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I'm wonderign how many of you have ever done a drill down.

Today at band camp we did some really epic drill downs.

One lasted 30 minutes with the last 3 people taking most of the time, about 25 minutes. I was in top 6.

The enxt time we added reshman. I lasted to top 4, and then when i got out 2 other epople got out. it was weird because we thought the choir director, who took over band camp cause our director left, said forward but she actually said backward. It confused us because we were already doing backward.

The third time i didn't do too well. The choir director actually joined us instead of shouting commands, and ended up winning.

I LOVE DRILL DOWNS! x3

We did them a lot freshman year, and did them during band camp sophomore year (which I came in 2nd and dominated the females and woodwinds!).

Junior year, we didn't have any. :[ The guy that taught us marching didn't even teach us commands - not attention, not dress...nothing. My friend and I asked him to teach commands, but he never did. I also asked the BD if we could do a drill down, but nothing ever came of it.

I hope senior year's better.

They sound like fun, is it like you listen to commands and do them as they are shouted?

We do something like that except we call them concentration blocks. Last year I was the 4th best freshman (4th or 5th, somewhere in there) and this year I was the 6th best in the whole band.

For a drilldown, your in a marchign block with a bunch of either people.
The director/dm shouts out commands either really fast our really slow, usually in quick succession of eachother, and you have to do it correctly. If you make a mistake, you have to fall out. If your on the wrong foot it is counted as a mistake. The last person is the winner.

Last nigth we had a parent performance and we did 3 drilldowns for our parents. One freshman Vs sophomore, i dont remember the winner. Then we hade a Junior vs senior, which i ahd to purposely make a mistake caus my pants were falling down and i did not want to be marcing with my pants around my ankles in front of all the parents and band kids. Were it not a drilldown i would have kept it up though. Last was full abnd. The winner was a sophomore from my section. I messed up because the choir director was making us go reallyfast and my mind said go forward from backward but my legs said no. This was after a nice 5 minutes of 4 steps forward, 4 steps back, 4 forward, 4 back, etc.

OMG.

I had one today.

I was so excited. The freshmen were like, "What's a drill down...?"

Everyone else : "You'll see. ;3"

I thought something was unfair when my drum major called out: "Left flank-hut!"

OKAY, SO, being in drumline, I was like: Do I crabstep? Probably, but...

More than half the band had to go stand on the sideline, including me! What really made me mad was that some of the freshmen on the drumline survived the flank command. However, we haven't been taught flanks since we started a new marching style. (Straight leg. Pain. In. The. NECK.)

But, in the end, my section leader pwned everyone. >3

i love drill downs! but it sounds like everyone else actually marches in them...we just do attention, parade rest, facings, dresses, etc and occasionaly mark-time. on our fist day of band camp, the morning was only for the newbies and all the section leaders. so, being guard assistant captain i had go. right before lunch, we had one, and i won! lol the way ours work is if you get out, you go to the side and do the commands silently, until theres only like 10 people left, then they pull it in and everyone else can watch. i had never even made it that far in my 3 previous years, but then i won! but we hadn't even learned facings yet so it was just attention, parade rest, dresses, and "horns up" (where we all pretend to play trumpet since we don't ahve our insruments lol)

We do drill downs every week in marching band! I've only ever won a couple though. Our relay always makes us laugh by shouting absurd things instead of the command. And if we don't shout "AS YOU WERE!!" while keeping a straight face, your out.