Thoughts and training ideas for those tasked with the protection of others, as well as themselves.
Feel free to comment and add your own insights. I can only evolve when I'm exposed to differences of opinion. Although, praise is always nice.
Feel free to comment and add your own insights. I can only evolve when I'm exposed to differences of opinion. Although, praise is always nice.
Does Your Training Reflect Reality, Really?
Posted 18-08-2008 at 01:56 PM by jmaccauley
Updated 18-08-2008 at 06:46 PM by jmaccauley (Change font size)
Updated 18-08-2008 at 06:46 PM by jmaccauley (Change font size)
Does Your Training Reflect Reality?
I was looking at my rather impressive bookcase recently when I realized that my literary tastes are kind of dark. I wish I was talking about dark, as in vampires, medieval times and your basic murder mystery, but no. I mean that I have books on ancient martial arts, terrorism, firearms, police officer survival, explosive ordnance disposal, edged weapons, crime prevention and, stalking. Of course, I have the occasional doomsday thriller just to round things out. If my home were ever searched, I’m sure I would end up on a Homeland Security watchlist. I can retrieve a volume on IED’s, money laundering or even how to pick out an armored vehicle for family protection in a violent world.
At first glance one might think I’m just slightly paranoid, but not exactly.
Since the early 80’s I have been a police instructor tasked with training officers to survive in a very dangerous environment using dangerous tools. Officer survival has become an obsession with me. I had decided early on in my career, that the way to pass on relevant and effective information was to actually “have” that information.
Unlike many who teach self defense or personal protection, I have made the commitment and sacrifice to study and evaluate many of the training programs available. These programs have been taught by military, police and martial arts instructors. A few were even taught by frauds, but that is a different story altogether.
All police officers have seen their fair share of violence and danger. They have viewed the crime scenes created by monsters and have long sinced stopped being amazed by the creative and bizarre methods of destroying lives. I enrolled in classes that teach armed and unarmed responses and became an instructor in too many to list here. Taking that knowledge and my experiences and putting together a practical training program meant cutting away the “fluff” and presenting that which I actually believed, or knew, was real.
I put together my thoughts on what I believed were the skills necessary to help both police officers and private citizens protect themselves and their loved ones from danger. I simply broke these skills down into three groups: Awareness, Avoidance and, Defense. I also believed then, and still do, that those who remained in a relaxed but alert state were better able to recognize and respond to danger early. This awareness would provide time to make adjustments to our behavior and possibly avoid a dangerous confrontation.
This seems like such a simple concept that the military and law enforcement training classes have called it “Condition Orange.” Basically this means paying attention to the surroundings. Don’t confuse this with paranoia because one can always be aware without necessarily altering our current actions. Scanning a crowded mall can become a habit and actually be so automatic that we are not consciously aware that we are doing so. This is similar to periodically checking the rear view mirror on our car while driving. Unless something appears out the ordinary, we simply glance up and refocus on the road in front of us. The sooner we see or anticipate trouble we can take action to avoid it.
It always amazes me how crime and violence can evolve over time. Just when you start to believe that a well trained person with a pistol can defend themselves, somebody drives a plane into a building. All that money spent on martial arts training seemed like a good investment until our streets became infested with mutants who don’t feel or respond to pain. I won’t even begin to try to explain suicide bombers and WMD’s.
So, where are we headed in terms of survival training these days?
At one time in my law enforcement career, I was a member of my departments SWAT team. We would train for every imaginable scenario we could. Usually we could gleen some insight by looking at other agencies successes or failures. We never actually failed ourselves because we had that 20/20 hindsight. If we needed the equipment, we requested it. If we needed training, we got it somewhere. We evolved into a paramilitary unit that we believed could handle most situations using firepower, negotiations or just patience. There are not enough hours in the day to train for all contingencies, but we tried to cover the ones most likely. Fortunately, much of the actual incidents that we trained for hardly ever occur, thankfully. Running and gunning is fun, as long as it’s only a training class.
Likewise, learning to disarm an attacker with superslick hand and foot techniques is impressive to watch. Especially when it is choreographed properly. You see, that is how it usually taught. Bad guy will do this and good will respond by doing that. The typical armed robber will place the muzzle of his pistol to the back of your head, you will raise your hands, pivot and knock the gun out the way…seriously! Just ask anyone who has actually been robbed. Sorry, but that fantasy scenario is not likely. You are more likely to be totally taken by surprise by a crazed mutant screaming at you while pointing his gun at different areas of your body while he nervously demands your money or your life. You will not have the luxury of getting into that perfect stance that you practiced and that rubber gun that you trained with has suddenly grown very large and real!
How about training in that type of environment? This can be done safely if a well trained and qualified instructor is available. Learn your physical and psychological limitations, strengths and perhaps a few simple but effective moves that can offer a degree of hope for survival. It cannot be accomplished in a 2 hour seminar or even a weekend program, but you can begin to understand the dynamics of real violence and start on the road to understanding different methods of self protection. At the very least, your responses will be tailored to you, not Bruce Lee. This has to become a lifestyle, just as diet and exercise cannot work if only practiced occasionally.
