sighting in on Emotionally Integrated Training
also creates psychological changes in pain toler- ance, attentional focus, cognitive fl exibility and adaptation, as well as memory and perceptual distortions. When we become truly fearful, our emotional response changes our physical body and mind, aff ecting our ability to apply the skills we have so carefully built.
What does sudden fright—the type that
offi cers experience when they’re suddenly as- saulted by a suspect who is close to them— look like? It looks like a ‘startle reaction,’ simultaneously eliciting the following: Your eyes go wide and your pupils di- late to gain as much light as possible and jerk your head to face the source or direction of that surprise or threat. You gasp, taking in a sharp intake of
air. T is is the body preparing for fl ight or fi ght. Most people will hold their breath fol- lowing the initial gasp (remember: stillness). Your body moves, orienting your chest to that threat as you take an athletic stance (much like a linebacker, with your domi- nant-side foot back a bit), your body has a slight lean forward from the waist. Your body actually drops a bit, lowering your cen- ter of gravity. Your hands tend to come up to face level, palms out, your non-dominant hand slightly forward. Your shoulders rise, moving up and for- ward while your chin sinks a bit to better pro- tect your extremely vulnerable throat and neck.
T e reciprocal of that process also holds true: mimicking the physical response to sud- den threat—the startle response—activates to some degree the amygdala’s emotional fear response. Emotional reprogramming can take place by mimicking the body’s re- actions to fear. By taking in a sharp gasp, suddenly opening your eyes wide, while jerking your shoulders up and forward and quickly lowering your center of gravity, most people experience a slight to moderate corti- sol (adrenaline) reaction. While some offi cers are too salty to try this, the large percent- age quickly identify that there is an element of validity to the concept of duplicating in training the emotional environment where skills application intersects with the existen-
40 The Police Marksman Mar-Apr 2015
tial fear experienced in the street. For example, in our range training, we ask you to close your eyes and imagine the face of the last person you thought was going to kill you. Every cop with a few weeks of street experience can conjure up this person’s face. Rather than paper targets, this is the person the shooter is shooting in response to im- minently threatening actions. We then ask each person to explain or demonstrate what that imminent threat is doing to cause him/ her to shoot the suspect. Upon every initia- tion command of “T reat!” (short for “im- minent threat,” or that action by the suspect to which the offi cer is legally justifi ed to respond with deadly force), the offi cer is di- rected to take a quick, sharp intake of breath, jerk his shoulders up and lower his center of gravity. T is physical action creates an emo- tional tie (and a small adrenaline cocktail dump) to the response (hit the threat). T e mind associates sudden threat with moving, drawing, and hitting the suspect rather than freezing as a survival strategy.
It’s the same in Defensive Tactics. During some of our drills, we will have the coach (not the ‘suspect’) begin a monologue in a low, menacing voice of how this coach wants to kill the offi cer and how he/she is going to do it. At fi rst, many offi cers react with fear (strange how in a safe environment with someone that offi cer KNOWS won’t harm him/her, yet the brain reacts with a degree of survival emotions and fear). Just this monologue often causes the offi cer to speed up or become inappropriately intense. So instructors begin to coach these offi cers to calm down, to breathe, to focus on their skills as the coach continues his/her threats. Soon the offi cer is able to over-write previous programming and work comfortably with the coach. T en we change coaches’ instruc- tions to produce a low, menacing, animal- like growl. We see offi cers instantly ratchet up in intensity, eyes-wide, breathing faster than the physical requirements demand even though there’s no change in the intensity of the coach working with that offi cer. Again, instructors coach them to breathe, to work at speed, to continue to problem-solve and function eff ectively. When the offi cer is
able to calm down and work through the growling, we then have the coaches begin shrieking insanely. Offi cers often instantly seize up emotionally and physically, and are again coached back to eff ective emotional response—and reasonable physical response.
Scenario “Failures”
Incorporating this emotional integration into all aspects of training pays off in scenario train- ing where, if the offi cer hitches up, we hit the pause button, and talk privately about not only what that offi cer is seeing but, as importantly, what he/she is feeling. If the offi cer is unable to identify his/her emotional response (or un- willing to share it), the instructor then describes what it looked like from the outside, how that emotion is negatively aff ecting the offi cer’s per- formance, and how to take the steps to coun- ter it. We then rewind and continue to replay the event where the emotionally charged hitch occurred, with the offi cer taking that sharp in- take of breath and bodily reaction to simulate being startled, until the offi cer signals that he/ she can continue on without undue or negative emotional reactions. We then rewind and play forward toward success.
Sometimes we are forced to go back to our force-on-force exercises or even back to our drills to get the proper emotional reprogram- ming. For instance, one very experienced of- fi cer from a very busy large city was excellent in DT and fearless in contact simulations. On the range, he was very competent, handling his live-fi re weapon competently while gain- ing solid hits. However, during force-on-force drills using Airsoft pellet weapons (face/eye protection with long-sleeve T-shirts only) prior to scenario exercises, he literally melted down. T e fi rst time the ‘suspect’ drew his weapon, the offi cer literally pirouetted, non-gun hand curled around his head, and emptied the magazine by blindly shooting behind him in the general di- rection of the suspect while being pelted by the suspect’s ‘bullets.’ T e exercise was halted and he removed
his protective mask. He was breathing as if he’d run a world record mile up stairs. His face was pale and he really couldn’t articulate what had just happened to him. We removed him from the exercise and talked about what
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