Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Hock]

Here's another important "what," in the who, what, where, when, how and why. WHAT is it going to take? It's a mental prep game I have been suggesting for years and one I used for decades as a cop to make best use of spare time. You can play it anywhere there are people around you. It doesn't matter where you are, a sports event, a ghetto, Rockefeller Center, a supermarket or a POW camp. See someone and pick one out. Ask yourself, “What is it going to take to put this person down and out" of a potential fight.

You should inspect and evaluate that person's size, strength and endurance. Then mull over some options you might have to take the person down and out. I hope this will include cheats, fakes and distractions when possible.

This kind of mental, crisis rehearsal can be used for any kind of potential situation. In police work since the 1970s we used this idea for patrol time. Instead of mindlessly driving around, our smarter trainers suggested we crisis-rehearse various incidents art various locations on our beat.

[sarguy]

Funny, I just had a conversation with a sexual assault counselor about the use of visualization and mental prep/scenario training in her usual "rape prevention" shpiel. It had never occurred to her that one ought to think past the basic awareness stuff; to actually think about grabbing nuts, eyes, or a throat, and squeezing and twisting until tissues gave way and the would-be assailant screamed for mercy. Or that the attacker could just as easily have the same sort of thing in mind for her. I told her to consider it yet another installment in gender equality; to be empowered and willing to maim or kill the bastard who had elected to do the same to them.

I don't think she got it.

[Kentbob]

Nice, SAR.  Good story.

I don't know about the what's it going to take, but I play the "what if?" game kind of regularly.  "What's it going to take?" is kind of a natural progression from that.  For example, one that I've played in my head during various points at college is "What if we had an active shooter on campus, in this building?"  "What's it going to take to try and get everyone out of the school and away from the shooter?"

And yes, I know the official position is to stay in the classroom and lock the door, but since each classroom has windows by the door, I don't really think this is a safe option.

Last night, as I was running in a local park, I asked myself "What if there were some bad guys out here wanting to rob people, and they picked me?"  "What's it going to take to convince them I'm not worth the effort, or get away?"  Especially important since I was almost in the middle of my five mile run, and running out of gas. 

Sometimes I do look around and ask myself what it would take to subdue someone, but if anyone became violent enough to require my intervention, there are usually plenty of chairs and other improvised weapons around, especially my schoolbooks. 

OTOH, especially at campus, I haven't seen to many people who I think would really cause a lot of trouble for one or two people to subdue.  But, we never know what may flip a person's switch so that they're now fighting with their lizard brain, instead of the primate brain.

Kent