Planned vs. Actual reactions

[Duckwater 0]

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The point is that even when people are prepared for something they sometimes have trouble following their training. When they have no preparation whatsoever - it's tougher.

Bill, you are very correct. I had my realization that I have a disconnect between planned behavior in a crisis vs. what I actually did.

In the Pitts S2B, if you land in a pasture, and it flips on its back like it usually does....If the canopy is still on and you dont have a canopy hammer, You are there, inverted until help arrives...Hopefully no fire.

My other friend with a B and I had a thourough discussion, at dinner going over canopy jettison altitudes, scenarios, everything if the engine quit, I was confident I would naturally do it.

Two days later, I go get it from a grass strip in Godley TX that was 2500 ft long....But there was a big puddle right in the middle so it was only 1200 useable. It wa muddy so I did a rolling half assed run-up and cobbed it.

I kinda thougt something was odd but not bad, As soon as I was airborne I knew I was in trouble. It was missing on at least 2 cylinders and barely climbing. I was sure I was landing in a field.

It kept puttering and I milked a 270 to a downwind landing (on 1200')

After I langded, I realized that I never even thought for a second about jettisoning the canopy.

Im pretty sure the issue was that you cant talk about it only, you have to train for it. Sit in the airplane and go through the motions,,,,,

[Nightingale 0]

There's a difference between talking about doing something and training to do something. A "planned" reaction is not the same as a "trained" reaction. Planned reactions are great when you have time to think about it. Trained reactions take over when you don't have time to think, just time to react. If you don't have time to think, you will perform as you have practiced, because your subconscious doesn't know anything else.

In many situations, the purpose of training is to train a reaction, to bypass the conscious, decision-making thought process, and just enter a world of act and react.

Training can work. I've been training in martial arts off and on for about 18 years. When someone actually did attack me, I didn't have to think. I didn't make a conscious decision to react. I just did. There was no moment of "maybe I should do something..." I didn't think because I didn't have to. This was a situation I'd spent a good part of my life training for, and I reacted how I'd been trained to react, and it probably saved my life.

To relate this to skydiving, we're all taught cutaway procedures. Those are trained motions. However, in skydiving, we have trouble training the motion to the situation, because we can't simulate a malfunction on the ground very well. So, we have our drill trained, but we don't have it linked to the situation that should trigger it. We all know our cutaway drills, but how many of us have looked up and thought "hey, I can fix that... wait a second... no I can't! *chop*" There's that second of thought in there that is very hard to train away. So, while the cutaway drill is trained, when to apply the cutaway drill is planned, and requires conscious thought. Martial arts isn't like that, because you can simulate an attack very well, so it's easier to link stimulus and response.

Edited to add: We all talk about how we'll bail out on our reserve below X altitude, but how many people, faced with that situation, actually end up pulling their main? From the stories I've heard, quite a few, because we're trained to go to main, then cutaway drill if the main doesn't work. In the air, we always pull main first. Pulling reserve first is contrary to everything we've been doing for however many jumps, so it isn't a natural reaction. Come panic time, we do what we've always done.

[Tonto 1]

My 1st realisation of this was in a gunfight.

On the range I had always said I would fire the 1st shot double action in a gunfight, but here on the range I would thumb the hammer back and fire the 1st round single action - cos double action sucks.

Come the gunfight the cockroach that critiques my performance off my left shoulder was yelling "told you so!" as I thumbed the hammer back as I brought the gun to bear.

As for martial arts, formal martial arts do a poor job of preparing us for the real world. I've been involved with martial arts for 39 years, and there is a world of difference between "We're sparring" and "This guy is trying to kill me - or not." While the attack is easy to simulate, in training we know the person won't really hit us in the head with the ball hammer, and keep hitting till out skull is pulp. That takes a lot of consequence away, and we perform well in the absence of that pressure.

Generally I think our "live" martial arts performance is probably 10 - 15% of what we are capable of in a training situation. Some systems, like "Impact" and "Model mugging" concentrate heavily on the emotional response to attack, and are hugely functional when push comes to shove, even though they lack the pretty/beautiful moves of some formal martial arts.

I think this can be duplicated through most training, from advanced driving, to being in the military. You only KNOW when the chips are down, and in my experience, while training helps, some people just cannot deal with pressure.

Just my thoughts. Not saying anyone else is right or wrong.

For more info on impact training.. http://www.impact-africa.org/training.htm

t

It's the year of the Pig.

[Gawain 0]

One of the first experiences: I was in the gunner's turret of a HMMWV covering Marines and IA. A firefight broke out and my sector was eerily inactive (all while hearing massive amounts of gunfire seemingly behind you).

About 400meters in front of us, my driver spotted a guy running out in the middle of the road. He started walking-rounds in on us with his AK (or variant). My reaction was to bear down with the M2 (.50cal), while seeing the rounds whiz past my head. All I had to aim at was a big cloud of dust 400m away as I shot back. In this case, the plan and reaction lined up. Thank goodness.

So I try and I scream and I beg and I sigh
Just to prove I'm alive, and it's alright
'Cause tonight there's a way I'll make light of my treacherous life
Make light!