I’m a big believer that someone with training is far less likely to freeze under stress than someone who has no training. I’ve been asked what kind of training will stop you from freezing and I’m not sure why but the answer completely slipped my mind, Stress inoculation training.
The best way to learn to handle stress is to induce it. One good way to induce stress is to compete in shooting sports that demand you exercise your skills and equipment under the pressure of time and other shooters. IDPA and IPSC are widely available options.
The military has used things such as high obstacles on confidence courses, a 200 ft night rappel in the mountain phase of Ranger school to innoculate soldiers against fear and teach them that they can perform when they should be scared out of their wits.
From the first day of my military career some form of induced stress (cold, lack of sleep, physical exaustion, screaming Drill Sergeants, training simulators, simunitions) was a part of every training event.
Some training environments offer force-on-force scenarios. While these are not competition events, when properly conducted they can offer very realistic opportunities to encounter situations that have relevance to potential real world events.
My current employer uses FATS training (which is far more stressful than you would think) and force on force training to induce stress and it works quite well. Many comment after going through their first FoF exercise that it is a life changing event. I've seen the stress send experienced people to the level of overwhelmed and literally unable to act. The judge had to call the scenario to a stop. Force on force training, especially the type where you are put a random scenario where you don’t know what is coming next can be on of the best ways of training yourself to react under stress.
The best way to learn to handle stress is to induce it. One good way to induce stress is to compete in shooting sports that demand you exercise your skills and equipment under the pressure of time and other shooters. IDPA and IPSC are widely available options.
The military has used things such as high obstacles on confidence courses, a 200 ft night rappel in the mountain phase of Ranger school to innoculate soldiers against fear and teach them that they can perform when they should be scared out of their wits.
From the first day of my military career some form of induced stress (cold, lack of sleep, physical exaustion, screaming Drill Sergeants, training simulators, simunitions) was a part of every training event.
Some training environments offer force-on-force scenarios. While these are not competition events, when properly conducted they can offer very realistic opportunities to encounter situations that have relevance to potential real world events.
My current employer uses FATS training (which is far more stressful than you would think) and force on force training to induce stress and it works quite well. Many comment after going through their first FoF exercise that it is a life changing event. I've seen the stress send experienced people to the level of overwhelmed and literally unable to act. The judge had to call the scenario to a stop. Force on force training, especially the type where you are put a random scenario where you don’t know what is coming next can be on of the best ways of training yourself to react under stress.
