RBSD talks a big game about “situational awareness,” but nobody actually teaches it, except a few people?

[GreenieMeanie]

I discovered a little while ago, that “situational awareness” is actually an entire field of scientific study, with its own terminology, theory, and concepts—human behavioral profiling and analysis, “left of bang”.

Professionals aren’t just “keeping their head on a swivel.”They are looking for specific nonverbal cues, human behaviors, and incongruencies in between. The military has a dedicated school for teaching it and running scenarios, known as “the Hunter program.”

How is it, that people just don’t teach this stuff?

Mission focus

Demonstration of intent

Denial

Baseline + Anomaly= Decision

Most Likely Course Of Action

Most Dangerous Course Of Action

Low/High organization

Low/High sophistication

Kinesics

Biometrics

Proxemics

Atmospherics

 

[skribs]

This looks like an outline, not a final draft of a post.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

How is it, that people just don’t teach this stuff?

It depends on whether you put yourself into the category of predator or prey.

A: My dear, I'm going to do my jogging in the Central Park.
B: It's a dangerous place. People get robbed there all the time.
A: That's why I'm going there for. I'm a bit short on cash.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

I discovered a little while ago, that “situational awareness” is actually an entire field of scientific study, with its own terminology, theory, and concepts—human behavioral profiling and analysis, “left of bang”.

Professionals aren’t just “keeping their head on a swivel.”They are looking for specific nonverbal cues, human behaviors, and incongruencies in between. The military has a dedicated school for teaching it and running scenarios, known as “the Hunter program.”

How is it, that people just don’t teach this stuff?

Mission focus

Demonstration of intent

Denial

Baseline + Anomaly= Decision

Most Likely Course Of Action

Most Dangerous Course Of Action

Low/High organization

Low/High sophistication

Kinesics

Biometrics

Proxemics

Atmospherics

I doubt many RBSD or SD instructors know much about this. So they don’t teach it. What some of them do is use some interesting exercises to try to improve portions of SA. Unfortunately, I don’t know of any research behind the exercises they use.

 

[Martlet]

My instructor mentioned all those as things we’ll cover.

 

[GreenieMeanie]

I doubt many RBSD or SD instructors know much about this. So they don’t teach it. What some of them do is use some interesting exercises to try to improve portions of SA. Unfortunately, I don’t know of any research behind the exercises they use.

Well, that’s kinda my point. This isn’t new. It’s been around as a “school” at least since the initial Iraq invasion. It’s like…what is your excuse for not knowing something crucial to what you teach?

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Well, that’s kinda my point. This isn’t new. It’s been around as a “school” at least since the initial Iraq invasion. It’s like…what is your excuse for not knowing something crucial to what you teach?

Where do you think they'd learn it? You mentioned a dedicated school in "the military", but that's not much help for the folks who aren't sent to that school by a military branch. If they went and read a couple of books, most of them would consider themselves experts, and would teach badly with confidence.

 

[GreenieMeanie]

Where do you think they'd learn it? You mentioned a dedicated school in "the military", but that's not much help for the folks who aren't sent to that school by a military branch. If they went and read a couple of books, most of them would consider themselves experts, and would teach badly with confidence.

There is a dedicated school in the military, but there are also firms (some of whom are alumni with field experience) that conduct training programs for agencies, companies, and schools. They also have instructor programs.

But that’s all besides the point. It’s just astonishing to me, that such valuable knowledge, is a tight circle.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

There is a dedicated school in the military, but there are also firms (some of whom are alumni with field experience) that conduct training programs for agencies, companies, and schools. They also have instructor programs.

But that’s all besides the point. It’s just astonishing to me, that such valuable knowledge, is a tight circle.

I think you just answered your own question ("It’s like…what is your excuse for not knowing something crucial to what you teach?"). It's fairly specialized knowledge not easily available to the average person. I'd love to see more RBSD/SD folks able to teach some of this, assuming it's something that can be taught in the chunks available for use in most MA schools.

