Understanding Situational Awareness

Introduction

Without fail, whenever I bring up that I instruct a situational awareness (SA) specific course, most people begin rattling off all of the SA knowledge and skills they have picked up throughout their life and/or career. Honestly, it is usually not that bad. The problem, however, is that they have only picked up nuggets and left the rest of the gold mine. In other words, they understand a few basic principles, but fail to see the whole SA picture. It is my hope that, that through this article I can help clear up some of that short-sightedness and illuminate the reason why formal SA training is essential.?(Here is a hint: It is not the money.)

Foundations of Misunderstanding

Not too long ago, if someone were to search the internet for situational awareness training, they would find a couple articles that were titled along the lines of “10 Tips to Help You Improve Your Situational Awareness” or some videos with titles similar to “US Navy SEAL Shows How to Level Up Your Situational Awareness Game.”?There was a lot of stuff to get traffic to drive up ad costs, but there were very few options that offered any real substance. It is my belief that this is partly what has led up to SA naivete.

It’s not just the fault of bite-sized information on the web or in magazines. Even with the military and law enforcement communities, where SA is vital to survival, situational awareness often takes a back seat to tactics and other training. I attended a federally accredited law enforcement academy whose curriculum includes an entire chapter devoted to situational awareness. Despite having a dedicated portion, the instructors only mentioned a few SA principles in passing throughout the entire course. To put this in perspective, while it is not the only federal LE training I have attended, it is the only one that has actually included situational awareness. This is the reason that most law enforcement officers (LEOs) and many military personnel have to go outside their agencies or organizations to find real, in-depth situational awareness training.

Now consider how little exposure non-law enforcement (LE) civilians get to any situational awareness information at all. Along with articles and videos, most non-mil/LE get their information from “Uncle Bob” or “Grandpa Joe” who fought in Vietnam and WWII, respectively. NOW HOLD ON A SECOND! To be utterly clear, I am not taking ANYTHING away from the veterans whose shoes were too big for me to fill. What I am expressing is that our understanding of SA has evolved since decades past, and has become far more standardized and formalized. The real reason that the lessons passed on by those venerable warriors becomes complicated is the fact that it has largely been passed on by word-of-mouth. If you are familiar with “the Gossip Game,” this means that details have changed, been left out, or added out of thin air. In other words, what Grandpa did actually teach his pupils has changed significantly since he spoke the words.

To add to all that confusion, there are those who call themselves instructors who have done nothing more than comb the internet for all the tips, tricks, and soundbites; gathered them together and put them into a self-described course. Please understand that I’m not picking on anyone or any particular industry here. I have seen this a lot with people who claim that they are teaching self defense of one sort or another. What I have personally witnessed is that these pop-up “dojos” take advantage of the suburban mom who wants to learn self-defense and try to cram a lifetime of training into six, one-hour sessions. I could go on, but I digress as there is already a very competent individual attempting to tackle that nonsense. Those are the types of trainers, however, who try to offer SA training that amounts to nothing more than elaborate plagiarism. To also be completely clear, those types are also extremely (perhaps more-so) prevalent within the firearms training industry.

As if all of the conflation, confusion, and outright fallacies were not enough, there is also a real lack of reputable trainers who offer formal courses. There are at least a few trainers out there who have “been there, done that, got the t-shirt,” and who also offer some level of SA training. Again, though—if I remember correctly, only one of those trainers offered anything outside their local area, or outside the rare mobile course hosted by another company. All of these circumstances lead to a total misunderstanding of what real situational awareness is.

Reactions to Reality

As mentioned in the introduction, whenever I start to talk about SA, the first step in the listeners’ reaction is to tell me all the reasons they already know everything they need. This self-justification is really just a defense mechanism. They do not want to have to acknowledge that their knowledge, experience, and skills might actually be lacking. To recognize that requires them to also recognize that they are not as safe as they think.

That leads to the next step, which is defensiveness. This is especially prevalent among alpha-types. That attitude is consistent among everyone who possesses that go-getter, no-fail, keep-pushing mentality. We do not, immediately, want to acknowledge that there might be a deficiency within our situational awareness—or any other—framework.

