Awareness: the Line in the Sand

 This may be one of the most important blog posts you read from me because it is always your first line of defense when protecting yourself or your loved ones for it deals with the subject of “Awareness”.

Awareness is your first step in the decision making process as to how to respond to a given situation and helps drive everything you do.  Awareness is a concept that over the course of your life and study you have probably come across in a variety of ways.

Whether leaning how to drive a car, learning how to anticipate an opponent’s moves in sport, or avoiding a potentially bad situation because, something just didn’t “feel” or seem “right”. Awareness is all about mastering the ability to recognize, anticipate and act.

There are a number of books out there from all sorts of experts who discuss the importance of Awareness and in my view while many are well meaning they miss the mark.

Either because their explanations and Awareness techniques are too complex or the premise from which they teach Awareness is from the wrong mindset to begin with. The point is the "Context" of a situation is important.

Wrong Mindset = Wrong Interpretation = Wrong Conclusions.

Like a computer garbage-in-garbage out.

Period!

You see I believe that when faced with a difficult decision people are generally going to respond in one of three ways, Fight, Take Flight or Observe but do nothing.  I also believe that depending on how you perceive the situation and your own capabilities will influence which option you choose.

The purpose of this entry is to open your eyes and provide you with some tools that will help you develop your Awareness. In subsequent blog posts when we dive into developing your “Warrior Mindset” and “Conquering Irrational Fear” we will go deeper into building your Awareness.

As Sanford Strong former San Diego Police Officer, states in his excellent book, “Strong on Defense” when faced with a bad situation you have lousy choices. However, on that aspect of his book I disagree you see I believe through the proper training and an understanding of Awareness you’re better equip to make good choices. I’ll return to this theme in a later blog post just understand the whole point of any kind of martial arts training of any kind is to learn how to make the best possible choice.

I can teach anyone if they have the desire to learn but all of the Awareness and Warrior Training in the world doesn’t matter if you don’t develop as you train the mindset and moral will to act. Some people are just born with it though I have found they are very, very rare, the rest of us myself included have to learn it, but learn it you can and Awareness is the first step in this process.

Awareness or as we say in the military, “Situational Awareness”  or "S.A." if you want to sound cool, is key to understanding any environment the more you know the better your options.

Awareness is nothing more than 1) learning to recognize what is going on in your surroundings; 2) seeing what doesn’t fit or is out of place; 3) anticipating probabilities and possibilities and 4) taking action.

Teaching Marines How to Get “Left of Boom”

Several years ago while I was still in the Marine Corps I had the pleasure of sitting in on a course we developed called “Combat Profiling” being taught to young Marines getting ready to deploy to Afghanistan, in order to evaluate the program. When it came to the subject of Mind Setting the lead instructor made several statements that hit me right between the eyes and stuck with me. The gist of what he said was,

“In order to see what’s going on you have to first open your mind to the possibility. You have to change the way you see the world by changing your “mental template” and learn to recognize what things mean. You have to undo the damage to your mind shaped by entertainment, by movies and television. When a unit gets ambushed it wasn’t random it was happening right in their face they just couldn’t see it. This shit is right in front of us all of the time but if you can’t see it with your mind you can’t see it with your eyes…” [Emphasis mine].

Wow! By the way I’ve been doing this sort of thing for 30 years and even I learned a lot through his course.

It also brought something into focus that our good friend Dr. Drew Miller once said while he was teaching a class at one of our schools. Drew would go on to say,

“Understand that an attack is a process that starts in the mind of ‘both’ the attacker and within ‘your own’ Mindset.”

This is one if the main reasons why we place so much emphasis on “Awareness”. By getting your mind right you can learn to “get ahead of their action” (The Future), if attacked you are able to disrupt their “process” or movements, gaining an advantage. The instructor also went on to say,

“The average 18-year old male, by the time he graduates high school has witnessed approximately 48 thousand hours of entertainment in the form of movies, TV and video games. So even if you know something you are watching isn’t for real, if that’s the only mental template you have your brain will generally react as if it were true. The point is that shit is in you! The purpose of this course is to help you change your mental template and see what’s really there versus what you think is there…”

Now I don't know if it's 48 thousand hours as he stated  but I'll bet it's pretty close the point is a real confrontation is all about movement and contact, without contact there is no fight and without movement there is no contact. Once someone begins to move “time” and all those things that influence time become factors. If your movement is superior to your enemy and you know how to deal with their movement it places him at a serious disadvantage. In order to do this you have to perceive what's really there in the first place and that was his point.

