"awareness" vs. "AWARENESS!"

[Long tom coffin]

I personally wouldn't put either in my pocket if I wanted to be able to use it. It is hard enough to execute a draw stroke from a holster while getting punched in the face or donkey stomped while on the ground. I think I am missing even the rare scenario where this idea is superior to other options. But I am open to enlightenment.

So you are against pocket carry altogether, even for a BUG?


I was always under the impression that good planning and situational awareness were the first and most effective keys to self defense. It seems to me that if you are getting "donkey stomped" on the pavement while in a futile attempt to get to your holstered weapon, you've already committed a series of cumulative fails that pretty much overshadow either your choice of pants or holsters.

[Dropkick]

I was always under the impression that good planning and situational awareness were the first and most effective keys to self defense. It seems to me that if you are getting "donkey stomped" on the pavement while in a futile attempt to get to your holstered weapon, you've already committed a series of cumulative fails that pretty much overshadow either your choice of pants or holsters.

Yes and No.

Avoiding the Three Stupids (People, Places and Things) is what I'd consider "Good Planning" and will keep you out of a lot of trouble. Situational Awareness will keep you out of trouble too... But there times where criminals employ ambushes to completely blind-side people.

For whatever reason, if you've lost the initiative in a fight and are getting stomped... The first thing to do is stop getting stomped. Until you've regained the initiative trying to deploy a weapon is most likely going to fail miserably.

[ToddG]

I was always under the impression that good planning and situational awareness were the first and most effective keys to self defense. It seems to me that if you are getting "donkey stomped" on the pavement while in a futile attempt to get to your holstered weapon, you've already committed a series of cumulative fails that pretty much overshadow either your choice of pants or holsters.

Anyone who says he's never fallen into Condition White (http://www.policeone.com/police-trainers/articles/2188253-Coopers-colors-A-simple-system-for-situational-awareness/) while out in public is either lying or so unaware that he doesn't even realize his own imperfections. Furthermore, with growing trends like "flash mobs" it's hard to imagine how anyone can honestly think he'll be aware enough to realize trouble that materializes in large numbers over the course of just a few seconds.

There are plenty of instructors who talk about Awareness as a combined holy grail and classroom lesson wrapped in an impenetrable force field that will protect you at all times under all circumstances if you "do it." These tend to be the same people who have less developed hard skills and justify it by saying "I don't need to know combatives, my Awareness would never let someone get that close to me," or "I don't need a fast draw, my Awareness will give me plenty of time to act." The word awareness is really just code for luck under those circumstances.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying awareness & avoidance are unimportant. They're critically important and under most circumstances absolutely will be a greater factor than shaving half a second off your draw or knowing the 97 Steps or whatever. Just don't let "my awesome level of awareness" become a paper mache crutch.

[LittleLebowski]

Anyone who says he's never fallen into Condition White (http://www.policeone.com/police-trainers/articles/2188253-Coopers-colors-A-simple-system-for-situational-awareness/) while out in public is either lying or so unaware that he doesn't even realize his own imperfections. Furthermore, with growing trends like "flash mobs" it's hard to imagine how anyone can honestly think he'll be aware enough to realize trouble that materializes in large numbers over the course of just a few seconds.

There are plenty of instructors who talk about Awareness as a combined holy grail and classroom lesson wrapped in an impenetrable force field that will protect you at all times under all circumstances if you "do it." These tend to be the same people who have less developed hard skills and justify it by saying "I don't need to know combatives, my Awareness would never let someone get that close to me," or "I don't need a fast draw, my Awareness will give me plenty of time to act." The word awareness is really just code for luck under those circumstances.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying awareness & avoidance are unimportant. They're critically important and under most circumstances absolutely will be a greater factor than shaving half a second off your draw or knowing the 97 Steps or whatever. Just don't let "my awesome level of awareness" become a paper mache crutch.

Good post.

[Dropkick]

Would it be possible to break off the few posts about getting stomped and awareness into another thread for further discussion?

I don't want to take away from the awesome MC Hammer pants.

[mnealtx]

the 97 Steps

Is your real name Khadaji?

:p

[ToddG]

Thread split so Dropkick can fully embrace his MC Hammer fetish.

[Dropkick]

There are plenty of instructors who talk about Awareness as a combined holy grail and classroom lesson wrapped in an impenetrable force field that will protect you at all times under all circumstances if you "do it." ...
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying awareness & avoidance are unimportant. They're critically important and under most circumstances absolutely will be a greater factor than shaving half a second off your draw or knowing the 97 Steps or whatever. Just don't let "my awesome level of awareness" become a paper mache crutch.

