As a trainer, our goal should always be to equip our officers and agents with the best tools and techniques for the task at hand. We like to refer to our duty belt as our tool belt. OC, baton, taser, handcuffs, sidearm and magazines are all placed in a position where we can get to them quickly and are staged in a manner that ensures they can be deployed easily using the least amount of effort. We call this “economy of effort.” We emphasize the importance of being able to reach our gear without looking and holster our tools by feel. Through repetition and refinement, we hone our techniques to the level of unconscious competence. These are all very important aspects of training, but how are we preparing our officers and agents for situations that don’t go as planned.
“Check the box” training has become the go-to for many agencies because it’s the minimum standard. I get it, I was there too; legal updates, new equipment training (N.E.T.) and policy review are all very important, but ask yourself as a trainer: what are we doing to help develop our officers’ mindsets?
In my 32 years of combined law enforcement and military experience, I’ve seen training go through a lot of transitions. I’ve trained with a lot of great instructors and some that weren’t so great. I can remember times in training when it seemed like the instructor wasn’t really training us to be good, he was actually just showing us how good he was. I know you’ve been there, the freakin’ “gotcha” scenarios that left you thinking, how the hell did I miss that guy hiding in the dishwasher? You remember, the one who shot you six times with marking cartridges while the rest of the cadre laughed about it…Anyway, I digress.
It’s been said that our mind is our most powerful tool, but how do we train our mind to win in situations that in reality last for mere seconds and often catch us off guard? We can achieve this by developing a winning mindset. I was first exposed to the wining mindset in 2010 while attending an advanced S.W.A.T. course. Four agencies had come together to attend the training provided by a company called Fulcrum Tactical Training. The lead instructor was one of the best I’ve been exposed to. At the end of a long week, the final training exercise (FTX) was a drill they called the Mumbai drill. The FTX took place in an abandoned fire extinguisher plant that consisted of office spaces, warehouses, machine shops and loading docks. There were four teams, two of which were assigned a protectee. The goal was for the teams with the protectee to move through the compound reaching certain checkpoints while being hunted by the other teams. It was a great evolution that involved team movement, communication and weapon manipulation. We were all armed with Simunitions guns and we were all wearing full kit. It was intense.
At one point as we were moving our protectee through an office space to reach an exit that was in a corner office, we came into contact with one of the other teams following not too far behind. As our rear security called out contact, the other team was on us. My teammate took the shot from about seven yards and the other team continued to advance. My teammate yelled out “hey I shot you” but the point man for the opposing force replied “S.W.A.T doesn’t die” as he muzzle-punched him in his protective plate and pushed past him. I remember thinking during the debrief, that was kind of corny and that they weren’t fighting fair. The debrief was fairly eye opening for me. When my teammate confronted the officer about his comment the officer’s reply was amazing. He said “that wasn’t meant for you, that was for me.” The “S.W.A.T. doesn’t die” comment was the result of a well-trained mindset.
Keep in mind that the only real goal in any fight is to live. Whether its natural disaster, a use of force encounter or a health crisis, our mindset should always be to win. Working at VirTra on the training and content team has provided me the unique ability to create content that is realistic and relevant to modern law enforcement. If you are debriefing your students using the Socratic method, you enable them to recognize their mistakes on their own. Plainly put, learning has occurred. Once the student has recognized his mistake, a good repetition will help to set it in stone. Lou Holtz once said “Set a goal and ask yourself, what’s important now.” He uses and acronym that spells W.I.N. which stands for what’s important now. He said, “If you set a goal and don’t ask yourself what’s important now, you don’t have a goal, you have a wish list.”
Every day that we put on that uniform and with each encounter that we have, our goal needs to be to win. Training our mind in a realistic simulated environment helps develop that wining mindset through proper repetition. Remember, practice does NOT make perfect if you are getting bad repetitions in. Perfect practice leads to proper performance. Let your students get perfect repetitions in to sharpen their most powerful and practical tool: their mind.
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This article was written by Mike Clark, VirTra Law Enforcement Subject Matter Expert
The stress-inducing electrical V-Threat-Fire® device brings consequences into the VirTra training simulator. By clipping it to a trainee’s belt, the instructor can activate the device to simulate all safety threats to include gun shots (return fire), dog bites, explosions and other serious threats. With the ability to change the duration and intensity of the activation, there are realistic possibilities to supply negative consequences.
Unlike other consequence methods such as those that fire projectiles, the Threat-Fire requires no clean-up and far less risk of injury. There is no aiming required and the device can be activated by clicking your mouse. Additionally, the V-Threat-Fire is tetherless; no wires mean more freedom for movement within the simulator.
