A great article by Steve Cliffe that fits perfectly into the Dangerous Body Language Series on this site.  The article is titled The 3 P’s in Extreme Close Quarters Training: Pre-Assault Indicators, Precognitive Programming and Proximity. The articles focus is on creating and nurturing the ability to recognize the signs and signals of danger and conditioning the ability to respond with initiative both mentally and physically while handling dynamic encounters.

“Familiarity with the full spectrum of normal human behavior is the only way to improve your ability to read the nuances of any particular folk's mannerism's and target movement or whether it is threatening or innocuous. And in conjunction with this, the more scenarios you play out in your head, the greater the reserves of information your brain has to compare incoming high stress information with and the better your ability to choose a course of action and act.” ~Steve Cliffe

The power of creating this ability comes down to the individual, his attitude towards training and developing himself into a truly trained observer. In short you “reap what you sow” when it comes to conditioning these skills.

How do we condition this ability? In short pick up the research and books on gestures and expressions by the likes of Joe Navarro and Paul Ekman or David Givens. Check out their web-sites as well;The Center for Nonverbal Studies, www.paulekman.com, and www.jnforensics.com Another great site is Glenn Foster, a gentleman and expert on the topic of nonverbal communication I learned from 20 years ago.

Get some training in this important, yet often forgotten area of focus in the law enforcement and security professions. LESC has been facilitating workshops on this topic of dangerous body language for over ten years and I have just adapted and updated the program based on the latest research.

Steve Cliffe is the founder of Imminent Threat Defense Systems,LLC based out of Buffalo NY offers some great unarmed combatives programs that focus on both the mental and physical aspects.

My friend John Demand the Founder of O2D Observation on Demand out of the Chicago area has a great self teaching DVD training program on Rapid Threat Recognition which is very adaptable to roll call training programs.

We in law enforcement and security deal with people. Knowing people and how the tick mentally and physically, what this looks like in the form of gestures and expressions is a crucial skill we all should be focused on developing. Condition yourself to look for these signs, signals and emotions in all your contacts, on and off duty. With focused effort and time you will begin to actually sense the climate of situations and respond early in encounters, proactively gaining control, and applying appropriate tactical options.

Survival and winning on the street is about more than your gun and the physical abilities you possess. We are professionally obligated to do whatever we can to gain whatever experience we can without paying full price.That is precisely why we study past incidents and precisely why we should develop these skills based on the research and lessons learned from those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice. The resources to develop these skills are out there, check them out and CREATE and NURTURE SUPERIOR SITUATIONAL AWARENESS and DECISION MAKING!

Hat Tip to Steve Cliffe for this ARTICLE and his efforts at making us more effective at what we do.

Stay Oriented!

Fred