What is in a game face.

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Practicing your facial expressions is hardly tactical training
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Respectfully, that's just untrue. Your face is the part of you most people see first, and will be a major factor in escalation or de-escalation.

You should ALWAYS be mindful. An instructor I know says, "the real self-defense begins in the American legal system." Since we know that's the case, we should also know that our demeanor may be that final deciding factor on whether a grand jury returns a "no bill" or not.

John
 
Practicing your facial expressions is hardly tactical training
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I would rather de-escalate a confrontation with words rather than force.

I would rather de-escalate a confrontation with a look rather than words.

My game face, or whatever you want to call it, is derived from the high stress watch your butt or die quick environment of the flight deck. It was an asset in getting your point across then, and it still is.

My wife says that face scares the bejezus out of her, that it is ice cold and piercing. As a nurse I still use that face to stop surgeons in their tracks, to quieten out of control family members, and more. I have used it to keep street people at bay, and to convince possible thugs that they had made a poor choice in me. It does not work well on true psychotics. It tends to exacerbate them.

I don't know if I would call it tactical, but it is certainly pretty useful. What the heck does tactical mean anyway? Tactical means a maneuver or plan of action designed as an expedient toward gaining a desired end or temporary advantage. Thus, I suppose developing a "game face" is tactical training.
 
Dr. Rob said,
Practicing your facial expressions is hardly tactical training.
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The first rung on the force continuum ladder is presence. The best way to make presence an effective engagement method is to look like you know what you're doing and that you are someone not to be trifled with.

Practicing your game face and other things that establish presence as a use of force is tactical training just like practicing your draw stroke or shooting failure drills.

Jeff
 
Mine's not even calm...it's dead. I'm sort of slight and pretty for a guy, so crackheads sometimes target me for a little aggressive behavior/following/panhandling.

When they get the look, the cold and completely absent million-mile stare, they either conclude that I'm a psycho or must be packing, because they almost invariably leave me alone at that point.
 
I don't know that this takes a whole lot of thought. Maintain situational awareness, ID a threat before it becomes a threat, quickly fast-forward to a mental idea of the way a worst-case scenario plays out, accept it and be willing to go there, and go about life. Maybe rearrange clothing, put a hand in a pocket, swap the hand your wife is holding, or whatever as appropriate.

Maybe I don't hide my emotions well, but this always works for me -- no more problems. Of course, I'm a big guy to begin with, so maybe this is just enough to push it over the edge for naughty-minded folks.
 
ZeSpectre

ZeSpectre (pause) how do we know (gulp) you're "you"?! How do we know you're not :what:

:D

Doc2005
 
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