Combat Mindset

About a week ago, I was reading an article on *Steven Pressfield’s blog http://www.stevenpressfield.com/2011/10/thats-what-i-want-to-do/ about a gymnast who was the first to win Gold for Greece. I couldn’t tell the story any better than he did, so I’ll leave you to his. What stood out to me was when Hermes recounted the time he bit his tongue in response to a reporter who asked how he felt after his “performance of a lifetime”. He politely didn’t say, “I have performed this floor exercise in practice ten thousand times. Five thousand times I have done better than this! I did not have to exceed myself or go beyond my limits. I have trained for years to reach this level. This is it. This is what I am capable of every day.”

The same is profoundly true for the tactical athlete. When an Active Shooter develops suddenly, there is a moment where you have realized the gravity of the situation. You have to act decisively to end the threat, now.

In that moment, are you going to feel prepared? Will you be confident that the outcome won’t be left to The Reaper? Or will you be placing your faith in the fallacy that you’ll rise to excellence? Dave Grossman has a quote published that has always been common sense in elite units, *“in combat you do not rise to the occasion, you sink to the level of your training.” http://www.killology.com/on_combat_ch2.htm

Being one gun with no back-up, it’s your responsibility to bring the fight to the shooter, force him outside his plan. The goal is to put the screws to the shooter, divert his fantasy. More often than not, this causes them to commit suicide.  However, as was the case in the *Carthage, NC nursing home shooting http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/4837676/ the lone officer got into a gunfight with the subject. He was wounded, but put the shooter in his place.

Unfortunately, there is little time for quality training in many departments and agencies, even when the budget allows. Without our own personal mindset of excellence, it wouldn’t matter anyway. It’s easy to show up for required training and go through the motions. Minimum requirements in any field are minimums for a reason, but they don’t stack the odds in your favor. The onus of survival and success is, ultimately, only on you. Start training like it.

-Marshall Bowen