Situationally Aware

Training Training and Tactics
1

I posted this on another forum and was looking for some feedback from members here:

I have seen some threads recently discussing gunfights and how to avoid them, or how to dominate them. I have come to notice that alot of people have ignored or do not truely practice the greatest defensive tool each human has.

What is crazy is that this skill costs nothing to train, it can be trained nearly 24/7, it is more likely to save your life that your ghetto blaster, and the most high speed dudes out there are really good at it.

What is this? Situational Awareness.

Alot of people throw around SA like its cool. I had SA, or I practice good SA are common things we hear all the friggen time.

Do people really have good SA? Is SA just about looking around all the time? How do I improve my SA? These are the three questions I would like to aim this disscussion at.

First is the concept of do you have it. You might think you do but chances are you dont. For example guys I am around all the time pride themselves on there “combat hunter” skills and always know what is going on around them. To really test this out we play a game where you randomly get “knifed” throughout the day. I have been knifed many times and have knifed people many times. I thought I knew what was going on around me but really, I did not. For example, when you go to unlock something, are you looking at your keys and the lock, or are you trusting that you know how to unlock a lock and instead looking at the dark parking lot you are in. When you walk into a house, do you look down at the rug while you wipe your feet, or do you scan the new area you are in? When you are at a stoplight are you looking at the dude across the intersection just standing there, or are you changing the radio?

There are hundreds of littles instances we do each day where we let down our SA. And it is in these moments IMHO that you get hit.

So is SA just looking around all the time? Nope. Its all about pattern recognition. As you move into a new area you establish a baseline for what that environment is. Sights, sounds smells. Use all those senses. When parts of that baseline begin to go astray, lights should go off. When things that do not fit a pattern arise, lights should go off. An example of using more than looking around for SA. I was out eating with some friends when random people around the joint started coughing. It wasnt long until my friends and I were too. Being idiots, and because we were hungry we stayed and ate food. What actually happened was a lady had a keychain/purse thing of pepper spray she inadvertently hit and crop dusted the restuaraunt. What if this was something like a carbon monoxide build up???

You need to build a baseline of your sourroundings with all your senses and rely on all of them to tell you when somthing is out of place.

Now into how to improve your SA. I am at the doors of the jedi temple. My SA is not where it should be. I have begun to take this subject very seriously and started researching it on my own but as for specific TTP I am still looking for new ways to skin this cat. Things like scanning right to left instead of left to right are very helpful so if any members have some cools tricks they have picked up, pass them on.

PJ

2

Believe it or not, SA has been covered quite a bit here over the years.

3

Dead on.

Train yourself to pick up patterns as quickly as possible.
Look through things.
For each deviation from the norm try to determine, as quickly as possible: why?
Constantly update your plan and your contingency route based on threat probability.

Gut-check everything, but don’t rely on it.

4

We used a K.I.M. (keep in mind) game during the vast majority of our training. Seemed to work pretty well.

5

This is a good thread. Tactics are great, but situational awareness can be your best defense. I don’t claim to be a SA ninja, but trying is the most important thing you can do. The more you practice scanning your environment, the more you brain will do it automatically.

I have never walked into a room the same way since I went through the academy. The biggest eye opener there was when they asked us to pick up lunch from a local diner. When we got there, a few lights were off…at night. Turned out to be a mock ambush. Somehow it changed my mindset.

I just finished a weeklong dignitary protection course. Situational awarness was emphasized. Most people didn’t recognize that an actor on our “watch list” was wearing typical biker attire while we were operating in an upper class retail environment. It was surprising the number of people who were obviously not tuned in during exercises even after they were warned to keep an eye open.