Now the back story on all of this is back when the IED problem in Iraq started getting out of hand and one thing we noticed was that certain young men seemed to have a “sixth sense” for picking out subtle clues in the environment and spotting trouble where others would practically walk on top of these things.

After some research we discovered that those who were successful at spotting trouble came from environments where they were forced to develop their powers of observation as a means of survival.  

For example, we found that young men from inner cities and rural areas tended to spot anomalies in their environment more quickly whereas young men from the suburbs tended to overlook a lot of what was going on in their environment. Once we realized that these young men who seemed to have this ability were just use to spotting the differences in their environment we said, “Hell why not teach it to everyone?”.

By the way we brought in experts from around the world from big game hunters who once served in the Rhodesian Army, former US Special Forces, Naval Special Warfare, Marine Force Recon and Security Forces, Counter Gang Law Enforcement as well as other behavioral experts. It's really a great course.

I will tell you though the most interesting guy as you can imagine was the Rhodesian guy, "Ian". Any guy still referring to himself as "Rhodesian" in the 21st Century should tell you something about his immense pride for his service to his nation. I'll leave it at that.  

Anyway, in order to get your mindset to the right place you have to understand that the way you think about something influences how you respond to it, react to it, act upon it.

This is what we mean by "Getting Left of Boom". In other words as we use to say by the time the bomb is in the ground we've theoretically lost that battle. The key thing was to develop the Awareness to "see" what was going on around the event prior to the bomb being placed in the ground before it ever gets there. Our thought process went a follows:

1) An IED goes off with an estimated charge of two to three 155-mm rounds wrapped together, that's 80-lbs to 120-lbs

2) How did it get there? They probably didn't carry it? That means they probably had some type of vehicle

3) How did it get into the ground? Someone had to dig a hole and bury it

4) How in the Hell does some guy park along the side of the road dig a hole in the middle of the desert in 120 degree heat and no one noticed anything strange? He sure as Hell wasn't farming!

You get the idea. By knowing what to look for we were able to "remedy" the situation. The point is this type of thing doesn't happen in a vacuum.

Each “action / thought” or “thought / action” has a reinforcing aspect strengthening the bond between thought and action right or wrong.

Each movement in a given situation has a reinforcing action both mentally and physically and since your body's movements are agnostic meaning your body generally doesn't care, it's just trying to do what you are trying to do whether consciously or unconsciously this is how it will perform.

Until you correct the patterned thought of which governs the incorrect movement / action you're stuck on a perpetual "Doom Loop" like those perpetual motion machines you can buy at “The Sharper Image”.

Now this is not to say that if you think about being an Olympic high jumper that you can do it. The bottom line is if you're not born with the physical talent for it and do not train it extensively for years it's not happening for you.

No, what I'm talking about is what can be done by the average person with the body they already have. Now if you have said talent then all the more through proper mindset and body movement can you develop seemingly impossible almost supernatural skill. That's all.

If you train as if your life someday may depend on it. That mindset will begin the process of focusing you in the right direction described above. If the real fight as we say is “utter chaos” then why create structure or unnecessary structure in your movement or your mind, whereas in a real fight none exists?

This is the height of folly and dangerous in my view because it closes your mind off to what is possible both from your attacker and yourself. This is to not say you will not learn how to fight you'll just be limited at what you really can achieve because your mindset is "wrong".

In this you must focus your mind in contemplation about training.

The DOOM Loop

Long ago while being interviewed by a sports announcer the “Great Wayne Gretzky” was asked a simple question yet his answer to me was very profound and summed up much of what I’ve been talking about here, and will relate to future blog posts as I build toward explaining the concept of “Fighting in the Future”. Gretzky was asked,

“What’s the difference between a good hockey player and a great hockey player?”

