advice please

Status
Not open for further replies.
B

beachwalker

Member
Joined
Oct 18, 2009
Messages
47
Location
Lake Ozarks
New member, relatively new CCW, been around guns all of my life. Question is is there a way to be trained to deal with the adrenaline rush that comes in a confrontation? In other words, now to keep your cool.

Everyone reacts differently, but some stronger than others and I think it could lead to bad decisions.

Thanks
 
Force on Force role play training with airsoft/simmunition guns is generally considered about as close as you can get to the real deal.

Still a damn sight away from actually looking at the elephant, but you'll still get an adrenaline dump and have a lot to remember (move to cover, protect gun, call for help, verbalization to simulated bad guy, and - if unavoidable -front sight....press).
 
Stress Inoculation Training

If it's properly planned, resourced and conducted force on force training will give you an adrenalin rush. But that rush is not the same rush you will get from stress inoculation training. Why? Because there is no real danger involved.

The military and police tactical units use training events with an actual risk involved to teach people to think and perform under life and death stress. Things like the high obstacles on the Confidence Course in Basic training, the 200 foot night rappel in the Mountain phase of Ranger School. These activities are highly controlled but they do put the student in an environment where if they fail to perform to standard they are in actual danger.

Police Tactical units usually use high rope work for this training. There are very few actual tactical applications for high rope work but it has the same training value as the military exercises.

Technical climbing, scuba diving, sky diving, and other adventure sports are a good way for the private citizen to get stress inoculation training.
 
Run, exercise until you almost fall over, that is the alternate method, you don't get quite the tunnel vision, but you do have to deal with many similar physical difficulties like trembling arms, increased clumsiness etc.
 
Maybe. You can visualize in advance, do force-on-force training, paintball, etc. You can study the Ayoob files to try to discern in advance the mistakes others have made, and ingrain it to yourself that you won't do the same thing when it's YOUR turn.

Here's the bad news. You don't know for sure until it happens. Maybe you over conditioned your brain and when you get there you find that the reality is a letdown, you did all that prep for nothing. Maybe you will freeze up and get hurt. Maybe you will ovrerreact and hurt someone.

A week or so ago there was a guy in here who was asking (but mostly trying to justify the decision that he had already made,) that training is mostly unnecessary. If you have set your mind that you will do what you have to, the rest is just details. We mostly disagree. STRONGLY. When you are hit with the adrenaline, and you have to act NOW, and your training has to seize control from your conscious mind, you will sink to your lowest level of training. This is when you will find out if you were training correctly or not.
 
This may sound strange, but there have been a few very high stress moments where I don't even remember being "pumped" at all. Then there are other lower drama calls where you get the "shaky leg". It could be the degree of threat, advance warning, lack of resources, etc that are coming in to play.

If you don't want to play paintball or can't find a training partner, go to a competition (IDPA/IPSC). There's nothing like a little pressure to test your nerve.
 
ever try deer hunting? squirrel hunting? once you get over the adrenaline rush of buck fever and so on, you notice loss of excitement everywhere.
 
Thanks very much to all of you. I've been tested in many ways through my life and for the most part of done very well. This subject however has been on my mind for years. Now that I have the concealed carry permit I don't want to stick my foot in it.. I like idea of scuba diving, sky diving etc. Hadn't heard about that concept. Makes sense.
Thanks again.
 
+1, mljdeckard...I'd tell my rookies to play out what-ifs as they patrolled...at home...and decide what to do if...even having ideas decided on makes you more alert...to recognize "Oh, this is one of those..."....prior planning is much better than hoping everything will turn out....and being rested is more important than I can emphasize...we had to work 70-80 hours a week to make it in my day...sleep is gold...job one is going home in the morning and being half asleep makes that hard to do...
 
I also agree with mljdeckard.

Under stress one defaults to one's level of training. By getting training and practicing diligently (training teaches you what to practice), the physical skills can become reflexive -- you will be able to perform them properly, consistently, on demand without conscious thought.

Also, competition (IPSC and IDPA) can be very useful, if you approach with a good attitude and understand it's limitations. It is not the way to learn self defense or tactics. It is a very good way to practice the basic skills, e. g., good gun handling, moving safely with a loaded weapon, quick target identification and acquisition, shooting fast and accurately, engaging multiple targets, shooting from unconventional postures, shooting and moving, reloading, etc., all under some stress. Competition imposes an element of stress since it's, first of all, competition, and you'll be doing everything on the clock under the eyes of the Range Officer (and everyone else).

Competition is not combat. But it's also not standing at a table doing static shooting.
 
The only answer I know to that one is lots and lots of training, and 100X more practice on what you have been trained on until the actions/reactions become nearly instinctual.

The standard axiom is that in "real life" you won't be any better than your worst day of training.

Very very few people, including LEO's, are trained to that level.


beachwalker said:
New member, relatively new CCW, been around guns all of my life. Question is is there a way to be trained to deal with the adrenaline rush that comes in a confrontation? In other words, now to keep your cool.

Everyone reacts differently, but some stronger than others and I think it could lead to bad decisions.

Thanks
Click to expand...
 
I really dont think we can emphasize training enough, repetitive over and over training that turns into high pressure, high intensity training. done very slowly at first. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. make sure youre learning good habits, baby steps that eventually grow till your in a blufor vs opfor melee.
and there really is a wildcard element, no one really knows how they will react when the s hits the fan. just hope you have enough base trainign to get you through it
 
Broken11b said:
...there really is a wildcard element, no one really knows how they will react when the s hits the fan. just hope you have enough base trainign to get you through it
Click to expand...
And since you can't know ahead of time what the problem will be, you can't know ahead of time how good you'll need to solve it. Sure there can be an element of luck, but I think the better you are, the luckier you'll be.
 
Study some kind of combative sport where you'll get to practice force-on-force.

I enjoyed kickboxing quite a bit. Good exercise, confidence builder, and teaches you to keep your cool and strategize when under attack and in pain.
 
Find a good " Active Shooter " class. WHer you are using live fire in groups of 2-5 people. That wil get the stress level up.

Also, if you have the ability, like maybe somewhere outside the city limits where you can shoot to pracitce, start off 50 yards away from your firing line and then sprint to the line, draw, fire. That will definatley get the blood flowing and the breathing heavy.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top