Stress inoculation:

No one knows what it means but it’s provocative … it gets the people going – Blades of Glory.

You can always see the responders that have done some sort of stress inoculation training (SIT) compared to those who have not. The first thing you hear is the radio communication. It’s panicked and conveys mostly useless information. Decision making is poor at best and they cannot 'zoom out' to see the bigger picture. They have tunnel vision in a 'right now' picture.

What is the definition of stress inoculation? Stress inoculation is a psychological concept and therapeutic approach that involves preparing individuals to handle stress more effectively by gradually exposing them to manageable levels of stress in a controlled manner.

Brazilian Jiu - Jitsu For SIT

There are 3 categories designated by Donald Meichenbaum:

Conceptualisation: Educating the individual about stress, how it affects them, and identifying their specific stressors and responses.

Skills Acquisition and Rehearsal: Teaching coping strategies (e.g., relaxation techniques, problem-solving, self-talk, repetition) and practicing them in a safe environment.

Application and Follow-Through: Applying these skills to real-life situations, often with increasing difficulty, to strengthen the individual’s ability to manage stress.

In short, stress inoculation is about reducing your stress level so that you can function at an optimal level. You can do this by training in a controlled environment where you can gradually increase stress levels to mimic real scenarios that you might face when responding. This allows you to have faster and better decision-making skills.

Now that we have an understanding of stress inoculation, what is some evidence of this or is this just a feeling? Here are some studies done on this:

Differential Effects of Physiological Arousal Following Acute Stress on Police Officer Performance in a Simulated Critical Incident - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31024398/

• This study of Swedish police officers highlighted a few interesting things:

• When the body goes into fight/flight (stressed) mode, it naturally starts to clot the blood in anticipation of getting hurt. Antithrombin is produced to counter this.

• Antithrombin is an anticoagulant; this allows your blood to not get too thick and clot up in the arteries. This allows blood to smoothly pass through and carry oxygen to the brain.

• The officers who performed the best produced more antithrombin.

• Antithrombin can be managed by good liver health, cardio exercise, and SIT. This will allow you to reduce the blood clotting response when your body is stressed and give it a good antithrombin ratio, which equals better decision making and faster reaction times.

2. Blended police firearms training improves performance in shoot/don’t shoot scenarios: a systematic replication with police cadets https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1495812/full

   
   

Shows that the intervention group had near-perfect decision-making skills in shoot/no-shoot targets.

Though the article does not make a direct link to SIT, it draws a parallel. They completed categories 1 and 2 of the SIT and the final shoot/no-shoot was similar to phase 3.

The study aimed to find 6 key points:

• H1 - Intervention group delays raising handgun to eyesight - Unsupported.

• H2 - Intervention group keeps both eyes open longer before shooting - Unsupported.

• H3 - Intervention group improves decision accuracy - Supported.

• H4 - Intervention group reduces response time - Supported.

• H5 - Intervention group reduces time to first effective hit - Supported.

• H6 - Control group improves traditional marksmanship more - Supported somewhat.

  
  

So this indicated that H3-H6 were supported and that the cadets did see better improvement than the senior officers. This also proves the point that new training techniques and technology can reduce the gap between the two.

In conclusion you need good quality stress inoculation training. The benefits far out weigh the need to be lazy about it. I would suggest going and finding a BJJ gym around your area and start training there as its probably one of the best SIT that you can get for your buck. The other training such as cardio, weapon handling etc are also a form of training in the sense. It all helps your OODA loop (Observe, Orient, Decide, Act) and processing speed to run more efficiently and effectively.