Tactical Advantage?

[BlackFeather]

The idea of being "cold" is the trick. This is simply instinct and training taking over. As for Pax story, as a mother I am sure there was a great amount of fear in her mind but what could she do to stop what had already happened? Nothing, it was better to simply do as she was told to stand by. Getting shot at incites a bit of fear that if not controlled will cause rash decisions. Emotions get in the way of instinct and reaction. Watch animals, do they seem nervous when hunting? Yes, but does that fear stop them from doing anything? No because the small amount of emotion is pushed aside by instinct and hunger. (Desire to live)

Just my thoughts...

 

[pax]

As for Pax story, as a mother I am sure there was a great amount of fear in her mind but what could she do to stop what had already happened? Nothing, it was better to simply do as she was told to stand by.

BlackFeather,

Ask any EMT how often they need to restrain hysterical family members at the scene of major car accidents and other life-threatening events. Just because the best thing to do is nothing, doesn't mean people do it. But sometimes the best thing to do is nothing -- whether we're talking tactics or accident scenes. The human urge to "do something! ANYTHING!" has been the source of untold stupidities over the years.

A tactical example: once upon a time I stayed the night in an unfamiliar three-story house with an alarm system that had been acting up. Around 2 in the morning, the system beeped. It didn't alarm, just beeped as if someone had opened a door downstairs despite the fact that it had been set to alarm if the doors were opened. But the system had been acting up and wasn't to be trusted... so there probably wasn't anyone there.

What's the tactically "right" thing to do in such a situation? Go back to sleep? Uh uh, no way no how. Not going to get my throat slashed in my sleep.

Jump up immediately and search the house? Bzzzt! That's pure stupid. There wasn't anyone else in the house that I needed to protect, and anyone downstairs could easily ambush me as I came down the exposed staircase.

Call the cops? Nope, because the system was acting up and wasn't to be trusted. No sense in calling the cops for a call that was 98% certain to be a false alarm.

But there was still that 2% possibility of disaster. So --

How 'bout the functional equivalent of "doing nothing" for at least 15 or 20 minutes, while listening and smelling and otherwise extending your senses knowing that if anyone is in the house they'll (eventually) make a sound? THEN go investigate the noise. That's probably the best answer. But it's a very (very!) difficult choice for a fully-adrenalized alpha type person to make.

No real point here, except to say that every person is different and every situation is different. But learning to keep your own behavior under rational control, despite the presence of strong emotions that might urge you to do something stupid, is probably a pretty good first step to having a "Tactical Advantage" as the OP observed.

If you're scared of heights, force yourself to clean the gutters. If you're scared of big dogs, volunteer at the local humane society and force yourself to work with them. If needles wig you out, regularly give blood. Do what it takes to keep your rational behavior independent of your emotional reactions.

pax

 

[MLeake]

Doing nothing until the situation is at least somewhat understood...

... is something we called "sitting on our hands" in flight training.

While this isn't specifically firearms related, the idea of responding under stress should be very much on point.

Anyway, the concept is that doing the wrong thing, quickly, can be much worse than doing nothing. For example, on takeoff, a light twin aircraft swerves, its climb performance drops, and its speed starts to slow. Obviously an engine (or possibly prop) problem. Shutting down the wrong engine at this point would result in a glider; it might even be worse than a glider, if the problem engine's prop is still windmilling and creating drag.

Same idea, when a fire light illuminates during initial climb. If the fire isn't confirmed by other indications, do I shut down immediately, or use power to clear obstacles first? (By the way, if there are obstacles on the climb path, I should have planned for them ahead of time, and have some idea of the safest direction to turn the aircraft in the event of this sort of problem.)

Same idea, aircraft departs controlled flight and enters a spin. Which rudder do I push? If I push the wrong one, I can double the rate of spin, or worse, and make recovery much more difficult.

I've been flying for twenty years now, and have had these sorts of situations pop up. At least as far as moderately high stress flying scenarios have gone, I've reverted to training. This is one reason why I'm a big believer in realistic and intensive training, to the extent that it can be safely conducted.

Will that sort of training kick in if I find myself in a firefight? I can't say. It hasn't happened. But based on flying, boating, motorcycling... I'd have to say that when stress makes conscious thought difficult, my body really does fall back on learned responses and muscle memory.

Sometimes that learned response is to wait a moment, to make sure I don't make things worse.

Regards,

M

 

[booker_t]

Training can prepare a person for that moment. Without going into specifics, a good example is dive training with a swimming buddy. Being confident in your partner to pull you out allows you to push yourself beyond what you think you could normally do. Facing that same stress level in an operational environment is now slightly more familiar.

While it might be more familiar, the fear level is the same. It comes down to how a person addresses that fear in their mind. Like sports, I firmly believe that 'going kinetic' is 90% mental, and the other half is physical (thanks Yogi). The strength and calmness required to stay in the moment with lead in the air, to rely on your stuff (in baseball parlence), and not entertain an internal "what if" conversation is a learned, practiced skill.

My question is, did this young star recover and perform the next time?

 

[markj]

Ask any EMT how often they need to restrain hysterical family members at the scene of major car accidents and other life-threatening events

+100 there, wife is EMT on VFD here, I hear stories.

My Mom told me about labor and delivery. She was a skrub nurse, delivered a lot of babies, some gals are quite and do as told, some fall to pieces and scream their heads off.

Is the way people are, some are quite and composed in all events, some fall to pieces nad cannot handle the stress.

Seen it in hunting too, guy talks about all the deer he killed, I put him on a huge buck, he froze, could not pull the trigger.