Situational awareness Can anyone recommend ways to practice situational awareness? Any good reads out there? Any exercises that you do?
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Look around you when you're out and about and ask yourself how would you go about robbing/attacking/assaulting you? What avenues of approach, places to hide would you use? ........ now ask yourself how can I avoid being attacked in just such a manner?
When you look at a person pay attention to how the carry themselves, where are they looking, how are they dressed, can you see their hands?
Hopefully this will get you started. Forget the forest, look at the trees.
"It's easier to avoid conflict than it is to survive it" - SGBOriginally Posted by Rich_S
Situational awareness is standing on a set of railroad tracks, seeing a train coming toward you on the tracks, realizing the train will not stop and will hit you if you do not move, and then stepping off the tracks to avoid being hit. I've got some articles in work on this subject, but you can look at a page on my site, defconccw.com, called "Defensive Intelligence" for more input. Not trying to sell anything on that site. My articles will be posted here on USA Carry.
James Barnhart
BARNEY:NRA Instructor / Gunfight Survivor ~ DefconCCW.com
That "feel-good" training is just a certificate your loved ones will pack into a box of your belongings after your funeral.
Walk into a room and quickly survey. Then walk back out and write down all the details you can recall.
Have someone change things up, add an out-of-place object, etc. After all, point of having good SA is to notice when things are abnormal and potentially dangerous.
You can practice similarly while walking down the street, entering restaurants, etc.
Soks
Go to a check cashing place, and just people watch, good place to see people in motion is around money, but let the clerk know what your doing there!!
One of the best things you can do is just slow down your pace so you can observe more on your periphery.
Begin to take the time to look around for potential areas where a "threat" could come from.
Keep you head on a swivel, keep checking to the sides & on your "6".
(Hopefully, Just like you do when you get behind the wheel, you're just taking it to a MUCH higher level.)
You also need to take the time to "THINK"!
Most people go through life on autopilot & don't think about the places they go, routes they take & time they will spend be doing something. They go through life in tunnel vision mode looking only at the task ahead.
BGs know this & spend a LOT of time observing people who go through life blissfully unaware that a BG may be watching and just biding his time for the right opportunity.
Don't get me wrong, it's not just bad-guys (BGs) to which we need to be aware. It's other people who are going though life in tunnel vision mode; blissfully unaware of what's happening around them.
- We've all seen those people with a cellphone stuck to their ear are texting away like madmen totally oblivious to anything else at all.
- What about these same people OR, "some" older drivers who get behind the wheel endangering EVERYONE around them?
- What about all those people in a helluva hurry to get NO WHERE? (How dangerous are they?)
ALL of these people can get us into trouble in a thousand ways; "IF" we don't have our own SA up to par!
These are also the types of people bad-guys look for when choosing victims. This means you can find yourself in a BAD situation; EVEN if you aren't the intended target.
The mere fact that you are in close proximity to these people can be dangerous if a BG picks one of them to be their next victim.
Like I said; "Just slow down your pace and start to look around a little more."
Keep in mind:
People with good SA seem to go though life at a slower and more deliberate pace. They also tend to be more methodical in their actions as well as their speech.
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Situational awareness is more than watching for approaching threats of physical violence; it should include doing things to preserve your life by other means as well. Overweight? Smoke? Get speeding tickets? If so, you lack crucial aspects of situational awareness. You can practice all the time.
"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?" Patrick Henry, 1775 Mar 23.
Well, does my glock make my butt look fat?
Seriously tho, SA is another way of saying that you are (properly) in condition yellow.
1)"When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty." -Thomas Jefferson.
2)"Imagine how gun control might be stomped if GOA or SAF had the (compromising) NRA's 4 million members!" -Me. http://jpfo.org/filegen-n-z/nraletter.htm
Before you go into that room/office/store/shop look through the windows(w/o being obvious). At the door be observant of what is going on inside-don't walk into trouble. While inside watch the doors and if something does not look right put cover between you. Try to maintain a 100' perimeter of observation around you-and farther according to your position. Certainly do not let anyone suspicious with in your "circle" without going to high alert. Had my carry out and hammered back on an old college bud last fall in a parking lot. He "eyeballed" me and started walking directly toward my truck. Had to apologize for being at the ready with him but did not recognize him. He laughed and showed me that he was carrying also. We chuckled about it and said how sad it is that we have to be on "alert" constantly today.
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