As a police officer and much more as a bouncer I have studied how fast the average person becomes flustered when someone raises their voice at them. Over the years I have also done my best to control my own reaction during these situations. In an attempt to explain things I sort confrontations into two types; brewing and flash. Even during a flash encounter, if you were to roll back tape you would see signs that were either misinterpreted or missed completely.
Brewing confrontations are those that often start small, usually a response to a perceived (often induced by various substances) as disrespect, more than they are part of planned attack or other criminal act. For the person who is not wearing a uniform these often start with “what the **** are you looking at”.
In my experience the vast majority of situations we are involved will be the brewing variety. Two people cross paths while doing everything from driving to walking down the street. For whatever I saw a lot of these around convenience store and gas pumps where congregate for a few minutes while doing business.
The truth is that minding your own business is not that easy. All mammals subconsciously turn to face light and nice. The more quiet the background noise and darker it is, the more profound the response. It is usually sound that warns us about approaching danger. Like animals, especially if given the options people run. More so if they can’t see anything to attack to defend themselves. This is why some dogs hate thunder and fireworks. They run and make themselves as small as possible in an attempt to not attract attention from the perceived threat. The key to survival is movement, and anything that limits your movement is a threat to it.
We are usually far from being left out in the woods. Fleeing is often not an option due to the circumstances we find ourselves in, tied to people, places, and things. These is easily demonstrated during a a simple force on force drill I call “at the pump”. The good guy is at one side of a improvised gas pump, with a vehicle, with another person in the passenger seat or maybe a baby doll in the car to simulate a kid. The bad guy comes over and begins to yell at the good guy. As he approaches you can see the good guy freeze during the thought process of standing his ground or getting in his car to drive away. They will usually stay glued to their car (even if they don’t have anyone with them. If the bad guy draws a weapon they will usually draw theirs and go into a two hand shooting stance. This increases tunnel visions and loss of spacial recognition, including how far away they are from their vehicle. Think about this every time you get gas. Am I consciously practicing the three types of awareness; personal (what are my capabilities this moment, team (are the people with me an asset or liability), and situational (what is going on right now). Is the car between you and the attacker? Do you need to move to prevent a crossfire? Are you even armed? What if you just picked up a rental in a place you cannot carry? What are your other tool options? The list goes on.
Violent confrontations take place as the same distance conversations do. Makes sense since the brewing variety start with a conversation. I found that as police officer and bouncer (Baltimore punk club & York pub) that being able to control my tone and voice was an asset when dealing with people who were upset. If you talk in a light conversations tone, it causes even angry people to talk lower and calmer. Then a command voice if verbal commands are needed. If you start with the command voice it is hard to go backwards. The truth is that unless you do it day in and day out for a living,if someone raises their voice at you in a addition to entering your personal space you will panic, even if they are not moving fast. It is very easy to overwhelm someone with sound and movement. During a confrontation whoever advances will often be the victor. It is all about making people back peddle. When at someone yelling, their eyes want more information to make a decision so they back peddle. You can see this in may police involved shooting videos. Unfortunately it is natural to moves straight back, especially if you have a two handed grip on your gun. In training and real life this leads to people falling down or over things. Not to mention the cartoonish effect it has on drawing a weapon even from a duty holster as you can see in the video below as the bad guy jumps out with an AR pistol. It occurs at about 00.50 into the video.
Florida Deputies get ambushed
You can watch this one at about the 2 minute mark. There is very little chance of you having the room to move around like these officers did. You will either face a gun or contact weapons such as fists. edged, or impact weapon. You can see the tunnel vision come and go as he takes his hand off the gun to wave someone back. Two hands on the gun severely limit your view of the attack and lateral movement.
Officer allows attacker to get behind him
Unlike square range training, force on force prepares you for the reality of a real confrontation which can best be described as picking up the clean side of a turd. When the time comes, and for many it will, the best option at conversational distance attacks to be the aggressor and move forward whether armed or not. You are either controlling the attackers time and space or he is controlling yours.
Brewing confrontations are those that often start small, usually a response to a perceived (often induced by various substances) as disrespect, more than they are part of planned attack or other criminal act. For the person who is not wearing a uniform these often start with “what the **** are you looking at”.
In my experience the vast majority of situations we are involved will be the brewing variety. Two people cross paths while doing everything from driving to walking down the street. For whatever I saw a lot of these around convenience store and gas pumps where congregate for a few minutes while doing business.
The truth is that minding your own business is not that easy. All mammals subconsciously turn to face light and nice. The more quiet the background noise and darker it is, the more profound the response. It is usually sound that warns us about approaching danger. Like animals, especially if given the options people run. More so if they can’t see anything to attack to defend themselves. This is why some dogs hate thunder and fireworks. They run and make themselves as small as possible in an attempt to not attract attention from the perceived threat. The key to survival is movement, and anything that limits your movement is a threat to it.
We are usually far from being left out in the woods. Fleeing is often not an option due to the circumstances we find ourselves in, tied to people, places, and things. These is easily demonstrated during a a simple force on force drill I call “at the pump”. The good guy is at one side of a improvised gas pump, with a vehicle, with another person in the passenger seat or maybe a baby doll in the car to simulate a kid. The bad guy comes over and begins to yell at the good guy. As he approaches you can see the good guy freeze during the thought process of standing his ground or getting in his car to drive away. They will usually stay glued to their car (even if they don’t have anyone with them. If the bad guy draws a weapon they will usually draw theirs and go into a two hand shooting stance. This increases tunnel visions and loss of spacial recognition, including how far away they are from their vehicle. Think about this every time you get gas. Am I consciously practicing the three types of awareness; personal (what are my capabilities this moment, team (are the people with me an asset or liability), and situational (what is going on right now). Is the car between you and the attacker? Do you need to move to prevent a crossfire? Are you even armed? What if you just picked up a rental in a place you cannot carry? What are your other tool options? The list goes on.
Violent confrontations take place as the same distance conversations do. Makes sense since the brewing variety start with a conversation. I found that as police officer and bouncer (Baltimore punk club & York pub) that being able to control my tone and voice was an asset when dealing with people who were upset. If you talk in a light conversations tone, it causes even angry people to talk lower and calmer. Then a command voice if verbal commands are needed. If you start with the command voice it is hard to go backwards. The truth is that unless you do it day in and day out for a living,if someone raises their voice at you in a addition to entering your personal space you will panic, even if they are not moving fast. It is very easy to overwhelm someone with sound and movement. During a confrontation whoever advances will often be the victor. It is all about making people back peddle. When at someone yelling, their eyes want more information to make a decision so they back peddle. You can see this in may police involved shooting videos. Unfortunately it is natural to moves straight back, especially if you have a two handed grip on your gun. In training and real life this leads to people falling down or over things. Not to mention the cartoonish effect it has on drawing a weapon even from a duty holster as you can see in the video below as the bad guy jumps out with an AR pistol. It occurs at about 00.50 into the video.
Florida Deputies get ambushed
You can watch this one at about the 2 minute mark. There is very little chance of you having the room to move around like these officers did. You will either face a gun or contact weapons such as fists. edged, or impact weapon. You can see the tunnel vision come and go as he takes his hand off the gun to wave someone back. Two hands on the gun severely limit your view of the attack and lateral movement.
Officer allows attacker to get behind him
Unlike square range training, force on force prepares you for the reality of a real confrontation which can best be described as picking up the clean side of a turd. When the time comes, and for many it will, the best option at conversational distance attacks to be the aggressor and move forward whether armed or not. You are either controlling the attackers time and space or he is controlling yours.
