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by srothstein
Wed Mar 04, 2009 11:00 pm
Forum: General Gun, Shooting & Equipment Discussion
Topic: Tactical Question: Overcoming Adrenaline Dump
Replies: 14
Views: 1678

Re: Tactical Question: Overcoming Adrenaline Dump

I have to agree with everything said so far, they are all great. The two key points made are training and breathing.

In law enforcement, there has been a lot of study done in this area. What was realized was that you cannot fight the adrenaline dump, so you must learn to use it. When your brain shuts down because of the stress, you will revert to your training and react without thinking. So, train for what you expect. As Excalibur mentioned, visualization of scenarios and thinking about your reactions will help. Practice with the actual mechanics of the weapon and shooting will help. One trick we use in training officers is to practice doing things with as much gross motor skill as we can instead of fine motor skill. For example, to release the bolt on the M16 rifle, we teach the trainee to just slap the side of the rifle with his palm instead of using his thumb or finger to press the release. We do the same concept as much as possible with pistols and other things.

The saying to remember is that you fight like you train and you should train like you fight.

The other tip that was important is controlling the reaction itself. The easiest way to keep the heartbeat under control is to practice what we call tactical or combat breathing. It is simply a matter of deliberately using long slow deep breaths to force your body to calm back down. To see how it works, do some exercise to get your heart rate up, then (while wearing a heart rate monitor) start doing your breathing on a four count system. By this, I mean take four counts to inhale, hold for four counts, four counts to exhale, hold for four counts. You can see your heart rate drop fairly quickly.

The other effect to watch for is the adrenalin crash after the event. but that is a whole different thread.

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