The Unexpected Moment You Didn't See Coming 

I'm a "product" of the 60s for drill. I was NEVER in the Guards, however our drill instructors were possibly as demanding. There was constant pressure on NOT moving between movements, no "bobbing" when coming to attention and also NOT swinging arms above shoulder height (I'm not suggesting that was seen here) it was up to just below shoulder but a good swing back. I spent part of time as a "Stickman" for large parades and our drill was examined personally by our RSM as we had to conduct ourselves by signal or whisper and had to be impeccable given we were being closely observed by everyone.

@@Richard500 I think a lot of it has come down to better health and safety practices. I think there's more "bobbing" allowed to keep good blood flow. I guess Top Brass thought it'd look less bad to have slight bobbing and movement than to have guardsmen pass out on parade more than they already do. It is what it is, I see why they've done it. Doesn't mean you gotta like it though.

I agree, having joined up in 1967 I feel embarrassed at a lot of the drill being shown on channels like this one. Even as a non infantry soldier our standard of drill knocked spots off a lot of these soldiers. To me the RSM’s and drill instructors in training have gotten lazy and slack as the years roll on. I find it particularly embarrassing watching the soldiers of the Household Cavalry and the Blues and Royals at Horseguards in front of hundreds of spectators casually going through drill movements without pride and purpose. Finally there is a lot of soldiers bordering on obesity with bigger bellies than they have chests.

I think it is to do with the closing of the guards depot, the footguards now train with other infantry regiments, before all seven guards trained together and the drill standards were high, even for The Household Cavalry who trained as infantry before moving on to their trade training.

​@@jaywu4169 I agree with you. I joined thr WRAC in 67 and even the women's drill would put this lot to shame.!!!!!!!

@@jaywu4169 Hmm. I personally think it's just rose-tinted glasses. You're seeing "worse" drill and more imperfections simply because you're watching it directly (not from inside the parade), and you're watching it on constantly better quality cameras. I see a lot of posts that are like "wow look at how out of sync they are, it used to be better in my day" and then I go watch Trooping the Colour from like 1937 and immediately spot I don't know 17, 18 people out of sync.. As for the "snap" of movements, again older cameras have lower frame-rates, which make movements appear more sharp and snappy. I'm sure to those Guardsmen in this video above, it feels "snappy" and "well done" but from our perspective it wasn't as good as they thought it was. I'm sure if we took a modern camera back to your day, it'd be pretty similar if not the same. As for the bigger bellies than chests, again could be simply aspect ratio of the video obscuring it but otherwise yes, I'm not really sure how on earth that Major could get away being that.. without fat shaming.. fat. Every time I see him I actually cringe, It's one thing being an senior sergeant who becomes a little podgy from being behind a desk all day, and then there's someone looking like they just ate 30 wedding cakes by themselves. How on earth he gets away with that I don't know - or even feels happy about that. The only other thing I would say is beards being allowed now was 100% the wrong choice. Makes it look so scruffy for no benefit.

@@jaywu4169 Has it got to do with the new rifles they are handling. They look heavy and cumbersome. My short experience as a cadet in the 60's with the Enfield movement was relatively "balanced".

The Irish Guards wear a blue plume in their bearskins. I'm not 100% sure but I believe that enlisted men (Guardsman, Lance Corporal, Lance Sergeant) wear a blue horsehair plume while NCOs (Sergeants, Colour Sergeants, etc...) and officers where a hackle.

The guardsmen do😊

Eyes front. Right dress. Duty, stand at ease. Stand easy. Duty, present arms. Duty, slope arms. Band, right turn. That’s all I can distinguish 😂

Of course, it's far more understandable than the oddity of the US Army and they "Hunmns n huffs" etc.

@@brookhousehnb When I was in US Marine boot camp in 1971, the drill instructors shouted commands from Day One like we knew what they were saying. Pity us if we didn't understand. We certainly learned quickly (most of us). Plus we had better darn well know all three of our DI's voices apart from the other gazillion DIs shouting at their platoons. They would get another platoon's DI to sneak up behind us and shout a command. Pity us if we obeyed. Silly games in the sand pit would follow. There was method to their madness however. You learned your unit's leaders voice so you didn't obey orders directed at other units in combat.

Nope ... That's at Horse Guards.