Trainer's Bullpen

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Trainer's Bullpen episodes

February 29, 2024 EP 27 “Enhancing Motor Learning with the Challenge Point Framework” with Dr. Logan Markwell
In this episode, we speak with Dr Logan Markwell, human
factors scientist and motor behaviour expert to discuss the Challenge Point Framework and why coaches and trainers should understand and apply this framework in the design and delivery of motor skills training.
In this interview you will learn about nominal vs functional
task difficulties, the role of variability and contextual interference in motor learning, how to appropriately balance performer capability with task difficulty, the difference between performance and learning and why coaches and
trainers so often get this wrong, the importance of offline learning and instructor feedback, as well as several other nuggets of evidence-led training wisdom!
An exciting bonus in this interview is that it rounds out
with asking Dr Markwell questions about his motor learning ‘Myth Bust Monday’ Instagram Posts. You will be fascinated to hear long-held motor learning myths ‘busted’!
I hope you can hear some of those golden idols of traditionalist law enforcement training crashing to the ground! If you are not following Logan on Instagram you will want to be sure to do so!
As a reminder, research related to the challenge point
framework is appended to the show notes and free to download over at the Trainers Bullpen website at www.trainersbullpen.com
1 hr 12 min
February 10, 2024 EP 26 'Exploring the Knowledge, Skills and Abilities for Professional Policing’ with Dr. Craig Bennell
In this interview Dr. Craig Bennell from Carleton University in Ontario Canada discusses the research he and his colleagues conducted into the core Knowledge, Skills and Abilities that law enforcement officers must possess in order to effectively manage potentially violent police public interactions. This
important conversation evolves from a study that was published in Frontiers in Psychology in March 2022. In this interview Dr. Bennell outlines the critical findings of the paper that identified ten core knowledge, skills and abilities that are required by police officers for excellent performance in high pressure
situations in order to meet societal expectations. Some of these KSA’s discussed are: Awareness and Management of Stress Effects, Communication Skills, Decision Making and Problem Solving, Perceptual Skills and Motor Skills Relating to Use of Force, among others.
This interview discusses training and instructional methods to consider in order to help law enforcement officers improve
their ability to manage potentially violent interactions with the public by focusing on developing their essential knowledge, skills and abilities through effective training design and delivery.
1 hr 18 min
January 26, 2024 EP 25 "Training Under Pressure" with Dr. Tim Lee
Welcome to episode 25 of the Trainer’s Bullpen. Training
Under Pressure with Dr. Tim Lee. If you are interested in how to train officers for the best decision making and motor performance on the street, this interview is for you as Dr. Lee blows several training myths out of the water.
In this episode, we welcome back to the bullpen, Dr. Tim Lee,
professor emeritus of motor learning from McMaster University to discuss the relationship between pressure, training under pressure, and officer performance in the line of duty where it counts the most.
Have paper and pen ready as Dr. Lee discusses the role of
pressure in law enforcement training and the effect of pressure on officer performance in real life shooting and defensive tactics situations.
We also discuss how attention and perception are affected by
pressure; how skills ‘well rehearsed’ in low pressure learning environments can quickly collapse under real threat conditions.
In addition, Tim discusses how pressure affects attentional
processes, internal vs external attention, that can adversely affect perception and performance.
Also discussed is the ‘Progression / regression’ theory of
motor learning and the difference between ‘performance’ improvements and real ‘learning’ including online and offline learning.
The importance of training under conditions of realistic
pressure to develop the ability to perform under those same conditions in ‘the real world.’
Why ‘what we practice’ is ‘what we learn’ and therefore why
skills practiced in sterile or low-pressure learning environments don’t transfer well.
The importance of richly varying and contextualizing your
learning environment to develop adaptable skill application in pressure conditions.
And many other critical concepts and practical takeaways for
trainers.
