Trainer's Bullpen

ALERRT Executive Director Dr. Pete Blair discussed the need to reform police training in order to address the current crisis in policing. He emphasizes the importance of an evidence-informed approach and highlights the work of The ALERRT Program in providing critical incident response training. Blair identifies the shortcomings of the traditional model of police training, including the focus on ideal techniques and the lack of transferability to real-world situations. He advocates for a shift towards an ecological dynamics approach, which emphasizes self-organization, contextualization, and problem-solving. Blair argues that training should focus on outcomes rather than specific techniques and should incorporate rich and variable environments to enhance transferability. Trainer's Bullpen Watch the full video podcast here: https://lnkd.in/gbuG4tUg

🚨 New Episode Alert! 🚨 "Reforming Police Training with Ecological Dynamics" with Dr. Pete Blair Episode Summary: Dr. Pete Blair is the Executive Director of the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT) Center and a Professor of Criminal Justice at Texas State University. Dr. Blair discusses the need to reform police training in order to address the current crisis in policing. He emphasizes the importance of an evidence-informed approach and highlights the work of ALERRT in providing critical incident response training. Blair identifies the shortcomings of the traditional model of police training, including the focus on ideal techniques and the lack of transferability to real-world situations. He advocates for a shift towards an ecological dynamics approach, which emphasizes self-organization, contextualization, and problem-solving. Blair argues that training should focus on outcomes rather than specific techniques and should incorporate rich and variable environments to enhance transferability. The conversation explores the concept of self-organization in training and how it can lead to more effective and efficient performance. The discussion includes the importance of setting clear intentions and understanding the intention structure in any given situation. They emphasize the need for trainers to guide learners towards exploring more optimal and effective solutions while still allowing for self-organization. The conversation also touches on the role of attention and the shift from internal focus to goal-focused attention. Dr. Blair highlights the importance of understanding what learners will do in real-world situations and focusing on the desired outcome rather than rigid techniques or formations. Takeaways: The traditional model of police training is not effective in enhancing the retention and transfer of critical performance skills. Police training should adopt an evidence-informed approach and focus on outcomes rather than specific techniques. Training should incorporate rich and variable environments to enhance transferability to real-world situations. Self-organization is a key concept in training, where the body organizes around the intended outcome to achieve it efficiently and effectively. Contextualization and problem-solving should be emphasized in training to prepare officers for the complex and ever-changing environments they operate in. Setting clear intentions and understanding the intention structure is crucial for self-organization in training. Trainers should guide learners towards exploring more optimal and effective solutions while still allowing for self-organization. Attention should be goal-focused rather than internally focused. Understanding what learners will do in real-world situations is important for effective training. Focusing on the desired outcome is more important than rigid techniques or formations. This episode is now available at www.trainersbullpen.com!

We often receive feedback from trainers and coaches who have benefited from the exceptional guests on the Trainers Bullpen podcast. It’s such an encouragement to receive this supportive feedback. Here is a recent example of how the information in the Bullpen is helping the training community! “I’m writing to thank you for your contribution to education. My experience as an operator qualified me as an instructor for specialist firearms teams. I had no qualifications to teach. Once appointed I tried to become the best teacher I could by undertaking a Masters in teaching and learning. My studies led me to form definite opinions on how to deliver training. To pivot from teaching to become obsessed with learning. All the things I've said, all the ideas I've tried to implement, all the changes I've tried to make are slowly beginning to influence many reluctant instructors. The Bullpen podcast list is a summary of my thesis reference list. To be able to send links to my fellow instructors so they can listen to your podcast on the drive to the range has been incredibly influential. What I've said has been reinforced by your guests. It's rare to be a prophet in your own land, and I know some other instructors are highly sceptical. To hear my opinions being voiced by you causes my colleagues to reflect more deeply on the message. Personally it's inspirational to research and reflect on papers, quote the author and understand their message, but to hear them discuss their studies with you enhances everything about my learning and opinions. Keep up the great work, you are making a difference!”

🚨 New Episode Alert 🚨 Welcome to episode 36 of the Trainer’s Bullpen “Scenario-Based Training and the Pedagogical Shift” with Professor Chris Cushion! Professor Chris Cushion discusses the transformation of police personal safety training using scenario-based training, emphasizing the need for a pedagogical shift and the integration of decision-making and skill acquisition within tactical contexts. He addresses the challenges of implementing change and the disparity between traditional training models and the gold standard of scenario-based training. The conversation delves into the importance of implicit learning, the flaws of front-loading skills, and the need for contextualized practice. The role of instructors in coaching through scenarios and the limitations of traditional debriefs are also highlighted. Professor Chris Cushion discusses the transformation of police personal safety training using scenario-based training, highlighting the challenges, evidence, and impact of the new approach. Dr. Cushion also addresses the cultural and political dilemmas in implementing change and the adoption of the new training model by the College of Policing in England and Wales. Takeaways include: The need for a pedagogical shift in police training towards scenario-based training that integrates decision-making and skill acquisition within tactical contexts; the importance of implicit learning and the flaws of front-loading skills in traditional training models; the role of instructors in coaching through scenarios and the limitations of traditional debriefs in police training. Importantly, Cushion argues that the needed transformation of police training involves re-culturing trainers and learners, overcoming the influence of past experiences and embracing a new pedagogical approach. You can access this episode as well as down load the research paper at www.trainersbullpen.com ; all episodes are also available on Spotify and Apple Podcast. Finally, for further study on this topic, please read the article available at Applied Police Briefings https://lnkd.in/g9AFEReJ

