General Douglas MacArthur said that “Preparedness is the key to success and victory.” Perhaps nowhere is that more accurate than when talking about maintaining our own safety, whether as a member of law enforcement, the military, as a first responder, or even just as a civilian.
Each member of those categories faces daily challenges that can place them under enormous stress. Consider a police officer making a late-night traffic stop on a dark, deserted stretch of road. Or the paramedic coming to the scene of a horrific accident. And the army soldier called into a fierce battle thousands of miles from home.
To rise to the challenge, face fears, and be successful at whatever the job or life throws your way, you must train yourself on how to perform and conduct yourself in extremely demanding situations.
One way to do this is by standard training procedures including firearms training. That firearms training includes learning how to safely operate a firearm as well as shooting at a stationary target. This form of training is vitally important so that the trainee learns the proper procedures and techniques. However, it is one thing to fire at a stationary target or engage in light physical grappling; it is quite another to face real-world scenarios in which another human being is trying to harm you.
Do you perform well under stress? To help train you for this, many use what is called stress inoculation training. So, what is stress inoculation training and how does it work?
In the early 1970s, Donald Meichenbaum, a Canadian psychologist, developed stress inoculation as a training program to help deal with stress and reduce anxiety in his patients. Much like we take a vaccine to inoculate ourselves against viruses, Meichenbaum believed you could inoculate people against stressful circumstances.
He identified three phases of stress inoculation: conceptualization, skills acquisition, and follow-through.
In other words, identify the potential stressors, develop the training and skills to address the stressors, and use various techniques to hone those skills before encountering stressful situations in the real world.
The reasoning and logic were sound. The theory was researched and supported by many studies, thus becoming a popular tool when teaching people coping skills.
So, how can stress inoculation be used to train members of law enforcement, military, first responders, and ordinary people who want to learn how to behave under stressful conditions?
In a 5.11 Call to Service podcast, Mike, a training sergeant in Southern California, talked about the ways his staff train members of law enforcement using stress inoculation. He says the last thing he wants to do is have someone get punched in the nose by a suspect for the first time in the field without having trained for the situation. In other words, students and trainees must be placed in difficult scenarios and situations in which danger is imminent and force is required. The goal is to simulate real-life situations. Those who have not been trained using stress inoculation techniques will find these situations a shock to the system. They may panic. They may even freeze. That can be the difference between making it out of the situation alive or not.
Stress inoculation training, often referred to as scenario-based training, presents students with real-life operations that include dealing with live human beings, not just targets. There may be both good guys and bad guys. The bad guys may have a weapon, including a knife, bat, or gun. Even though the student knows this is a simulation, with no actual life-threatening danger, the effects can be quite similar, including increased heart rate and adrenaline, fear, stress, and anxiety.
It forces the student to react and make split-second decisions, just as they must in the real world.
One of the ways this is performed is by Simunition training. Simunitions are a type of realistic, yet non-lethal simulation firearm. Think about it like a paintball gun. If you get hit, it will hurt, but no real damage is caused.
Another stress inoculation technique is visualization. And the best part of visualization is that you can do it virtually anywhere at any time at no cost. It is highly effective in training your body how to react to stressful environments without having to experience them.
Consider your daily life, be that work or personal, and what scenarios you are likely to encounter. Picture them in detail, including where they take place, what sounds you hear, what do you see, who is around? Is there cover nearby? How should you react? Visualization teaches your body to instinctually react to the situations you picture.
Stress inoculation training helps you understand your situational awareness. In your mind, you have an idea of what you think stressful situations will be like and how you will react and perform in them. But the reality may be far from that vision.
Firing at a human being is quite different than firing at an inanimate object like a target. Stress inoculation training helps create and simulate the stress and anxiety you will face in those extremely difficult situations.
Simunitions provide a pain penalty. In other words, if you get hit by a simunition round, you will feel it and it will hurt.
In highly stressful real-world scenarios, your fine motor skills are likely to diminish. This includes acquiring tunnel vision in which you only see the threats around you. We want to avoid lethal force, so being able to see those threats, but also determine and discern what is and isn’t a threat is critical. You also may experience auditory exclusion, meaning you only hear what your mind interprets as critical to your survival at that time.
Stress inoculation training simulates all these aspects so that you feel and experience them for the first time in a controlled and safe environment. With repetition, it can then help you to better control your anxiety and stress, as well as your fine motor skills.
When dealing with highly stressful situations and environments, every little detail counts. In addition to using stress inoculation training techniques to help prepare you for the real world, your clothing, gear, and accessories are important, as well. Knowing you can count on your gear and clothing to support you in comfort, durability, flexibility, and strength is critical to your performance.
This includes wearing men’s and women’s training and workout clothes that move with you when training, and don’t hold you back. Tactical pants are another critical piece of clothing that can help ensure you are ready to tackle whatever is thrown your way, as well as take you from the range to the job and home. Tactical pants typically offer many pockets to allow you to conceal any necessary weapons or EDC items that can aid when a dangerous event arises.
5.11 proudly offers a full collection of men’s and women’s tactical clothing and gear to help make sure you can Always Be Ready®.
