Royal Army College

Lesson Overview

Lesson 02 taught the ceremonial NCO to plan a parade: its sequence, its orders, its timings, and its contingencies. A plan, however good, is only paper until a body of troops can carry it out to the ceremonial standard, and bringing them to that standard is the work of this lesson. It is the longest and most demanding part of the NCO's preparation, because a parade is not assembled on the day from soldiers who already know their parts; it is built, over a series of rehearsals, from a body that at first knows nothing of this particular ground, this particular sequence, and this particular standard, into one that moves through the whole as if it had always known it. That building is the NCO's craft, and it is the subject here.

The troops you rehearse already know how to drill. They learned the foundations long before this course, on the square, by numbers and then together, and they hold them in their bodies. Your task is not to teach drill from nothing but to take soldiers who can march and turn and dress, and weld them into a body that performs this parade, on this ground, to the highest standard the State will see, and to do it without wearing them out or breaking their pride before the day arrives. That is a different craft from teaching a recruit their first right turn, and it draws on the drill instructor's art, on the instructional method of the Methods of Instruction course (TRG 301), and on the leadership of the Junior Leadership Course, all turned to the conduct of ceremonial.

By the end you will be able to describe the drill instructor's craft applied to ceremonial, including the word of command and the use of the voice; explain how a movement is broken down and built up by the EDIP method drawn from the Methods of Instruction course; describe the progression of rehearsal from the squad through the element and the combined practice to the full dress rehearsal on the ground; explain how a rehearsal is paced so that the body peaks on the day without staleness or exhaustion; and explain how the ceremonial standard is held firmly while the troops' morale and pride are kept and built.

Key Terms

Rehearsal: the planned, repeated practice by which a body of troops is brought from knowing the parts of a parade to performing the whole to the ceremonial standard on the day.
Word of command: the spoken order that directs a movement, given in two parts, the cautionary that warns and names who is to act, and the executive, the sharp word on which the movement is made.
Command voice: the trained, projected voice in which words of command are given, clear and firm and carrying, by which one NCO controls a whole parade without shouting.
EDIP: the method for teaching a skill, in four stages, Explanation, Demonstration, Imitation, and Practice, drawn from the Methods of Instruction course and applied here to building a ceremonial movement.
Breaking down and building up: teaching a movement first in its parts, slowly, and then assembling the parts into the whole at proper pace, the whole-part-whole method applied to drill.
Element: a part of the parade rehearsed on its own before the whole is combined, such as the guard, the Colour party, the band, or a single flank.
Combined rehearsal: the practice in which the separately rehearsed elements are brought together and the parade is run as one body.
Full dress rehearsal: the final rehearsal, run on the actual ground in the order of dress and at the timings of the day, as nearly as possible exactly as the parade itself will be.
Pacing the rehearsal: planning the series of rehearsals so the body reaches its peak on the day, neither under-rehearsed and ragged nor over-rehearsed into staleness and fatigue.
Correction: the firm, dignified naming and putting-right of a fault, aimed at the fault and never at the soldier, by which the standard is held without humiliation.

The drill instructor's craft turned to ceremonial

The soldier who rehearses a parade is, for those hours, a drill instructor, and the drill instructor's craft is the foundation of everything in this lesson. That craft is not loudness, and it is not severity. It is the ability to control a body of troops by the voice alone, to see a fault the instant it appears, to break a movement down so that the body can build it correctly, and to hold a demanding standard while keeping the troops with you rather than against you. Turned to ceremonial, this craft has one difference of aim from teaching recruits their first drill: you are not building the movements into bodies that lack them, you are polishing movements the bodies already hold until they reach a standard far higher than ordinary parade, and welding many soldiers and several elements into one. The polish is the work, and it is exacting, because the ceremonial standard admits no rough edge that ordinary drill might let pass.

Everything in the craft rests on control by the voice, because on a parade ground the NCO governs the whole body through the word of command and little else. There is no time to walk among the ranks correcting each soldier once the parade is running; the body must respond to the voice, together, on the instant, and the NCO who cannot command clearly cannot rehearse at all. So the word of command and the command voice come first, before any movement, because they are the instrument through which all the rest is done.

