Mindset - Part 2

Do you have any idea what happens to your body and mind when you are suddenly placed under extreme high stress?  By extreme high stress, I mean the kind of stress that you would be under if someone suddenly charged at you with a large knife and screamed like a madman, "I am going to KILL you!!!"  You might be surprised what all goes on inside of your brain and body.  Understanding what happens and mentally preparing yourself for this kind of situation can make the difference between you ending up in the morgue looking like a carved up Thanksgiving turkey, or staying alive and winning the lethal encounter.

This is a continuation of the MIND SET commentary that you have already received.  Part of mind set has to do with understanding how your mind and body react to high stress.  Like everything in life, the more you understand, the better off you are.  Education is the key to understanding, and understanding is absolutely necessary in order to be effective in a deadly force encounter.  Stop and think about this for a few seconds.  There are no "do overs" in a lethal encounter.  You cannot hit the remote and freeze the frame and then go back and play it over again.  When the deadly force attack comes, the attacker will pick the place, the time, the method, and almost always gets to go first.  When you think about that, that is one hell of an advantage.  Now think about this.  As the bad guy, I have no rules to go by.  I do not  care where my rounds go.  I do not care if someone other than who I planned to attack is injured or killed.


The bad guys have no rules to play by, but us Sheepdogs, have rules that we must abide by.  We are held accountable for every shot we fire.  We must make sure that every one of our rounds strikes only the intended target and no one else.  We must react to an action that is performed by the bad guy.  We do not get to pick the spot where we have to fight, nor do we get to pick the time.  We must react to the bad guy and make things turn out our way, and we only get one shot at it.  We have to make it come out right the very first time.

So, having said this, what can we do to make sure we win and not lose or tie with the attacker?  We must not only understand how our body and mind reacts to these situations, but we must prepare our body and mind for these situations.  Retired Marine Lieutenant Colonel Jeff Cooper lectured his students on the Color Code of Awareness.  Lt. Col. Cooper has passed on and the world is a lesser place without him, but he has left his mark on the firearms training community.  Heed his words, they are TIMELESS!


Lt. Col. Cooper said there are four levels of awareness and he assigned each level a color.  White, Yellow, Orange, and Red.


I went on the Internet and found this information concerning Lt. Col. Jeff Cooper.  I have copied it below because it says it better than I can say it.  I think you will understand the man a little better, and you will definitely have a better grip on awareness and how important it is to your mind set.

Born John Dean Cooper, but known to his friends as "Jeff", Cooper was a Marine Lieutenant Colonel who served in both World War II and the Korean War, resigning his commission in 1956.   He received a bachelor's degree in political science from Stanford University and, in the mid-1960s, a master's degree in history from the University of California, Riverside.

In 1976, Cooper founded the American Pistol Institute (API) in Paulden, Arizona (later known as the Gunsite Training Center). Cooper also began teaching shotgun and rifle classes to train law enforcement and military personnel as well as civilians and did on-site training for individuals and groups around the Free World.  He sold the firm in 1992 but continued living on the Paulden ranch. He was known for his advocacy of large caliber handguns, especially the Colt 1911 and the .45 ACP cartridge.  Lt. Col. Cooper died peacefully at his home on the afternoon of Monday, September 25, 2006.

Combat Mindset - The Cooper Color Code

The most important means of surviving a lethal confrontation is, according to Cooper, neither the weapon nor the martial skills. The primary tool is the combat mindset, set forth in his book, Principles of Personal Defense. In the chapter on awareness, Cooper presents an adaptation of the Marine Corps system to differentiate states of readiness:
The color code as originally introduced by Jeff Cooper, had nothing to do with tactical situations or alertness levels, but rather with one's state of mind. As taught by Cooper, it relates to the degree of peril you are willing to do something about and which allows you to move from one level of mindset to another to enable you to properly handle a given situation. Cooper didn't claim to have invented anything in particular with the color code, but he was apparently the first to use it as an indication of mental state.

