A Scientific Approach to Reality Based Training is a guidebook that will help you create realistic, effective, stress-infused scenarios to train and test your officers\u2019 use-of-force skills under pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Authors, certified Force Science Analysts Dr. Terry Wollert and Jeff Quail, lead you step by step through research-supported methods for designing and conducting powerful simulations that hone the \u201cfour core performance elements\u201d they say are needed for controlling life threats in the real world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These are: situational awareness\u2026decision-making\u2026physical skills\u2026and communication\u2014and all are dependent, the writers emphasize, on the ability to manage acute psychological and physiological stress under time-pressured, high-risk circumstances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wollert and Quail bring much more than academic theory to their 226-page handbook. Wollert, now president of the Performance Improvement Institute, was for years the principal investigator of stress research at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center. Quail, a former Canadian LEO and use-of-force trainer with a master\u2019s degree in applied psychology, is the inventor of the Shocknife and other innovative training aids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Supplementing their own expertise with findings by other law enforcement researchers, including Force Science\u2019s Drs. Bill Lewinski and Alexis Artwohl, the authors provide a framework for realistic scenario training, which traditionally has tended to evolve more from instructor intuition and subjective preferences than from foundational principles of human behavior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The book leads with a thorough, practical analysis of acute stress: its cause of \u201cover 1,400 physiochemical changes in the body\u201d; the physiological, emotional, and cognitive impact it can have on performance when it \u201chijacks\u201d the brain; and the vital role they believe it should play in scenario training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Training under stress \u201cis one means to ensure that individual skills and competencies meet or exceed [real-world] demand through the development of self-efficacy,\u201d the authors explain. \u201cSelf-efficacy increases an individual\u2019s confidence that he or she can successfully deal with the threat, transforming it into a challenge and regulating the level of [detrimental] arousal experienced\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn general, the more information an individual has about reactions to stress and the likely effects of stress on task performance, the more likely he or she will be able to anticipate them, and the less distracting they will be in the operational environment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In one early chapter, the authors itemize some 40 suggestions for building stress into training scenarios. These involve employing time pressure, noise, distance, task load, ambiguity, novelty, role conflict, sensory deprivation, and other proven stressors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While building the case for \u201cStress Exposure Training,\u201d Wollert and Quail wisely underscore two important cautions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of the book focuses on how to put the \u201creal\u201d in reality-based training and how to measure the outcome of stress exposure so trainee performance can be improved on an individualized basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Across more than 100 pages, from pre-event briefing to after-action debriefing, Wollert and Quail offer in-depth guidance on developing the structure, content, and related trappings of live-action, \u201chigh-fidelity\u201d scenarios; that is, those that mirror real-life experiences so closely that students become fully engaged in each confrontation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Among other things, they provide insights on how to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A valuable component of the book is six pages devoted to a little-discussed but critical subject: the selection and deployment of role players in live-action scenarios.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEven the most perfectly designed scenario can be reduced to utter disaster by ineffective role-playing,\u201d the authors warn. \u201cFor this reason, we highly suggest developing a role-player course that trains personnel to perform properly during reality-based training.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To evaluate trainees\u2019 performance, Wollert and Quail recommend what they call the ADAPT Model. Visually, this is depicted as a circle of arrows leading from Assess to Diagnose to Prescribe to Train and back to Assess\u2014essentially a configuration like the familiar OODA Loop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In text and tables, the authors explain in detail how to use this model to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe ADAPT Model provides scenario designers and trainers a methodology to continually evaluate, diagnose, and prescribe training solutions that will improve performance,\u201d the authors state. \u201cStudents should receive checkups a minimum of once per year [throughout their entire careers] to examine their ability to perform critical skills.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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