The word of command and the voice

A word of command, as the troops learned long ago, is given in two parts. The first is the cautionary command, which warns that a movement is coming and names who is to make it: "Guard" or "Royal Guard, will advance in review order". It announces the movement and gives every soldier the same moment to make ready, in mind and body, so all are poised to act as one. The second is the executive command, the sharp, short word on which the movement is actually made: "March" or "Turn". The whole body moves on that word, on the same instant, together. Between the two there is a deliberate pause, built into the command on purpose, so that every soldier has the same reaction time and the body moves together rather than raggedly. None of this is new to the troops. What is new, and what the rehearsing NCO must master, is giving these commands so that a whole parade, across distance and wind and the noise of an occasion, hears them, understands them, and acts on them as one.

That demands the command voice: not a shout, but a trained, projected, firm voice that carries to the farthest rank and leaves the meaning in no doubt. A shout is loud but loses its words; the command voice is loud and clear at once, the cautionary given at length and evenly so it is unmistakable, the executive given short and sharp so the instant of movement is exact. The voice must carry the authority that makes a body act without hesitation, and it must do so without strain, because an NCO who tears their voice on the first rehearsal will have none left for the day. The anatomy of a word of command is worth fixing exactly, because timing and projection are the whole of it.

   THE ANATOMY OF A WORD OF COMMAND  (ceremonial)

   "ROYAL  GUARD  ...........  will advance  ......  in review  ......  ORDER  ...... [pause] ...... MARCH"
    \_____________ CAUTIONARY ______________________________________________/        \pause/      \_EXEC_/
    names WHO and WHAT is to be done; given at length, evenly,         the deliberate    the SHARP
    projected so the farthest rank hears every word; warns the         gap that gives   word; the
    body and gives every soldier the SAME moment to make ready          every soldier   body moves
                                                                        the same        on THIS word,
                                                                        reaction time   together, and
                                                                                         NOT before

   PROJECTION  ... from the chest, not the throat; loud AND clear, never a torn shout
   PACE        ... cautionary unhurried and distinct; executive short and decisive
   TIMING      ... where a movement is made on a named foot, the executive falls
                   on that foot, so the whole body acts on the same pace
   THE STANDARD .. one NCO, by the voice alone, moves the whole parade as one body

The command voice is built and proven on the square, like the movements themselves, and the practical certification of it is done in person. The knowledge to carry there is that the parade is controlled by the voice, that a command has its two parts and its deliberate pause, that the voice must project clear and firm without being a shout, and that the timing of the executive word is what makes the body act as one. An NCO who has mastered the voice can rehearse; one who has not will struggle however well they know the drill.

Demonstration, and breaking the movement down and building it up

When a movement or a passage of the parade is not coming right, the rehearsing NCO does not simply repeat it louder and hope. They teach it, by the drill instructor's method, and that method is demonstration followed by breaking the movement down and building it up. The principle is the same the troops met as recruits and that the Methods of Instruction course sets out in full: a skill is shown correctly, then taken apart into its stages so each can be got right, then assembled again at its proper pace. This is the whole-part-whole method, and it is exactly how a ceremonial movement that has gone ragged is mended.

A demonstration must be correct in every detail, because the body will copy precisely what it sees, faults and all. The NCO either performs the movement themselves to the exact standard, or has a soldier known to do it perfectly demonstrate while the NCO talks the body through it, and the demonstration is given from the angle the troops will work at, not mirror-image, so that left and right are not reversed and the body does not learn the movement back to front. Then the movement is broken down: taken slowly, by numbers where it helps, each stage shown and named and got right before the next is added, so the body builds the movement correctly stage by stage rather than rehearsing a fault at full speed. Only when the parts are right is the movement built up again to its proper pace and run as a whole. A movement drilled up to speed before its parts are sound is only a fault rehearsed faster, and the rehearsing NCO who skips the breaking-down to save time loses far more time mending what then sets wrong.