1 hr 8 min
January 08, 2024 EP 24 ‘Relationships Between Heart Rate Variability, Occupational Performance, and Fitness for Tactical Personnel’ with Coilin Tomes
Welcome to Episode 24 of the Trainer’s Bullpen, ‘Relationships Between Heart Rate Variability (HRV), Occupational Performance, and Fitness for Tactical Personnel’ with Colin Tomes.
For years law enforcement trainers have sought to understand the
relationship between heart rate and officer performance and have frequently, and incorrectly, applied a linear application from heart rate to performance decrements under conditions of high stress.
If you are interested in refining your understanding of cardiovascular function and human performance, this interview
is for you.
In this interview, Colin outlines the findings of his Systematic Review that was published in Frontiers in Public Health. This interview touches on:
·     The important differences between HR and HRV and how they correlate, or don’t correlate, to human performance in
tactical populations.
·     Understanding the often misunderstood ‘stress response’ and the relationship between stress arousal and performance.
·     The role that sleep plays in maintaining a healthy HRV and improving the arousal / performance relationship.
·     The important interaction between PNS and SNS as they relate to cardiovascular function and performance.
·     The relationship between ‘cognitive load’ and the adverse affect on HRV.
·     How HRV monitoring by agencies can provide an accurate indication of the stress arousal state of the performer.
·     Concepts for agencies to explore in
implementing HRV monitoring in both candidate selection for specialty tactical units as well as in-training monitoring of HRV.
·     And many more important takeaways!
Reminder - you can access and download a copy of the cited research paper at www.trainersbullpen.com
1 hr 12 min
November 24, 2023 EP 23 "Offsetting the Negative Consequences of Pressure on Marksmanship" with Daniel Cooper
Welcome to Episode 23 of the Trainer’s Bullpen, ‘Offsetting the Negative Consequences of Pressure on Marksmanship’ with Daniel Cooper. In this interview Dan discusses the relationship
between stress arousal and officer performance with firearms in combat conditions. Importantly, Daniel discusses the very important systematic review and meta-analysis that he and colleagues conducted that reinforced the fact
that officer performance under threat conditions can be significantly improved by ensuring the training design and implementation includes early contextually
relevant pressure. The study ‘Negative Consequences of Pressure on Marksmanship May be Offset by Early Training Exposure to Contextually Relevant Threat Training: A Systematic Review and Meta Analysis, was published in Human Factors in 2023.
If your goal is to deliver training, or to train yourself, so that it develops the ability to perform well under high pressure conditions, this interview is for you. Dan Cooper exhorts firearms and skills trainers to seriously reconsider the manner in which firearms training is presently conducted in many law enforcement
training academies and agencies.
Daniel is a human performance specialist who focuses on improving individual and team performance in high-pressure, high-consequence situations for first responders and tactical operators. He is currently completing a 3-year PhD research
project investigating the impacts of pressure and evidence-based training methodologies in Use of Force behaviours to improve the transfer of training to performance. Daniel has built on his previous academic understanding from a double master’s degree in physiology and integrated cognitive factors and compliments this through unique experience from 18yrs service in the Special Air Service, high-performance coaching in professional sports and personal pursuits in conquering the world’s toughest extreme endurance events across the planets most unforgiving environments.
1 hr 6 min
November 09, 2023 Ep 22 ‘Evaluation of Tactical Movement and Firearm Draw Performance During Charging Knife Attacks’ with Dr. Michael Kantor
Welcome to Episode 22 of Trainers Bullpen, the
‘Evaluation of Tactical Movement and Firearm Draw Performance During Charging Knife Attacks’ with Dr. Michael Kantor Assistant Professor of Exercise Physiology at Ohio Northern University.
It is of course no surprise to law enforcement officers and trainers that edged weapons can pose a lethal threat to officers.
Many of the critical blood bearing vessels lie very close to the surface of the skin and even a small blade or an improvised edges weapon can quickly inflict potentially fatal injuries.
