Situational Awareness

 

What????

Most people wander around without "Situational Awareness" (awareness of the current situation they are in)... without thought, preoccupied with their phones, conversations, inner thoughts or tasks at hand.... they are easily recognized in daily life... unless you are one of them.

Definition: Situational awareness refers to being aware of your surroundings as ‘the perception of the elements in the environment within a volume of time and space, comprehension of their meaning and the projection of their status in the near future’(Endsley, 1987 2,1988 3).

Level 1  - Accurate perception of the elements in the environment and time in which to base decisions to properly handle the current situation.

Level 2  - Efficient and effective comprehension of the current situation based on relevant information, and the first level of accurate perception.

Level 3  - Ability to perform future prediction and projection outcome of the given situation and surrounding environment.

So how do you develop this to become instinctive? Well it used to be when we needed to hunt, fish, grow food and gather... as survival demanded it. However in our easy modern society this survival trait has sadly been bred and conditioned out of us as a species. We must again develop this awareness until it again becomes our instinct in which automatic responses take precedence over Normalcy Bias complacency and divergent attention to our current situation.

Here are 7 steps that will develop this trait once again and more than any other self protection training, keep the practitioner safer from avoidance as opposed to conflict.

1. Direct focused attention is required for perceiving and processing the environment to form SA for selecting actions and executing responses... removing routine.
2. Induce stress into our reality with increasingly urgent challenges.
3. Overload your capacity to handle the situation with competing demands on their attention, which develops the innate ability to determine the priority for survival, control and safety.
4. Introduce fatigue as this tends diminishes awareness well as physical abilities.
5. Remove complex solutioning with simple and concise training application.
6. Consistent non repetitive training with the prior contingencies in varying environments, situations, time and physical restrictions.
7. External coaching to observe, communicate and refine your reactions and responses (for the given situation) as well as your capacities or limitations.

Situational Awareness in Kyusho:

So how does this relate to Kyusho?  Well sadly most instructors do not know of or use this in their Kyusho training which develops Normalcy Bias as well as unrealistic capabilities. We can however train to eliminate the Normalcy Bias at the same time we increase the practitioners Situational Awareness, with the end result being a fully capable and efficient Kyusho practitioner as opposed to one that only thinks they are.  This is stated from decades of observance and experience with Kyusho students worldwide during courses and seminars where when tasked with the above steps, they falter and can not perform correctly or effectively (even very long term practitioners and instructors).

To correct this; here are the 7 steps as related to Kyusho:

1. Remove all set technique and replace it with simple targeting of weaker anatomical structures in varying environments, conditions and with complete spontaneity.
2. Induce stress with actual contact from both parties... you down them or they down you (within agreed upon level of execution for safety), during increasingly urgent and spontaneous challenge or attack.
3. Work must include multiple and constant attacks from all angles and attacks (strikes, grabs, tackles. kicks,etc.), maintaining the focus on target acquisition and effect.
4. Introduce fatigue with increasing timed continuous spontaneous attack all maintaining the focus on target acquisition and effect.
5. Remove complex solutioning with simple and concise  focus on target acquisition and effect by increasing the speed to instill limited motion and perception from the adrenaline affect and inducing gross motor skill limitation.
6. Consistent non repetitive training with the prior contingencies in varying environments, situations, time and physical restrictions.
7. External coaching to observe, communicate and refine your reactions and responses (for the given situation) as well as your capacities or limitations.

This training is available but rare, especially in Kyusho, yet it holds the key to become fully adept as it instills "Situational Awareness"... contact us for locations or courses near you.

 

 

 

-ep