pass over the head and/or shoulders of another person are prohibited. Violation of this rule WILL result in the immediate disqualification of the offending team.
  1. No cadet may be elevated, by any means, above the waist of the other cadets. This includes pyramid stacking of personal to form a ladder, or weapons held in a manner to support the weight of a cadet.
  1. Slings are optional during exhibition drill.

The judges will have the right to weigh any weapon that they feel may not meet the established criteria.