Meet organizers developing drill safety program
By Steve Arel
U.S. Army Cadet Command
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — While it wants teams to show their knack for drill, Sports Network International wants participants to do it safely.
With safety being the hallmark of every military organization, SNI has focused much of its attention in recent months on developing a program to ensure cadre and Cadets understand the right way to execute maneuvers without risking one’s health.
The program being written, and likely to be complete sometime this fall, begins with the most basic of preventive measures – clear a practice area of foreign objects. It will go on to highlight how various maneuvers should be executed and how they must be done in competitions.
SNI, the company that organizes drill meets for the Army, Navy and Air Force and puts on the annual National High School Drill Team Championships, isn’t writing the instruction because of an injury outbreak. It simply wants participants to keep safety in mind whenever — and wherever — they drill.
“I’ve been to enough drill meets and seen enough You Tube videos to know you’ve got a large number of kids who see our kids and say, ‘I can do that,’ ” Gates said. “I ski jump, too, but if I don’t have a good training program before I do it, I’m going to get hurt.”
And some students have been hurt in the past. Gates remembers seeing a Cadet who tried to catch a rifle tossed by another Cadet standing several feet away, only to be smacked in the face with the weapon as he tried to catch it as it came toward him.
It’s incidents like that SNI hopes to prevent. The program will serve not only as a foundation of instruction, but also be designed as an ongoing curriculum to include online certification.
While the lessons will highlight techniques exhibitioners might not know, much of the instruction is common sense, Gates said.
“Before you do the triple Lutz, you better be able to do these 10 other basic things,” he said. “If you can’t, the lawyer is going to say, ‘What made him uniquely qualified to be back there catching a rifle from 40 feet away?’ You can’t say, ‘Well, he put his hand up.’ Wrong answer.”
Col. John Vanderbleek, the director of Army JROTC, applauded SNI’s initiative, saying it makes sense. The Army’s traditional drill and ceremonies is comprehensive, but doesn’t take into account maneuvers that include spinning rifles.
He said U.S. Army Cadet Command, which oversees ROTC on the junior and senior levels, will work to get out the information as an additional resource for Cadets and cadre.
“This is a vey unique market,” Vanderbleek said, referring to the sport of drill. “Injuries do occur from dropping a weapon or from a move you’re not familiar with.”
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