Winning Mind Training

  • Home
  • About
    • About Winning Mind
    • Testimonials
  • Store
  • Blog
  • Courses Listing / Calendar
    • Training Schedule
    • Course Descriptions
      • Dare to Be Great: Strategies for Creating a Culture of Leading
      • The Heroes Path to Excellence in Law Enforcement
      • Excellence In Training
      • Performance Enhancement Imagery
      • The Pursuit of Personal Excellence
      • Lessons From Life’s Most Powerful Question
      • Ground Fighting and A.C.E. Edged Weapons Defense Instructor Course
      • PPCT Defensive Tactics / HFRG Use of Force Instructor Course
  • Resources
  • Contact Us

November 30, 2010 By Brian Willis

Train to Win

Over the years I have written a number of articles and blog posts and spoken extensively on the philosophy of training to win versus training to survive. I still hear officers and trainers around North America talking about officer survival, and training to survive. In violent confrontations I still see officers focused on survival and not on winning and it bothers me.

I have a great deal of admiration for officers who survive violent encounters. As a trainer however, I always have to wonder if the outcome could have been different if we (we being the collective training community) had trained the officer to win instead of just to survive.

Winston Churchill addresses this concept very well in the following quote which I use in my presentations on Harnessing the Winning Mind and Warrior Spirit:

“Victory at all costs,victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival.”

Sir Winston Churchill

Some of the take aways from Churchill’s quote include:

  • Winning takes work.
  • Winning is not an easy path.
  • Sometimes you have to overcome fear in order to prevail and winning.
  • Survival is a by product of winning.

Training to win has multiple components:

  1. Training to a level of competence and confidence in skills, tactics, legal authorities, knowledge of when you can use force will help you have that ‘aura’, that presence that tells a subject “if you mess with me you will lose”.
  2. Training to stay in the fight and fight until you have won, even if you are injured.
  3. After the fight have the ability to self treat wounds and take action to save your own life.
  4. Possessing the ability to articulate why what you did was reasonable based on totality of circumstances.

We need to stop talking about survival. We need to stop teaching officers to survive. We need to teach officers to win. This is not semantics. This is life and death.

Take care,

Brian Willis

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit

Related

Filed Under: Blog

Subscribe To Our Blog

Sign up to the Winning Mind Training blog to receive new articles, tips and posts directly to your email inbox.

Excellence In Training Blog

  • My biggest regret as a trainer. January 12, 2021
  • Have you actually trained them to turn on their body worn camera? January 5, 2021
  • We must. You must. December 29, 2020
  • Are you preparing them for their future, or your past? December 22, 2020
  • Remind them that they are not elevators. December 15, 2020

Contact Winning Mind Training

Address:
246 Stewart Green S.W., Suite #2486
Calgary AB. Canada. T3H 3C8

Phone: 403-279-5954

Email: winningmind@mac.com

Connect With Us

  • Email
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Winning Mind Training is a proud member of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce. To get more information and to find out how you can become a member of the Chamber of Commerce go to www.calgarychamber.com

Events

  • Leadership Lessons from Life's Most Powerful Question - 26th Annual FCJEIA Graduates Training Session
    • Tuesday, Apr 27, 2021 - Wednesday, Apr 28, 2021
  • Excellence in Training Course - Okotoks, Alberta
    • Monday, May 31, 2021 - Friday, Jun 04, 2021
    • Okotoks
  • PPCT Threat Pattern Recognition Use of Force Instructor Course - Calgary
    • Monday, Jun 21, 2021 - Friday, Jun 25, 2021
    • Calgary

Copyright © 2021 · Winning Mind Training