The EDIP method applied to a ceremonial movement

The method that delivers all of this, drawn whole from the Methods of Instruction course, is EDIP: Explanation, Demonstration, Imitation, and Practice. It is the proven shape for teaching a skill, and a ceremonial movement is a skill, something the body must be able to do, not merely something the mind must know. The four stages run in order, each resting on the one before, carrying the body from understanding the movement, to seeing it done correctly, to copying it under correction, to performing it competently and as one. The rehearsing NCO who knows EDIP has a reliable method for fixing anything on the parade that is not yet right.

   EDIP APPLIED TO A CEREMONIAL MOVEMENT

   +---------------+   +-----------------+   +----------------+   +----------------+
   | E XPLANATION  |-->| D EMONSTRATION  |-->| I MITATION     |-->| P RACTICE      |
   |               |   |                 |   |                |   |                |
   | what the      |   | show it CORRECT |   | the body copies|   | repeat the     |
   | movement is,  |   | 1. whole, at    |   | it, by numbers |   | whole movement |
   | WHY it is done|   |    proper pace  |   | / stage by     |   | until it is    |
   | this way, the |   | 2. broken down, |   | stage, under   |   | TO STANDARD,   |
   | standard for  |   |    slow, named  |   | close watch;   |   | together, and  |
   | the day       |   | from THEIR      |   | faults caught  |   | holds at full  |
   |               |   | angle, not      |   | and corrected  |   | pace and under |
   | prepare them  |   | mirror-image    |   | BEFORE they set|   | the eye of all |
   | to watch + do |   |                 |   |                |   |                |
   +---------------+   +-----------------+   +----------------+   +----------------+
       understand     ->      see          ->    do, corrected  ->    do as ONE

   Each stage rests on the one before. Correction runs throughout.
   Practice ends at the ceremonial STANDARD, not at a set number of runs.

Explanation. First, tell the body what the movement is, why it is done this way, and the standard it must reach for the day. The why matters as much in ceremonial as in any skill: a soldier who understands that the slow march at a funeral renders the last honour to a comrade, or that the dip of the Colour is the Army's homage offered to the Sovereign alone, performs the movement with a bearing that mere mechanical drill never produces. Keep the explanation tight; its purpose is to prepare the body to watch and then to do, not to teach the movement in words.

Demonstration. Then show the movement done correctly, whole and at proper pace so the body sees the finished thing, then broken down slowly with each stage named, so the body sees how the whole is built from its parts. The demonstration must be exact, and given from the troops' own working angle.

Imitation. Then the body copies the movement, by numbers or stage by stage, under your close watch, while you correct each fault the instant it appears and before it can set into habit. This is the slow, close work where the standard is actually built, and rushing it ruins everything the practice would otherwise raise.

Practice. Finally the body practises the whole movement, again and again, run at proper pace and as one, until it holds to the ceremonial standard under the eye of all. Practice ends not at a fixed count of runs but at the standard: when the body performs the movement correctly, together, and with the bearing the day demands.

The same divide the Methods of Instruction course draws holds here. The movements of the parade are skills, taught by EDIP. The knowledge that goes with them, why the Colour is dipped only to the Sovereign, why mourning is shown by the draped or cased Colour and never by half-masting a Colour, the meaning of the honours rendered, is taught by explanation and a question, not by demonstration, because there is no physical action to copy. The good rehearsing NCO teaches each part by its proper method, and the body leaves not only able to perform the parade but understanding what it performs.

The progression of rehearsal: squad, element, combined, full dress

A parade is not rehearsed by running the whole thing from the start over and over until it comes right; that wastes the troops, hides faults inside the mass, and exhausts the body long before the day. It is built up, exactly as a movement is built up from its parts, by a planned progression from the smallest unit to the whole. The NCO rehearses the small parts until each is sound, then combines them, and only at the end runs the whole parade as it will be on the day. This progression is the backbone of all rehearsal, and the figure fixes its shape.

