That is a very good question. So, just what are drill meet judges looking for? In general, they don’t know. Drill meet judges are not trained, they are briefed about an hour before the competition. Some get their briefing a day prior. It’s still a briefing, it’s not training since no one involved has enough time to readily digest and process the new information and then practice applying the…

Why should a drill meet use the WDA Adjudication System? It's the only complete adjudication system that is specifically geared toward military drill. It is based around a written standard from two books: The World Drill Association Adjudication System and Rule Book and Continuing Education For The WDA Adjudicator. It took just over two years to develop from a sister pageantry art activity- indoor color guard. It is the best system for judging since military drill is a visual art. It judges the what and the how of four different captions and will not change from that. There is nothing experimental about it, nothing to trial, it is a finished complete system that can only benefit everyone involved in the military drill world.

My school hosts a competition, how can we use the WDA System? Obtain a copy of the WDA Adjudication System and Rule Book (follow the link above) and contact me, The DrillMaster. Together we can go through, step by step what will change for you- and it won't be much, just the judging and tabulation. Everything else will remain the same, if that is what you want. You will be emailed all of the score sheets and will also be able to use the WDA Tabulation Program where the tabulators will only have to enter the scores on a specially designed spreadsheet and the program does the rest, including providing recap pages for the competition. Recap pages have all caption and sub-caption scores in placement order and competitors will now be able to have a much more in-depth look at the scores to see where the performance is going well and what, specifically, needs improvement. No other way of judging can provide this. Here are three recap page samples: one, two and three (all three are from my independent scoring of IWDC12  each is a little different).

Judges also provide instantaneous verbal feedback during the performance- and that's only with the WDA Adjudication System. No more do judges have to look down to write something down on the score sheet, they're speaking to you during the performance and do not take their eyes off of you. And it's not just a bunch of fluff either: none of that "I like that" or "I don't like that". Liking or disliking any part of a routine has nothing to do with properly judging what is presented.

Why isn't our current way of judging any good? It was fine for what it did for the last few decades but, as people grow and learn, we find that there may be a better way of doing this or that. The WDA Adjudication System is just that: a better way of judging military drill- at all levels.

As a judge, why should I train and certify? The Drillers that you judge put in great effort to educate and train themselves, shouldn't you be as educated as possible? Judges from all other kinds of activities (cars, marching band, etc.) study and train to be the best t their craft, it's time that judges for the military drill world were educated and trained to do their job. Graduation from a service's Basic Training, being a member of the honor guard or even being a Drill Instructor/Training Instructor does not qualify anyone to judge a military drill competition. Click here on how to get started.