Saturday, January 14, 2012

Instructor Courses: Are You Forgetting Someone?

   You know I teach alot of instructor courses for police departments and we always have things we say to make sure these guys are in the right frame of mind and have the correct approach. However, it wasn't until I taught a course last week that I realized I'd never written about the subject. It's a pretty important one too. Since departments for a long time didn't put alot of priority on unarmed training some of the officers went out on their own and got it. Some got good training and others got really bad training that didn't fit what they do. Some are even lifelong martial artists. So what does that have to do with being able to teach a defensive tactics course at their department? The answer is...nothing.
   Growing up in martial arts myself I'd always been taught that when you go to someone's dojo that teaches a different system the knowledge you have should stay at the door. You do things the way they tell you because it's disrespectful to say things like...oh well at my dojo we do it like this or that. The thing is you aren't at your dojo your supposed to be learning something from someone else. So you should come in as if you know nothing.
  Now alot of these officers go to instructor courses for training. Their bosses think it's a good idea because these guys are active and may understand it better. The problem is when these dojo trained officers go to an instructor course they tend to forget all the decorum they learned as part of their training and become disrespectful by trying to work in their own slant during the course. This will not only annoy the instructor but it could put the lives of other officers in danger.
  Now obviously when any officer goes to training that is still working the streets they need to know what works for them. There's nothing wrong with integrating it into their over all defense to make themselves better. If they can take one of my courses and work their super ninja kung fu panantukan death blow into it and it works for them then I think that's just fine. However, they shouldn't be doing that during the course because how can you integrate something that you don't  even understand  and can't establish proficiency. You see martial arts classes aren't designed to teach you something that works in a short time span. They are designed for you to learn techniques that you have to develop over long periods of time to become proficient. My point is a department is like a chain. It's only as strong as it's weakest link. Maybe you spent years training to develop certain tactics that work for you. The problem is not everyone in your department has spent the same time working on the same tactics and you. What works for you may not work for them at all.
  Officers when your at an instructor course you need to understand it isn't about you. Your there to learn a skillset so that you can teach it to someone else. It isn't about you and you shouldn't be the focus. The lives of all your officers are important. If she's a female officer about 5'2 she needs to be able to defend herself as well as a male officer 6'4. That's why good courses are conceptual because tactics based courses just flat out will not work for every officer in your department. So your big super judo throw might fit fine for your own personal defense but you need to be thinking about others that don't have the experience that you do. Every course I teach I have this same problem. Officers try to add their own little spin on the tactics for themselves forgetting that they don't understand the course material yet and at the end it never fails. At the end they aren't proficient and the other officers that took it with them from that department that had no prior experience can kick their asses and do it blindfolded. I've been letting it slide because I knew they had other instructors on the force that were proficient and could get them up to speed. That day is ending however. If these guys can't get over themselves and listen like an adult in class and put their officer's safety first then I'm going to fix it for them.
   I want to say this to every officer that will be taking a class from me. You will be tested for proficiency at the end of this class. If you screwed off and didn't do what I asked you will flunk that test. I will personally see to it that you fail. After that you will not be given an instructor certification and I will personally call your supervisor and tell them why. When your department finds out that they wasted that money sending you to a class and you couldn't be an adult and failed leaving them with nothing but a loss in the budget I think you will have some growing up to do. Remember the universe doesn't revolve around you and you need to put the safety of every officer first not just yourself.