• White - Unaware and unprepared. If attacked in Condition White, the only thing that may save you is the inadequacy or ineptitude of your attacker. When confronted by something nasty, your reaction will probably be "Oh my God! This can't be happening to me."
• Yellow - Relaxed alert. No specific threat situation. Your mindset is that "today could be the day I may have to defend myself." You are simply aware that the world is a potentially unfriendly place and that you are prepared to defend yourself, if necessary. You use your eyes and ears, and realize that "I may have to SHOOT today." You don't have to be armed in this state, but if you are armed you should be in Condition Yellow. You should always be in Yellow whenever you are in unfamiliar surroundings or among people you don't know. You can remain in Yellow for long periods, as long as you are able to "Watch your six." (In aviation 12 o'clock refers to the direction in front of the aircraft's nose. Six o'clock is the blind spot behind the pilot.) In Yellow, you are "taking in" surrounding information in a relaxed but alert manner, like a continuous 360 degree radar sweep. As Cooper put it, "I might have to shoot."
• Orange - Specific alert. Something is not quite right and has gotten your attention. Your radar has picked up a specific alert. You shift your primary focus to determine if there is a threat (but you do not drop your six). Your mindset shifts to "I may have to shoot HIM today," focusing on the specific target which has caused the escalation in alert status. In Condition Orange, you set a mental trigger: "If that goblin does 'x', I will need to stop him." Your pistol usually remains holstered in this state. Staying in Orange can be a bit of a mental strain, but you can stay in it for as long as you need to. If the threat proves to be nothing, you shift back to Condition Yellow.
• Red - Condition Red is fight. Your mental trigger (established back in Condition Orange) has been tripped. If "X" happens I will shoot that person.

In short, the Color Code helps you "think" in a fight. As the level of danger increases, your willingness to take certain actions increases. If you ever do go to Condition Red, the decision to use lethal force has already been made (your "mental trigger" has been tripped).

The following are some of Cooper's additional comments on the subject.

"Considering the principles of personal defense, we have long since come up with the Color Code. This has met with surprising success in debriefings throughout the world. The Color Code, as we preach it, runs white, yellow, orange, and red, and is a means of setting one’s mind into the proper condition when exercising lethal violence, and is not as easy as I had thought at first.

There is a problem in that some students insist upon confusing the appropriate color with the amount of danger evident in the situation. As I have long taught, you are not in any color state because of the specific amount of danger you may be in, but rather in a mental state which enables you to take a difficult psychological step."Now, however, the government has gone into this and is handing out color codes nationwide based upon the apparent nature of a peril. It has always been difficult to teach the Gunsite Color Code, and now it is more so.

We cannot say that the government’s ideas about colors are wrong, but that they are different from what we have long taught here."The problem is this: your combat mind-set is not dictated by the amount of danger to which you are exposed at the time. Your combat mind-set is properly dictated by the state of mind you think appropriate to the situation. You may be in deadly danger at all times, regardless of what the Defense Department tells you. The color code which influences you does depend upon the willingness you have to jump a psychological barrier against taking irrevocable action. That decision is less hard to make since the jihadis have already made it."

He further simplified things in his Commentaries.

"In White you are unprepared and unready to take lethal action. If you are attacked in White you will probably die unless your adversary is totally inept.

In Yellow you bring yourself to the understanding that your life may be in danger and that you may have to do something about it.

In Orange you have determined upon a specific adversary and are prepared to take action which may result in his death, but you are not in a lethal mode.

In Red you are in a lethal mode and will shoot if circumstances warrant."

I think this lays it out pretty well.  I hope you have found this part of this commentary to be helpful when it comes to mental awareness.  I will now put my two cents worth into this color code of awareness concept.


I believe that every time you leave your home, you should be in condition yellow.  Being in condition yellow for long periods of time will not make you crazy or paranoid or jumpy, but it will keep you aware of your surroundings.  On the EPD we use to talk about "situational awareness."  Simply put, this means that you are constantly aware of your situation and what is going on around you.  While you are in condition yellow, you make it very difficult for some skuzz bucket to sneak up on you and attack you without you seeing it coming.
For 33 years, I went to work everyday and put myself into condition yellow.  I am not bragging, I am simply making a statement of fact.  During my 33 year career, I never lost a physical confrontation (hand to hand combat), and I never suffered an injury caused by a lethal weapon (knife, club, brick, gun).  I dealt with thousands of dangerous people throughout those years and many times, I was out numbered by the bad guys, but I always prevailed because I was in the proper mind set.  I was using my situational awareness to survive, and I have no doubt that I sent a unspoken message to the criminal element - do not mess with me!
Good training, confidence, and good situational awareness allowed me to stay safe for 33 years on the mean streets of Evansville.  If I can do it, you can do it.  This stuff really works.

So, back to that crazy man with a knife that is charging at me and screaming, "I am going to KILL you!"  So what do I do?  Pick the right answer below:

1. Scream like an 8 year old girl and pass out!
2. Turn and run like hell (I just hope I can out run him)!
3. Shit my pants and piss down my leg!
4. React in the way that I have prepared myself to react, and stop the threat and go home after the investigation.

