Back to Basics

Pathfinders and instructors must always get back to the basics every once in a while. And younger Pathfinders even more often. It is foolish to think that just because you were good at marching once and have since moved on to complex triple time, double to-the-real march, swash salutes that you are exempt from the basics. Professionals who know the value of basic skills will ensure they are always proficient. A brain surgeon who can no longer remember how to suture properly is a bad surgeon.

So what am I talking about here? What are the basics of drill? It's quite simple: Everything you teach to a junior Pathfinder in their first year. That's the position of attention, the marching step, facing movements, salutes, etc. Instructors need to always be practicing these skills because, as we progress in our careers, we are required to perform them less and less until the day comes when we try to march on formation and we are incompetent fools. Take time to perfect the basics. Use that practice to be better at instructing those skills, review the manuals on each movement to further enforce the proper methods and terminology.

Want to know the best way to test yourself? Participate in a game of Simon Says with your junior Pathfinders and your Teen Pathfinders. Give instruction to the Teen or TLT calling commands to stick to basic commands. See how far you get. If you cannot consistently remain in the top three participants, you need to go to the deck and spend some time mastering those skills again.

Never forget the danger of becoming an armchair drill instructor. They are a destructive element. Armchair instructors who have "seen and done it all" so many times that they do not feel the need to get back on the deck are the weight around the neck of a Pathfinder Drill Program. They will be the death of a good program by criticizing things they haven't done in years. They will sit and critique based on personal biases and in the realm of new things that they have never experienced. Nowhere in the professional world are experts allowed to judge, critique, offer opinions, or instruct on topics they are not demonstrated experts themselves. To be in such a position is unethical. Don't be that guy.

Remember your roots. Remember how it felt the first time you learned the position of attention. Remember the first time you called a command as a commander. Remember the time you taught your first movement. Get back to basics.