Law enforcement trainers owe an extreme debt of gratitude to Lt (ret) Dennis Tueller who in 1982 first explored the question
of at what distance does someone charging at an officer with an edged weapon pose a potentially lethal threat to an officer. Tueller found that a subject could cover 21 feet in the time it took an officer to draw their handgun and fire one round.
Although some additional peer-reviewed research has been done since Tueller’s original work on how fast suspects can sprint and
cover ground and how long it takes officers to react, draw and shoot, Dr. Kantor’s current study, using advanced measurement technology, is the first one to deeply explore the movement patterns and draw kinematics of an officer when a
suspect is rapidly charging an officer.
In this critically important interview, Dr. Kantor discusses the research, the findings and the shocking implications of
this study for law enforcement officers and trainers.
Summary of implications include. The “myth” of the perfect draw technique that successful officers do not repeat techniques
they solve problems and repeat outcomes; One handed shooting – at close range attacks the brain will drive forward the draw and shooting response at the speed of survival. This typically involves shooting one handed as the muzzle clears the holster; “Movement is King” - How static range training instills exactly the opposite outcomes that officers need to survive these encounters; Functional fitness is lacking – fitness training regimes need to be designed to develop the explosive, fast-twitch muscle systems officers need to be able to move rapidly…and many more important takeaways.
This study, ‘Evaluation of Tactical Movement
and Firearm Draw Performance During Charging Knife Attacks’ was published in Police Practice and Research in 2023. Just a reminder, this study is available at www.trainersbullpen.com
1 hr 15 min
October 28, 2023 EP 21 "Safe by Design” - Critical Aspects of Training Safety with Ken Murray
Effective law enforcement trainers know the critical importance of conducting force-on-force high-fidelity training. The ability to develop highly adaptable and resilient officers, capable of
making excellent decisions during complex and rapidly unfolding events rests squarely on the effectiveness and ‘reality-based’ nature of their training.
However, over the past year there has , yet again, been several incidents of training incidents in North America where functional and loaded firearms have been discharged during high-fidelity force on force training where only nonlethal training ammunition and non-live firearms should have been used. Many of these incidents were ‘near misses’ tragedy where was averted only because of luck, in some of these incidents trainees have been seriously injured, in some fatalities have resulted.
In this timely interview, Trainers Bullpen host Dan Fraser talks with law enforcement training expert Ken Murray, Director
of the Reality Based Training Association and author of Training at the Speed of Life , discusses the critical aspects of designing and implementing training that is “Safe by Design”.
This interview contains several important and practical take-aways that law enforcement trainers should be sure
to implement in order to conduct safe scenario-based training.
1 hr 12 min
October 12, 2023 EP 20 'Assessing the Impact of Deescalation Training on Police Behavior' with Dr. Robin Engel
With thousands of policing agencies scrambling in recent years to change use of force policies and provide
'deescalation' training to their officers and millions if not billions of dollars being spent to provide this training, do we know if it is even making a
difference to impact officer performance on the street? Interestingly, despite widespread promotion and proliferation of deescalation training, no research
has empirically demonstrated that this training is reducing use of force frequency or severity in the field. In addition, it is unknown if these policy
reactions and unproven deescalation training programs are having unintended negative consequences that may increase injuries to officers or citizens.
In this fascinating and instructive interview, we speak with Dr. Robin Engel who led a research project with the
Louisville Metropolitan Police Department (LMPD) to evaluate the impact of their agency's deescalation program. This study, 'Assessing the Impact of Deescalation Training
on Police Behavior: Reducing Police Use of Force in the Louisville Metro Police Department' (published in Criminology & Public Policy) determined that the
LMPD deescalation program significantly reduced the frequency of use of force incidents as well as led to reductions in citizen and officer injury rates and
severity. This interview contains very important policy and training implications for agencies implementing deescalation or seeking to evaluate the
effectiveness of their existing deescalation program.
