Absolutely. There was this kid (literally, he was 17) who was pretty much the model recruit. He never complained; did what he was told; helped the rest of us out; and was physically in great shape.
He’d been in competitive martial arts for years. Not YMCA level, but “has to travel to Japan for belt tests,” skilled. (He never, ever bragged about it.)
The only time I can remember him getting yelled at was when we were in the sand pit learning basic unarmed self defense. (The super cheesy kind that makes you think you’re in a World War II training film. I think that they have dramatically improved that portion of the training now.)
The Private was decidedly and obviously half-assing it. Not arrogantly, more like bored out of his skull.
One of the drill sergeants came over and was doing his motivation screaming thing and asked him, “You think you don’t need this? Are you too good for this?” and other variations on the theme.
Pvt Yarberry replied, again, matter-of-factly and not boastfully, that no, he did not actually need that training.
It went about how you’re imagining it.
The only thing that saved him was that he had been such a model recruit. So the drill sergeant eventually says, “Show me.”
Mind you, this was not an angry fight. They assumed ready stances and this recruit did a series of moves that were very fast and almost gentle? Honestly, I can’t really describe what he did because it was so fast. The drill sergeant was basically laid onto the ground in a control position where he could not do anything about it. Nobody tried to hit anybody, but it was clear that the 17 year-old kid could put this 30 something year-old experienced soldier in the pretty much any position he wanted.
He stood up, bowed, and went to attention and waited.
Drill stood up, huffed something of approval that to civilian ears might sound like swearing, and announced that the Private had successfully completed that day’s training.
Unless you could match the skill and more importantly the attitude, I cannot stress enough what a bad decision getting into a fight with your drill sergeant would be. But I can say that I’ve seen it happen.
Edit:
I ran across a couple of pictures from a 1950s training manual. I had forgotten just how cheesy the exercises were. Hope you get a kick out of it.
Assuming this position required yelling “KILL!” at the top of your lungs.
This had to be inspired by the three stooges: