The keys to
survival are speed of recognition and the ability to adapt. Skills sets such as fighting, shooting, and
driving can be learned in a controlled, predictable environment, but their
application and integration requires exposure to the chaotic environments in
which they are used.
Before traveling,
people often get a guide to the area they are planning to visit. It is written by people who have been there
before and broken down into different categories explaining things they should
look for. Try as you might, studying
something no matter to what extent, is not the same as being there for one
day. True experience cannot be
transferred between people, it has to be lived.
Even when
people are told what to look out for in specific environment, their lack of
experience provides them no context in which to make decisions. They do not trust their instincts and instead
do nothing or just stare at the problem.
This is description of tunnel vision.
In the context of personal protection, chances are that by the time the
uninitiated recognize an issue it is already unfolding and they are behind the
power curve, forcing them to use more force or other tactics then would have
been necessary with faster speed of recognition.
After
racking my head for years, I believe there are only two ways to gain this
experience. I am not talking about being
able to throw a punch, or draw and shoot a pistol, rather the ability to be
ever cognoscente of exactly where you are and what is going on at all
times. The first is immersion into
chaotic, rapidly evolving environments.
Some examples would be military combat, police work, corrections,
bouncing, or even working in a busy emergency room. All these places require you to live in the
moment and be methodical about even the smallest decisions. To the police officer it might be giving
strong verbal commands to a subject walking up to him while he is already
conducting a field interview with another.
For the corrections officers it may be walking to the top of a flight of
stairs to have a conversation with an inmate instead of doing so on the
stairs. For the bounce it could be
looking for the buddies of a guy they just removed from the bar. For the emergency room nurse it could be
making a conscious decision to not allow a patient to get between them and the
door of an exam room. In all these
examples, very small, sometimes unnoticeable things are done by experienced
people who realize that having a way of doing things based on predictable
outcomes can remove a person’s ability to make bad decisions, thus allowing
them not to have to use physical skill sets.
So you are
probably asking “what about people who don’t have these types of jobs”? Well that takes a little work but is still completely
possible. The first thing you need to do
is sit down and decide what you are training for. Say for example you carry a pistol as a
citizen. Under what circumstances can
you see yourself deploying it? During
these scenarios, who is with you, where are you, what are you wearing? Are you close to a building or a
vehicle? What pocket is your cell phone
in? How dark or light is it? How far away is the subject? Do you have any other weapons besides your
pistol? What about a flashlight? Does your previous training looking like your
imagined scenario?
Start with
three scenarios and work them over and over in your head. If you can get some interested friends and
have they do the same. Share your
scenarios and see if you can see where they are similar. Take a day and work one of the scenarios
until you begin to see the pattern of behavior that leads up to the event. Soon you will begin to see how the smallest details
that at first you did not consider can often allow you to avoid a worst
possible scenario. By doing so you also
learn to quickly realize when force is the only option.
Limit the
number of scenarios and the amount of time you dedicate to each one. The reason is that these scenarios will be
implanted in your head and will run over and over like a slide show, each time
you will consider different choices you could make and see how they you can
predict the outcome. Soon you will apply
this will program to everything you do.
The last part is to study your local news and read all the crime
reports. Drive by these places and piece
together in your mind what happened and how you would deal with it, based on
your personal circumstances.
Just be
forewarned, this takes actual thought and work.
These problems cannot be fixed with a new gun or knife. But in the end it may even force you to
rethink your choice of tools.
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