Improvise under stress

When things go south, they go south fast. The question is not if, but when. No plan survives the enemy on first contact, so be ready to improvise. The simpler the plan the better, but remember, have a back up for the back up for the back up plan. And when all those plans fail, have another. Expect nothing to work ever. Never assume that your weapon of choice will work. Expect your glock to jam, your magazine to not feed, your back up magazine ( you do carry a back up right?) to fall apart, your knife to break, your pepper spray to be broken, and in effect everything you carry to not go the way its supposed to. What then? Are you willing to kill with your bare hands? Have you trained to fight on the ground? Can you break someones knees or hyper extend their arm? Are you willing to cause them the greatest pain imaginable to stay alive? Decide now, because finding out in a fight is to late. Train with medium range, to close for comfort, and ground fighting.

Train under stress. Yelling, time limits, low light, rapid engagement, these all cause stress. One drill that I like is have someone suddenly yell to start and then count off three seconds. From start through those three seconds, you must unholster your weapon, rack the slide, safety off, then fire 3 rounds through the target (preferably the size of a head). This provides stress.

Another way is to do hand to hand combat blind folded. This opens up your other senses so you can "sense" what the attacker will do before they do it. Start off with just grappling or judo, but when you get better, move on to blocking strikes while blind folded. Mind you, this requires several years of experience

There are 4 modes to travel at:

White: Not paying attention, totally oblivious to the world. Basically they are prey, and will be surprised by anything that goes wrong.

Yellow: Paying attention, constantly scanning to know whats around, very contentious of their surroundings. Waiting to step up to the next threat level.

Orange: People at orange are aware of a threat that has just emerged. They are on a heightened level of awareness, ready to be attacked. At this stage, they have a weapon ready, though not visible. This is when verbal confrontation is a good idea, but from a distance. example: "Thats close enough, what do you want."

Red: Threat to life and limb is imminent, at red your body starts pumping adrenalin through your system. The weapons come into play, and it is now a physical confrontation.

Rule 4: Travel at yellow.

Traveling at yellow allows you to be aware of whats around you, and not be surprised when things go south. Traveling at white is suicide as far as I'm concerned, but much happier for the sheep. Basically its sticking your head in the sand.

The less surprise, the less stress in a fight. Being aware of whats going on also allows you to make those plans. When you have a plan, you have confidence. When you have confidence, you react faster and better. When you react faster and better, the attacker has to react to you. When the attacker reacts to you, he loses confidence. When he loses confidence, he loses the will to fight. When he loses the will to fight, he loses.

In conclusion, train under stress, train like its the real thing, have a plan, have a back up for the back up for the back up plan, and travel at yellow.

God bless.