In the same vein, those who become defensive and self-justify also tend to be reluctant toward formal training. Sometimes it has to do with the cost of training, sometimes it has to do with “credentials,” and sometimes they just cannot take that next step. This is always the most difficult wall to break through. It should not be, but it often is. Honestly, the cost of reputable courses is not expensive compared to most firearm-related or self-defense training. They just see it as an additional cost that is not really necessary. Most people also tend to give disproportionate weight to trainers who have a certain type of experience. I will touch on this in more detail in a later section, but understand that relevant experience is relevant experience, regardless of its source. The key is that it is actually relevant.

Most often, once I have broken through all the previous barriers, I find that most people then want to “self-train” instead of attending a formal course. Again, this probably has to do with the above-mentioned reasons for general reluctance as well as a level of humility. Seeking more training is not a bad thing, but trying to self-train comes with the same pitfalls that lead to the misunderstanding in the first place (tidbits, soundbites, wrong and incomplete information).

Explanation of Reasoning

If you find yourself within the aforementioned camp, not wanting to move forward with formal training, please allow me to explain why formal training is critical. Whenever I encounter someone who immediately justifies why they do not need more knowledge of SA, it is almost always an indication that they know far less than they think, and that they actually apply what they know far less than they admit. (Yep, that was once me too!) This is usually the first obstacle in persuading someone that they actually need training.

Mindset—Most people see situational awareness in the same light as martial arts, shooting, or even golfing: as a set of skills that must be routinely repeated for the sake of skill. Of course, seeing martial arts, shooting, and other sports in that light is also incorrect. One fact that separates your nth black-belts, grand masters, champions, and successful SA practitioners from the “average Joe” is melding mindset with skill.

All SA skills are built upon the foundation of mindset. When trying to explain that to many people, I get a deer-in-the-headlights look. Even those who have received formal SA training have a level of uncertainty when it comes to having a proper mindset. If I ask them to describe an SA-mindset, most people dance around a vague, often contradictory explanation. Conflation between mindset and skill is the most frequent occurrence.

For example, most people see a competition shooter as the epitome of a defensive survivor a la John Wick. What many fail to realize is that competition shooting and defensive shooting are completely different—yet related—monsters. Defensive shooting can be improved by certain competition techniques (the skill side), but not built upon them. The separation is fundamentally based on mindset. Mindset drives the tactics, and tactics drive the techniques.

It is the same with situational awareness. Proper SA-mindset will drive the SA-tactics, which will drive the SA-skills used. If you try to drive your SA-tactics and techniques with a shooting—or worse, competition—mindset, you will fail to accomplish the whole purpose of situational awareness: avoidance (more on that a little later).

Guidance—Another aspect that distinguishes amateurs from champions is guidance. Some people are born with innate physical abilities and take to certain sports very easily. However, none of them rely solely on their natural talents to take them to championships. They have coaches, teachers, trainers, etc.—and sometimes an entire staff who take their raw talent and shape it into mastery that propels them to the top. Situational awareness is no different. Some people learn some SA principles early as a necessity or habit. Those who live in high-crime areas, people in war-torn countries, and hunters are prime examples. Their experiences serve as valuable pieces of a solid foundation, but even these experienced people need some guidance on how to put it all together. Guidance, as a necessity, is even more important for those who have never been forced to learn anything about SA.

This does not discount the suitability of varied experiences for understanding situational awareness. After all, it had to be learned through experience before it could be formalized for others. There are, indeed, some people who have had to spend quite a few years honing their SA mindset through trial and error. These folks are the exception; not the rule. I am also not discounting what people have had to learn the hard way. I am simply expressing that learning the hard way is the hard way. Yes, experience is the best teacher, but especially when it is the experience of others.

Experience versus parroting—One of the foundations of misunderstanding situational awareness is those who do not have a solid understanding of SA, yet try to offer courses on it. I am sure some of them do it for a quick buck; but I would also surmise that for each scammer, there are at least five who are doing it for the right reasons—albeit in a misguided way.

