Awareness as we all know is the key to surviving a personal protection encounter. This will give you the time and distance that you need to give your the precious time to react and/or set up any tactics you need. As an Instructor I take pains in providing quality, effective training to my clients. We all love going to the range and working on our skill set with the pistol, or the DoJo and working on our empty hands defenses. But, we really do not think about it but everyday we have the oppurtunity to strengthen our awarness/mindset. In this article I will give you some tips and drills to do to help make it better. What you will find is that though you are looking for the bad things, you will start to notice a lot more of the precious and beauty of our world.
When I Instruct I teach that Mindset and Awareness are actually two different things. Mindset is the decisive desicion you make to lead a active defensive lifestyle. This is the key to all the other skill set's you have. If you do not do this then the rest of all you do in this field is just going through motion with no purpose. Just as a martial artist practices a kata without applying the purpose of each application of move, it turns into a dance with no music. The Mindset will give you the melody you need to practice or live the lifestyle in a good tempo. Mindset includes but not limited to, visualization, planning, preparing.
Visualization- Instead of going to the range and looking at a target and shooting, visualize the situation (remember there are no numbers or bullseye on criminals).
Planning- This is the thought process as you go through your everyday life of thinking what will I do with what I have, if this happens. A plan has to be flexible, but having one will get you started if something does happen. It is easier to burst into a sprint from a job, than from a stagnat location.
Preparing- This is taking the above two and realizing that it could be reality, and taking the necessary precautions and having the rescue equipment you will need if the event happens. Would you go skydiving without a parachute?
Now that we discussed the mindset and you have committed to the lifestyle, we will need some tool's to help us become better. Just as going to the range and working on our marksmanship, we must apply some level of training to help us become more aware of things happening around us. Below are a few drill's that will help strengthen your memory and awareness. Keep in mind that these like all muscle memory take time to build, take it little bit at a time, then you will be doing automatic.
Guest appearance drill- Pick a day or an hour,everytime someone comes in a door, stop what your doing and take in who came in and what they are doing (may be your next best friend).
Doorway drill- Take a day or hour, everytime you enter a door, step in and go directly to one side or the other. Then take in who all are in the room and what they are doing.
Stop light drill- Whenever you are driving and come to a stop light, while you are waiting for the green, with ever car that passes in front count how many people are wearing seatbelts. You will be amazed how much more you will notice.
Fridge drill- Everytime you see someone open a refrigerator, notice what they look like and what they are taking out of it.
Desk drill- This is one that has worked well for a few of my friends. As you sit at your desk working on computer, use your peripheral vision and notice anytime someone passes or approaches. As you get it challenge yourself next to use peripheral vision to notice color's they have on.
Coffee Cup drill- Everytime you see a colleague pick up there "mug", count how long they sip it (1missippi, 2missippi, etc...), if you have a friend at work who is working on skills, then take turns, during and hour and everytime they take a sip, they place the "mug" in different location, then after an hour have them ask you how many you noticed, then recipicate.
K.I.M. (keep in memory) game- Place 10 random items on a table, look at them for a minute. Then cover it up, now on paper describe the items you seen.
There are many more that can be done, but these can get you started being aware of what is taking place around you. The common denominator is that we are seeing something, we then take it in, and notice what is in the person's HAND'S. If you do these drill's several time a week, in a short time you will be doing it on automatic. I hope that this has helped and creates as good of awareness skill set as your marksman ship.
Stay aware, train like you want to live.
Todd
