I see demonstration videos with law enforcement trainers showing techniques in a controlled setting, on a matted surface, with a compliant partner, while wearing a gi, or workout gear. That is fine, but the question on many people’s minds is, “Does it work in the real world?” Does it work for an officer wearing full duty gear including a pistol, knife, baton, OC, CEW, radio and external body armor with all the gear they carry on patrol including extra rifle mags, trauma kit and anything else they carry? Does it work while they are carrying a slung rifle? Does it work for a detective … [Read more...]

Every law enforcement trainer needs to read the book Do Hard Things: Why We Get Resilience Wrong and the Surprising Science of REAL TOUGHNESS by Steve Magness. In fact, this book should be mandatory reading for every law enforcement academy trainer and every person in the chain of command at every law enforcement academy in North America, ideally before they assume those roles. If your reaction when you read the book is, “This is crap. He is suggesting we make our training soft and all touchy-feely.”, or the classic, “He doesn’t understand the realities of our profession.”, then it may be … [Read more...]

I am a fan of James Clear’s book Atomic Habits and his weekly 3-2-1 Thursday Newsletter. The below is an excerpt from his August 11, 2022, newsletter.  "In the beginning, your skills are raw, your knowledge is sparse, and you lack experience. At best, you will be able to produce work that is "just okay." And even then, you'll only manage to reach "just okay" by giving your best effort. Nobody wants to produce something that is "just okay." You'll feel like it's beneath your standards. You'll worry about what others think of you. You'll wonder whether you would be better off taking a … [Read more...]

Law enforcement is a profession of humans, who interact with other humans, both within their organizations and out on the street. Humans are imperfect. Humans memory is flawed. Humans are subject to biases. Humans are impacted by stress and trauma. All humans are impacted by sleep deprivation. Humans are affected by internal and external physiological, psychological and environmental factors.  What is the point of all this? Too often in training we forget about the human and the factors that impact humans. We make it about the latest tool, gadget, or piece of equipment. We seem to be … [Read more...]

Most trainers have likely heard about the importance of asking questions during training to engage the attendees and shift them from attendees to participants. If you are going to ask a question however, you need to wait and allow people the opportunity to answer. Their answer will likely open the door to additional questions to explore their thought process or to bring other people into the discussion. I have seen a couple of video clips recently of experienced and extremely knowledgeable instructors who were asking rapid fire questions to the class without waiting for anyone to answer. … [Read more...]