Gretzky paused for a moment and then answered,

 “A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be…”

In the military there is a concept called the “OODA Loop” which stands for Observer, Orient, Decide and Act. I sometimes like to refer to this as the “Doom Loop” because once you’re caught in it you really can’t get out of it, but that’s just me.

This concept was pioneered by one of the greatest military thinkers of our time Col John Boyd, USAF. Though a fighter pilot by trade Col Boyd’s theories have been so profound that there are whole schools of thought beyond aviation dedicated to his theories within the Marine Corps.

Like Sun Tzu, Von Clausewitz and Miyamoto Musashi he clearly understood the importance of being more adaptive than your enemy. In a nutshell getting inside of someone else’s “loop” is basically changing the situation more rapidly than they can react to or comprehend. 

Okay now I’m going to explain this as best I can and how it relates to fighting. Now Orientation (mindset) shapes Observation, which shapes Decision, which shapes Action, and in turn is shaped by the feedback and other phenomena coming into our sensing or observing window.

Understand the entire “loop” (not just orientation) is an ongoing cross-referencing process. “Orientation” is the fulcrum it shapes the way we interact with the environment—hence the way we observe it, the way we decide, the way we act. The more aware you are the better your ability to “Orient” on what is important and to filter out what is just “noise”.

Orientation shapes the character of the present observe-orient-decide-act loops, and most important of all it is capable of shaping the character of the future orientation as well.

In order to “get inside of their loop” or as Boyd concludes you must remain “Agile”. Grandmaster Perkins calls this concept, “throwing a monkey wrench into their workings or their movement to disrupt them”.

In this concept the definition of agility is the ability to shift from one state (OODA/orientation) to another faster or more efficiently than your opponent, in response to changing circumstances. It is this understanding why when using the adaptive principles one is able to negate the superior physical skills and abilities of others being able to strike with seemingly supernatural speed and power from all sorts of angles. It's all about playing where the puck is going to be...

One thing I want to point out because there are a number of people out there in the reality based martial arts arena who are teaching this concept, and unfortunately they are teaching it from the wrong perspective. The reason is Col Boyd was referring to aerial combat in which there is, in most cases, time to react when in truth as I will explain later blog posts, this is not happening in a linear fashion as I’m laying it out here, these things are actually happening “simultaneously”. In other words, there is a "dimensional aspect" to this or what Grandmaster Perkins refers to "getting out of phase" with you opponent.

The Line in the Sand

When teaching Awareness, I like people to think of it as drawing a “Line in the Sand” or lines in the sand, or create what I call “mental trip wires” or a “mental state of ready”. Some people like to use a “color code system” or “escalation of force ladders”. I prefer mental trip wires because it frees up your mind from trying to remember all of the conditions and what they mean that these other techniques rely on.

For one, I do not have an escalation of force model in my head per se, when I see something that doesn’t look right and my “Spider Senses” start to tingle I’m on my game. In other words, I don’t have an “escalation” of force mindset but a “de-escalation” of force mindset.

Meaning, once I have you on my radar as a potential threat my mind is in a “state of ready”, depending on your behavior will determine what happens. Some may say that I’m playing semantics, six of a whole half a dozen but I disagree.

Think of how animals react to threats, generally animals are just going about their business until something gets their attention. No matter what it is they are already prepared or “ready” to do something whether it’s to fight, run, or put on a threatening display.

The point is they’re not waiting for permission or running through some check list “to go there”. The dog growls or barks, the cat raises its head, arches it’s back or hisses, the rattlesnake coils and rattles its tail, bees swarm the hive. The message is don’t mess with me! Animals don’t escalate they de-escalate from being “ready”.

Works for me…

You see if you’re not willing to take it to the max “rarely” can you “go there”. But if you train to think this way you can always defuse a situation once you are already at the ready. As I tell students, it doesn’t matter what you know or what you think you know, if the bad guy gets the drop on you you’re done even if you know the stuff I’ve taught you.

One thing I want to point out before moving on and that is being able to place your mind in the “state of ready” doesn’t make you paranoid as some may think or crazy it just makes you a hard target less likely to become a victim. Like I’ve told my wife in the past when she would say that I’m “paranoid”, I would reply, “No I’m just not fucking stupid!”

