Reality Based Training

Author: Odhinn Kohout

Reality based training is overused as a term from my own experience.

Today it can be seen as part of any “scenario" based exercises which tend to be "closed" (predetermined outcome) rather than "open" (spontaneous reaction to the stimulus). The debrief between the cadre and the student post exercise as an evaluation tool needs to have a marking schema which the student completely understands or there is very little context to base the performance critique. Students can be left frustrated as they do not understand WHY they they reacted a certain way other than it was not what had been taught in class by the Instructors.

An example of this was a firearms course that I attended which also included members of a Tactical team. Each students scenario was watched live by the rest of the group in an adjacent room on a large TV in real time. The scenario involved speaking with a male party ( Instructor dressed in a red Fist suit) about a noise complaint. After a brief conversation another party ( 2nd Instructor in Fist suit) appears around a corner and racks a shotgun and the student is required to react with an appropriate response.
One of the Tactical teams Officers who participated jumped back and flinched with his arms twitching upward as the 2nd party appeared with the shotgun catching him by surprise. The other Tactical members on his team laughed at him as he entered the room where we all were in front of the monitor. He was visibly embarrassed and irritated by all the comments and I am sure upset at himself that he had flinched the way that he had, particularly since it was being watched by the group.

In no part of this course did the Instructors provide any information what so ever as to how the body reacts under stress. Nothing....
The exercise could have been used prior to a lecture on the autonomic responses (hard-wired) of the human body to sudden stress and their effects I.E. Startled flinch, elevated heart-rate affecting fine/gross motor-skills etc.
Each student could then be run through additional scenarios (all with different environments and role players) to observe if the students comprehension of the information was being used as part of a cognitive response to stress inoculated training.
In this way the Cadre could obtain "measurable results" that the learned material was being applied OR that the student required remedial training.
This of course requires the necessary prerequisite work on the part of Instructors to ensure that the syllabus being used covers the essential components which make up a "Reality Based Training" curriculum. There are no short-cuts to this approach if Officer Safety is the desired learning