This situation is not unique to SA training. This is extremely prevalent among other types instructors—the ones who lack experience and simply “parrot” what they’ve learned in someone else’s course. That is the same thing that happens when an instructor does nothing more than watch a few videos and/or read a few articles on SA, then assemble it all into a course of their own making. They simply repeat what they’ve seen or heard without understanding why that principle exists—or shouldn’t. It is just as crucial to vet an SA instructor and their course, as it is to vet a firearms instructor or medical instructor or any instructor. The easiest way to do that is simply to ask, “Why?” If curriculum does not provide the answer to why a concept exists, the instructor should. If they cannot, they most likely do not understand enough about their own material to teach it. This, again, also plays into the word-of-mouth issue. How much of their parroting is cheating their students of the real, valuable information from which their lessons are derived?

So, what kind and how much experience is necessary to teach situational awareness? Honestly, that answer is somewhat abstract. Special Operations veterans, former intelligence operatives, and retired special agents do not hold the patent on situational awareness experience. There are plenty of regular military personnel, police officers, correctional officers, and commercial security professionals who have had no choice but to rely on their SA for survival. When you mix those experiences into a formal curriculum, you have a winning combination. To bring it all full circle, if the lessons Uncle Bob and Grandpa Joe learned in their respective wars was committed to paper, we could take them and present them in a way that makes them learnable for others.

(For the record, I am affiliated with formal SA training through Arcuri Group, and I will always promote that training, as I had a hand in developing part of their curriculum. In my opinion, it is the best that exists, and not just because I was involved. It is a conglomeration of an extremely wide spectrum of training and experience, and not limited to mine.)

Presentation of Truth

At this point, I have to present why situational awareness training is actually so important. The lack of this understanding is what keeps so many from seeking out solid instruction and guidance. It is also why so many flock to firearms and/or self-defense classes, yet run the other way when presented with an alternative.

Proactive versus reactive—In the majority of cases within the military (at least recently while focusing on counterinsurgency) and LE, as well as in the commercial security industry, training focuses on reactive policies and tactics. There have been some courses introduced within the military for the purpose of shifting focus; however, the others remain largely unchanged. This is the training gap that situational awareness fills.

The same gap exists within firearms training, and rightly so. It is quite illegal to simply go around shooting people so that you do not get shot yourself. Civilian firearms training revolves around defensive encounters. By definition, defense requires an action—offense—to react. By using an SA mindset and skillset, you can become proactive to potential events that could present danger.

Avoidance versus acceptance—Most people who choose to carry firearms, other weapons, and/or learn self-defense tend to blindly accept that they are subject to violence. In other words, “If someone makes me a target of violence, I have no recourse besides defense.” Very little time is devoted to avoiding those potentially dangerous situations. Situational awareness training addresses that aspect of potential violent crime. It provides the mindset and skillset to help avoid danger, rather than accept its inevitability and react to it.

Mitigation versus overcoming—Risk is something that we all live with on a daily basis. There are companies whose sole existence is based on helping others mitigate that risk in one form or another. As far as danger and violence are concerned, situational awareness does the same. SA provides the tools and know-how to plan for potential events and to avoid them or reduce their likelihood or impact. If business leaders approached their business security the same way they approach employee safety, they would all be jumping to procure SA training for their security staff—or at least ensure their security contractor provided it to their own employees. If your everyday person then took that same perspective in their daily lives, they would also be interested in learning about ways to avoid or mitigate potentially violent situations.

Conclusion

For the average person, approaching situational awareness training takes some humility. It takes an understanding that little tips they have picked up over time may be false, or may not provide the whole picture. The playing field has changed drastically over the last several years. Where once very few training opportunities existed, now courses are offered by many companies. Approaching SA training takes the ability to see through the scammers and the inexperienced instructors. The seeker must understand that we all, most often, require some coaching to achieve mastery. Having a proper view of SA training, and how it relates to mindset, proactiveness, avoidance, and mitigation will enable the seeker to tell the difference between solid training and a parrot.?

So, if you have been on the fence about initial or additional SA training, please seize the opportunity—even if it’s not from me. If you have questions, ask away! Take charge of your personal security, and command your space.