Do you know Situational Awareness?

Am Shooting Journal ^ | 6/11/2018 | D Donchess

[w1n1]

Situational awareness is the perception of environmental elements which translate to being aware of your surrounding.
This is important for being prepared to defend yourself and your family.
Which is becoming more important these days.
Having this edge can make a differences in your decision making while in a fight or avoiding one.
We don’t necessary have to train to be a Ninja to one with nature, but that is the idea.
Don't view this as 007 fantasy or paranoia, but just heighten alertness as part of your lifestyle.

Its true that we train for the worse case scenario to shoot while in a gunfight. But we should train our awareness more which can help us better at employing those shooting skills.
Being aware and observant is using your eyes and hearing your mind is looking for those red flags in your environment.
Many soldiers and combat veterans in general come back still in an "orange" state of readiness, which finds themselves always looking around. Its an adjustment from a war environment to a quiet domestic one.
This situational awareness is ingrained into them while on these hot deployments.

Here’s a primer on security for the newbie and refresher for veterans.
Security Setup
One of the things that is taught at the basic level for soldiers is security. You may find this to be very common to LE and regular security functions.
Soldiers are taught that security is 360 degrees and 100% of the time.
Which means that your entire surroundings are a threat and you need to watch them.
This is to help with spotting a threat before it has a chance to hurt you.
When you are watching your surroundings it is important that you keep quiet and quickly scan your surroundings with intense attention to detail.
Watch the little things like the location of hands, where eyes are pointed, how people carry themselves, what they are wearing, etc. Read the rest of this situational awarness story here.
What about you all? Anyone proactively being aware?

[SkyDancer]

Yep.

[T-Bone Texan]

I’ve avoided being robbed/beaten/assaulted several times in my life by giving a hard look at my would-be attacker.

It’s really the only tool in my toolbox. If it comes to fisticuffs, I will lose, so my policy is to go all in with the hard look.

[CGASMIA68]

Lisening.......
Key factor and ignored by way too many these days that have their hearing sensors plug up with noise from a “Smart” something or other.
IMO, Not Smart.
Listen to people that were near or around a shooting.
Witnesses say “First I saw everyone running”
If your not plugged in you will hear why they are running 1st vs seeing them run 1st.

Tune out and tune in.

[Dubh_Ghlase]

One tip I gave a friend was to memorize the layout of his house to the point that he could navigate it in the dark. This give you an advantage over an intruder that doesn't know it (or if they do) and hasn't practiced navigating the topology.

Flipping on the lights before you've had a chance to investigate a sound or a motion-sensor light that tripped outside could actually put you at a disadvantage (and remove the element of surprise). The darkness coupled with the knowledge of the topology (and perhaps a good tactical light) could be the factor that tips the encounter to your favor.

Knowledgeable backup is good too...

[G Larry]

You do NOT have situational awareness if:

You're plugged into your iPhone.

You're mentally absorbed in your victimhood.

You're more focused on confrontation than avoiding it.

[rlmorel]

I have been trying to develop and nurture this skill for some time, and it isn’t easy to do when there generally isn’t a threat or doing your job isn’t dependent on it.

I am told that a good part of it is recognizing that something is out of place, something that doesn’t belong...for a soldier, that might be a street normally bustling with women and children that is deserted, etc.

So I found it interesting that yesterday, my wife and I were driving somewhere, and passed a carpet store and my mind picked up something without me even realizing it...we passed a carpet store, and at a glance I had seen a young teenage girl standing idly outside the store.

It registered as an image in my brain without a conscious thought, but...almost as soon as we passed...the image popped up in my mind again. And again, almost like an afterimage of a bright light when you close your eyes. Then I began thinking of it consciously.

It was a hot day, temps in the eighties, and she was wearing a heavy coat, also, something else was strange...something about her legs.

I turned to my wife and said “Did you notice that young girl standing in front of that carpet store? Was there something odd about her?”

My wife said yes, she had noticed, and thought it was odd for her to be wearing such a heavy coat. And she said something about her legs seemed odd, then she realized they were leggings of some kind...then she mentioned there was a dance studio nearby that trains dancers, and that the girl had her feet in “position one”...I had to laugh! But my mind had registered the girl, and there was something odd, and it had stuck in my mind.

As I thought of it, it occurred to me that there are people who develop the capability to register that thing that “sticks in the mind” and they train themselves to be wired into it. In my case, it was a young girl that did it, but in a police officer or soldier, it could be the apparel someone is wearing, a look on a face, an odd car parked in an unusual way, an object or package in a crowded square that makes that “afterimage” and their mind doesn’t waste time with a nagging feeling, but instead starts analyzing it right away and putting it into context.

That must be situational awareness.

[GOP Poet]

Ah! Love this! Also love how you articulated this in your post. Made me smile. :D

[Jumper]

People driving with headphones is almost as bad as texting, and in most states against the law because you cannot hear another car’s horn and sometimes don’t hear sirens.

[GOP Poet]

Great points and awareness. Love how you noticed all of this and analyzed it and also how it included not just you. But also your wife.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

The opposite of awareness is ‘focus’.

In society, focus is just as important as awareness. People lose focus and get very distracted as they age. That is why you might see an old gentleman make strange errors on the road.

Focus is the key to planning and strategizing.

Takes all kinds.

[Man from Oz]

Bookmark

[GOP Poet]

Great points. Also helpful and reassuring for those of us with an active imagination when they home alone at night.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

Too much awareness is a form of mental illness. Unable to screen out incoming stimuli. Focus, for example, is essential when driving. It is also helpful for sleep.

I constantly have to fight my awareness to focus.

[ronniesgal]

yes! as a woman I feel like it is my responsibility to be “on” when i am out in public alone.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

“... because you cannot hear another car’s horn...”

Where I live people honk their horns to rush people or to ‘say hi’ or to find their car in a parking lot or when someone bumps into a parked car. It’s been years since a horn did anything other than be a major distraction.

Thank God we’re getting smart cars. When we do, we should BAN horns.

[FXRP]

Ride a motorcycle. You will become proficient at situational awareness in short order.

[outofsalt]

Few things are as abrupt as the moment you realize your SA had turned off.
I was power washing a house when I was touched on the shoulder by a contractor I had hired. He was a great guy but scary looking. I had been so focused on my task that everything around me was forgotten. He came up behind me as if from nowhere and startled me quite sharply.

Focusing on one part of your surroundings can diminish your overall SA.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

‘Flipping on the lights before you’ve had a chance to investigate a sound or a motion ...’

I tell you what. Take Vitamin A and you need very little light to see when you wake up. It’s almost like wearing night vision goggles. Just ultra-dim lighting when you wake up unless someone in your house has trouble seeing.

[Vitamin A is essential in any case.]

But when you flick on a light, you normally blind yourself.

And if you carry a flashlight, keep it off if you can and ‘high beam’ the intruder.

Now for an old, old FBI trick from the 1930s:

[If it’s really dark]

If you have a flashlight and gun — keep the flashlight out at arm’s length. The other guy will shoot at the light, assuming you are there. It’s best to rehearse that several times to build muscle memory.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

I think people are more willing to comply to a compromise. One ear unplugged is ten times better than both plugged up.