(Not sure where you were going with the italics and quotes on awareness, so hope this make sense...)

This has got me thinking... How important is awareness in and of itself? I'm tempted to say not very. For example, I could be aware I'm in the process of getting mugged. Ooookay. That doesn't really seem like it would lead to a positive outcome.

However, thinking of it in terms of Cause & Effect. Where awareness is the Cause, and properly defending yourself is the Effect. That seems like the winning combination that I hope everyone would strive for. Right?

Do you think there is a disjoint in what is being taught between what I refered to as Cause & Effect?

[ToddG]

Awareness is like radar. If your radar only works within 5' and only detects giant threats, it's useless. If, OTOH, it has a range of miles and can tell the difference between an laden European Swallow from an African Swallow, that's pretty awesome.

Being able to detect when something is about to get bad, or being able to pick out who the about-to-get-bad guys are, is a valuable skill regardless of whether you're carrying six blades, three guns, and a howitzer or not. SouthNarc's MUC (Managing Unknown Contacts) goes into great detail on the subject and is probably one of the best such lectures I've heard.

[JAD]

What I got out of the Wednesday lectures I've watched (on tape; I'm old, but I'm not that old) is that the function of awareness is to allow you to select and deploy a plan. Cooper was very focused on shifting surprise to the adversary; being ahead in reaction, so that you can take decisive and aggressive action to create a favorable outcome. That starts with being aware, so awareness (and hence the color code) are fundamental; but as Todd points out, awareness without a prepared line of action is meaningless.

[Dropkick]

Cool, it sounds like I was making the same conclusion too.

[NickA]

What I got out of the Wednesday lectures I've watched (on tape; I'm old, but I'm not that old) is that the function of awareness is to allow you to select and deploy a plan. Cooper was very focused on shifting surprise to the adversary; being ahead in reaction, so that you can take decisive and aggressive action to create a favorable outcome. That starts with being aware, so awareness (and hence the color code) are fundamental; but as Todd points out, awareness without a prepared line of action is meaningless.

Well said; if you don't have a plan to make awareness an advantage what's the point?

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

[Odin Bravo One]

So you are against pocket carry altogether, even for a BUG?


I was always under the impression that good planning and situational awareness were the first and most effective keys to self defense. It seems to me that if you are getting "donkey stomped" on the pavement while in a futile attempt to get to your holstered weapon, you've already committed a series of cumulative fails that pretty much overshadow either your choice of pants or holsters.

I am all for awareness. And I am all for carrying a gun. Even two guns. Unfortunately, it is 2011 and there are a whole lot of well trained and well disciplined people who will not give you target indicators. And there are even some pretty street savvy low life dirt bags. They will not advertise their intentions. Shit happens, and more and more often, we are finding that shit happens with little to no warning, regardless of the time of day, area of town, where I selected my seat in the diner, and whether or not I have $100 bills hanging out of my pockets. At a stop light. At the local IHOP in the middle of lunch. Regardless of your level of awareness, bad things can still happen at times when your strong side pocket is not immediately accessible. I suppose in the pocket is better than in the safe. But if I am taking the time and putting forth the effort to carry a gun for defensive purposes, I am going to take the time and put forth the effort to ensure it is accessible should I need it. In my front trouser pocket while I am seated is not immediately accessible.

[JAD]

Cooper's Principles of Personal Defense were, in order: Alertness, Decisiveness, Aggressiveness, Speed, Coolness, Ruthlessness, and Surprise. Each builds into the next, and circles back pretty neatly (we surprise the attacker, taking an approach to which he was not alert). It's a pretty skimpy pamphlet, and Amazon wants TEN BUCKS to put it on your kindle, but it's still the best single piece of writing about our topic that I'm aware of.

[pax]

Anyone who says he's never fallen into Condition White while out in public is either lying or so unaware that he doesn't even realize his own imperfections. Furthermore, with growing trends like "flash mobs" it's hard to imagine how anyone can honestly think he'll be aware enough to realize trouble that materializes in large numbers over the course of just a few seconds.

There are plenty of instructors who talk about Awareness as a combined holy grail and classroom lesson wrapped in an impenetrable force field that will protect you at all times under all circumstances if you "do it." These tend to be the same people who have less developed hard skills and justify it by saying "I don't need to know combatives, my Awareness would never let someone get that close to me," or "I don't need a fast draw, my Awareness will give me plenty of time to act." The word awareness is really just code for luck under those circumstances.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying awareness & avoidance are unimportant. They're critically important and under most circumstances absolutely will be a greater factor than shaving half a second off your draw or knowing the 97 Steps or whatever. Just don't let "my awesome level of awareness" become a paper mache crutch.