Benefits
The V-Threat-Fire gets trainees to take the simulation seriously by providing a low-grade shock. The device has been tested extensively to ensure that there are no medical risks during use. The electrical stimulation also creates a distraction that officers have to work through, allowing them to complete the task at hand despite the disturbance.
Stress is a powerful psychological tool that can prepare trainees to perform effectively in difficult situations in the field. Proper implementation helps bring stress inoculation capabilities into a simulated scenario, better preparing officers for life in the field.
Improper Use
It is understandable for tactical mistakes to have a pain penalty. However, using pain to get a student to act when no threats exist is not only questionable, but hazing. Abusing the V-Threat-Fire or activating it too frequently will not get the training result you want. It actually will diminish the effect of the penalty.
Instructors may wish to communicate the intent behind the use of the V-Threat-Fire, especially to recruits and trainees who may feel wary of it. In this case, be sure that trainees understand that there is proven training value to adding consequences in the form of stress during training. The device should not be used as a hazing method or to be used as a plaything, but to achieve transferrable results.
The V-Threat-Fire is a patented device that is designed only for use within VirTra’s simulators. To learn more about its benefits and how to implement it into your training regime, contact a specialist.
Once you have your simulator installed, there are still dozens of other ways we can help you continually build your training program. While obtaining the simulator certainly is a step in the right direction when it comes to having an effective training regimen, it can be overwhelming to learn everything and implement it right away. For this, VirTra has a solution – the Advanced Trainers Certification Course (ATCC).
ATCC is designed for current VirTra customers with six or more months of experience owning a VirTra simulator. Regardless of what system you own and whether you are a service member or law enforcement officer, this class will provide great benefit in helping you learn the ins and outs of the system.
This course is 5 days long running from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. While the first day goes over the science behind why simulator use is effective as well as important training techniques to pass onto your agency or unit, the next four allow hands-on work with various vital tools. Some of these include V-Author®, V-VICTA™, marksmanship and even troubleshooting.
Each day allows police and military members of the class to learn from experienced instructors and subject matter experts. The instructors have had direct contact with all of the products and software and are equipped to handle questions with ease. Additionally, the class is provided with surveys for each instructor to ensure to be filled out anonymously, allowing VirTra to continuously evolve ATCC to become better.
After learning and being tested on various concepts related to advanced operations of the VirTra system, hardware and software, all attendees are able to return to their agencies or bases with newly gained knowledge to share with peers. VirTra greatly encourages current customers who have had their simulator for six months or more to consider attending one of these informative courses to considerably build their confidence in operating the system. Additionally, clients who have successfully completed all five days will receive a certification to prove they are now an Advanced VirTra Operator.
To view upcoming classes, visit our Eventbrite page here. If you would like more information on the courses or anything else VirTra-related, contact a product specialist.
There will come a time when you hit a plateau—everyone does. Though this is normal, it can be incredibly frustrating, especially when training a critical skill. However, hope is not lost. Instead, Lon Bartel, VirTra’s Director of Training and Curriculum, recently presented at ILEETA 2021 and touched on this topic. According to research¹, there are two ways to increase motivation when training gets difficult:
Strengthen the Reasons to Keep Going
You can be your best source of motivation. Take time to reflect on why perfecting this skill (or remembering this information) matters so much. Another option is to write down these reasons and hang it in an area you frequently inhabit. Remember that every person goes through a slump like this, but that commitment to continue is the only remedy.
Weaken the Reasons to Quit
The desire to quit is always heavy at this point. In fact, the main reasons people quit are: fear of failure, fear of success, laziness, failing to believe in oneself, weakness in the skill and frustration.
Failure is never fun, but it is a part of life. Laziness can strike, but officers must create motivation to keep going. Weakness is temporary, but only practice will strengthen the skillset. Keeping this in mind can help increase motivation while reducing the urge to quit.
Another tip when reaching a plateau is to experiment. If you have been training a certain way for so long, find a new way of training that skill. Consult with experts in that field and implement their advice. Work to reframe your mindset, and thus avoid the burnout.
One example is marksmanship training as a law enforcement officer. Shake up the training routine by spending time focusing just on just the weapon recoil. Or create smaller acceptable error rates that require you to slow down. If you’re training by yourself or with a small group, audibly talk your way through each step and see if you catch anything. Looking at training at a different angle may create the motivation you need.
To learn more about maintaining motivation in training, download VirTra Director of Training and Curriculum Lon Bartel’s 2021 ILEETA presentation.
Resources:
1. Eddie O’Connor, “Deliberative Practice: Essential for Experts”, The Psychology of Performance: How to be Your Best in Life. Amazon Digital Service 2017
The entire world of law enforcement experienced significant changes and challenges throughout 2020—and now, half of 2021. This has caused a massive focus on law enforcement’s training, interaction with community members, their role in complex cases, ability to de-escalate and more.