I am very partial to answer C, but obviously, that is not the way you want to react.  All kidding aside, you can prepare for this situation and you can help yourself to react in a better way and with much less stress than you might think.

The body alarm response has been compared to the "fight or flight" syndrome.  When something scares the hell out of you, your body gets itself prepared to fight or to run away.  Several things happen simultaneously in milliseconds.  Some of the things that occur are - there is an immediate adrenaline dump, your large blood vessels become gorged with blood while the smaller blood vessels start shutting down, your vision becomes acutely eagle sharp, and many people will suffer tunnel vision.  Your hearing starts to shut down and gunshots may sound like "pops" rather than loud sharp reports.  Your large muscles are soaking up the extra blood and they become super strong in preparation to fight or to run away.  Your smaller muscles and your fingers and toes, are shutting down the blood flow and your hands will start to shake.
During an intense adrenaline dump your large muscles are ready to do battle and gross motor skills will work the best while your fine motor skills will dramatically deteriorate.  Big men will sound like a little girl, their voice will climb a mile high on the octave scale  because of the adrenaline dump.  It is also not uncommon that your bowels will evacuate and or you will piss yourself.

I have seen this several times in my lifetime and I am sure that many, if not most of you, have witnessed this same phenomenon.  You are driving down the highway and suddenly a low flying bird flies in front of your car.  As the bird perceives the danger of the speeding car that is about to collide with it, the bird puts on a super burst of speed and maneuvers wildly.  While the bird does this it squirts a stream of bird poop out of its butt.  I know, this sounds gross, but this is what happens when the adrenaline kicks in and the threat is severe, very close, and without warning.  Have you ever seen this happen?

So do not freak out if you piss your pants or shit your pants because believe me when I say, this is not all that unusual.  I have dealt with criminals that have done this very same thing when we surprised them and they were unprepared.  More than once I have locked up a bad guy with his pants full of crapola.

Now think of this, when you shoot a gun you use fine motor skills to shoot the gun and shoot it well.  Under high stress we have learned that these fine motor skills are one of the first things that we lose.  Do not fret, there is still hope for you.  We will teach you how to combat these body alarm responses.  HARD TARGET, like any top notch firearms training company, teaches its students to use gross motor skills to manipulate the gun and we stay away from fine motor skills as much as possible.

An example of this is - we do not encourage students to use the slide stop lever to allow the locked back slide to go forward after a speed reload.  We encourage our students to grasp the top of the rear of the slide with an overhand grip and instruct them to pull the slide to the rear, allowing the slide to go forward and chambering the top round in the fresh magazine that has been inserted into the gun.  Using your thumb to hit the slide stop lever is considered a fine motor skill, whereas grabbing the top of the rear end of the slide with an overhand grip is considered to be more of a gross motor skill.

Fine motor skills tend to fail during a fight and gross motor skills tend to work better.  The moral of this story is, avoid fine motor skills when possible.

Okay, these are some of the things that can happen to your body when you suffer a severe adrenaline dump, so what can you do to combat these affects?  The answer is fairly simple, but it is extremely difficult for most people to actually put it into practice.  Are you ready for this?

Do you get the picture?  The more you train yourself, the better you will do under high stress, but not just any kind of training.  The training must be real world relevant and you must practice it just like you expect to perform it in the real world.  By this I mean, "You will fight the way you train, so you better train the way you intend to fight!"  A real world training regiment is key.  You must work on the things that are hard, may not be all that much fun, and you must push yourself to become better and quicker.

Accuracy during a deadly force encounter is crucial, but it will do you no good at all if it takes you all day to deliver the accurate hits you need to get on target to stop the threat.  You must be able to deliver accurate fire and deliver it quickly.  Now do not get me wrong, speed is not more important than accuracy, but accuracy is useless without some modicum of speed.  This takes lots of practice, but anyone can learn to shoot tactically accurate rounds on target and be be able to do it quickly with the right kind of practice.

If you carry a gun for self preservation, you must practice with that gun and in the place that you normally carry it.  Our Tactical Concealed Carry training addresses this issue and I highly recommend this class to everybody that carries a gun for protection.  You must learn economy of motion when you draw your weapon and get it on target as quickly as possible.  Economy of motion means you have trimmed all the fat away.  You have learned to eliminate all unnecessary movement when you draw your weapon and bring it into play on the threat.  Good training will teach you the correct way to draw your gun and eliminate any wasted movements.  Only those movements that are absolutely necessary will be used to get the gun out and on target.  Any wasted movement equals more time spent accomplishing the task and more time equals disaster.

