Simulating Stress for Practice

[ZeSpectre]

Been giving some thought to my range time. I've finally advanced to what I consider "decent shooter" territory (with a focus on SD shooting not competition type).

Suddenly it occurs to me just how calm and collected I am on the range now and how that sure doesn't simulate any stressful situation.

So last night I take the XD-40, some snap caps and a couple of mags over to a friend's property and spend about an hour running around like a damned fool and then trying to do a few FTL and FTE drills as well as trying to load a few rounds into a mag after a good 50 yard sprint.

Yup, THAT sure simulates operating under stress.

Now I just have to find a range that will let me run for a while and then shoot to see what happens. (no, I'm not about to join the military thank you very much )

 

[Pilgrim]

I took a pistol course from Bill Jeans where he had the shooters do pushups to get the blood flowing and the heart pounding before shooting a course of fire.

Pilgrim

 

[sturmruger]

What I have found really helps me learn to shoot under pressure is some of the gun games out there. I prefer USPSA, but IDPA is just the same. You will never shoot at so many targets while you heart is pumping as you do with these types of competitions. I don't look at them as training because they are game, but I do consider them to be excellent expierence that I can draw on some day if my ass is in a bind.

 

[Zundfolge]

Pushups, running ... anything that gets your heart rate way up will simulate most of the physiological effects of stress.

For things like auditory occlusion, tunnel vision and the whole "time slowing down" thing, I think the only way to trigger those in a simulation would be in some sort of force on force training exercise (and even then its hard to completely simulate).

 

[cpileri]

Stress?

Stress of different dorts and what stimulates them can vary. But some more creative ideas i have read/heard (some repeated from above.)

Stress.........................................simulation

Generalized Stress response............running
Fear, long-duration........................sleep-deprivation +/-caffeine
Startle/short-duration fear, awake....random loud stimulus near ears
Startle, from sleeping.....................(usually genuine but in controlled environment, such as in a simulated wargame)
Pain............................................pepper spray to neck, armpits
dominant-hand incapacitated.......... use left hand only
foreign object in eye(s)..................cold air flow (into eyes)
pre-syncope/fainting......................(this one is very dangerous, and only done in tightly controlled situations to prepare for fighting with severe blood loss; so I left it out)

there's lots more, and there are lots of variations on the ones above.
Just some ideas.
Please have a medical professional clear you healthwise before attempting any of these.
C-

 

[Rezin]

Yeah, I too wish there were and easier way to do some movement drills etc.........

 

[ID_shooting]

Back in the Army they would run the dog poop out of us, keep us awake, yell at us like we were step children and even smack us over the head with a range paddle while we were trying to shoot.

I guess that simulates stress, LOL

 

[Coronach]

One of the nice things about force on force (Simuntions, Airsoft), if done properly, is that not only does it help simulate stress/excitement (get hit by a Simuntion once and you'll really try to make sure it doesn't happen again) but it also helps with tactics, etc.

I agree, it is nothing like shooting targets. Nothing.

Mike

 

[BullfrogKen]

ZeSpectre,

Make a 90 or so minute drive up I-83 to come up to Lewisberry and see us. We have a Simunition exercise every month, and the occasional shoothouse exercise when we decide to set one up.

Before he began his stages, one Psychologist opined at an NTI that it was impossible to replicate the stresses of real life in an exercise. After his first shoothouse exercise, the RO had to grab him, tell him to take a minute to breathe, and when the RO was satisfied, he would be allowed to continue.


You might be surprised at the amount of stress we can introduce.


Contact me offline and we'll discuss if this is something you're interested in, and I'll give you directions.


You, too, Rezin. You're too close to have to put up with insufficient ranges. We allow quite a wide latitude of movement and shooting drills at our club.

 

[taliv]

hmm... well it's kind of hard to set up for most people, but i'd propose the following:

have your spouse say they're going to divorce you, man the traffic control tower at o'hare for 12 hrs, then fill pockets with bacon and douse yourself in steak sauce and run from guard dogs to the univeristy, strip to underwear and socks and deliver a speech on super-string theory to 300 co-eds. finally, run to the clock tower and put hits on all clown silouette targets before SWAT team arrives.

