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They all need to get control of their stress response, manage their adrenaline and get to a calm
& controlled state – FAST.
Luckily it’s very easy. The result is just a few breaths away.
So how is it done?
Some tips:
• Ideally you want to really press your stomach muscles on the exhale.
• Really wrap your belly around your spine.
• Breathe all the way out.
• Then when its time to breathe in you just let go of your muscles and your lungs fill –
no effort, no stress.
• Just let your belly drop.
If you are having trouble getting the hang of this, you can try kneeling on all fours.
• Pull the belly up against the spine – Exhale
• Hold it – lungs empty
• Let go – belly drops down and air streams into your lungs.
As an experiment you can also see quite how empty you can make your lungs.
When you have fully breathed out, all the way and you think there is nothing left…try singing
Lalalalala
You’ll be amazed.
Of course there is much more you can do to manage your internal state and greatly improve
your performance. We teach this and more at Meditation Mastery. Get in touch if you are
interested. http://www.meditationmastery.eu/page009.html
Btw: This type of breathing, though based in yoga, qigong, martial arts, is now also known as
tactical breathing, or combat breathing and is commonly taught to law enforcement officers,
soldiers, and others in high stress occupations.
References below:
In “Fear Factor”, his review of Amanda Ripley’s fascinating-sounding The Unthinkable: Who
Survives When Disaster Strikes, published in City Journal 21 June 2008, John Robb writes:
… in complex disasters, the biological-fear response can slow thinking so severely that it can
kill you.
We can counter fear, however. The best method, FBI trainers say, is to get control of your
breathing. “Combat breathing” is a simple variant on Lamaze or yoga training — breathe in
four counts, hold four counts, exhale four counts, and repeat. It works because breathing is a
combination of the somatic (which we control) and the autonomic (which we can’t easily
control) nervous systems. Regulation of the autonomic system deescalates the biological-fear
response and returns our higher-level brain functions to full capacity. So one of the best ways
you can prepare yourself to overcome fear in a crisis is as simple as a meditation, Lamaze, or
yoga class.
In “The Breath of Life” Duane Wolfe shows the results of field testing the technique.
It WORKS
http://www.threatsolutions.com/combatbreathing.html
"Things have gone bad in a heartbeat. The domestic abuse suspect who was
sitting peacefully on the couch just seconds ago suddenly stood up and ran
for the bedroom locking the door behind him. Inside you hear the
unmistakable sound of the slide of a handgun being racked as the man
screams, 'You got thirty seconds to get out of my house or I'll kill you!'
"As your heart beats so fast you can feel the pounding in your chest, your
vision narrows. Through the tunnel vision you are focused on the bedroom
door from behind the wall you're using as concealment. You can hear the
woman screaming but she sounds far away in the distance, even though she's
right next to you where you shoved her to keep her safe. You see your
partner calling on the radio but you can't hear him even though he's only
across the hall.
"Suddenly you're startled by the sound of the door unlocking. You see the
doorknob turn and the door starts to open and everything goes into slow
motion.
"The hit ratio of police officers involved in gunfights varies. The U.S.
Department of Justice study 'In the Line of Fire' quotes 41%. A method of
improving those ratios might be very simple...as simple as breathing.
"During that time I had the opportunity to read and use three books as my
sources for these drills and the class itself. Those books were, 'On
Killing' by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, 'Sharpening the Warriors Edge: The
Psychology & Science of Training' by Bruce Siddle and 'Deadly Force
Encounters' by Alexis Artwohl and Loren Christensen. Essentially each of
the authors' ideas mirrors the others in their ideas about training police
officers.
"Siddle states in his book, 'Sharpening the Warriors Edge' that research
shows that fine motor skills start to deteriorate when the heart rate
reaches 115 beats per minute (bpm).
"He defines a fine motor skill as 'skills performed by small muscle mass
or groups, such as hands and fingers, and frequently involve hand-eye
coordination. In a survival skill category, a fine motor skill would include...shooting a
firearm.' Siddle goes on to explain that the higher
the heart's rate the lower the ability to perform fine motor skills. In
other words, as our heart rate goes up our ability to accurately fire a
weapon goes down.
"In order to achieve a lower heart rate and increase shooting performance
Siddle and Grossman advocate 'belly breathing' or 'combat breathing.'
