An article was posted on the Facebook page of my old bomb
squad. In it, the author discusses a Harvard study from the 1980s that looked
at what made people calmer in life-threatening situations. (http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2012/10/life-threatening-situations-people-calm (http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2012/10/life-threatening-situations-people-calm/)
The study looked at “bomb disposal experts” with ten years or more in the
field. The author of the study, Stanley Rachman, divided the group into two
sub-groups: those who had been decorated for their service and those who had
not.
The bomb techs were put into the field in test scenarios
that required concentration under stress. In a nutshell, the study found that all
bomb techs displayed stable heart rates
but those who were in the decorated group actually showed a drop in
heart rate.
Upon further examination, the decorated group also showed
higher scores on tests of self-belief than their non-decorated counterparts. In
other words, the decorated guys were more likely to have a strong sense of
self-value and belief in their abilities than those who were not decorated.
That’s a long-winded way to say “self-confidence.”
If this study is correct, then it is safe to say that
confidence is important to job success. That’s the simple take-away.
Looking at it a bit further, though, the concept might get a
little muddied.
The idea that high-performers have a greater sense of
self-confidence is born out in sports, as well. Anyone who has played or
coached little league baseball knows that the new kids on the team have less
confidence and are more likely to make mistakes than the kids who have played a
season or two. Lack of experience leads to mistakes, obviously, but the fear of
making mistakes also leads to mistakes. With experience comes confidence even
if only because the player (or tech) learns from mistakes. “Been there, done
that” is shorthand for life experience and often the best teacher.
In support of this is a study of heart rate variability in
precompetitive stress in high-standard judo athletes (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22972248).
A series of tests and surveys showed that the pre-game stress affected
international-level competitors less than it did national-level competitors. The
higher up the judo totem pole the athlete was the less affected he was by
pre-competition jitters. Likewise, his or her levels of self-confidence,
somatic anxiety, and cognitive anxiety were also higher.
But does this actually mean that more successful athletes
and bomb tech (or SWAT operators or patrol officers) are inherently more
confident? Or is their confidence born of their success? One could argue that as
they gain experience, subjects’ achievement of measures of success should
increase correspondingly. As success increases, the confidence that success is
possible grows.
In effect, it’s a chicken-and-egg argument. Nevertheless,
both studies give an important look into the mind of a high-stress performer. I
know from personal experience as a Field Training Officer that some men and
women are simply wired to handle the stress of law enforcement while some are
not. We have all experienced those moments of stress and fear on the job when
there is that microsecond when you go from normal operating mode to what some
trainers call “red mode.” Impending danger makes your brain kick into a primal
fight-or-flight mode and your body floods with adrenalin to allow you to do
whatever it is you have to do next: fight, chase, run away, draw a gun, a Taser,
an asp.
For me, that switch was like I entered a totally different level
of operations: time slowed down, the world got substantially brighter as my
pupils dilated to take in more light to pull in more visual information,
thoughts became fluid and rapid. I had trainees who went to pieces, either
standing stock still, frozen, or running without direction, or, worse, charging
in without a plan or rationale behind his actions.
At bomb squad tryouts we all had to wear a heavy, hot bomb
suit in the Florida sun while performing tasks that were strenuous and that
required thought. Body temperatures in the suit went to fever levels, breathing
became difficult, and, when crawling through a tight area with a 100-pound
helmet-and-suit combo, it took mental effort to remain calm. Not all did. One
seasoned detective panicked and tore at his visor to get air.
With time, these activities became easy. Each operator saw
that he could survive and function in the suit, so he became more confident.
Confidence leads to more success. And so on.
What does this suggest about our training methods in law
enforcement? In our travels around the country, we meet hundreds of officers
and deputies at agencies of all sizes. Most report that training at their
agencies is most often an us vs them structure. The trainers are the experts
and they put their trainees in their place. This is most evident in the
high-risk, realistic fire scenarios using simunitions or similar training tools.
Most often, the trainers win—and when they win they win big. They love to show
the less trained that they can shoot them easily.
There is something to be learned from getting shot in these
scenarios but there is something to be gained from success, too. Gradually
ramping up the level of performance needed to succeed against the trainers,
requiring trainees to improve their game each time, can also yield good
results. This is highlighted in the research cited above. Top-level judo
athletes did not get that way by fighting top-level competitors from day one.
It was a progression.
Of course, in law enforcement, we don’t have the luxury of a
progression on the street. It is what it is. You are handed a situation and you
have just one chance to deal with it. There is no going back, no Mulligans, no
do-overs. Nevertheless, our training should progress the student from one level
to the next, allowing for the building of confidence and the expectation of
success (and the confidence that comes from it) with each repetition.
One can argue (and rightly) that the study’s division of
bomb techs into “decorated” and “non-decorated” is, in the big picture,
ambiguous. In one agency, you may get decorated for just about any on-duty act
where other agencies do not give out decorations without overwhelmingly good
reason. Some commanders decorate only their favorite team members. It could be
argued that, in those cases, the confidence comes from knowing a commander is
supportive of the officer rather than the officer’s confidence in his
abilities. But all that, while certainly realities of the cop world, misses the
point of the studies.
In the end, confidence is a valuable commodity in law
enforcement, sports or any aspect of life. Experience—repetition, practice,
training—is the best teacher, as it allows us to gain the exposure to more of
the possibilities of the task at hand, whether that’s bomb disposal or dealing
with an angry domestic situation. For optimal results, we should endeavor to
make our colleagues more confident of their skills and in each other. Confidence
builds confidence.