 

[10-Ring]

I use to run or ride my bike soon before shooting...get my heart beat up, break a sweat get the adrenaline going and then go shoot...Tougher than it sounds but worth the eye opening experience!

 

[Trebor]

If you want to add stress to your shooting, compete. Competition isn't training, but it does add stress, and can help you get used to shooting while stressed. If you don't want to actually enter a IDPA match or something, at least go shooting with a buddy and make some side bets on your performance. When something is actually on the line, your stress level will increase. It's a start.

 

[RioShooter]

Competition

There's a difference between increasing your heart rate by exercising, and the stress from competition. I do regular cardio exercises, but it's different when you're standing on the line in an IDPA competition with a dozen people watching your every move. My heart is pounding, and I haven't done anything yet.

 

[LDL707]

Unfortunately, I don't know enough about the topic, but hopefully somebody else does.

Would it be theoretically possible to have oneself hypnotized to react as though shooting at a target were a real encounter? If, in a hypnotic trance, you believed that the targets were shooting back, you'd probably get a better idea of how you'd respond to the real deal.

That idea is based solely on tv hypnosis, where I've seen people beleive that they're Oprah, so hopefully someone is more familiar with hypnosis.

 

[KenRocks]

Sort of off topic, but it reminds me of that line in the first Bourne movie...Bourne Identity I think? Not word for word, but something like "I dont know who I am, but I know the license plate numbers of every truck in the parking lot, could tell you three of them that are likely to contain guns, and run full out for five miles before my hands even begin to tremble..."

Hypnosis, sadly, doesnt work like that. Or at least it doesnt as far as anyone knows, considering the incredibly amount of contention surrounding it. If it did, one could just as likely hypno-train someone to assassinate a person of importance because theyre actually the devil or some such. Been claimed before, but I doubt anyone really buys it...

 

[crofrog]

Get to the range get some sparring gear. Go all out for a few minutes sparring rolling around on the ground. Then hop up and start shooting. For extra points have your sparring partner land blows on your back when doing this.

Even that won't stimulate real stress of a fight. If you want to do that go get in a fight. After the frist few times you stop loosing your ablity to think clearly and say nothing but the f word, after a few more your knee's stop knocking when the fight is over. Then after some experince you are no longer experincing much of the effects at all, and are just calmly looking forward to it.

Chris

 

[Jeff White]

Besides exercise to increase your heat rate and respiration, and shooting competitively to increase the psychological stress, you might try some activities that will actually require you to function while you're in fear.

The military has used things such as high obstacles on confidence courses, a 200 ft night rappel in the mountain phase of Ranger school to innoculate soldiers against fear and teach them that they can perform when they should be scared out of their wits.

Airborne units have been pretty much replaced by other means to get soldiers into battle. But we still have them. One of the reasons is because the soldiers in them tend to perform better because they are used to dealing with the stress and fear involved with jumping.

You might take up rock climbing, scuba or skydiving or a similar activity to get yourself used to dealing with the fear. It's a great confidence buider.

Jeff

 

[GEM]

One does get the Blues at the NTI - BullFrogKen. Now what psychologist would say something like that?

I agree that the intense FOF at an exercise like the NTI adds the mental stress of cognitive capactiy overload on top of all the physical symptoms. I found it a life changing event.

I also got a good number of types for relaxation and stress calming techniques from the participants - pratictioneers, psychologists, doctors, military, trainers, LEOs, enthusiasts, etc. If you can get up to there - do it.

 

[lycanthrope]

Compete in USPSA/IDPA.

It changes everything.

 

[BullfrogKen]

GEM said: One does get the Blues at the NTI - BullFrogKen. Now what psychologist would say something like that?

I agree that the intense FOF at an exercise like the NTI adds the mental stress of cognitive capactiy overload on top of all the physical symptoms. I found it a life changing event.

It wasn't you that I was referring to in that comment.


Many comment after going through their first FoF exercise that it is a life changing event. I've seen the stress send police officers to the level of overwhelmed and literally unable to act. The judge had to call the scenario to a stop.

I've seen it happen on our live fire stages, too, where practitioners don't have role players to interact with, but rather 3-D targets. Its happened to me, as well. The mind can take a properly designed scenario and make it real, and it doesn't matter that its an exercise.


