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The Strike Report - September 2011
“The measure of our personal character, in how we conduct ourselves and how we perform, will always receive its highest or lowest marks by the way we have faced, and dealt with adversity." ~ Strike International
MENTAL MINDSET AND SKILLS Help to minimize your risk and survive!
I begin this Strike Report with a reminder from an article I had published in the "Tactical Edge Magazine" on Mental Attitude - The Survival Factor. Modernization of police work combined with other technological advances has greatly improved the law enforcement profession. As an example, we see where today's education, equipment and training, has helped officers be safer and more effective in their fight against criminal activity. Unfortunately, the law enforcement profession has not become any easier to perform even with these advances. The very nature of this type of business is often violent, explosive and risky. Officers will be killed and seriously wounded no matter how careful they are. In the performance of their duties, the officer is often forced into dangerous situations. It is not by choice that they do it but rather by the obliged sense of responsibility that the officer has assumed. They cannot allow the murderer to walk away or the armed robber to make his escape. Often it is the officer who if forced into this position. In other words, the risk factor cannot be eliminated but it can be minimized.
But how?
By far the greatest factor in ensuring that risks are minimized is by first developing a good healthy mental attitude combined with a combat mindset and maintaining a deliberate attitude toward safety. Once an officer has done this and continues to work on it as well as their skills, then they have a far greater chance of surviving a lethal encounter, reducing the chance of serious bodily injury and staying mentally sharp throughout their career.
This year is breaking all sorts of records for officer deaths and assaults. The job isn't getting any easier in fact; I would say it has gotten a lot harder. We have terrorist extremism operating in the world that is bent on disrupting and destroying our way of life and we have a situation south of our borders that is turning Mexico into chaos by watching it slowly sliding into a criminal narco state. The poor government of Mexico is trying to make a good show of it but it is barely hanging on by it nails. Systemic corruption is swallowing them alive and all they can do is point to Norte America and say that it is our drug habit and gun sales that are responsible for all their woes. There is enough blame to go around for all but only Mexico can set a standard of no tolerance for corruption. However, like them on our side, we are losing good men and women to the drug violence and it ain't pretty!
When you combine mindset (I'm talking about tactical mental focusing) along with skills and practice at them both, then you will be surprised at how well you can hone yourself to a fighting edge. Here is the truth of the matter; skills are important but not near as important as the person who can think, who can process, and react to what is coming in. Paul Howe termed it as "Accelerating in the Tactical Loop." It is staying ahead of the bad guys even in an adverse environment such as low light conditions. Low light encounters dump incredible stressors on an individual and I am talking about the type that can shut you down entirely called - STRESS INDUCED PARALYSIS! This is when you have the ability to do nothing at all! You can't think because your gray matter feels like it has the consistency of oatmeal and you can't move because you'll swear someone has attached 100 pound weights to your extremities. Understanding and practicing good mental focusing can get you through this and bring you out on the other side. As Ben Sherwood states in his book, The Survivors Club, "Panic is the enemy. All those mental hazard lights, alarms, and sirens short-circuit our problem solving. We forget our training. We don't maintain our points of reference. We don't wait for the violent action to stop. We lose our mind and our way." Stress Induced Paralysis sends us over the edge into the abyss. Once you are over the edge it is tough to get back.
A solid focused mindset can move mountains for you when you are in a situation where you are fighting for your life. Sherwood goes on to tell us just how important mindset is because it allows you to process S/A (Situational Awareness) - which means knowing what's going on around you at any given moment and being able to anticipate the danger, and developing an adequate response to it.
Your mindset allows you to discover and access new strengths and abilities that you may not have known you had. Remember what we said above: skills are important but not near as important as the person who can think, who can process, and react to what is coming in. When you combine this with your training and actual skills, then it's nearly like an auto-pilot kicking in where actions are worked through and completed even though your conscious mind may not have been totally aware. You can train and acquire skill sets that will help you to complete just about anything.
SOURCES:
Ben Sherwood - The Survivors Club Paul Howe - CSAT Strike International
By:
Jack C. Perritt Executive Director Strike International _________________________________________________________________________________
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE WINNER OF THIS YEAR'S DALLAS POLICE DEPARTMENT TOP GUN EVENT - AARON GLENN
This year's event was held on August 25th and was one of the most challenging shooting events ever put on for the top shooters in the Dallas Police Department. The top forty shooters each year are invited to this training/competition and this year's event had it all: moving/shooting/split-second decision making/unexpected target scoring and challenging long shots (75 yards handgun shot!). Excellent competitive atmosphere, a great lunch provided by Dallas' own Sgt. Tony Takats, and several tables full of prizes made this a very special event. Strike International was proud to offer the top shooter a plaque, cash and our new challenge coin. Places two and three received cash and a coin as well. The Firearms Training Center staff did an exemplary job, making this a fun, challenging, and above-all safe event. To everyone involved - congratulations on a job well done! I'll have more details later this week.
REMEMBER!
911 THE EXTREMIST ATTACK! We Shall Never Forget I begin with a quote from 1st Corinthians 16:13, which says, “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong!” The events that unfolded on September 11, 2001, were perpetrated by evil cowardly men. It was Pascal who reminds us, “Men never do evil so completely as when they do it for religious conviction.” These were men who not only subverted and twisted their own religion, but in the process and with gleeful extremism; destroyed and snuffed out…3000 innocent human lives. On that day the United States of America changed and well it should. The images…who could forget? Who would want to forget? We watched in horror as people jumped from those burning buildings holding hands with one another as they plunged hideously to their death. Who could forget hearing the frantic last minute phone calls made to love one’s and those that desperately pleaded to frustrated 911 operators to be rescued. I won’t. And then there was the scene we all saw of brave rescue workers responding to help. The firemen and policemen who never hesitated to enter those flaming buildings, laying everything on the line as we expect of our professional emergency responders and then seeing the buildings collapse in on them! I won’t ever forget and I have never forgotten those we should hold responsible for it! Ten years have passed and special memorial services are being held around the country and at the scenes where these horrific disasters occurred. The problem is that in these ten years we are seeing a weakening of resolve, a softening of ideas, a collective retreat filled with confusion and jammed full of political correctness. At the main site of where the towers collapsed, the surviving emergency rescue responders are not invited to attend. The powers to be have also declined to use the word God or to have any religious significance added to the memorial so as not to offend anyone or any one religion. All I can say is KMA! Where has moral courage gone? Since when did we stop doing the right thing because it was…RIGHT? How is it that our politicians and so called leaders have become such sniveling cowards? They make me want to puke! It seems that the only warriors in this nation who still have heart are the young lions who serve us in the military and those who are our first line responders here at home. They still care and they will always remember and so will…I! WE’RE NOT FORGETTING ANYTHING! Jack C. Perritt
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