   THE PROGRESSION OF REHEARSAL

   SQUAD        get the basic drill to the ceremonial standard within
   (the part)   each small body: dressing, pace, the movements this
                |          parade needs, polished by section and flank
                |          ......... faults caught while they are small
                v
   ELEMENT      rehearse each functional part on its own: the guard,
   (each part   the Colour party, the band, a flank, the escort
    on its own) |          ......... each element sound before it joins
                v
   COMBINED     bring the elements together and run the parade as one
   (the parts   body: the timings between elements, the dressing of
    joined)     the whole, the cues that pass from part to part
                |          ......... the seams between elements made smooth
                v
   FULL DRESS   the whole parade, on the actual ground, in the order of
   REHEARSAL    dress, at the timings of the day, as nearly EXACTLY as
   (the whole,  possible as the parade itself will be run
    as on day)  ......... the last proving; what is wrong here is mended
                          before the day, not on it

   Build from the part to the whole. Never rehearse the whole to mend
   a part; take the part out, mend it, and put it back.

By squad, or the part. Begin small. Within each small body, get the basic drill that this parade needs up to the ceremonial standard: the dressing exact, the pace and timing uniform, the particular movements the parade calls for polished by section and by flank. Faults are seen and caught most easily here, while they are small and while the body is small enough that no soldier can hide in the mass. A parade whose small parts are sound is most of the way to being a sound parade; one whose small parts are ragged cannot be mended by running the whole.

By element. Then rehearse each functional element of the parade on its own: the guard, the Colour party, the band or corps of drums, the escort, each flank. Each element has its own movements, its own cues, and its own standard, and each is brought to that standard separately before it is asked to perform alongside the others. The Colour party in particular is rehearsed apart and at length, because its drill is exact and its place in the parade central, and it is the subject of Lesson 05; here it stands as the clearest case of an element rehearsed on its own until it is perfect before it joins the whole.

Combined. Then bring the elements together and run the parade as one body. Now the work is the seams between the elements: the timings by which one element's movement cues another, the dressing of the whole formation rather than of each part, the points where a command must carry across the whole parade and be answered together. Much that was sound in each element alone will need adjustment when the elements meet, and the combined rehearsal is where those adjustments are found and made.

Full dress rehearsal. Finally, the full dress rehearsal: the whole parade run on the actual ground, in the order of dress that will be worn on the day, at the timings the day will keep, as nearly exactly as it can be made to the parade itself. This is the last proving. It tests the ground, the dress, the timings, and the troops all at once, under conditions as near to the real as possible, and whatever it shows to be wrong is mended now, before the day, and not discovered on it in front of the State. The full dress rehearsal is to the parade what the demonstration at proper pace is to a movement: the whole thing seen entire, at its true pace, so that nothing is met for the first time when it matters.

Pacing the rehearsal: peaking on the day

A body of troops can be over-rehearsed as surely as under-rehearsed, and the rehearsing NCO must understand both faults to avoid them. Too few rehearsals, or rehearsals that never build the parts to standard, leave the parade ragged and uncertain on the day, the worst of all outcomes. But too many rehearsals, or rehearsals driven too hard, are their own danger: they wear the body down, dull its edge, and breed staleness, the state in which a body that has done a thing too many times begins to do it mechanically, without sharpness, pride, or care, because it is sick of it. A parade that has gone stale performs worse on the day than one rehearsed less, because the life has gone out of it. Worse still is a body left exhausted, drilled past the point of fatigue so that on the day it is tired before it begins. The aim of pacing is to bring the body to its peak on the day itself, sharp, confident, and fresh, neither under-prepared nor worn out.

This is a matter of judgement, and it is one of the rehearsing NCO's hardest. The body must be rehearsed enough to be certain of every movement and every timing, so that on the day no soldier has to think about their feet and the whole parade can give its attention to bearing and to the occasion. But it must be brought to that certainty and then held there, not drilled on past it into weariness and staleness. A few practical disciplines serve this. Build the parts early, while there is time, so the heavy work of breaking down and building up is done before the body tires of the whole. Keep the rehearsals varied and purposeful, each one fixing something named rather than running the whole again for its own sake, because a body works willingly at a rehearsal with a clear point and resentfully at one that seems only repetition. Watch the body for the signs of staleness and fatigue and ease off when they appear, even at the cost of one less run-through, because a fresh body that has rehearsed a little less will outperform a stale one that has rehearsed too much. And taper toward the day: let the last rehearsals confirm rather than build, so the body arrives certain of its parts and with its edge intact, peaking on the day and not the week before.

