This is exactly why I use electronic ear pro with the mics turned to the rear. The local Sheriff's range boarders the club I belong to, and while shooting in our private bays, I can hear the A/C turn on and off at the Sheriff's building 100 yards to my rear. Cars, RO golf carts, and people are easily detected, even when doubled up with plugs and electronic muffs while shooting on the rifle range.Originally Posted by ACP230
The TX Deputy getting whacked at the gas pump last night is a tragic reminder of the reality that awareness is paramount. Be vigilant, guys ..... your other skills and preparations are fairly worthless without it.
The path of least resistance will seldom get you where you need to be.
I'm not a brain expert but I would like to put out some food for thought.
In my personal experience and in working with others what I've found out is that the brain can't process large volumes of information at once. Go to a live football game and watch the football for a couple of plays. There is no way you can remember what every person on the field was doing. With practice and experience you can look at the results of the play and mentally recreate what happened but you are relying more on past experience than on what really happened.
The brain is also not truly capable of multi tasking. It can do one thing at a time. So if you are pumping gas and trying to remember the last time you check the air in the tires you've effectively lowered your ability to perceive what is going on around you.
The brain will filter what is currently happening through past experiences. So if you are you are in a location that in the past you have decided is "safe" your brain will be slower to recognize a threat in that location. The opposite is also true. If you deem an area dangerous you are more likely to pick up on a threat.
Finally, being truly "switched on" is some of the most fatiguing work you can do. When working convoy security in Iraq I would make sure we rotated gunners as often as possible. Fours hours of that kind of work is exhausting. You are literally processing thousands of details a minute and making mental decisions on everything you see. It's simply not possible to maintain that kind of mental focus for extended periods of time. It's a recipe for disaster. Everyone has to be able to take mental breaks throughout the day in a "safe area" to maintain any focus throughout the day. I really have never been able to figure out how LEOs make it on departments that run 12 hour shifts.
I can not remember the name of the doctor, someone here well, but I was listening to Ballistic Radio awhile back and heard one of the best pieces of advice I've ever heard on how to maintain situational awareness. Before moving from one location to another take a second to stop and use as many senses as possible. Look, listen, and smell. Not just a gaze around your surroundings but pick out smaller details. The color of a car. Number of people. Individual words of someone talking near you. Also say to yourself "the world is not as it ought to be". This gives you a mental reset and even in comfortable surroundings helps to reset your brain so that you can more easily pick out key details.
“If you know the way broadly you will see it in everything." - Miyamoto Musashi
I have spent most of my career in broadcasting, and when you are doing an interview, you are totally focused on the job. You can't be spending cycles thinking about situational awareness. A better option is to have a third person scanning or armed security. In some cases armed security is required. Many video journalists have bodyguards when they travel overseas.
Cody
That a well-regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defense of a free state;
That is some excellent commentary and it certainly has some relevance to this discussion.
I have no experience in threat management outside of my LE background, but here’s how I do it and teach it in a domestic setting;
Instead of the environment or the surroundings themselves being the only driving force in determining when to dial up or dial down, I use exposure and vulnerability as the motivating factors for staying sharp.
My experience tells me that we are most vulnerable when we’re alone, exposed, isolated, or our visibility and mobility is limited by light or physical barriers. Those situations demand a dialed-up sense of awareness regardless of the physical location.
Thankfully, those times are generally limited in duration and frequency (all things considered) and do not demand a lot of our mental resources. Mental burnout and fatigue is best thwarted by learning to recognize when you need to be plugged in and not waste any time and energy on the benign circumstances of life.
As it relates to an overall sense of what’s going on around you let me also add these foot notes.
Personal conflict often has particular sounds and noises associated with it. Loud voices and words of anger should always get your attention and should never be dismissed or ignored. Along with that, furtive and hasty movements should also demand your scrutiny until any potential threat can be dismissed.
Lastly, crime trends in your locale should always be foremost in your mind. Trends tend to continue as long as they remain productive for the criminal, so don’t be that guy. You’d be surprised how many people will willingly go - often times unarmed - where angels fear to tread.
The path of least resistance will seldom get you where you need to be.
One has to post the gorilla awarness test - http://www.theinvisiblegorilla.com/videos.html and some background - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inattentional_blindness for theories.
It happens in hearing. Doctors scanning X-rays for tumors missed a hidden gorilla image inserted into the X-rays. IIRC, the highest level of alertness and vigilance shows a half-life of twenty minutes.
Such research makes me take folks who stay they are perpetually in 'yellow' or 'orange' with a grain of salt.
One training anecdote and I forget who told me, was that someone would walk up behind someone doing the mandatory scan after shooting. The man of the shooters never noticed them.
Just heard about this study on the way to work this morning while listening to an audio book about Mindfulness. 100 Oncologists were shown chest X-rays and told to look for nodules in the lungs. In the lungs was the image of a gorilla, and 83 out of the 100 failed to notice the gorilla due to the brain concentrating so hard on looking for the nodules.
I'm only about 2 hours into the 13 hour audio book, but I'm already drawing a lot of parallels between Mindfulness and Situational Awareness.
Last edited by StraitR; 08-31-2015 at 06:58 PM.
Which book? (title/author)
Last edited by ST911; 08-31-2015 at 07:04 PM.
الدهون القاع الفتيات لك جعل العالم هزاز جولة الذهاب
The Science of Mindfulness: A Research-Based Path to Well-Being
I am a huge advocate for always being aware of your surroundings. It's as simple as not stepping on your quiet kids while cooking or otherwise or sensing the people around you. I recently attended a church other than my own and the gentleman in front of me appeared to be carrying from the imprint on his shirt. MY first thought was he has my back. My second was what if he doesn't?
A few years ago I was walking to the local bank to make a deposit for my company and saw what appeared to be 4 gang members. I didn't have a whole lot of choice other than to back track so I made sure I stood up straight and had that "Don't mess with me look on my face and appearance". I walked between them, they quit talking and actually backed off. It was all I could do because I wasn't carrying at the time. Had I been paying more attention I would have seen them and crossed the road at the cross walk and not gone by them. That was also shortly after I got my CCW.
Since then I really try to be more aware but not paranoid.
Reply With Quote