Training
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How Hard Should You Train?
Friday during the torrential downpours in New England, I slipped and fell while trying to navigate a puddle. In good paratrooper form, I locked my feet and knees together as quickly as possible and pulled my arms to my chest to minimize the risk of damage to my wrists and arms. I fell awkwardly but…
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The Price of Training: A Thought Exercise
Consider a hypothetical situation. You’re tasked with standing up a company-level military unit – building it from scratch (in fact, this isn’t that much of a hypothetical – this has happened effectively dozens of times in Ukraine). You have all the soldiers and all the equipment. Now all you have to do is train it…
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Span of Control
Anyone who’s spent time in the military understands the concept of span of control. The basic idea is this: the average leader can control three to five people at any given time, maximum. A poor leader can control one to two people, maybe; a terrible leader has trouble controlling themselves. A good leader can control…
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Training is More Than an SOP
Standard Operating Procedure: a set of guidelines that govern action and behavior. A checklist that becomes a habit. A way of doing things that reflects a unit’s culture; the Ranger Handbook come to life. It’s convenient to develop a plan of training to rely on SOPs. It’s easy. If you want to train CQB, you…
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Training Pedagogy: Fear or Inspiration
Broadly speaking there are two ways to train: through fear and intimidation, or inspiration. Training through fear begins with the premise that people know nothing, and enforces discipline and training protocols through harsh criticism that depends on undermining the confidence of soldiers in what they know and how they do it. Training through inspiration assumes…