# Teaching Situational Awareness



## Zepp (Jan 18, 2005)

How do you teach situational awareness to other people?  Are there drills you use, or games you play?  _Can_ it be taught by one person to another in a dojo or classroom setting?


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## Adept (Jan 19, 2005)

Zepp said:
			
		

> How do you teach situational awareness to other people?  Are there drills you use, or games you play?  _Can_ it be taught by one person to another in a dojo or classroom setting?


 I find it a very difficult thing to teach in a classroom setting, especially since our classes are very mixed, with people of all types.

 If I'm trying to instruct a much smaller group, it gets easier. You can tailor your instruction to the people at hand. What I do is usually point out the more common problem situations, and encourage people to try to identify them. I also give out a few basic de-escalation techniques, and ways to avoid being in problem situations in the first place.


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## Mark Weiser (Jan 19, 2005)

The greatest problem to overcome is in the mind to deal with violence. This said the best training is to be as real as possible in your training.  This means setting up the training problem in your students mind be as detailed as possible and use realistic and safe training aids and enviroment. 

A good person/instructor is Jim Wagner use his name on the web and look at his courses.


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## Flamebearer (Jan 19, 2005)

Zepp,
What kind of "situational awareness" are you talking about? Specific situations? "I-know-I'm-going-to-be-attacked-but-I-don't-know-where-it's-coming-from"?

-Flamebearer


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## Zepp (Jan 20, 2005)

Flamebearer said:
			
		

> Zepp,
> What kind of "situational awareness" are you talking about? Specific situations? "I-know-I'm-going-to-be-attacked-but-I-don't-know-where-it's-coming-from"?



By situational awareness, I mean such things as:

General awareness of one's surroundings

Recognizing when someone is deliberately positioning themselves near you (not necessarily for an attack)

Recognizing when someone acting suspicious could be reaching for, or palming weapon

Etc.



			
				Mark Weiser said:
			
		

> A good person/instructor is Jim Wagner use his name on the web and look at his courses.



Thanks for the suggestion Mark.  I was sort of hoping that someone might be willing to get into specifics on this thread however.


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## Mark Weiser (Jan 20, 2005)

The use of Role Playing along with training aids helps greatly. In my schooling and experience for instance you can read people from the use of body movements and philsology.  For instance in bodyguard work while in the Service. We were taught to watch the eyes of people due to the fact that the attacker will track his or her target.  You also will use out of context body signs such as sweating, murmurring or whispering, usually calm, glassy eyes.

This comes from experience in the field with a mentor basically anything that does not feel correct use the built in radar we have.  If you suspect a problem move between the attacker and the victim in a causal manner and calmly. Close the distance slowly. Call attention to the alledged attacker your group.  

The use of training in real life videos such as knife attacks, fights, etc., could help as well. We call this a mild form of paranoia lol


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## Jerry (Jan 21, 2005)

There isn't a single answer.

We teach awareness mostly by lecture and by the way sparring occurs, though we do have seminars with some level of role-play involved.

We talk about who and what to look for, to not share personal space, how to determine what is personal space.. what should be common-sense things about looking for danger and reacting rather than waiting.

We also have multiple-attacker sparring every time. Without getting into the details, it does teach one to watch their surroundings as a generall melee is quite possible. 

We do end up with a good number of students that go through doors last, sit with their back to the wall and their eyes on the door, move to the outside of groups, etc, without even noticing that they do it.


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## safeeagle (Mar 26, 2005)

I would do it by setting up the enviornment. Put on street clothes. Go outside etc. This really changes things.


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## redfang (Mar 26, 2005)

I'm going through  six month academy and situational awareness and attention to detail is being taught in the following manner: push ups and extra PT.  Example, we might be quizzed on something an instructor wore the day before, if you don't know it then its 50 or 100 push ups.  We might go for a little run, at the two or three mile point, the instructor will begin to quiz us on things and people we passed, what were they wearing, car license plate #'s etc. If we don't know, we drop there and do push ups or run stairs when the run is over.  It's a very effective way to get one paying attention.


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## Tony (Apr 11, 2005)

Something we have done in class is to be blind folded and with your partner you have to tag them, and even try to block punches. This we have done in a group where you have to try to avoid being touched.
Another game we played was tohave little pads thrown at you and trying to evade them.

Whenever I go into a bar or anywhere unfamilar I'm always checking out what kind of people are there, who's behind me and I never walk out at nght on my own if i can help it.


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## mj-hi-yah (Apr 11, 2005)

One of the instructors in our school has done some role playing or scenario training with us.  He gave us different situations for example, road rage, and he give us each roles in the scenario, and we had to play them out as we think they would happen or should happen, and then we discussed the different reactions and related them to our own experiences for each to learn from.  Questions were asked like should the second driver have gotten out of the car when the angry driver approached?  How close do you allow a threat to get to you, what range?  It was interesting and informative, and once we got over how silly we felt doing it, we accomplished things and learned.  :asian:


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## Suntail (Apr 11, 2005)

My friends and I throw a tennis ball at each other.  Rules: only one tennis ball.  Anyone can throw it. If you hit someone who isn't in the game, then you pay.  It keeps your eyes open, plus its fun!


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## 47MartialMan (Apr 12, 2005)

We call this scenario playing. At times, there is a small amount of injury. Generally, this is reserved for higher ranks or for a final self defense test for self defense class.


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