Holding the standard while keeping morale and pride

The ceremonial standard is exacting, and it must be held without compromise, because the parade will be seen by the State and stands for the Army before the eyes of the nation. The rehearsing NCO does not let a fault pass to spare feelings or to save a run-through; what is wrong is named and put right, because a standard relaxed in rehearsal becomes a standard missed on the day. But the standard is held in a particular way, and how it is held is as important as that it is held, because a body driven by humiliation performs worse, not better, and a body that has lost its pride cannot give a parade its bearing.

The governing rule is the one that runs through all the Army's instruction and leadership: correction is firm and it is dignified, and it never humiliates. The distinction is between discipline and degradation. To correct a soldier firmly, to name a fault plainly and require it put right, is discipline, and the troops respect it; it is the NCO's duty and the troops know it. To mock a soldier, to single them out for ridicule, to abuse or belittle them, is degradation, and it is forbidden, because it strips a soldier of the pride that is the very thing a parade is made of and breeds resentment where the NCO needs willing effort. The good rehearsing NCO corrects the fault and not the person: the fault is named, the standard is restated, the soldier is shown or told the right way and required to do it right, and the matter is closed without the soldier being made small. Where a fault is one many are making, it is stopped and corrected to the whole body at once, which spares any single soldier being held up as the failure. Correction is firm, specific, and aimed always at the action, never at the worth of the soldier who made it.

   CORRECTION: DISCIPLINE, NOT DEGRADATION

   FIRM AND DIGNIFIED (discipline)        HUMILIATING (degradation) -- FORBIDDEN
   --------------------------------       ----------------------------------------
   names the FAULT plainly                mocks the SOLDIER
   restates the standard                  belittles, abuses, ridicules
   shows / tells the right way            holds one soldier up as the failure
   has it done right, then moves on       dwells on the error to shame
   corrects a common fault to ALL at once singles a soldier out for sport
   ----                                   ----
   builds a body that holds the           breaks the pride a parade is MADE of,
   standard AND keeps its pride            and breeds resentment, not effort

   The standard is held WITHOUT compromise. The soldier is never degraded.

Holding the standard this way does more than avoid harm; it builds the very pride the parade depends on. A body that is held to a demanding standard, firmly and fairly, and that meets it, takes pride in being good, and that pride is itself part of the parade, visible in the bearing of troops who know they are doing a hard thing well. The rehearsing NCO builds this deliberately: by setting the standard high and being plain about it, by recognising honestly when the body reaches it, by reminding the troops what the parade is for and whom it honours, and by treating them throughout as soldiers capable of the standard rather than as a problem to be shouted at. A parade rendered to the highest standard by a body proud to render it is the aim, and the rehearsing NCO reaches it by holding the standard hard and the troops' dignity harder.

In Practice: Rehearsing a Guard for a State Occasion

An NCO of the RKA is given three weeks to bring a guard to the standard for a State occasion at which the Sovereign will be present. The guard can drill; they are sound soldiers who know their foot drill in their bodies. The NCO's task is to weld them into a body that performs this parade, on this ground, to a standard far above ordinary parade, and to bring them to it sharp and proud on the day.