Pardon me for repeating the whole post, but it was so good I couldn't resist.

I've recently been re-reading The Invisible Gorilla, an excellent book about the way the mind works written by Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons. The authors are the researchers behind the infamous white shirt - black shirt basketball video (see it at www.theinvisiblegorilla.com -- which I recommend you go do before reading the rest of this post if you've never seen it before. Follow the link to 'videos' and then to 'the gorilla experiment' Also watch the second video down on that page).

In that study, researchers told people to count the number of times the players wearing white shirts passed a basketball to each other. Halfway through the video, a person wearing a gorilla costume walked into the middle of the screen, beat its chest, and walked off screen. Roughly half the participants never saw the gorilla, even though they were staring right at the screen and focusing all their attention on the screen. Awareness wasn't enough. Attention wasn't enough.

I think this has huge implications: people often don't see things they don't expect to see. It's why (for example) people who ride motorcycles have to be paranoid about people driving cars -- because people in cars aren't usually expecting to see motorcycles when they look for oncoming traffic, so they pull directly into the path of the motorcycle and later claim, "I never even saw that guy!" It's also why criminals can do what they do: they exploit the common and predictable gaps in people's attention.

The lesson here isn't, "Pay more attention." Of course we all should be paying attention! But our brains aren't wired to pay attention 100% of the time. We aren't even wired to pay 100% attention to any one thing at any one time. There doesn't appear to be any consistency between the people who noticed the gorilla and the people who didn't. The authors write:



Despite the intuitive appeal of the gorilla video as a Rosetta stone for personality types, there is almost no evidence that individual differences in attention or other abilities affect inattentional blindness. In theory, people could differ in the total attentional resources they have available, and those with more resources (perhaps those with higher IQs) might have enough "left over" after allocating some to the primary task to be better at detecting unexpected objects. ...

Training people to improve their attention abilities may do nothing to help them detect unexpected objects. If an object is truly unexpected, people are unlikely to notice it no matter how good (or bad) they are at focusing attention.

As far as we can tell, there are no such people as "noticers" and "missers"--at least, no people who consistently notice or consistently miss unexpected events in a variety of contexts and situations.

Since we know that about ourselves, and since brain research keeps showing us how true it is, it's obvious that "Pay attention" isn't the be-all and end-all of preparedness.

I think any sensible self defense plan needs to accept that sometimes we will get taken by surprise and be trying frantically to catch up. And that sometimes that will happen after we do something really stupid. If your defense plan starts and ends with the assumption that you will always see trouble coming, it'll fail you.

Kathy

[mnealtx]

Hi, pax - good to see you on the site!

[NickA]

Hi, pax - good to see you on the site!

Ditto, really enjoyed Lessons from Armed America.

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

[superscribe]

has there been any discussion on whether AWARENESS (capital) has any affect on quality of living? I have two friends who are in law enforcement.

one has active sonar on all the time. he picks up on the smallest things. he also cannot be in crowded places, and it's difficult hanging out with him because he's so high strung. it's affecting his social life, and any prospects of finding a life companion.

the other kind of just has a passive sonar. he is very relaxed, and maintains that being relaxed allows him to see the whole picture and act more quickly and effectively. it also allows him to pound drinks and get rowdy at the bars. he has a happy wife, and i enjoy hanging out with him a lot more.

what's the trade off? do you guys feel there has to be a trade-off at all between awareness and quality of life?

[Occam's Razor]

You can't live in a state of heightened awareness without paying a price at some point. The officer mentioned who is hypersensitive will (is) pay a price down the road. Part of the issue here is that "most" normal folk, even those who train in combatives, haven't trained enough to be truly reactive. Proactive is great, but as has been mentioned, Mr. Murphy will eventually get involved. As much as we'd like to believe that awareness is the end all be all, training to the point of forgetting, just reacting, is part of survival (Lt.Col. Grossman quoting Bruce Lee in his book On Combat). Then again, I could be completely wrong.

[pax]

Thanks for the welcome, guys. Didn't see a place to intro, so just jumped right in - hope that wasn't a faux pas here.

superscribe, what an intriguing question. Sad story too.

