Good Days, Bad Days
Bad days happen - we all have them now and then. It is acceptable to have a bad day, but it is unacceptable to let bad days become bad habits. It is unacceptable not to train and exercise all resources at your disposal in order to improve performance and ensure that a bad habit does not show itself at the moment of truth.
Remember Matt Flynn (Staying in the Game)? Flynn (the back-up quarterback to Aaron Rogers) started his first game of the season and had a record setting day in a win - because he was prepared.
We must develop good habits and continually put them into practice at every training exercise and on each response. You can start by initiating every response from an aggressive standpoint. Using the term aggressive may sour some readers - I’m not talking about the safety vs. attack culture clash that the fire service is experiencing these days. I believe that "aggressive" is a positive term - there is a difference between being aggressive and being ignorant. Just because we know how to do something doesn't mean we should do it. We must match the training to the appropriate situation.
There is a great close call video on vententersearch.com - VES Size-up - check it out and think about our ability to process information when under extreme stress. Be careful in your judgements - if you know about tunnel vision and auditory exclusion you'll be more gentle in your assessment of the actions taken. We lose half our brain when the bell hits and the other half when we arrive at a working fire. All of us have done it. It's just a question of whether or not we get caught.
Go or no go?
Can we be aggressively ignorant? Yup, that's when Mr. Murphy shows up and enforces his #1 law. I'd like to try to act on the informed side of aggression rather than the ignorant and timid side. I don't always get it right and it's a constant learning process - I learn something new everyday from someone.
Remember Matt Flynn (Staying in the Game)? Flynn (the back-up quarterback to Aaron Rogers) started his first game of the season and had a record setting day in a win - because he was prepared.
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| QB Matt Flynn versus Detroit. |
We must develop good habits and continually put them into practice at every training exercise and on each response. You can start by initiating every response from an aggressive standpoint. Using the term aggressive may sour some readers - I’m not talking about the safety vs. attack culture clash that the fire service is experiencing these days. I believe that "aggressive" is a positive term - there is a difference between being aggressive and being ignorant. Just because we know how to do something doesn't mean we should do it. We must match the training to the appropriate situation.
There is a great close call video on vententersearch.com - VES Size-up - check it out and think about our ability to process information when under extreme stress. Be careful in your judgements - if you know about tunnel vision and auditory exclusion you'll be more gentle in your assessment of the actions taken. We lose half our brain when the bell hits and the other half when we arrive at a working fire. All of us have done it. It's just a question of whether or not we get caught.
Go or no go?
- What is the situation?
- What is the go / no go indicator?
- Under what circumstances do we perform the skill and why?
- What is your crew's responsibility in the scheme?
- What are the consequences if the skill is misapplied?
- What is the back-up plan (audible)?
Can we be aggressively ignorant? Yup, that's when Mr. Murphy shows up and enforces his #1 law. I'd like to try to act on the informed side of aggression rather than the ignorant and timid side. I don't always get it right and it's a constant learning process - I learn something new everyday from someone.
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| Train aggressively so when it's real, it's like training. Palo Alto Truck 6 at a live fire training session in Mountain View, CA in 2009. |
So, to get to the point - what I am referring to is aggressively employing tactics and strategy on every response- wearing appropriate PPE, speaking the language by using correct ICS or fire command terminology, and if you want to get really weird, perform a tool drop appropriate for the structure. We must aggressively assert our knowledge, skills, and abilities at every opportunity. We have to be ready, we have to keep our heads in the game.
We should try taking ourselves seriously once in a while - it's a grown up game we play with grown up consequences. We owe it to each other and to the public.
Call me crazy but I think it makes good sense. Drop some canvas in the street every now and then. Try it, the advantages are two fold. Your crew will reap the benefits of increased hands on training, and the public gets to see us at work. It's a win - win.
To keep bad days from becoming bad habits we must accomplish core skills repeatedly to reinforce the correct behavior when the bullets are flying for real. We become the things we do. Your crew will not rise to the level of combat- they will sink to the level of their training. Aggressively seeking knowledge and asserting our training helps prepare us not only for the unknown but more importantly, it helps us be ready for the greater danger - the incomprehensible - those circumstances never before seen or able to be immediately understood.
Think about it.