In order to ensure your department can answer your community’s concerns—and guarantee your training is up-to-date—instructors must evaluate current police training methods against what science has proven to be effective.
To make the instructor’s life easier, the International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training (IADLEST) and its Partner Advisory Committee (IPAC) created a science-based learning digital report available to read and download.
In this document is an article written by Lon Bartel, VirTra’s Director of Training and Curriculum, titled “How Evidence-Based Training Developed and Evolved”. This article describes the goals of evidence-based training and how to implement it into your training regimen to create the best, most prepared officers.
To make understanding easier, Lon breaks it up into three sections: evidence-based training in action, the barriers to evidence-based training and transitioning to evidence-based training.
Instead of keeping your department stuck in a training rut, provide your officers—and your community—with the best training possible. Start utilizing the research-based training so many companies readily provide.
If you would like to read more of Lon Bartel’s piece, it begins on page 5 of the document.
It is no surprise: becoming an expert takes a lot of time, dedication and motivation. Whether the goal is work-oriented or a personal hobby, such as becoming an excellent marksman or athlete, both require the same checklist. These list items below were presented by Lon Bartel, VirTra’s Director of Training and Curriculum, during the 2021 ILEETA conference:
Make Motivation
Personal motivation is a critical element. After all, you cannot force someone to become and expert in an area they do not care about—they will not put forth the effort or dedication necessary. Instead, people need to establish their own reasons to take part.
Set Goals
Before beginning, set measurable, obtainable goals. It is important to be specific while ensuring the goal is quantitative enough to be measured. For example, in regards to the marksmanship skill, having the goal to shoot with 90% accuracy or the ability to draw and fire 1 round at 7 yards in 1.75 seconds are both specific and measurable.
Utilize the Uncomfortable
As mentioned in a previous article, if the training doesn’t challenge you, it will not change you. People naturally grow and adapt when challenged, otherwise we become complacent and plateau. The feelings of unease and failure are necessary, but it is overcoming the struggle that allows people to increase their skills.
Regular Routine
Unfortunately, every person hits a plateau where they don’t see any growth or improvement. This is natural, though naturally, causes frustration. During times like these, you may want to blow off training, but this is when it is most critical! Frequent daily practice of dedicated focus will get you up and over the hump to a place where you can see great results again.
Find Feedback
Without feedback, how will you know the areas needing improvement? Or exactly how close you are to meeting your goal? The best types of feedback are coaches, videos and forms of measurable performance. Without feedback, you cannot efficiently learn or improve.
Require Recovery
This may not be something you thought of, but in the pursuit of excellence, you need to carve out recovery time. Rest for the body is just as critical as the brain, since it provides time for neural pathways to be consolidated. For most skills, a proven method is practicing with complete focus for 1 hour followed by an extended break.
Instructors and officers alike can apply these principles to whatever skill they are focusing on, whether it be personal or duty-related. Train smarter, train harder and train better with these tips on achieving expertise.
To learn more about becoming an expert, download VirTra Director of Training and Curriculum Lon Bartel’s 2021 ILEETA presentation.
Before becoming a law enforcement officer, there are a few pathways students can take. Usually, they will study Criminal Justice in college before attending a police academy. Some students, however, begin their interest in a law enforcement career early enough and begin learning in high school. Career and technical education (CTE) programs have allowed high school students to take courses based on individual interests – including law enforcement.
Tom White of Taft Union High School in California understands the unique learning needs of high school-aged students and has combined that knowledge with the technology and efficiency of a VirTra simulator. Using a V-100® simulator, White’s students have improved their communication skills and better understand the split-second decision-making processes that officers go through on a day-to-day basis.
White was able to fund the V-100 through grant funds, assuring that there are grants available for CTE programs. Additionally, White is currently in the process of obtaining a grant for a V-DTS™ – VirTra’s Driver Training Simulator—to allow for further realism in training and expects to have the Driver Simulator in the next few months.
“You can’t take a student into the field at 16 or 17. Having the driver simulator allows me to simulate them in their own squad car and simulate a call going out on the radio” said White, whose goal is to have students operating the V-DTS when answering a call, then traveling to the destination. Then, students will step out of the V-DTS and enter the V-100 to “respond” to the situation.
Although the V-DTS is still in the purchasing process, simply using the V-100 has allowed White to see notable results and improvement in decision making skills and communication fluency. He has seen 25-30% of his students develop leadership qualities and the ability to confidently give direction. Being able to practice in a simulated environment that is both safe and realistic will allow young students to develop the proper mindsets and prepare themselves early on for a difficult but rewarding career in law enforcement.
Mental Illness training is no longer important knowledge: it is crucial knowledge.
