SAM 063 | SA Q & A Session

The episode addresses five questions asked during SAMatters live Tour events, including: You've shared many of the challenges we face as first responders when our brains gets stressed. Are there any good things that come from our reaction to stress? You talked a lot in the program about identifying and understanding the critical clues and cues during size-up. I'm a newer firefighter. Is there anything I can do to get better at this skill? Do you have any advice for how a young officer can develop command competency (including command situational awareness)? During the presentation you said the training should be as realistic as possible. Our police department was doing "realistic" hand-to-hand combat training. So realistic, in fact, that some officers were getting hurt. So we stopped doing that. Now, the instructors tell us to only put forth "ten percent" effort... "go through the motions" of how to subdue someone, but don't actually do it because someone might get hurt. Based on what you just taught us, is this a set-up for failure? There are some safety training programs our employees take that are online, such as fire extinguisher usage. Is this type of training good? Should we also be doing hands-on training? Our sponsor: Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com   Intro music Safety Dance (1982) Men Without Hats GMC - Virgin Records   Situational Awareness Matters! website www.SAMatters.com   Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/   Contact Rich Gasaway www.RichGasaway.com [email protected]   612-548-4424