Condition Black: The Impact of Panic
January/14/2017 11:42
Condition Black: The Impact Panic Has on Personal Defense - by Josh Logan - Lead Instructor
Those of you who know about the late Colonel Jeff Cooper of Gunsite, then you would know about his State of Awareness Color Codes. For those of you new to this theory it is quite simple. The color codes are as follows: White (unaware of one’s surroundings), Yellow (relaxed and general state of awareness of one’s surroundings), Orange (Focused on specific threat or attention to specific direction), and Red (Reaction or in the fight).
At Latent Force, we strive to add reality into our Prepared Defensive Action training curriculum. By adding these traits to our training, we must talk about a condition that the late Colonel Cooper did not speak of but one that another visionary instructor and psychologist, Lieutenant Colonel Dave Grossman, speaks of daily, Condition Black.
Latent Force has added this color to Colonel Cooper’s color codes because Condition Black is pure panic and as a gunfighter you must know the potential impact on winning a critical defensive encounter with a criminal threat. Condition Black is commonly referred to in circles as the “fight, flight, or freeze” response. Lt. Colonel Grossman describes Condition Black in his Killology studies:
This serves the function of reducing bleeding from wounds, but also reduces blood supply to limbs. Loss of peripheral vision is one of the most clear symptoms of this state of consciousness, sometimes accompanied by a loss of depth perception and/or distortion of near-vision. Auditory exclusion may also occur, which is not necessarily complete deafness, but a form of ‘selective hearing’ – orders or shouts from comrades might be heard, but the din of battle may be barely audible background noise.
Rational cognitive processes are supplanted and instinctive reactions may be wildly beyond any level of reasonable reaction, including freezing (a typical phobic reaction), voiding of bladder, bowels or stomach, and acts of heroic or cowardly recklessness. Motor skills are also reduced to their most basic level. In this state the midbrain is controlling much if not all of the body’s reactions and related movements. We all have had experiences of trying to talk to an extremely angry or frightened person – the more angry or frightened they become, the less rational they become. This is because the animal-like midbrain is dominant with the forebrain, with its rational aspects, largely silenced. (Grossman, 2007)
Many people, students, fellow instructors, as well as fellow officers, ask me about why I speak of panic and why would I want to introduce such negative outlooks into training for the unspeakable or terrible circumstances of a lethal force encounter?
I explain to them that by speaking reality and realizing our weaknesses and potential failure points, we can only improve. If we speak and act on our strengths only, we can never improve our weaknesses. Yes, we must have a winning attitude when it comes to a life/death scenario such as a lethal force encounter, but we must be critical of ourselves in training and make mistakes in training. Yes, we must push ourselves to make mistakes (mistakes that do not result in unsafe actions) because making mistakes in training is realizing and finding a failure point in our training and experience. By continuing this training in an uncomfortable state, we improve in mindset and skill and can ready ourselves for combat (lethal force encounter), because if that day comes, you will most certainly be uncomfortable.
Lt. Colonel Grossman speaks of this as “stress inoculation”. By pushing ourselves to uncomfortable levels in training, our skills improve and our breaking point towards Condition Black takes more stimuli and time, which is what we wish in any lethal force encounter. As Lt. Colonel Grossman says about lethal force incidents (combat):
You do not rise to the occasion in combat, you sink to the level of your training. Do not expect the combat fairy to come bonk you with the combat wand and suddenly make you capable of doing things that you never rehearsed before. It will not happen. (Grossman, 2)
In closing, we must be ready for whatever comes our way, be it an armed attacker, an intruder in your home, or simply refusing to be a victim, the central theme to this is preparing your skills physically, but most importantly, mentally. This is the cornerstone of Prepared Defensive Action.
Stay safe and keep your mind sharp!
Josh Logan, Lead Instructor - Latent Force
References
Cooper, J., Kirchner, P., & Awerbuck, L. (2006). Principles of
Personal Defense (Rev ed.). Boulder, CO: Paladin Press.
Grossman, D. (2009). On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to
Kill in War and Society (Rev ed.). Boston, MA: Back Bay Books.
Grossman, D., & Christensen, L. W. (2011). On Combat: The
Psychology and Physiology of Deadly Conflict in War and Peace (3rd ed.).
Millstadt, IL: Human Factor Research Group.
Grossman, D., & Molloy, B. P. (2007, Jan 1). Why Can't Johnny
Kill? The Psychology and Physiology of Interpersonal Combat. The Cutting Edge:
Studies in Ancient and Medieval Weaponry, 1(1), 189-202. Retrieved from
http://www.killology.com/MolloyGrossman2007.pdf
Grossman, D., Asken, M., & Christensen, L. W. (2010). Warrior
Mindset. Millstadt, IL: Human Factor Research Group.