Too often, training exercises “kill” cops, soldiers, and martial artists when they err in some fashion. “You shouldn’t have done that,” they’re told. “Now you’re dead.”
This is wrong. A trainer should never declare his students to be dead. When an instructor pretends to shoot, stab, or punch a student’s throat, the student believes he’s dead because that’s what he’s been told by the instructor and the other students. But killing a student is not the instructor’s job. His job is to teach the student to survive.
The proper response by an instructor should be, “Okay, you got shot (stabbed, punched), but you aren’t dead. I’m not training you to die. I don’t give you permission to die. I’m training you to live! So keep fighting!”
As a student, never think you’ve been killed in an exercise. Never, ever give up after being shot, stabbed, or punched. Every time an instructor, another student, or you declare yourself dead in training, you create a mindset to stop fighting and give up. Instead, you must create a mindset to take cover and return fire, to keep fighting though you’ve been stabbed, and to keep fighting though you’ve been stomped.
Train to never give up no matter what your injury. Keep fighting, keep fighting, keep . . .
Train to live, not to die.
* Statistically, the majority of gunshot and stabbing wounds are not fatal.
—Loren Christensen
Loren Christensen is the author of two dozen Paladin books and videos, including Deadly Force Encounters, Speed Training, and The Brutal Art of Ripping, Poking, and Pressing Vital Targets. Loren was a military policeman in Saigon during the Vietnam War and retired from the Portland, Oregon, Police Department after more than two decades of service. He can be contacted through his website at www.lwcbooks.com.