V.I.P.A Tactical Training

Like most people these days I enjoy social media, forums, networking, keeping up to date with new trends, training applications and constantly building my knowledge base.

One thing that amazes me when reading, discussing and researching combat orientated material are certain buzz words and phrases that have been with us for ever and are used today in totally the wrong context with regards to combat. The first is ‘React’ and the phrase Fight or flight. What is worse than hearing these words from inexperienced individuals is hearing them from so
called experienced individuals and no less than experienced professional individuals.

Lets take the word ‘React’ first. A reaction is a natural act performed by the body, hard wired into our system from the days when we were cave men. We eat, our natural reaction is to digest and get rid of the waste unless it is bad for us then our natural reaction is to puke it up. We put our hand against something hot our natural reaction is to pull our hand away as fast as possible. We get blinded by a flash of light, our natural reaction is to blink or sharply look away. This is all perfectly normal for everyday living when not engaging in any form of combat. Reactions have no place in combat and this is why I do not teach the flinch response. OK firstly, the two words flinch and response when used together are confusing, the flinch is a natural reaction and a response is a learned action. Many people flinch differently, blink, crouch or duck, stand rigid, jump, throw their arms in the air or pin them at their sides, I have even seen people curl up while standing on one leg. There are as many flinch reactions as there are people so to teach a response you first have to find out what that persons flinch is and then build the response system around that. If you are reacting to some stimuli then you are not making a cognitive decision.

Onto ‘Response’. A response is a decision, a learned action that you choose to employ and which overrides any reaction the subconscious mind is trying to make. One that hopefully is the correct decision under whatever circumstances you find yourself in.

Fight or Flight, how often have you heard this term? You would be surprised at how many experienced professionals still use this term. The correct phrase is Fight – Freeze – Flight. We all know about the freeze but for some reason people seem to leave it out of the equation as if it just floats around and happens somewhere in the fight or flight sections. Here we need to understand that fight and flight are cognitive responses, the freeze is a natural reaction controlled by the subconscious mind and should effectively lie in the realm of the untrained individual but you will find it manifesting itself in the actions of the incorrectly trained individuals also. 

I recently read this equation Fight – Freeze – Flight –Feint, again though feinting is a natural reaction and belongs firmly within the freeze section.

You will have heard the term ‘any idiot can fight’ right? Replace idiot for untrained – WRONG most if not frozen to the spot will choose to run, fighting is not now a natural act for most decent law abiding individuals, we see this when the have a go heroes end up either hospitalised or dead for getting involved without proper training, engaging in combat at whatever level is being bred out of our psyche due to societies rather peaceful way of life,
the wolves know this that is why they do what they
do.

You can find out more on this subject here.

Well for starters he isn’t that grey and he is easily seen. For those of you who do not know of the grey man/woman let me explain and I’ll do this from three different perspectives:

· The Executive Protection Specialist

· The Sheep

·  The wolf

For the uninitiated the sheep are the unaware people of our society and the wolves are the bad guys out there.

The Protection Specialist
Cool names have been attached to the ‘Grey Man’. Hey, you would think being called the ‘Grey Man’ was a cool enough name, but there are a few more: invisible, covert, unseen, subtle and
nondescript are just a few more. It would sound as if ‘the protector’ has super powers and can disappear at will, move among us without our knowledge, only showing himself when the life of the client/principal is under threat.

Please, this isn’t the movies, I happen to be one of these protection specialists. I work in the real world and I am sorry to burst the Bubble (OK I am not sorry) of those who believe in the Grey Man,
but he is a myth. A myth started by training providers and perpetuated by those who blindly follow what has gone before with their only thought being, ‘hey the myth has been around for so long it must be right, who am I to challenge this
concept’.

The Sheep
Within our society the Grey Man is just as much a myth as in the protection world. These members of the public, just your everyday people living there every day life with one big problem, they do not want to be noticed, they want to be Grey, they want to be invisible. The only thing is they do not know how to go about not being noticed.  

You see them everywhere, head down looking at the ground or head in a book, ear phones on, trying to be small or scurrying about as if the faster they move the less noticeable they will be and the faster they can get from A to B the safer they will be. They don’t or won’t make eye contact, well you can’t if you’re looking down can you? They are like children who think they can’t be seen if they close their eyes. These are the sheep.

The Wolf                                                                                                                                               
The big bad wolf sees everything. At the top of the wolf pack are the terrorists, murderers, kidnapers and rapists while lower down are the muggers, robbers and violent abusers. The upper echelons of the wolf pack see the so called Grey Man of the protection detail trying to not be noticed, how? Because they have studied or taken our training, they know how we operate, where and how we stand, whether we are armed or not, formations, movements and driving skills, they know it all.

The lower echelons of the wolf pack target the weak, timid and nervous, the unaware and the downright dozy. They see you darting about not hearing or seeing anything until it is too late. You
may be grey to other law abiding members of the public but to the wolf you are very much in plain sight and you are their prey.

There is no such thing as grey when it’s your life on the line. This is where everything is either black
or white.

Stay Dangerous

Rock