Training: First, Last, and Always

One of the few good things to come out of 2020 is that training pulled ahead of mindset in martial arts and control tactics circles.

As we reflect on the errant use of force in law enforcement and security situations that have shaped so much of the civil unrest endemic to the year, questions like how not to kill another human by placing knee to neck for an extended length of time and what a reasonable application of force entails receive legitimate technical responses now instead of the usual sophistry that gets dispensed.

Everyone is asking “How should we train to avoid this?”

Everyone is asking “How should we train to improve this?”

Everyone, on both sides of the debate, is demanding better training for people entrusted with the responsibility of force options as part of the execution of their duties.

Everyone is looking to agencies to provide improved training options and conditions to anyone expected to face force on force situations, even if it means outsourcing to subject matter experts not employed within a specific agency, like martial arts instructors and trainers with proven backgrounds in their respective fields.

Those, in and of themselves, are small victories in a challenging year full of divisive arguments. It’s just sad that we had to have a bunch of avoidable deaths, a defunding movement, and riots to finally arrive at the conclusion that improving training improves outcomes.

Wait, improving training improves outcomes?

Crazy, I know, but it’s true.

You just need the right mindset to accept it as such.

So, welcome to 2020.

The year that trainers and instructors from multiple disciplines suddenly had to confront the reality that “mindset” is not an answer when students ask how to train more effectively.

The best way to train more effectively is to train effectively, all the time, as often as practicable. Leave the pseudo-psychology of “warrior mindsets” and other claptrap to those who choose it over high-frequency multimodal training.

RIP mindset.

You will not be missed except by a select group.