Dr. Engel serves as Senior Vice President at the National Policing Institute, following over 25 years in
academic positions within higher education institutions. As an award-winning
researcher, she has partnered with dozens of police agencies in the U.S. and
internationally, served as Principal Investigator for over a hundred research
studies and projects, and ranked among the top academics nationally in criminal
justice/criminology. From 2015 – 2019, she served as Vice President for Safety
and Reform at the University of Cincinnati, where her executive duties included
oversight of daily operations and successful implementation of comprehensive
police reforms in the aftermath of a fatal police shooting of an unarmed
motorist. As a top scholar and trusted leading authority in police science, Dr.
Engel oversees the Institute’s vast scientific investments designed to
translate and integrate research into practice.
1 hr 3 min
September 23, 2023 EP 19 “Near Misses: Were You Good or Were You Lucky?” with Gareth Lock.
In this insightful interview, human factors expert Gareth
Lock discusses the critical aspects of how we should understand sense-making
and decision making especially in ambiguous and high-consequence environments.
The research shows that if performers have 'successful' outcome following a
near-miss, then our perception of the risk is lowered and therefore we are more
likely to erode vital safety margins (training, equipment, standards and
policy).
Gareth explores the importance of distinguishing 'could
happen' events from 'almost happened' events, understanding levels of
uncertainty, mental models, and avoiding the normalization of deviance. What can law
enforcement trainers and supervisors do about this? Gareth explains how we can
develop counter-factual thinking to raise understanding of how our perception
of risk can shift and how to make probabilities more visible.
Finally, Gareth explains his DEBrIEF model of how we can
strategically guide our people to build important self-reflection skills to
improve decision-making and deeply learn from all incidents and near misses.
Gareth Lock is the founder of The Human Diver, an
organization set up to deliver education and research into the role and benefit
of applying human factors, non-technical skills, psychological safety, and
‘just culture’ in sports, military, and scientific diving. He has published the
book ‘Under Pressure’ and produced the documentary ‘If only…,’ both focused on
improving safety and performance by looking at incidents through the lens of
human factors.
Show Notes from Gareth Lock:
www.thehumandiver.com - where everything I do in the world of diving sits!
www.humaninthesystem.com - this is where I put my non-diving programmes!
DEBrIEF framework - www.thehumandiver.com/debrief
Under Pressure: Diving Deeper with Human Factors - Gareth Lock - www.thehumandiver.com/underpre
1 hr 3 min
September 03, 2023 EP 18 '’Being Water: How Trainers Can Learn From Bruce Lee’s Coaching Philosophy' with Shawn Myszka
Shawn Myszka is a Movement Skill Acquisition Coach for NFL players, having worked with
numerous All-Pro and Pro Bowl team members. He is also the Founder of the Sport
Movement Skill Conference and author of articles and educational materials on
mastering movement in sports. Shawn discusses the relevance and value of Bruce
Lee's coaching philosophy in movement skill acquisition for law enforcement, as
explored in the research paper 'Being Water: how key ideas from the practice of
Bruce Lee align with contemporary theorizing in movement skill acquisition'
authored by Myszka, Yearby and Davids and published in Sport, Education and
Society (2023).
Topics covered in this podcast are the ecological dynamics framework and its
differences from traditional linear movement training in law enforcement, the
importance of representativeness in learning design. As well as the background,
art, style, coaching style, and philosophy of Bruce Lee. The concept of
becoming “formless” is also mentioned and its relationship to current
ecological dynamics pedagogy.
This interview contains practical insights on how law enforcement training officers
should teach, specifically in terms of building emotional intelligence,
increasing self-awareness, and fostering a culture of continuous learning and
improvement within law enforcement agencies. In addition, Listeners will gain
practical insights on how law enforcement trainers can use Bruce Lee's
philosophy and ecological dynamics to help their students acquire skillful
movement, adapt to dynamic and unpredictable violent encounters, and become
more efficient and powerful in their movements.
Listeners interested in finding out more about the incredible services and training offered by Shawn and his colleagues as well as information on the highly anticipated 'Sport Movement Skill Conference' can get all the information at Emergence https://emergentmvmt.com/
1 hr 2 min