If you aren't familiar with the marching band or drum corps community, you might not have heard of the 'Dot vs. Form' debate. When I graduated high school and joined Phantom Regiment in 2023, I sure hadn't. You see, I was stepping into a totally different world when I started my rookie year of drum corps. At my Kentucky high school, the drill process was simple and time tested. We would start at set one, paint a symbol on the pavement, and then move onto set two, and so forth. I would learn the entire show by memorizing these symbols painted on the parking lot, and didn't think too much of the coordinates after I had 'got the feel of things'. Phantom Regiment, on the other hand, had just hired the former visual team from Santa Clara Vanguard.  Along with his staff, Matt Hartwell instilled a strict dot only approach. I had a 'dot book' for the first time. We weren't even aloud to say the 'g' word (guiding)! I was overwhelmed by all the numbers, field markings, and the pace of a drum corps spring training. It was also my first time hearing about this decades old feud between dot and form.

Whenever I think of the 'kings' of drill, I think of the early 2000's Cavaliers. At their time, and to an extent to present, the Cavaliers created some of the most complex drill design ever seen. Their dynasty, including five championships between 2000-2006, was spearheaded by the visual program. Four of the five championships won during that period were accompanied by the John Brazale Best Visual Award. The Cavaliers were 'dot or die'. Every single one of their sets, often over 200 during this period, were memorized by the performers. Sly Sybilski, the visual caption head, and Michael Gaines, the drill designer, were the masterminds behind this system. There are even stories from former members that exclaim some of the hornline performers had their coordinate for every four counts of the entire show memorized. The 'coaching tree' from this era of the Cavaliers still extends into the activity now, but it is a dying breed. My visual staff at Phantom Regiment was filled with former Cavaliers including: Matt Hartwell (Caption Head) and Donnie Hull (Asst. Caption Head). Though the 2023 Phantom Regiment was unfortunately not the 2000 Cavaliers, I was immersed, and struggled through, the dot experience. 

Coming in hot after the Cavaliers dynasty was yet again: The Blue Devils. They won seven of the ten DCI Championships immediately following the Cavaliers last win in 2006. Yet the Blue Devils were completely form based. A pioneer of a new, organic, and exciting style of drill, the Blue Devils won the 'Brazale' a whopping eight times between 2007-2017. With memories of the fast, geometric, Cavaliers drill of the past, many drum corps insiders began to invoke debates on the validity of form based drill. This new age of visual design brought new flare and a totally different approach. Today, most of the top drum corps use a form based educational strategy with drill learning. I was able to experience the drum corps version of the form system when I had the opportunity to march at the Boston Crusaders in 2025. Leon May and Aaron Bailey brought their visual methodology from Carolina Crown in 2017; which was mainly form based. I was so happy to be able to compare dot vs. form with two of the best visual minds in the activity. So which one do I think is better?

The dot system is a no compromise approach. At Phantom Regiment we were sponsored by UDB (Ultimate Drill Book), but the only time I spent on the app was writing down my coordinates for my paper dot book. I became extremely good at reading the markings on the field. I remember doing an exercise called "The Insert Drill" where the entire hornline would track our vectors from a yardline to each step, half-step, and even quarter-step. This exercise sometimes took 3+ minutes straight. Though some people might think this sounds a little overkill, including me in the beginning, I started to learn the value of this system. I never cared what anyone else was doing except me. All I had to do was worry about my dots, not anyone I had to stay behind or adjust to.  For the drum corps, we put on drill extremely quickly and the hornline took a lot of pride in perfecting our own drill. Whether I liked it or not, the dot system made me a much better performer.

First of all, wow! What a summer! From the time I started at Boston Crusaders, everything felt much different. Obviously, I was able to be a little bit more prepared for the whole drum corps thing the second go around. Yet, who could prepare me for the amazing experience which was 'Boom'! The visual program at Boston was the total opposite from my first corps. Primarily, the corps was much more form oriented. A secondary difference was the East Coast style. Phantom Regiment's visual staff contained a heavy West Coast influence with its choreography, approach, and staff makeup. Boston is a mix between Carolina Crown, and the king of the east, The Cadets. I couldn't have chosen two completely different ideas to a better extent. The visual philosophy at Boston seemed to be practical in nature and was appropriate for the level of membership we had. I had no dot book at all, I only really worried about my dot when I was in the front of the form; and the goal was just to minimize errors from the box. I enjoyed this approach because the goal was just to be clean. Whether that meant teamwork or through everyone just memorizing where to go, I did not feel like I had to stick to one idea as much. We didn't end up winning a Brazale, but we did end up winning visual on finals night. 

I am extremely grateful to have experienced what I have been able to experience in drum corps. I was able to see two extreme opposites in just two short seasons. There are some negatives to both of the approaches. For the dot system, I often felt like we spent a lot of time on instilling the system itself compared to working on the show. At Boston, we started learning drill and cleaning immediately. At Regiment, lots of blocks were spent working on only fundamentals. Not that fundamentals are bad, but in my opinion I felt like it sometimes took away from the time I got to perfect the actual field show. Another potential downside of the dot system is performer ability. The dot system is only as effective as the performers ability to read the field. In a younger or less experienced group, that might not sound like the best idea. For the form system, and specifically speaking to my experiences at Boston, I also found some faults. First of all, if a fellow performer in front of me misses the fifty yard line, I have to miss the fifty yard line. Though that might work well for covering up a mistake on finals night, it was sometimes incredibly frustrating during the learning process. Sometimes forms seemed to just drift a little over the course of weeks. Parts of the show that we did not focus on seemed to drift the most. Drum corps students develop habits and the drill can kind of just morph around them sometimes. This led to forms getting distorted enough to be noticed from the box, and then when we checked out dots, we weren't even remotely close! 

At the end of the day, dot based and form based teaching are effective ways of cleaning drill. Being a player on both teams has given me a lot of time to think about how I would do things when teaching my own ensemble. In my opinion, the most important part of teaching anything is procedure. Creating a plan and sticking to it generally leads to better results than just teaching what you think is right in the moment. The skill of reading the field or reading fellow performers is something that will improve over time if you stay consistent as an educator. Here's my answer: it depends. During the learning process, I really do believe the dot system is the most efficient and sets up my students the best for success. The ability to accurately locate and evaluate coordinates on the field is essential for all students. Not only do I want students to be able to develop an ability to 'teach themselves' the drill but I also don't want them starting the learning process guessing. I believe the dot system is a better starting point than form based plotting. Once the learning process is over, I must admit, the dot system shows its flaws. Especially when teaching high school aged students, I know it is out of a realistic expectation for them to accurately read and memorize the coordinates for their entire show. Once we start cleaning and adjusting the visual aspect of the show, I believe the form guiding system cleans better. Form is a better ending point than the dot system. In this way students can gain an understanding of their literal coordinates and then learn to adjust them to the real world achievement of said drill. As someone who has seen the pros and cons of both systems, that is my solution to this debate.