One of the most important things about self defense (with or without firearms) is proper situational awareness. With empty handed or armed self defense, technique is important, but will only get you 10-20% of the way. The remainder is attitude and awareness, and while I at least know how to train technique, I am not entirely sure how to train proper attitude and awareness. Let me give two examples.
About a year ago, my wife and I were waiting in a line. There was a young woman in front of us. I noticed that she had a particular rash on the back of her neck, pointed it out to my wife, and told her what it represented (I am a physician). She hadn't noticed the rash, but she had noticed the style and color of the girl's dress, which I couldn't recall. Clearly, we notice and focus on the things we're trained and accustomed to notice. I've been examiniing people's bodies for over 30 years, while my wife has been appraising other women's clothing for even longer. Yet I was disappointed that I was unable to recall what the girl was wearing.
So clearly, a first cut at becoming more observant is to become more aware and observant. However, a second example. I've done some advanced firearms training involving airsoft/simunition type firearms, in various shoot/no shoot scenarios, like the NTI. In the training setting, everything is adrenaline charged, and I regard all role players as potential threats. Generally our group goes out to a restaurant at the end of the day's training, and it's almost amusing to notice how edgy each of us has become, scrutinizing all the other patrons in the restaurant closely, watching exits, etc. While this probably represents good tactical awareness, it is very tiring, and difficult to keep up for more than a week or so.
So what to do? Clearly obliviousness is not a (viable) option, while being on alert all the time is too taxing. One thought I had is that learning tactical awareness is like learning to drive - recall how overwhelming it was to keep an eye on the traffic ahead, the mirrors, and the speedometer, while working the turn signal, dimmer switch, gear shift, and clutch when first learning to drive, and how it has now become second nature. Perhaps the same is true of tactical awareness. Or are there other ways to train oneself in good habits? Any exercises, shortcuts, heuristics?
About a year ago, my wife and I were waiting in a line. There was a young woman in front of us. I noticed that she had a particular rash on the back of her neck, pointed it out to my wife, and told her what it represented (I am a physician). She hadn't noticed the rash, but she had noticed the style and color of the girl's dress, which I couldn't recall. Clearly, we notice and focus on the things we're trained and accustomed to notice. I've been examiniing people's bodies for over 30 years, while my wife has been appraising other women's clothing for even longer. Yet I was disappointed that I was unable to recall what the girl was wearing.
So clearly, a first cut at becoming more observant is to become more aware and observant. However, a second example. I've done some advanced firearms training involving airsoft/simunition type firearms, in various shoot/no shoot scenarios, like the NTI. In the training setting, everything is adrenaline charged, and I regard all role players as potential threats. Generally our group goes out to a restaurant at the end of the day's training, and it's almost amusing to notice how edgy each of us has become, scrutinizing all the other patrons in the restaurant closely, watching exits, etc. While this probably represents good tactical awareness, it is very tiring, and difficult to keep up for more than a week or so.
So what to do? Clearly obliviousness is not a (viable) option, while being on alert all the time is too taxing. One thought I had is that learning tactical awareness is like learning to drive - recall how overwhelming it was to keep an eye on the traffic ahead, the mirrors, and the speedometer, while working the turn signal, dimmer switch, gear shift, and clutch when first learning to drive, and how it has now become second nature. Perhaps the same is true of tactical awareness. Or are there other ways to train oneself in good habits? Any exercises, shortcuts, heuristics?