I suspect the answer will be different for almost everyone, and maybe dependent on personality type or some other variable. For me personally, when I started paying more attention to the world I think my quality of life went up. I saw the potential bad guys and sticky situations developing -- but I also saw a lot of charming human behavior I'd missed before, like the middle-aged wife pinching her husband's butt when she thought no one was looking, or the look on a dad's face when his almost-teen daughter walked away from him at the fair to go join her boyfriend. Noticing little stuff like that tended to make me happier, more fulfilled in some ways, and it was stuff I'd never noticed until I started really trying to pay more attention to the world so I would notice potential danger. So I guess maybe it depends less on "Awareness" per se, and more on your overall mindset going into it. Of course, all of that might just be evidence that I myself have a trivial & superficial mind, or that I wasn't smart enough to just look for the bad stuff to avoid, so I started noticing everything including the good stuff too. In any case, when I personally started paying attention, I ended up having more fun than I'd had before.

Kathy

[David Armstrong]

has there been any discussion on whether AWARENESS (capital) has any affect on quality of living? I have two friends who are in law enforcement.

one has active sonar on all the time. he picks up on the smallest things. he also cannot be in crowded places, and it's difficult hanging out with him because he's so high strung. it's affecting his social life, and any prospects of finding a life companion.

the other kind of just has a passive sonar. he is very relaxed, and maintains that being relaxed allows him to see the whole picture and act more quickly and effectively. it also allows him to pound drinks and get rowdy at the bars. he has a happy wife, and i enjoy hanging out with him a lot more.

what's the trade off? do you guys feel there has to be a trade-off at all between awareness and quality of life?
I think it depends on what you make it. I'm pretty laid back now, but spent a fair amount of time being REALLY alert and aware of everything going on around me. It didn't affect my behavior that much as I don't think I changed anything because of it, I was just more likely to be ready to respond when/if something happened. Your head gets on a swivel and your eyes are moving all the time checking things out, but you can still go to the crowded place.

[ToddG]

There is also a difference between being aware and acting aware merely by following the rules someone gave you, like "never sit with your back to the room." People who obsess about the little rules and miss the big picture -- figuratively and literally -- aren't doing themselves much good.

[rsa-otc]

I use driving as an example for my students when discussing this concept. You have 3 types of car drivers out there. Driver one is focused on what is directly in front of them and nothing else, basicly blind to what's going on around them. Driver two sits forward in the seat intensely concentrating on the road, all keyed up and nervous this person tires quickly and they end up dropping their guard and end up in an accident after a few hours . Driver three is relaxed in the seat alert to their enviroment see's that person in the intersection that may run the light and in a relaxed matter reacts so there is no collision. Driver three can put 11 hours behind the wheel and still be fairly fresh at the end. Driver three is less likely to get in an accident.

[zRxz]

For my game, awareness is a balance between consciously preventing myself from being tied into whatever small, insignificant task I am doing at one particular time (i.e., walking down the street, running for exercise, getting my keys out, even reading), and actively pushing my eyes and ears "out there", beyond what is immediately noticeable in my environment, letting my gut instinct do what it has done so well for our kind for the past half million years. As Todd put it, I don't think you can be in "Condition Yellow" one-hundred percent of the time: you will burn yourself out if you try, and you will still have big gaps. Nor do I believe it is necessary, even in public. Are we being robbed to the degree that constant vigilance (to the extent some would have us hold) has become a necessity? From what I have seen, awareness, alertness — whatever -ness you want to call it —, is only really needed for short periods of time. Walking home after overtime while its dark is one. Crossing through or going into an unfamiliar part of town is another.
That said, I think a higher level of whatever-it-is-we're-discussing is needed when comparing ourselves to the general population. The lack of "it" has been so apparent to me in the community that I grew up in that one ethnicity is joked to have been born with blinders. I think that, and not wanting to be like that, has informed more about how I think about awareness than even Cooper's Colour Code. You might think it troubling when you didn't see the fight break out from the corner of your eye, but it's a whole 'nother thing to have another human being walk into you, bounce off, and keep on going without even the slightest response. No shit.

[Long tom coffin]

There is also a difference between being aware and acting aware merely by following the rules someone gave you, like "never sit with your back to the room." People who obsess about the little rules and miss the big picture -- figuratively and literally -- aren't doing themselves much good.



I diverted my own thread so bad I got it split. I'm debating on how funny I think that is :)



I've been chewing on what's been said on this particular thread for the past week, and after some deliberation I feel that I want to make some comments and clarifications.

