Comments on Scenario-Based Training

21 Nov 09

One of my Instructors comments on scenario-based training:

"Being a role-player allowed me to observe our students reacting to a wide variety of threatening circumstances.

Some notes:

(1) Keep students guessing. We need to 'maintain the mystery,' All scenarios need to be full of surprises and unexpected challenges. Student expectations and smug prejudices must be constantly assailed!

(2) Not every drill should culminate in gunfire. Scenarios where many options are available provide the widest spectrum of learning experiences. Too often, students enter scenarios all too anxious to draw and fire, when verbal/postural disengagement, at least initially, is clearly called for. Those skills must be exercised too!

(3) We need less emphasis on endlessly/tumidly acquiring information and more on definitive, timely action. When circumstances are rapidly evolving, few relevant details will be known, nor can they be known in time for that knowledge to be used to our advantage. Nonetheless, decisions need to be made quickly. Dithering is always fatal! Do I voluntarily become involved, or not? Does that person represent a lethal threat, or not? Do I need to change position, or stay where I am? Students need to learn to think on their feet, put together a plan on the spot, and hit the ground running, all with limited information!

(4) Students need the personal experience of actually 'firing' at another human being (albeit a roll-player) using a simulated (Airsoft) pistol. Shooting at paper targets, even life-like mannequins, is all good training, but there is no substitute for actually dropping the hammer on a real person when it has to be, without hesitation. All students need that experience, no matter how personally distasteful!

Airsoft has been long overlooked, but we are now, at long last, finally coming to fully realize its usefulness in training professional Operators."

Comment: Scenario-based training, using Airsoft pistols and rifles, is a critical part of every Operator's training. It requires precise organization, and it is wearisome and far from risk-free!

But, all of us need to find a way to get in into our lives!

/John