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Old 07-14-2020, 06:54 PM
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Tegyrius Tegyrius is offline
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Originally Posted by Raellus View Post
No need to apologize. Thanks for the clarification. You make a good point. Training and "real life" aren't the same thing. One can definitely draw the wrong conclusions about the latter based on the former. As you point out, sometimes, the underdog can derive false confidence from success in "practice" scenarios. I contend that it's the favorite that more often makes mistaken assumptions based on exercises/training maneuvers. If the favorite "wins", it bolsters overconfidence. If they "lose", they write it off to a fluke, beginners luck, or "we weren't really trying". In either case, when the SHTF, a rude awakening often awaits.
This. As someone who's designed, evaluated, or observed a handful of public safety exercises, I'll say that calibrating an exercise to the intended players is a delicate balance. Make it too easy, or make an exercise series too repetitive, and it becomes a pencil-whipping operation which no one takes seriously, and which generates no meaningful capability improvements (which are the ostensible point of said exercise). Make it too hard and your players go away demoralized, lacking confidence in their gear/training/leadership, and they learn nothing.

The need to demonstrate perfection in front of a political audience can be the worst possible factor in exercise design. In the public safety world, we emphasize that the point of exercises is to make mistakes and find failure points in safe, controlled, simulated circumstances so you can eliminate those problems before you're called on to do the same thing for real. Every time I run an exercise, whether tabletop or full-scale, I emphasize in my opening briefing that I expect and want mistakes - if everything goes perfectly during play, the exercise itself is a failure.

Based on discussions with law enforcement trainers with whom I've worked, as well as the few evolutions I've been fortunate enough to participate in, the same principles apply to force-on-force training in the LE world.

- C.
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