NYAA Skills Entries 2 (Drills)

Date: 6th August 2010
Duration: 4 hours

Today, we started learning this new set of drills, which is rifle drills. For rifle drills, we use dummy 5.56mm M-16 rifles to learn, practice and master these drills.
First of all, we have to learn the basic rifle drills starting with ‘sedi-a’ and ‘senang di-ri’ with the rifle. It was simple, so we mastered within a short time.
Then, it was ‘rusok senja-ta’ from ‘sedi-a’. This particular drill was difficult to grasp, as we had to flick the rifle up from the ground and hold it with both hands at the same time. The main problem was that most of us could not grab with both hands at the same time, but instead ‘transferred’, which means grabbing the rifle with one hand at a time.
This drill took some time to learn and even more to practice, especially with that ‘transferring’ problem. At the end of this drill session, most of us finally managed to execute this drill properly.

Date: 13th August 2010
Duration: 4 hours

Today, we revised the rifle drills we have learnt for the previous training and found out that a lot of us seemed to have lost the momentum of the drills. So, we took quite some time to practice them as ‘Practice makes Perfect’. We improved significantly in terms of coordination and swiftness in executing the drill, after this revision and drill practice.
Then, we learnt another new rifle drill, ’hormat senja-ta’, which is to salute. This particular drill had many steps and parts to it, so it takes time for all of us to remember at heart and learn this drill. We practised by parts first, so as to have a good grasp of the different steps. Finally, we managed to perform this drill fully, but there is definitely much more space for improvement.
We practised this drill for quite some time, before finally having mastered this complex drill.

Date: 20th August 2010
Duration: 4 hours

Today, we revised the rifle drills we have learnt so far. Although most of us were able to execute the drill, there was still room for improvement. We practised and improved significantly in terms of coordination and precision in executing the drill.
We learnt another rifle drill, which is the ‘turun senja-ta’ from ‘hormat senja-ta’. It is to bring the rifle from salute down to the ground. This, just like the ‘hormat senja-ta’, is quite complex, as it has a lot of steps. We first learnt by parts and finally as a whole. Nobody can ever master a drill just by executing once, so we continued practising this drill.
Also, we learnt ‘turun senja-ta’ from ‘rusok senja-ta’. It is relatively simpler to learn and everyone was able to execute it in a matter of time. Finally, after practising all the rifle drills learnt so far, we were able to execute them very well.

Date: 27th August 2010
Duration: 4 hours

Today, after revising on rifle drills learnt so far, we practised marching with the rifle. We were to take note of minor details such as to avoid dragging our feet, to land on our heels and coordinating our arm swings.
Although we were able to march properly free-hand, without the rifle, but with the rifle, the marching experience was different. It took quite some time for us to adapt and we finally managed to march with the rifle well enough, though not a hundred percent perfect, at the end of the day.

Date: 3th September 2010
Duration: 4 hours

Today, we revised the rifle drills that we have learnt, as usual, and practised marching with the rifle. After we were perfect, we learnt two new related rifle drills, ‘baring senja-ta’ and ‘angkat senja-ta’.
The drill ‘baring senja-ta’ is to place the rifle down to the ground from ‘sedi-a’ position. It takes some time to learn and practise till perfect, as we tend to slam the rifle down on the ground, though supposed to place it down gently and silently. There were also some difficulties in trying to place the rifle straight in position. We practised for some time and managed to execute this drill with coordination and accuracy.
Next is ‘angkat senja-ta’. It is to pick up the rifle from the ground after ‘baring senja-ta’. This was not as difficult as ‘baring senja-ta’, because there was only a problem of not being able to reach the rifle on the ground. We took a couple of minutes to learn, and we practised many times before being perfect in this drill.

Date: 10th September 2010
Duration: 4 hours

Today, we practised the drills we have learnt, especially concentrating those newer ones, as the older ones are always used and had always being practised, such that we had no problems with them.
We were taught a new rifle drill this training, ‘julang senja-ta’. It is to bring the rifle from ‘rusok senja-ta’ to high port. We have to bring the rifle up in front of the chest and hold it with the magazine pointing forwards. This was simple to learn, but there were mistakes to be corrected, such as not pointing the magazine forward. Most of us mastered this drill at the end of this drills session.

Date: 17th September 2010
Duration: 4 hours

Today, we went straight into learning two new rifle drills. First was ‘aleh senja-ta’, for changing the rifle from ‘rusok senja-ta’ position on the left to the right. It is also similar for the reverse action back to ‘rusok senja-ta’ position. After learning and practising, this easy-to-grasp drill was within our hands.
Second was ‘bimbit senja-ta’, for bringing the rifle down from ‘rusok senja-ta’ to hold the carrying handle. This drill was simple to catch, but the only problem was that some of us did not hold the rifle straight pointing forwards. This mistake took some time of practise to correct till we were perfect in this particular drill.
These two drills, though simple, took some time to practise, before we proceeded to revising all the other rifle drills until the end of training.

Date: 24th September 2010
Duration: 4 hours

Today, we firstly did all the other non-rifle drills that we have learnt. Then, we combined all the rifle drills we have learnt and practised it to mastery, and did with marching drills, such as marching at ‘julang senja-ta’ position.
This session was to practise and master all the drills we have learnt so far, so that our squad can execute drills proficiently with coordination, accuracy and swiftness by the end of training.