Firstly: Situational awareness is not the be all and end all of self defense. I'm still sticking with my original assertion that good situational awareness is the most effective part of good self defense. Now, in keeping with Todd's original response post, I do not think that it is possible to maintain a consistent level of high situational awareness under all circumstances. I fully agree that anyone who says they have never been in white are either lying or over estimating their own abilities, and I do not believe in using blanket assumptions about awareness to mask deficiencies in actual gunhandling skill are acceptable. I guess in my instance I am fortunate in that the instructors who have taught me have always repeatedly stressed that awareness, while supremely important, is also on equal footing with the two other major aspects of effective self defense, marksmanship/gunhandling and mindset. How I have been taught, and what I agree with, is that deficiency in one aspect will probably put you behind the 8-ball in a real violent confrontation. I think (and, as always, I could be wrong and if so am open to alternate opinions) that such deficiency in one aspect may not necessarily prove fatal, but could open the door to a greater probability of a less than desirable outcome. Such as getting your face stomped while trying to reach your weapon. I have always thought of it as about being aware that the threat or fight is coming, and if you are unable to evade or otherwise avoid confrontation, having the martial skill necessary to meet the challenge head on and mindset and strength of will necessary to see the fight through to the end. That's my mantra; More awareness, better and constantly increasing training, and iron mindset.


And yes, we all do lapse into white sometimes, for various reasons and circumstances; but that is our own fault, so it is still a fail. I include myself in that number, as well, and I'm pissed off when I do it. Ergo, I'm still sticking with my original opinion that resulted in the thread being split. As for the MC Hammer pants, these would be limited use and situation specific. I was not and am not endorsing them as a replacement for a quality holster. I also think that if you are carrying in your pocket, it is eminently reasonable to have another BUG in an alternate location. Even when I am carrying strongside, my normal mode, I still have a BUG placed in a position where it can reached easily when the primary is more difficult to maneuver. In my particular case, I have an LCR in my left front pocket, in case my right arm is occupied, and G19 strongside at 3:30 as my primary, and I have also begun recarrying my G26 on my inside left ankle. Since I gas/brake with my right foot, my G26 would be my "inside the car weapon", as my pocket and primary are not accessible when I am driving. But all I have to do is raise my left leg slightly, and voila! In case I'm getting my face stomped on, I will now have a weapon readily available for pretty much any realistic and conceivable position.


Awareness/preparation, skill, and mindset.

[JAD]

Awareness/preparation, skill, and mindset.
Or, the way I learned it and not to quibble too much, awareness as a component of mindset, with the 'combat triad*' being mindset, marksmanship, and gunhandling.

*when giggling at the phrase 'combat triad,' as you should, remember that when it was coined mallninjas didn't really exist. Or maybe they did, but you couldn't see them.

[Long tom coffin]

Or, the way I learned it and not to quibble too much, awareness as a component of mindset, with the 'combat triad*' being mindset, marksmanship, and gunhandling.

*when giggling at the phrase 'combat triad,' as you should, remember that when it was coined mallninjas didn't really exist. Or maybe they did, but you couldn't see them.

Ha! Combat Triad. lol.

I've never understood the concept of a triad that involves two identical components. I've always thought that marksmanship was corollary with gunhandling, because if you don't have competent gunhandling, you won't have competent marksmanship. If you do not know the appropriate trigger press, you will not hit your target. for that reason I often lump gunhandling/marksmanship together in the same category.

[Dropkick]

Awareness/preparation, skill, and mindset.

Sounds like you got a good idea of it.

I like to look at it as a progression:
Avoidance -> Awareness -> Escape -> Dissuasion -> Attack (Preemptive Option)

With credit to Geoff Thompson. Not all steps are necessary, and sometimes you are forced to jump ahead...

[JAD]

I've never understood the concept of a triad that involves two identical components. I've always thought that marksmanship was corollary with gunhandling, because if you don't have competent gunhandling, you won't have competent marksmanship. .
-- I can see your way of thinking, but it does differ a little bit from the way I've been taught to think about it. 'Gunhandling' is everything but sight alignment, trigger press, and recoil management. It's reloading, clearing malfunctions (unless you own an H&K, I guess), managing the safety / decocker / finger on the move, the presentation, all that stuff. It's a triad, because as a group, that skillset is as important as marksmanship, and each of those two physical skill groups is (roughly) as important as mindset. They're the three knobs we're supposed to tweak in training and practice, and they're supposed to get roughly equal attention.

[Long tom coffin]

Sounds like you got a good idea of it.