All people that carry a handgun for protection must learn how to draw that gun efficiently and move off the line of attack simultaneously.  Both things most be accomplished at the same time.  If you find yourself in a position where you have no cover and the threat attacks, you must move, draw, and shoot very quickly when shooting is necessary.  This is the most basic skill that you must be able to perform without flaw, time and time again.

There is much more to learn, but this basic skill has to be performed hundreds, if not thousands of times, to be ingrained into your body reflex to an attack.  The other thing that you must do is - prepare your mind.

So how do we prepare the mind for a deadly force attack?  Again, this is much simpler than you might think.  You must think about all kinds of scenarios where you find yourself under attack and you have to draw your weapon and defend yourself.  Every time you think of one of these scenarios, you see it in your mind's eye as though it was really happening.  In other words, you need to daydream about being involved in deadly force encounters.  The more scenarios you can think of, the better off you will be.  You should always see yourself winning these encounters.  You should even envision yourself as being wounded, but you continue to fight and you defeat your adversary.  You never see yourself as dying or losing.  You should always see yourself as winning and surviving.

Envisioning these scenarios is nothing more than a dress rehearsal in your mind.  Any of you Thespians out there know how important rehearsal is, and in particular, the dress rehearsal when preparing for a play.  Every time you run a scenario through your mind, you are imprinting images on your brain, and I call this "hardwiring" your brain to win.  One day in the future, you may find yourself in a situation and your mind will go to work lightening fast and will bring up a scenario that you have envisioned that is closest to what you are actually seeing.  Guess what?  Because of all your mental preparation over the years, you will react faster and most likely in the correct fashion, meaning that you will have a much better chance of dealing with the situation in the correct manner and winning the encounter.

Please, take the word of an old cop, this stuff really works.  It has worked for me several times.  It has worked for numerous police officers all over this great country of ours time after time.  Pure and simple, this stuff WORKS!

So, what have we learned?  We have learned how we can prepare ourselves as we go through our daily lives by using Lt. Col. Jeff Cooper's color code of awareness to stay aware of our surroundings and guard against surprise.  We have also learned what happens to our body and mind when we are placed under high stress during an adrenaline dump.  Finally, we have learned how we can guard against the body alarm response by preparing the mind and body to get past the "dump" and get the job done.

 
One last point I would like to make has to do with what Lt. Col. Dave Grossman has called "stress inoculation."  In my opinion, this is a brilliant analogy.  Grossman's research has shown that the more training you do that includes high stress, the better you will handle high levels of stress in the real world environment.

To avoid getting the flu, we take a flu shot, which gives us a very small dose of the flu and allows our antibodies to strengthen themselves against the flu.  When we are then exposed to the flu, we will either not get it, or if we do, it will be a milder form of the flu.  So Grossman says that in order to not get so jacked up when the shit hits the fan, you need to practice around a fan slinging shit.  Actually, Grossman did not say this, I am paraphrasing in a much more dramatic fashion.


So what can you do to inoculate yourself against stress?  Sign up for training, because training in general is stressful, but in particular, sign up for FORCE on FORCE training.  This is training where we use guns that look like real guns and they fire marking projectiles that will strike with enough force to mark your skin with a bruise and they sting like hell.  Because of this and the fact that the HARD TARGET instructors are very good at playing the role of the bad guy, you will forget that you are in the training environment and for that moment in time, you will feel like it is the real deal.
 
This realism in the training is what helps to inoculate you against stress.  We have conducted lots of FORCE on FORCE training through HARD TARGET, and we have found that your first time through is very stressful for you, the student.  During your first or second scenario you will most likely make dumb mistakes because you will get so stressed out.  But for those customers that have gone through several FORCE on FORCE training sessions, we have noted a marked difference in their performance.  Those students are much more cool under fire, they handle different scenarios better, and they tend to make excellent choices and they make those choices much faster.  What this equates to is this - They seem to win the encounters easily.  They have been slowly, but surely, inoculated against stress and it shows in their performance.

HARD TARGET has a plan of action for anyone that is interested in improving their performance while under stress and handling a gun.  If you follow our plan of action, if you will train and train hard, you will improve your abilities.  You will also improve your odds of surviving, winning, and dominating the encounter.

It is all up to you, the student.  You have to want to do this.  If you do, we are here for you.  We will be with you every step of the way.  Remember our catch phrase - "Train HARD, to become . . . a HARD TARGET!"