If you have followed my writing for a while you know I am a big fan of Seth Godin. I have read a number of his books, listened to podcast interviews and online talks and I subscribe to his daily blog. In a recent blog post he wrote about the difference between Education and Learning.  From education to learning  Education is the hustle for a credential. It exchanges compliance for certification. An institution can educate you. Learning can’t be done to you. It is a choice and it requires active participation, not simple adherence to metrics. Learning is the only place to … [Read more...]

Is the focus of your skills and tactics training on Technique or Principles and Concepts? An understanding of technique is important. I believe an understanding of fundamental principles and concepts, such as balance, power and mobility, are more important to focus on.  Why do I think principles and concepts are more important to focus on? Technique often requires a specific set of conditions in order to be applied properly. Principles and concepts can be applied across a broad range of environmental factors, situations and conditions. Technique often breaks down under time … [Read more...]

The debate continues to rage on about whether law enforcement agencies should require a 3 or 4 year degree as a prerequisite to get hired. I am opposed to this and have voiced this concern in presentations and blog posts, the most recent being Some Thoughts on The Calls For Better Educated Cops back on July 27, 2020. I am an advocate for education, but opposed to having a degree being a requirement to get hired, or get promoted. One of the issues I see is that we focus on front loading education instead of focusing on career long learning for law enforcement professionals. What do … [Read more...]

In a recent 3-2-1 Thursday Newsletter, author James Clear shared two questions from Richard Hamming's talk, You and Your Research.  Those two questions are: What are the important problems in your field? And if you're not working on them, why not? Every trainer should be asking themselves these two questions on a regular basis. By important problems I am not talking about flavour of the day issues that the special interest groups and politicians say are important. Those may be important, but too often the claims that they are important have no foundation in fact, … [Read more...]

In the last month I have heard a few people talk about the nautical phrase “Hold Fast. Stay True.” in various interviews and presentations. My understanding is that it originated in days of wooden ships. In a storm sailors would tell each other to “Hold Fast”, meaning to grab on to rigging or something solid and secure to prevent being swept overboard. “Stay True” was the direction to the man at the helm to stay true to the compass heading to avoid being blown far off course.  Today law enforcement is in the midst of an intense storm. A storm of media coverage, condemnation, and … [Read more...]