 

[lklawson]

RBSD? Pft. Pretty much every martial art that teaches "self defense," with one exception, tends to be very lacking in teaching what these cues are. Which one martial art? Actually, more of a "martial branch." The "firearms for self defense" branch seems to be pretty clued in to these cues.

 

[GreenieMeanie]

I think you just answered your own question ("It’s like…what is your excuse for not knowing something crucial to what you teach?"). It's fairly specialized knowledge not easily available to the average person. I'd love to see more RBSD/SD folks able to teach some of this, assuming it's something that can be taught in the chunks available for use in most MA schools.

It’s not at all inaccessible. It’s just horribly marketed. I found out on accident.

Two of the biggest dudes in the business have inexpensive Patreons (one of whom basically pioneered the military’s school from what I understand), with full lectures and case studies. One of them has an instructor program, specifically designed for what you’ve described.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

It’s not at all inaccessible. It’s just horribly marketed. I found out on accident.

Two of the biggest dudes in the business have inexpensive Patreons (one of whom basically pioneered the military’s school from what I understand), with full lectures and case studies. One of them has an instructor program, specifically designed for what you’ve described.

Is what they offer effective at teaching folks how to teach this? Or is it just informative?

 

[GreenieMeanie]

Is what they offer effective at teaching folks how to teach this? Or is it just informative?

Everyone has a “radar” for these things, noticing when something is off. What they essentially do, is teach you what to look for , how to think about it, and to be able to articulate why you think something is off.

1.What is normal in this environment?

2.What’s the path of least resistance?

3.Is this person deviating enough from what’s normal, from the path of least resistance, to be demonstrating “intent”?

4.Do they seem hyper-aware of their environment, and display singular focus on something, compared to everyone else?

5.If the above are true, what is the most likely course of action, and what is the most dangerous course of action?

6.What kinds of things should I able to see, for either course of action?

7.Investigate, take action, or GTFO and dial emergency.

There’s further technical stuff, regarding “artifacts” and “transfer evidence”, body language.

It’s all pretty straightforward, but being able to define and look for specific things, instead of just relying on “gut feeling” makes you think it through a little quicker.

 

[GreenieMeanie]

Is what they offer effective at teaching folks how to teach this? Or is it just informative?

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https://yousefbadou.com/safe-training-systems45995566

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Everyone has a “radar” for these things, noticing when something is off. What they essentially do, is teach you what to look for , how to think about it, and to be able to articulate why you think something is off.

1.What is normal in this environment?

2.What’s the path of least resistance?

3.Is this person deviating enough from what’s normal, from the path of least resistance, to be demonstrating “intent”?

4.Do they seem hyper-aware of their environment, and display singular focus on something, compared to everyone else?

5.If the above are true, what is the most likely course of action, and what is the most dangerous course of action?

6.What kinds of things should I able to see, for either course of action?

7.Investigate, take action, or GTFO and dial emergency.

There’s further technical stuff, regarding “artifacts” and “transfer evidence”, body language.

It’s all pretty straightforward, but being able to define and look for specific things, instead of just relying on “gut feeling” makes you think it through a little quicker.

Again, that's information. I don't think delivering information, alone, builds the ability to teach. This is exactly what I was talking about where someone might read a book or two and think they are experts. What's the modality for building the skill in students? And what's the evidence that the modality works - especially in the context of relatively average people who will get small doses of the content from time to time (since most will attend 2-3 classes a week, which must also cover their physical training)?

So an instructor having access to the informational content still doesn't do much to solve the problem. Someone with good training education and a lot of time to dedicate to the information might be able to develop effective training from it, but that'd be an exception, IMO.

 

[Jared Traveler]

I was actually just teaching this skill in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia a few weeks ago. What I do is actually walk down side streets and progressively teach people awareness step by step. I can give you a few examples of how I begin to do this.

