NYAA Skills Entries 4 (Drills)

Date: 8th October 2010
Duration: 4 hours

The month of October was full of revisions, to prepare us for a test on the 3rd week of the month. Today, we did a mass revision of all the rifle drills we have done so far, refining them. These drills included ‘rusok senjata’, ‘hormat senjata’, ‘turun senjata’, ‘baring senjata’, ‘angkat senjata’, and many more. We split ourselves up into two rows, by which we stood facing each other as we executed drills, so as to point out each other’s mistakes. We ended the training confident in our execution of all the rifle drills we have learnt so far.

Date: 15th October 2010
Duration: 4 hours

Today, we took turns to command the squad the drills we revised last week. Every 10 minutes, the person taking the squad would change, and at each person’s turn, he would have to give the squad commands such as ‘hormat senjata’, ‘julang senjata’ and ‘angkat senjata’. We shouted the commands out loudly and clearly, and we ended giving each other feedback, so that we could improve our drill standards before the test next week.

Date: 22nd October 2010
Duration: 4 hours

Today was our 2nd Class Drill Badge Test. An Honorary Officer came down to our school to conduct the test. We stood proudly in the parade square, as one by one; we stepped forward, commanded the squad, executed the tested drills, and stepped back into the squad. It is safe to say that all the hard work and revisions paid off, as all of us in the Squad Arcainez managed to pass the test!

Date: 29th October 2010
Duration: 4 hours

Today, we learned how to turn on the march and wheeling on the march, both with our rifles. Just like when we first marched with our rifles, it was difficult adapting to it with the rifles we were carrying. At first, we were unco-ordinated and were very awkward, but soon we got the hang of it and spent the next hour refining and perfecting our movements as a squad. By using clear, efficient timings we managed to perfect our movements and turnings.
For the next hour we revised all our static rifle drills like “hormat” and “rusok”. As we had spent a few weeks practicing we were very co-ordinated and executed the drills well. By taking turns to command the squad we were able to keep the drill commands fresh in our minds.
At the end of the training we felt we had accomplished much as together we had refined our previous drills and learnt new ones.

Date: 6th November 2010
Duration: 4hours

Today, we revised al the rifle drills we had learned so far. We spent an hour and half refining the drills such as the more difficult ones like “hormat” and “julang”. Each of us took it in turn to command the squad so as to help each other memorise the drill commands and to execute the drill commands perfectly. Also, we practiced among ourselves and pointed out our individuals’ mistakes so as to help one another perfect the drills.
We spent the other hour and half refining our marching, turning, wheeling and hentak. We took it in turns to shout out the timings so that everyone would know the precise timings and also looked out for individual mistakes. We perfected our movements for the rest of the time, pointing our each other’s mistakes so that we could learn from them.
AT the end of the training, we reflected upon our overall performance as a squad and felt that we had improved a lot in our rifle drills and marching.

Date: 12th November 2010
Duration: 4hours

Today, we revised all the drills we have done for the past weeks. For 2 hours we took in turns to take the squad and command the rifle drills, pointing out one another’s mistakes to perfection. Slowly, we perfected our own individual performance according to the timings given and by the end of the 2 hours we had successfully performed perfect rifle drills as a squad without timings. We felt we had made a big accomplishment in our performance.
For the next 2 hours, we worked on our marching. Each of us took in turn to command the squad in the turning or wheeling and also changed the timers regularly to ensure everyone could shout out co-ordinated timings. We worked on our marching for the rest of the time, perfecting our coordinated movements as a squad so that by the end of the duration we could march and execute the turnings, hentak and wheeling without timing.
All in all, we felt we had accomplished and achieved a lot by this training. Together we had perfected our drills and refined our marching.

Date: 19th November 2010
Duration: 4 hours

Today, we did the same thing as last week, taking turns to command the squad and correcting our squad mates’ mistakes. We also practiced more marching. After this whole NYAA drills, we had a few takeaways. Doing drills together as a squad made us more bonded and at the same time it was an enjoyable process. We managed to perfect our rifle drills and also had fun. We learnt that teamwork is very important in drills. We had to co-ordinate with each other to have a uniform bang, as even 1 person who is not in sync will make the drills imperfect. We also had to look out for one another’s mistake and correct them in order to help each other improve and ultimately, increase the standard of our squad.