"Weaponizing War Stories" In the upcoming episode of the Trainer's Bullpen, Professor Chris Cushion speaks about the power of using 'war stories' as effective pedagogical tools for learning......when it is done correctly!

"Re-Skilling the Trainer" Stay tuned for the pending release of the next Trainer's Bullpen episode featuring Professor Chris Cushion as he addresses the gold standard in scenario based training and why many trainers who think they are utilizing scenario based training actually, well, aren't.

🚨 New Episode Alert! 🚨 Welcome to Episode #35 of the Trainers Bullpen, the final edition in our ‘’How We Learn to Move” series with Dr. Rob Gray. Rob Gray is a psychology professor and research psychologist with a focus on perceptual-motor control in driving, aviation, and sports. He also hosts the Perception & Action Podcast, is the author of two bestselling books on the acquisition of movement skills ‘How We Learn To Move’ and ‘Learning to Optimize Movement’, and he serves as the Skill Acquisition Specialist for the Boston Red Sox. In this interview, Dr. Gray discusses the key aspects from chapters 7 and 8 of How We Learn to Move. Rob provides insights on how coaches and trainers can consider the Constraints Led Approach of a new way forward in facilitating the development of adaptability and decision making in our officers. Further, Rob discusses the importance of understanding the kinetic chain and how that relates to the manner in which we set up movement drills and also how the conditions of the original learning environment are so important for creating resilience and ‘stickiness’ of our performer’s skills. Additional topics covered in this interview are the importance of destabilization, self-exploration and self-organization, how to amplify information in order to invite affordances for action, structured variability as a critical aspect for motor learning and the critical need for ‘perturbances’ during learning – which is a concept pretty much completely at odds with current law enforcement training. This interview contains practical insights on how trainers should understand and apply aspects of the Constraints Led Approach to help our officers develop the critical cognitive and physical skills they need on the street! Listen to this episode now at www.trainersbullpen.com or on Spotify or Apple Podcast!

Its already been a great week of conducting podcasts on the Bullpen with several exceptional researchers and practitioners. On Tuesday, we had the opportunity to talk with Dr. Pete Blair at ALERRT and explore the research-informed work they are continuing to do to enhance law enforcement training and public safety. Our specific focus in this podcast was on the incorporation of Ecological Dynamics and the Constraints Led Approach. Keep your eye out for this informative podcast to come out in the coming month. In the meantime, after watching this, do yourself a favor and sign up for Dr. Blair's Tactical Science articles available for free on SubStack and learn from the amazing Team at Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT)

Its already been a great week of conducting podcasts on the Bullpen with several exceptional researchers and practitioners. On Tuesday, we had the opportunity to talk with Dr. Pete Blair at ALERRT and explore the research-informed work they are continuing to do to enhance law enforcement training and public safety. Our specific focus in this podcast was on the incorporation of Ecological Dynamics and the Constraints Led Approach. Keep your eye out for this informative podcast to come out in the coming month. In the meantime, after watching this, do yourself a favor and sign up for Dr. Blair's Tactical Science articles available for free on SubStack and learn from the amazing Team at Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT)

🚨 New Episode Alert 🚨 We are excited to get back to our 4-part series on Ecological Dynamics with Dr. Rob Gray! Welcome to Episode #34 of the Trainers Bullpen, ‘’How We Learn to Move – Part 3: Chapters 5 and 6” In this interview, Dr. Gray discusses the key aspects from chapters 5 and 6 of How We Learn to Move. Rob provides insights on how coaches and trainers can embrace a motor learning environment that is a nonlinear, self-organizational model of movement. Also mentioned is how the perception of the world is embodied and how affordances shape the way we perceive opportunities for action. Dr. Gray introduces the important concept of ‘invariance’ and why it matters in performance and coaching. Additional topics covered in this interview are embodied perception, Gibson’s Affordances and his theory in conflict with traditionalist views, body & action capacity scaling, the importance of variability, intrinsic dynamics and how they relate to movement variability, and how the ‘law of attraction’ relates to movement variability and invariance. This interview contains practical insights on how trainers should embrace the ecological, nonlinear, self-organizational model of instruction, modify constraints to cause learners to self-organize movements, and understand the application of affordances and the laws of attraction to design effective training environments. This episode, as with all others, is available at Trainer's Bullpen and also available on Apple Podcast and Spotify.