Mods; feel free to move to Class AAR's. I put it here because I thought that it relates to Mindset.
I was afforded the opportunity to attend a work sponsored seminar by Dave Grossman, Lt Col (ret.). He wrote On Killing and On Combat and a few others. The setting was intimate 15-25 folks per am/pm. He did two 4.5hr blocks. I read about a 1/3 of On Killing over 5 yrs ago, and On Combat has been sitting on my "to read" dusty shelf. After doing some personal research on-line I read reviews saying some of his stats and studies used in On Killing aren't that reliable, I may have asked him if I looked before the seminar.
Here are some of the things he talked about.
School Massacres being a terrorist priority, used a lot of prior cases starting with Isreal, Beslan, Russia, Norway, etc..
Resiliency, preparedness, mindset, PTS, PTSD and Post Traumatic Growth, anti-war effort supported by main stream media, color codes - physiological conditions/responses, fatigue, breathing techniques, the bottle of water trick, Sheep dog, wolves and sheep, faith and more.
He was energetic, funny, great one liner's, extremely patriotic, supports the 2nd amendment, passionate about CCW, cares deeply about the boys in blue and service members, a man of faith - used biblical references. He brought a lot of different books (also for sale) referencing the books material throughout his presentation. He used huge fat permanent markers and a lot of large paper. The smell and speed of the markers combined with the ripping paper went well with his tempo. Also in use was a modern overhead projector.
His son is an active Combat Controller w/ quite a few tours.
His other son is a gun smith.
My big take aways - we definitely need to arm and lock down our schools, period. I start to feel unimpressed seeing sheepdog T-shirts (right up there w/ Spartan helmet stickers, and tacti-cool stuff on folks who have never served) that it was nice to hear the Sheepdog reference presented from the Horse's mouth. He had my full attention. The bottle of water/breathing trick to calm someone down.
After the seminar my teammate said in a sincere, humorous, motivated tone "I feel like getting a bald eagle tattooed on my face!"
Grossman is a 1911 guy, so I bought the book Sheepdogs - Meet our Nations Warriors for my young kids and I should have also bought the book "Mental Marksmanship". He signed all of our books.
I'd recommend the seminar to any MIL/LE folks and all who care about our Nation and their families. "Be ready to take your part of the world and make it as safe as possible" was something he said.
Question - anyone here ever dabbled in Hojutso? He mentioned it, I've never heard of it before.
It appears he has been on the road doing this for over 18yrs, anyone else sat in on his presentation?
KT