'Belly Breathing' is described by Siddle as, 'slow deep breaths expanding
the belly and controlling the respiration cycle. The respiration cycle
technique advocates inhaling for a specific count (normally three
seconds), holding the breath for three seconds and controlling the exhale
for three seconds. After repeating the technique for three cycles stomach
push the hand out each time they inhale and to go in each time they
exhale. Once the student understands the proper technique they are
encouraged to use it during stressful situations. The use of Combat
Breathing allows for more air to be drawn into the lungs resulting in more
oxygen available to the bloodstream. The body, having more oxygen
available to it, lowers the demand for blood and this lowers the heart
rate.
"The author having seen the effects of this type of breathing in the
martial arts wanted to see its results for police trainees during a
stressful situation -- a Simunition scenario. A total of 66 students took
part in the scenario. The author has named this scenario the
Ring-Around-the-Car drill. In it a student is placed in the driver's seat
of a squad car. A suspect's vehicle is parked in front of it in a typical
traffic stop position. After the officer exits the squad and before the
officer reaches the rear window of the suspect vehicle the suspect driver
may exit the car and approach the officer. Sometime during the scenario
the suspect produces a weapon and fires at the officer.<BR>
"Prior to this scenario the students have been instructed in the use of
cover and concealment, shooting from behind cover, and have practiced
moving to points of cover during a traffic stop. The drill had already
been practiced several times with dummy guns used by both the suspect and
the officer. Additionally, the officers had done the drill with a dummy
gun while the suspect was armed with a Simunition pistol to practice
tactical movement.
"In this particular scenario the student was armed with a Simunition Glock pistol and given
one round of ammunition. Only one round is used to
promote accuracy and to emphasize the importance of making the first shot
count. Later drills allowed for the use of more rounds but never more
than three rounds. This is done in order to try and reduce the tendency
to 'spray and pray' (rapid fire without proper aiming in hopes of hitting
the target) and to keep the scenarios from degenerating into a
free-for-all firefight.
"The instructor played the part of the suspect. The rules were that if
the suspect or officer were hit in the arm or leg the scenario would
continue with the 'injured' person stuck acting out the appropriate
injury. If the suspect were struck in the torso or head the scenario would stop. If the officer
was struck in the torso they were to continue
with the drill.
"For those not familiar with the Simunition products a brief description
follows:
Total Students:
Group C: 24
Group D: 20
Shots Fired;
Group C: 17/70%
Group D: 14/70%
Total Hits:
Group C: 14
Group D: 9
Hit Ratio:
Group C: 82%
Group D: 64%
Qual. Avg.:
Group C: 91%
Group D: 93%
Total Students: 22
Total Hits: 4
"Those classes that were coached on the breathing technique had hit ratios
of 64% and 80%.
"Those students who did not use the breathing exercise experienced only a
30% hit ratio.
"This 30% hit ratio during this drill closely echoes the hit ratio of
police officers involved in real gunfights.
"Center Mass Hits:
"The Combat Breathers of the study had a 64% and 77% center mass hit
ratio.
"Shooting Ratios:
"Each of the students involved in this scenario had received the same
training up to the time of the scenario. The only addition was the use of
Combat Breathing. Yet the Combat Breathers had a shooting rate of 70%
while the non-Combat Breathers had a shooting ratio of 59%.
"It would appear that the Combat Breathers had an advantage in their
ability to think through the process and fire their weapons. The
non-Combat Breathers showed a lower incident of firing even though in
every scenario the student was faced with a situation that clearly
required the application of deadly force.
"Heart Rates
"In reviewing the heart rates of the classes the results of Combat
Breathing can be clearly seen. Each student checked his or her heart rate
[beats per minute (bpm)] prior to the Simunition Drill. After the drill
was completed the students' heart rates were checked again. The results
of those findings:
"The two Combat Breathing classes (C &D) showed a lower average increase
in heart rate. This indicates that the use of Combat Breathing does
reduce heart rate and increase shooting performance. The Combat Breathing
classes had much higher Hit Ratios.
"Conclusion:
"The use of Combat Breathing had a clearly seen effect on the students'
ability to accurately deliver a projectile towards a hostile moving target
while under stress. The results clearly indicate the advantage of using
Combat Breathing during stressful situations. Some have said that the use
of Simunition is the closest thing you can get to a real gunfight. The
author realizes that there is a big difference between shooting at someone
with Simunition and shooting at someone with real bullets. The biggest
factor would be the level of stress brought on by a life and death
struggle.