Step one was to first be aware of and honor every corner. As you walk you visually check every corner, and maintain a reactionary gap. Also to take special notice of "deep corners" and to look deep. This alone puts your head on a swivel. It makes you precieved as someone who is aware, and decreases your probability of being targeted.

Step two, walking down the next street their goal was to honor every corner, but also expand their awareness bubble further out. And as they noticed people to categorize them into two simple categories. Aware of unaware?

Walking down street number three, they honored every corner, categorized people into aware vs unaware, then add the next thing...... And then the next thing..... And just build their awareness step by step.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

I was actually just teaching this skill in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia a few weeks ago. What I do is actually walk down side streets and progressively teach people awareness step by step. I can give you a few examples of how I begin to do this.

Step one was to first be aware of and honor every corner. As you walk you visually check every corner, and maintain a reactionary gap. Also to take special notice of "deep corners" and to look deep. This alone puts your head on a swivel. It makes you precieved as someone who is aware, and decreases your probability of being targeted.

Step two, walking down the next street their goal was to honor every corner, but also expand their awareness bubble further out. And as they noticed people to categorize them into two simple categories. Aware of unaware?

Walking down street number three, they honored every corner, categorized people into aware vs unaware, then add the next thing...... And then the next thing..... And just build their awareness step by step.

This sounds like solid training (I'm assuming it goes beyond the single outing). And the sort of thing that can't readily be done with normal MA classes, unfortunately.

 

[GreenieMeanie]

Again, that's information. I don't think delivering information, alone, builds the ability to teach. This is exactly what I was talking about where someone might read a book or two and think they are experts. What's the modality for building the skill in students? And what's the evidence that the modality works - especially in the context of relatively average people who will get small doses of the content from time to time (since most will attend 2-3 classes a week, which must also cover their physical training)?

So an instructor having access to the informational content still doesn't do much to solve the problem. Someone with good training education and a lot of time to dedicate to the information might be able to develop effective training from it, but that'd be an exception, IMO.

I don’t know about his instructor program’s quality, but so far I am impressed with the knowledge transfers and applying it to case studies.

The full experience would be scenario based training, where you have to correctly identify “pre-event” indicators.

 

[GreenieMeanie]

I was actually just teaching this skill in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia a few weeks ago. What I do is actually walk down side streets and progressively teach people awareness step by step. I can give you a few examples of how I begin to do this.

Step one was to first be aware of and honor every corner. As you walk you visually check every corner, and maintain a reactionary gap. Also to take special notice of "deep corners" and to look deep. This alone puts your head on a swivel. It makes you precieved as someone who is aware, and decreases your probability of being targeted.

Step two, walking down the next street their goal was to honor every corner, but also expand their awareness bubble further out. And as they noticed people to categorize them into two simple categories. Aware of unaware?

Walking down street number three, they honored every corner, categorized people into aware vs unaware, then add the next thing...... And then the next thing..... And just build their awareness step by step.

Yeah, that’s the 101, what I was initially taught. Reactionary gaps I learned about later.

What do you define as a “deep corner”?

 

[Gerry Seymour]

I don’t know about his instructor program’s quality, but so far I am impressed with the knowledge transfers and applying it to case studies.

The full experience would be scenario based training, where you have to correctly identify “pre-event” indicators.

The problem with scenario training is it's set up artificially. Someone is feeding you specific cues (and others are purposely not presenting those). This presents two issues:

1. Are they presenting the cues realitistically? (How good is their acting?)
   If they present them incorrectly (like someone trying to laugh - very few people can present a real-sounding laugh on cue), you're training to recognize something that doesn't really present that way.
2. Are they the correct cues? It doesn't matter how good you get at recognizing those cues, if they aren't the right ones.

This goes to something @Steve talks about regularly. People working with this stuff on a regular basis (cops, bouncers, etc.) get to see if what they're taught works, and practice those skills. most folks will get precious few chances to practice recognizing a real threat. They can practice looking for a threat, but most folks will rarely be in the vicinity of a real threat.