So, ask yourself if your training actually reflects reality or merely a reality that you feel comfortable in. Ask a crime victim if they could have done anything to protect themselves. You might be surprised that most will tell you that they never saw trouble coming until it was too late to do anything about it. So, perhaps the most important training would be awareness and avoidance.
I was looking at my rather impressive bookcase recently when I realized that my literary tastes are kind of dark. I wish I was talking about dark, as in vampires, medieval times and your basic murder mystery, but no. I mean that I have books on ancient martial arts, terrorism, firearms, police officer survival, explosive ordnance disposal, edged weapons, crime prevention and, stalking. Of course, I have the occasional doomsday thriller just to round things out. If my home were ever searched, I’m sure I would end up on a Homeland Security watchlist. I can retrieve a volume on IED’s, money laundering or even how to pick out an armored vehicle for family protection in a violent world.
At first glance one might think I’m just slightly paranoid, but not exactly.
Since the early 80’s I have been a police instructor tasked with training officers to survive in a very dangerous environment using dangerous tools. Officer survival has become an obsession with me. I had decided early on in my career, that the way to pass on relevant and effective information was to actually “have” that information.
Unlike many who teach self defense or personal protection, I have made the commitment and sacrifice to study and evaluate many of the training programs available. These programs have been taught by military, police and martial arts instructors. A few were even taught by frauds, but that is a different story altogether.
All police officers have seen their fair share of violence and danger. They have viewed the crime scenes created by monsters and have long sinced stopped being amazed by the creative and bizarre methods of destroying lives. I enrolled in classes that teach armed and unarmed responses and became an instructor in too many to list here. Taking that knowledge and my experiences and putting together a practical training program meant cutting away the “fluff” and presenting that which I actually believed, or knew, was real.
I put together my thoughts on what I believed were the skills necessary to help both police officers and private citizens protect themselves and their loved ones from danger. I simply broke these skills down into three groups: Awareness, Avoidance and, Defense. I also believed then, and still do, that those who remained in a relaxed but alert state were better able to recognize and respond to danger early. This awareness would provide time to make adjustments to our behavior and possibly avoid a dangerous confrontation.
This seems like such a simple concept that the military and law enforcement training classes have called it “Condition Orange.” Basically this means paying attention to the surroundings. Don’t confuse this with paranoia because one can always be aware without necessarily altering our current actions. Scanning a crowded mall can become a habit and actually be so automatic that we are not consciously aware that we are doing so. This is similar to periodically checking the rear view mirror on our car while driving. Unless something appears out the ordinary, we simply glance up and refocus on the road in front of us. The sooner we see or anticipate trouble we can take action to avoid it.
It always amazes me how crime and violence can evolve over time. Just when you start to believe that a well trained person with a pistol can defend themselves, somebody drives a plane into a building. All that money spent on martial arts training seemed like a good investment until our streets became infested with mutants who don’t feel or respond to pain. I won’t even begin to try to explain suicide bombers and WMD’s.
So, where are we headed in terms of survival training these days?
At one time in my law enforcement career, I was a member of my departments SWAT team. We would train for every imaginable scenario we could. Usually we could gleen some insight by looking at other agencies successes or failures. We never actually failed ourselves because we had that 20/20 hindsight. If we needed the equipment, we requested it. If we needed training, we got it somewhere. We evolved into a paramilitary unit that we believed could handle most situations using firepower, negotiations or just patience. There are not enough hours in the day to train for all contingencies, but we tried to cover the ones most likely. Fortunately, much of the actual incidents that we trained for hardly ever occur, thankfully. Running and gunning is fun, as long as it’s only a training class.
Likewise, learning to disarm an attacker with superslick hand and foot techniques is impressive to watch. Especially when it is choreographed properly. You see, that is how it usually taught. Bad guy will do this and good will respond by doing that. The typical armed robber will place the muzzle of his pistol to the back of your head, you will raise your hands, pivot and knock the gun out the way…seriously! Just ask anyone who has actually been robbed. Sorry, but that fantasy scenario is not likely. You are more likely to be totally taken by surprise by a crazed mutant screaming at you while pointing his gun at different areas of your body while he nervously demands your money or your life. You will not have the luxury of getting into that perfect stance that you practiced and that rubber gun that you trained with has suddenly grown very large and real!
How about training in that type of environment? This can be done safely if a well trained and qualified instructor is available. Learn your physical and psychological limitations, strengths and perhaps a few simple but effective moves that can offer a degree of hope for survival. It cannot be accomplished in a 2 hour seminar or even a weekend program, but you can begin to understand the dynamics of real violence and start on the road to understanding different methods of self protection. At the very least, your responses will be tailored to you, not Bruce Lee. This has to become a lifestyle, just as diet and exercise cannot work if only practiced occasionally.
So, ask yourself if your training actually reflects reality or merely a reality that you feel comfortable in. Ask a crime victim if they could have done anything to protect themselves. You might be surprised that most will tell you that they never saw trouble coming until it was too late to do anything about it. So, perhaps the most important training would be awareness and avoidance.
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