I like to look at it as a progression:
Avoidance -> Awareness -> Escape -> Dissuasion -> Attack (Preemptive Option)

With credit to Geoff Thompson. Not all steps are necessary, and sometimes you are forced to jump ahead...

That's a good analysis, I think the progression is very valid.


And what you said about jumping ahead is very true; the same is completely applicable to the color codes of awareness as well. I definitely believe that appropriate training should focus on all aspects of threat management, just not shooting. By way of example, my wife's Karate instructor, Ron Mirikitani, advised me to take some threat management courses from his wife, Jan . She's a 5'0" 60 year old woman who's probably not 100 lbs soaking wet. She does training for threat management, situational awareness, preparation and conflict resolution for the StL county police. Given her size and age, she has some very interesting instruction on the subject matter and what I learned was immeasurably valuable. I've combined that with shooting training from qualified instructors and mindset and psychological instruction. I think that without appropriate training in all three, you won't be able to make that jump from Step A straight to steps D or E in response to a rapidly escalated threat situation. Or, even if you can, you won't be able to make that leap fast enough to accomplish what you need to.

[Long tom coffin]

-- I can see your way of thinking, but it does differ a little bit from the way I've been taught to think about it. 'Gunhandling' is everything but sight alignment, trigger press, and recoil management. It's reloading, clearing malfunctions (unless you own an H&K, I guess), managing the safety / decocker / finger on the move, the presentation, all that stuff. It's a triad, because as a group, that skillset is as important as marksmanship, and each of those two physical skill groups is (roughly) as important as mindset. They're the three knobs we're supposed to tweak in training and practice, and they're supposed to get roughly equal attention.

Ok, that methodology makes sense. I suppose it's just the way I think, but I still can't help but equate the above mechanics with marksmanship still. I suppose that's just a function of how I've been trained/my mind works. I think it's a semantics, argument really; after all, what does it matter how you call it if you are practicing all the "knobs" like you are supposed to?

[Tamara]

'Gunhandling' is everything but sight alignment, trigger press, and recoil management. It's reloading, clearing malfunctions (unless you own an H&K, I guess), managing the safety / decocker / finger on the move, the presentation, all that stuff.

This.

Even more than shooting effectively and making pretty little groups, I go to gun school to learn how to handle a firearm, outside of the usual static range environment, in a competent fashion so that I do not set myself on fire with it. :o

[41magfan]

Cooper's Principles of Personal Defense were, in order: Alertness, Decisiveness, Aggressiveness, Speed, Coolness, Ruthlessness, and Surprise. Each builds into the next, and circles back pretty neatly (we surprise the attacker, taking an approach to which he was not alert). It's a pretty skimpy pamphlet, and Amazon wants TEN BUCKS to put it on your kindle, but it's still the best single piece of writing about our topic that I'm aware of.

I have to agree.

I don't want to turn this into a Cooper thing but let me say this; I'm old enough - fortunately or unfortunately - to have been around long enough to the see the progression of "all things guns" to recognize the difference between innovation and renovation. There's a lot of re-branding going on these days that gets passed off as something new. Cooper's Principle's and his comments about most other things have to be taken in context and in aggregate. Cooper believed that one of the most overlooked aspects of self-defense is willingness to act. It's one thing to know how and when .... you gotta have the will to do it at the appropriate time without reservation.

Awareness - as it relates to self-defense - is a dynamic continuum (based on a minute-by-minute risk assessment) that most people in my experience can't really put into practice. They intellectually grasp the concept of Cooper's Color Code, but don't really know how to put it into practical ongoing use.

I've been practicing this little exercise for three decades with my comrades as a way of testing our awareness factor and keeping it sharp. I live in a relatively small community of just under 100k so the chance of running into a "player" varies. If someone gets within your personal space (you decide what that is....) without you seeing them first, you get ragged pretty hard at every gathering. If you let someone get close enough to touch you without being seen first - you gotta give up some coin and you get ragged hard and repeatedly .... sometimes for years. This little game we play points out the obvious ... if you don't see the "known" coming, you sure as heck ain't going to see the "unknown" threat coming in time to respond effectively.

Now having said that, how many of you have been out in public and had a friend or acquaintance actually touch you before you detected they were in your space? If you say that's never happened, then your life experiences must be pretty limited. But either way - you weren't practicing enough awareness to keep yourself very safe by any definition.

Just my 2 cents .... not the last word by any stretch, unless I can come up with a cool acronym for it. :^)