Balancing the "Calm" and "Violent" Mindsets

[GRV]

There are two elements of lethal-encounter attitude and mindset that often show up in conversation which I find somewhat contradictory.

One is the idea of being "calm". This is usually used to describe people who have seen battle over and over again and have become professionals at it through experience. There is a notion that calmness allows for efficient and correct execution of technique.

The other is the idea of being "violent". There's a lot of talk about "getting violent enough quick enough", with emphasis on an unspoken understanding of what it means to truly be violent. In some sense, I feel that this is critically tied to being "emotional". To be as violent as possible, it would seem you need to get enraged, to a certain extent. Violence almost crosses the line into an emotional or psychological property. I imagine violence in ECQ situations manifesting itself in tensed muscles and rapid, strong movements.

In some sense, the emotional nature of the "violent" idea seems to be at odds with the picture painted when talking about the "calm" professional. Even in so far as how I picture their physical manifestations.

How are these reconciled? Are they reconciled?

I've slowly been coming up with my own answer, but I'm much more interested in hearing others'.

[SeriousStudent]

Paging John Hearne.......

John delivers a fascinating talk about reactions under stress. I attended the 2015 RangeMaster Conference, and was fortunate enough to listen to the entire presentation.

Hopefully he has some time to contribute his thoughts to this thread.

[Backspin]

Ideally, the two mindsets can co-exist in the moment. What allows that is proper, realistic, and intense training. So when it's time to be violent, you do so with a purpose, instead of spazzing out.

[LSP552]

Being violent doesn't have to be an overly emotional event. It's just business, and I like to use the analogy of flipping the light switch. People who get overly emotional can loose control of that switch. We need to be able to flip it to on and back to off as circumstances and environments change.

[voodoo_man]

Ive sat through a few mindset talks covering this subject.

Tom Kier discusses having a "Deescalation mindset" where you go to 100% in your mind, as in knowing, planning and sometimes even overtly or stealthy defeating retention in order to conduct violent action, but waiting for a "trigger" to act upon.

There is a lot that comes into this and Id suggest finding someone who is good at explaining it for a seminar...

[Dagga Boy]

Controlled Violence is the goal. Emotional Violence is only good when you are literally losing horribly.

[Cookie Monster]

I was told in a class once that you should be able to beat the f out of someone or kill them with a sleeping baby in your arms and not wake or disturb the baby. More of an energy/emotional thing then a physical one.

[FNFAN]

Violence:"behavior involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something".

Synonyms: "brutality, brute force, ferocity, savagery, cruelty, sadism, barbarity, brutishness."

None of the above apply to a law enforcement use of force in my opinion. It's the application of technique in order to gain compliance. It's vitally important to be able to 'jump to warp 9" in order to overwhelm the resistance you meet -but- just as important to be able to come to a "full stop" when you've gained compliance, whatever the level of force you had to deploy to gain that compliance was.

It sounds cold, but it's really nothing personal. If a level of force has to be used it's because of the subject's decisions, and thats on them. It's my job to resolve the situation by taking reasonable and appropriate action and I will not be denied.

[Talionis]

I think most guys at a reasonably high level when it comes to applied violence (whatever the context) will be able to confirm this, but in my experience there are multiple ways of reaching the end state of "turning it up to 11". Sure, becoming enraged is one of those, but it is generally the least effective and latest to happen. I think some people are more naturally able to go high order extremely fast and others have to train for it. I haven't lived nearly as interesting a life as many here, but my experience tells me that calmness and aggression/violence are definitely not mutually exclusive.

[Dagga Boy]

It actually takes work to take the emotion out of violence. Anyone can get enraged and go high order, happens all the time. It is hard to build a switch, and to hone how to turn it on and off. There is a deep learning curve and the hard thing is getting through the learning curve without getting hurt, losing a job, or being prosecuted.