He does not begin by running the whole parade. He begins small, taking the guard by flank and getting the dressing exact and the pace uniform, polishing the particular movements this parade needs, the advance in review order, the present, the marching salute, until each small body is sound. Where a movement is ragged he teaches it by EDIP: he explains what it is and why it is done so, has his best soldier demonstrate it correctly from the guard's own angle while he talks them through it, takes it down by numbers so each stage is got right, then builds it back to proper pace and practises it until it holds. He controls all of this by his voice, the cautionary given at length and clear, the executive sharp and timed to the foot, projected from the chest so the farthest rank hears every word, and he is careful not to tear his voice in the first week. When a soldier dips the present a fraction late, he names the fault, restates the standard, has the man do it right, and moves on, without making him a spectacle; when several rush the same movement, he stops the whole guard and corrects it to all at once. He builds the parts early, while the body is fresh and willing, then combines them, finding and smoothing the seams where one movement cues the next. In the last week he runs a full dress rehearsal on the actual ground, in ceremonial dress, at the timings of the day, and mends the few things it shows to be wrong. Then, judging the guard certain of its parts and beginning to tire of repetition, he eases off, letting the final practices confirm rather than build, so the body arrives on the day sharp, fresh, and proud. On the occasion the guard renders the parade to the highest standard, the Colour dipped to the Sovereign and to no one else, and the bearing of troops who know they are doing a hard thing well is plain to every eye. He built that, over three weeks, from a body that could already drill, by the drill instructor's craft turned to ceremonial.

Check Your Understanding

Describe the anatomy of a word of command and explain what the command voice must do that an ordinary shout does not. Why is control of the parade by the voice the foundation of the rehearsing NCO's craft, and what does it mean for the order in which the NCO masters their skills?
Name the four stages of EDIP in order and explain how each applies to mending a ceremonial movement that has gone ragged, including why a movement is broken down before it is built up. Then explain which parts of a parade are taught by EDIP and which by explanation, giving an example of each.
Set out the progression of rehearsal from the squad through the element and the combined rehearsal to the full dress rehearsal, saying what is built or proved at each stage. Then explain what staleness and over-rehearsal are, and how an NCO paces a rehearsal so the body peaks on the day.

Reflection (write a short paragraph): This lesson argues that the ceremonial standard must be held without compromise, and yet that correction must be firm and dignified and must never humiliate the soldier, because a body that has lost its pride cannot give a parade its bearing. Think about why holding a hard standard and protecting a soldier's dignity are not opposed but depend on each other, and why a soldier driven by ridicule performs worse on the day than one corrected firmly and fairly. What does this tell you about the kind of authority a ceremonial NCO must exercise, and how it connects to the custodianship of standards and tradition that is the NCO's particular charge?

Summary

Rehearsing a parade is the drill instructor's craft turned to ceremonial: not teaching drill from nothing, but polishing movements the troops already hold to a standard far above ordinary parade, and welding many soldiers and several elements into one body. It rests on control of the parade by the voice.
A word of command has its cautionary and executive parts and the deliberate pause between them; the command voice gives them clear, firm, and projected, not a torn shout, the cautionary unhurried and the executive sharp and timed to the foot, so one NCO moves the whole parade as one body. The voice is the rehearsing NCO's first instrument and is mastered before the rest.
A movement that is not right is taught, not merely repeated: shown correctly, broken down into its parts slowly and got right stage by stage, then built up to proper pace, which is the whole-part-whole method. The full method is EDIP, drawn from the Methods of Instruction course, Explanation, Demonstration, Imitation, and Practice, each stage resting on the one before, practice ending at the ceremonial standard and not at a set count.
Movements are taught by EDIP because they are skills; the knowledge that goes with them, why the Colour is dipped only to the Sovereign, why mourning is shown by the draped or cased Colour and never by half-masting a Colour, the meaning of the honours rendered, is taught by explanation and a question, each part by its proper method.
A parade is built up by progression, not by running the whole over and over: the squad or part is brought to standard, then each element is rehearsed on its own, then the elements are combined and the seams between them smoothed, and finally a full dress rehearsal is run on the actual ground, in the order of dress, at the timings of the day, to prove the whole before the day.
A body can be over-rehearsed into staleness and exhaustion as surely as it can be under-rehearsed into raggedness; the NCO paces the rehearsals to bring the body to its peak on the day, fresh and sharp, by building the parts early, keeping each rehearsal purposeful, watching for staleness, and tapering so the last practices confirm rather than build.
The ceremonial standard is held without compromise, but correction is firm and dignified and never humiliates: discipline names the fault and puts it right, degradation mocks the soldier, and only discipline is permitted. Held this way, a hard standard builds the very pride a parade is made of, and the running of real rehearsals is practised and certified in person under qualified supervision.

Rehearsing and Drilling a Body of Troops