Now more than ever, officers must know how to properly recognize and interact with every member of their community. VirTra makes teaching this curriculum easy and effective by providing instructors with 15 hours of nationally-certified training material and professionally filmed simulation training scenarios.
Our Mental Illness Training: A Practical Approach curriculum includes training manuals, slide presentations, pre and post-tests, evaluations and real-life scenarios to help instructors teach the concept in the classroom, then cement the teachings by practicing the concepts in a simulator.
This training also includes interviews with individuals that have experienced mental illness and what they feel law enforcement should know from their perspective. These insightful videos are critical in helping with empathy and understanding.
Through this curriculum, officers learn to recognize a variety of mental illness symptoms—including depression, suicide, anxiety, trauma, PTSD and schizophrenia—and communicate and engage in the proper techniques for the situation.
Learn more about our Mental Illness training here.
Or watch officers engage in real Mental Illness scenarios below:
Subscribe to our YouTube channel to find other ways of maximizing training with VirTra’s curriculum.
September 22, 2020: The International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training (IADLEST®) and its Partner Advisory Committee (IPAC) have released a new Science-Based Learning digital report – “Why Law Enforcement Needs to Take a Science-Based Approach to Training and Education” – to serve as a reference point for chiefs, sheriffs, mayors, risk managers, Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Directors, training academy directors and all those who have an investment in police training and education. As IADLEST’s mission is to support the innovative development of professional standards in public safety, this digital report is designed to increase the quality and sustainability of training and education in law enforcement agencies.
Topics covered in the report include evidence-based training, the science of human performance and skills development, sustaining a science-based approach, enhancing online learning, and measuring performance outcomes. With the contributions of IPAC members, the report is an informed response to the law enforcement training challenges faced in 2020.
“The timing of this report is ideal,” said Mike Becar, IADLEST Executive Director. “We must use this tool to transform the quality of law enforcement training and education in ways that will contribute to lasting progress.” IADLEST strives for a continual improvement in our industry and together with the finest forward progressing leaders in our industry we hope this digital guide will be a relevant and timely resource and guide to be implemented moving forward. To download your copy of the Digital Report, please visit the webpage here.
Learn More About IPAC:
The IADLEST Partner Advisory Committee (IPAC) supports the IADLEST mission by providing research and proven best practices for high quality training and education. IPAC seeks to advance the public safety profession with a vision of outcomes-based police training and standards. Learn more here.
Learn More About IADLEST:
IADLEST is a non-profit organization dedicated to transforming policing by promoting excellence in training and professional standards. Our membership is comprised of key leaders in law enforcement training, including the Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Directors of every state in the U.S., as well as state and local training academy directors. With these two influential groups, we directly impact 664 basic law enforcement training academies and approximately 900,000 police and correctional officers in the country. Because we believe in learning from, and sharing our experiences with, other countries, we are proud to have international members and thus have a worldwide perspective and dialogue regarding public safety standards and training. Learn more here.
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Beginning at the academy, every law enforcement officer is taught the principle of autogenic breathing, which is also known as combat or box breathing. Simply put, this principle is gaining control of your breathing—breathing in for a count of three, holding for a count of three, exhaling for a count of three, then repeating.
Officers are taught to breathe in this manner to gain control of their nervous system, calm their heart rate and bring arousal levels down—making it a crucial, potentially life-saving skill for stressful situations. Keeping a level head in difficult circumstances is no easy feat, but is made easier through principles such as this.
However, when you learned this skill, was it ever integrated into actual roleplay, a simulator environment or the range? Or was it taught in the classroom and left at that?
Reinforce Training
VirTra strongly believes in training like you fight, which means practicing skills and principles in context. While it is a good idea to begin use of force training in the classroom, instructors must reinforce use of force training by practicing in a realistic situation. Trainees must become familiar with the skill and the circumstances in which it should be used.
For example, instructors can use VirTra’s V-300® simulator. Upon stepping inside, trainees are immersed in a real-life scenario and must learn how to best control the situation. The moment the trainee or officer reaches for an Axon® TASER®, baton, less lethal or firearm, they should consciously activate autogenic breathing to keep control of their body’s physiological responses and maintain a level head throughout the situation.
Making Skills Second Nature
By teaching this principle in the classroom then integrating it into the simulator, the skill becomes more natural. Once the trainee is in a psychologically-similar situation in the field, beginning autogenic breathing becomes second nature. By associating the action of reaching for an accessory or firearm with the activation of the breathing technique, the more automatic it becomes.
For instructors, this is an easy way to maximize your department’s training simulator. It does not add extra time or require extensive planning to practice principles and skills – such as autogenic breathing – into the various scenarios. This small implementation can have a huge effect on an officer’s performance when in the field. Learn more about how real-life simulators can benefit your department’s training by speaking with a VirTra specialist.