The problem I have with some of the other methods is that they are taught from a “position of fear” so they have people walking around in a constant state of agitation. The bottom line is if everything is a threat then nothing is a threat.

You see for my money you want to teach people the “Spirit of Victory” not the “spirit of fear”. You never want to train people away from their using their common sense. Remember context is important. Yet many of these methods do just that. They want to boil it down to a neat little checklist and absolve people of using their God Given common sense. I’m not saying mind setting is easy but we shouldn’t be making it harder than it has to be either.

Awareness in practice is basically the same skill you use when driving a car. When you’re driving a car you are constantly anticipating the actions of the other drivers on the road and people walking about without even thinking about it.

When driving in traffic you provide a cushion between you and the car in front of you to ensure that should they stop suddenly you have enough distance which, equals time to react. When you see some kids playing on the sidewalk you anticipate that they may dart into the road so you, “slowdown” in anticipation that they may do so.

If you make it any more complicated than this, you’re wrong because it’s the same skill.

In the beginning yes your mind is racing when you first learn to drive because there is the fear of getting into an accident etc. Over time as you gain experience your brain learns to filter out what is not important and focus on what is. That’s all.

When you learned to drive a car you were told to get the “Big Picture” so you learned to focus outward and far enough ahead to anticipate potential problems. The same is true when walking down a street or to your car after work you want to focus your mind outward scanning the area or environment. In doing so what you’re doing is building in “distance” and “time” to react to a potential threat as well as learning how to filter out the noise.

One example I like to use when discussing how to use Awareness in seminars is to think of an “alley cat” sitting on a car sunning itself loving life etc. you know what I’m talking about. He doesn’t have a care in the world.

When someone starts walking down the street in the cat’s direction the cat looks up, as they get a little closer now the cat is sitting up, a little closer now the cat is standing on the car looking at the person approaching. If the person gets too close the cat just scurries away…

Now, “if” the person chases the cat it runs all out, and “if” the cat for some reason gets cornered it’s going to fight with everything it has.

In other words, the cat; 1) recognized what is going on in its surroundings; 2) saw what didn’t fit (i.e., why is this guy walking toward me?); 3) anticipated the possibility of being attacked and; 4) took action.

KIMS Game

A great way to begin the process of developing your powers of Awareness or “Observation” in order to “Orient” your mind and eye for detail is a game called the “KIMS Game”. This is a game that you can even play with your kids to improve awareness or remembering details.

Kids by the way love this game. Right now I’m developing my granddaughter’s skills of observation and soon I’ll be enhancing her “Jerk Meter” for when she’s old enough to date. That along with her marksmanship and sniper skills. She likes when I act as her spotter, she says my deflection and elevation corrections are on the money and I have a real eye for it. ;-)

Everyone from the Boy Scouts to Military Sniper Schools to government agencies and surveillance teams use this tool to teach Awareness and memorizing details.

This game comes from Rudyard Kipling’s book called “KIM”, published in 1901. It was also a movie from 1950, starring Errol Flynn. The game from the movie was actually called the “Jewel Game”.        

The idea of the game is to place a number of objects out on a table or the ground, look at them for a few minutes, have someone cover them up and then try to recall as much detail about each object before uncovering them to see how accurate you were.

Later after you have looked at them, you can have someone remove or move an object before they cover them up to see if you recognize what is missing, out of place and so on.  The idea is to develop your ability to recognize the change in the environment as well as sharpen your eye for detail.

You can do the same thing in your head by observing what’s going on in your environment an example of this is the game we use to play as kids where we would call out a certain color of car as it drove by.

Someone would call out the color “red” and we would have to count the number of red cars that when by, then we would focus on model and make. Or identify and count out the number of people who were wearing the color “blue” or whatever.

You get the idea. Later on you’ll want practice to noticing things that are out of place such as people "behaving inappropriately" or are "inappropriately dressed" for the location they are in etc.

Well, that’s it for this post I’m going to continue to build on this to further develop your Mindset and increase you powers of Observation.

Thank you.

LtCol Al

Senior Master Instructor

Guided Chaos

To learn more go to:

https://guidedchaos.com