Mental Imagery (Visualization) in Training

Consider adding mental imagery to your training. I and some others have known this for a long time as visualization. It’s not a new concept but it is effective. It’s been used by athletes of all kinds, utilized in the shooting sports, and in the martial arts. A resent study in the Netherlands shows that mental imagery (visualization) has positive effects on law enforcement officer’s performance in critical and high-threat situations. During the study they found that law enforcement officers performed better after practicing mental imagery prior to a training scenario than those who did not. It also showed improvements in accuracy during critical incidents when using marker rounds during simulated gunfights. This is interesting because in a real gunfights hit rates can drop to a 15-50% hit rate. This includes officers who qualification scores are at 90% and above. Part of the reason for reduced hit rates is “anxiety”. Mental imagery can have a positive affect on anxiety levels as well and can help you maintain motor skills that will diminish in a real life or death situation. Maintaining motor skills is what improves accuracy. Sight alignment, trigger control, grip, shooting position all require motor skills. Some fine, some gross.  When mental imagery (visualization) realistically depicts events as in the real world it improves your performance level on many plains.  The study used officers from up and down the age scale and all experience levels. Mental imagery works even though studies have been few they are really taking a much closer look at it. I look for more studies in the future. Mental imagery allows you to walk and work through scenarios and possible responses. In the end I think it makes responses quicker and you become more adaptive to the situation and stimulus that caused you to act. Also allowing responses to more plausible events that may occur and that may require you to act defensively.  Mental Imagery, physical training, and repetitive practice creates the neural networks (both mental and muscle memories) that will allow you to maintain mental toughness and motor skill control. So, in that mental scenario. Do you interfere? Do you need to act? Is it a good time to just be a good witness and let law enforcement catch the bad guy? How many responses? What responses have what possible affect on the attacker?

Emotions, Chemicals, and Training

“No passion so effectively robs the mind of all it’s powers of acting and reasoning as FEAR.”   Edmund Burke                                                                                                     Fear is a necessary emotion but one that must be controlled and one whose affects we must acknowledge. In training we learn to work through and gain control of our fears. We learn to perform tasks even when fear is there on our shoulder shaking our bones. The bad affects of fear can be conquered but fear also is part of keeping us functioning with regard to what is happening around us. Fear has a profound affect on how we perform in a critical life threatening incident. Stress also has a significant affect on how we perform. We can inoculate ourselves to stress through scenario training and force on force training. With fear and stress comes the “Adrenaline Dump”. It is capable of robbing the body of essential functions for survival in a critical incident. It is essential to recognize that the effects of adrenaline and other “stress chemicals” released in a demanding or critical incident can have positive effects on strength and performance. Most of us have heard the stories of “Superhuman” acts and feats of strength shown by someone in a emergency or critical incident. There is a need however for understanding and controlling these effects, as it is necessary to insure that the impact of the adrenaline dump is performance enhancing rather than performance destroying. Yes, the adrenaline dump can destroy performance. Here again we prepare ourselves for dealing with these effects through formal and informal defensive training, stress inoculation through scenario based training, arousal control techniques, tactical breathing (centering as in martial arts), stress management, competition at some level, and physical fitness. Taking on a mindset and preparing the mind to deal with the events leading up to, during, and the aftermath of a critical incident will increase our chance of survival as much as physical training. The facts are that when we encounter a life or death survival situation or combat there are things that can and most certainly do happen. The bowels may release, uncontrollable urination, some will freeze in place, some will run away, some will fight and act, some will even act without regard for their own safety. We know these things happen because of research and the interviews of soldiers, law enforcement officers, and private citizens who have been in and survived combat or critical life threatening incidents. Physiological and psychological affects. Knowing they happen and accepting them is part of preparation and developing a defensive mindset. Training the mind is as important as the physical training. Physical training aids in developing the survival/defensive mindset needed in a critical incident because, if you don’t have the physical ability to fight it will affect your confidence and your ability to fight back. Your ability to survive a critical incident and the aftermath will depend on training, mental toughness (mindset), your ability to control fear and the adrenaline dump, your will to live no matter what injuries you receive or how grave (mindset), and physical fitness. Book after book, article after article. New studies and statistics are coming out all the time on how and what affects us in a life threatening defensive situation. As time goes on we learn more and some of the studies, statistics, and other information of the past have been updated with new material and others just proven wrong or it has been found that they were poorly presented and misinterpreted. Others have just been used wrong to sell something. These things are talked about in the training industry over and over. None of this is new, but it is something we need to be reminded of from time to time. You are best served by knowledge, preparation, and training. As instructors we can only try to help and reach those who are willing to be reached, willing to learn, and willing to be taught. A final thought; “The fight or flight mechanism is for animals or the untrained, not a warrior prepared for death or danger.” Not sure where that quote is from.