Jeff's suggestion to participate in activities that challenges your fears has much more value than exercising or running before shooting. If the goal is to learn to function and work through our fear, exercise won't do that.

 

[White_Wolf]

It seems to me that it isn’t a matter of practicing to use a weapon under genuine stress; but to use your weapon while being calm in a situation that ought to bring about stress.

Even in something as simple and theoretically relaxing as a video game, I’ve been known to fumble all my controls in a tight situation, totally forget what button does what, and just stick to running away, or firing back. Remembering which button loads body armor, changes the ammo, switches weapon, or even which button allows your character to do an instant 180 turn, all become irrelevant and all you can do is your basic, most familiar moves.

In a moment of stress, you will react in a basic way, and be unable to think things through and formulate plans. In a stressful situation, all you can do is react; this is based on neuro chemistry.

The idea is not to learn how to function in a complex, well thought out manner under stress; it is to learn how to not be under stress in that situation.

I suppose stress simulations can allow you to become more familiar with how your gear and weapon works to the point where it all becomes second nature. The best thing for that I’d think is to practice loading and unload your gun. Practice drawing your gun over and over again.

Perhaps an unloaded gun being holstered while having a wrist watch alarm go off, and drawing your gun the moment you hear that alarm, would get you more familiar with drawing it, so you don’t fumble in a situation where time is critical.

Of course Air Soft is always fun. You have to survive, and you have team mates you have to look out for and work with. You’ve got a lot of different gear, and you’re discussing tactical strategies. You will be shot at, at random moments. You don’t want to feel the sting of that pellet hitting you, and you don’t want to let your team mates down, and you don’t want to lose your pride by being knocked out of the game so early. There is a reasonable amount of pressure you’re working under. There is emotional and physical stress. And what the hell, it’s just fun.

 

[nhhillbilly]

Stress

I have found the best way to prepair is to train as if you are fighting. IE. Moving while shooting, Moving to cover. Shooting behind cover. Using sim or airsoft have someone shoot at you while moving to cover and while you are behind cover. This will want to make your miminize your exposure to the suspect.

Force on force drills with proper safey is very helpful. All participants should be trained including the actors. If your training is realistic your force on force drills will show that.

 

[crofrog]

You might take up rock climbing, scuba or skydiving or a similar activity to get yourself used to dealing with the fear. It's a great confidence buider.

I've particapated and got involved in rock climbing and scuba (haven't tried sky diving yet it's on the to do list). They do help you learn how to handle fear and stress. They both bought me the mantra of 'small steps' to the for front of my mind.

 

[pax]

Lots of good ideas here. One that hasn't been mentioned is to have something riding on every single shot. One man I know used to keep a jar on his wife's dresser. He'd bring his targets home from the range and show them to his wife; she'd charge him a set amount (I think it was $1 each, might have been more) for every dropped shot.

This is a little different from physical stress, but the mental stress of "I must not drop even a single shot," with incentive, can do a lot to help you develop some mental coolness and the ability to focus on the important stuff.

pax

 

[pax]

Many comment after going through their first FoF exercise that it is a life changing event. I've seen the stress send police officers to the level of overwhelmed and literally unable to act. The judge had to call the scenario to a stop.

I'd been participating in scenario-based competitions for quite awhile when something like that happened to me. Couple days before the match, I got a phone call. Match director wanted to use an audio tape of one of my kids screaming & hollering during one stage of the match. Fine by me. I explained to the kid, my dramatic youngest son, who thought making the tape was great fun. Gave the tape to the director. No big deal.

The plan was to set up some static targets, have one person doing some role-playing voices, and run a pre-recorded audio tape of a child screaming for help. Came the day of the match, knowing that there would be audio and that it would be my kid's voice on the tape, I figured it would not be a big deal.

I was wrong.

When I did the stage, I came around the corner, and discovered the match director had set up an "impossible" hostage rescue scene, wherein the appropriate response was to fall back and verbally engage. I literally froze in place and could not make my feet move either direction. I stood in the open, blinking stupidly at the gun in my hand, while the tape played and the role player yelled at me. I literally could not process what he was saying. All I could hear was my kid's voice.

Weirdest feeling ever.

(And yeah, I worked through it, and know I could-would solve it now. But I sure would hate to have encountered that audio input for the first time in real life...)

pax