THE PODCAST
Elevating the conversation about all things tactical.
Getting the Band Together
Some people are daring and some are risk-averse. There are process people and results people. For every rebel, there’s an i-dotting, t-crossing rules follower. All these personality types can bring something to a team; this kind of diversity really is strength! Selecting opposites that compliment each other is a valuable leadership skill. Most important is the self-awareness of what you bring to your team, and who can back you up in your blind spot.
The Inner Game of Thriving
Tactical skills and physical fitness can help survive the fight, but what about emotional fitness after the fight is over? In addition to common symptoms like sleep disruption and reliving the incident, high responders may find themselves in the uncomfortable position of feeling isolated and out of control afterward. In this episode Ross & Mike talk about therapy resources, the importance of finding meaning outside the job, and preventative care ahead of time for mental resilience in the wake of a critical incident.
No Shi…Kidding, There I was…
Hard landings, cockpit equipment malfunctions, fires, and near-miss almost midair collisions while in an inverted spin, these situations that were terrifying at the time can be humorous in retrospect as long as everyone lived. More importantly, they all offer the sort of lessons that can’t be learned from a PowerPoint presentation, only by things going badly wrong in real time.Jim’s here to pass his hard won lessons on to you. And watch out for pterodactyls!
Symphony of Terror
The Mumbai incident, perpetrated by a squad of ten terrorists who had been through a rigorous selection and training process, introduced multiple novel problems worth considering. What happens when there are multiple shooters at different scenes simultaneously? When they have access to serious arms, including grenades, possibly provided by a foreign actor? When they use structure fires as a weapon? When they have outside command-and-control monitoring the news and communicating with the shooters via cell phone? These and other complications inherent in an attack like this are examined in this episode.
A Scared Cop is a Dangerous Cop
The most notorious manifestation of this phenomenon is the “’Oh Sh*t!’ Bang”, where a scared or startled cop results in a lawful-but-awful shooting that might have been avoided by better stress management and more confidence in the officer’s physical skills. However, Mike also explains the many other places that the poorly managed limbic response can rear its ugly head: Bad communication in stressful situations, indecision or half-decisions that allow a developing situation to get much worse, and more.
Mandalay Bay Mass Shooting Debrief w/ SWAT Commander & Patrol Sergeant
The largest mass murder in the US since September 11th shook the country on October 1, 2017 at the Route 91 Country Music Festival, leaving 58 (now 60) people dead and countless others wounded. We sat down with retired LVMPD Lt. Will Huddler and Sgt. Ashton Packe to hear their stories and lessons learned.
Countering the Stalker
Stalking is a problem that often isn’t recognized until it’s well out of hand, and advice from friends and relatives is often limited to platitudes about restraining orders or buying a gun. Our hosts take a look at the nuts and bolts of the problem with an eye to strategy and the recognition that legal solutions can be frustratingly time consuming.
Training: The Good, The Bad & The Dangerous
In a crossover episode of Tactical Tangents, Mike sits down with Danimal of The Thin Brewed Line to talk about setting up a training program to keep officers alive on the streets…and in the training environment. In a dangerous profession, the danger shouldn’t be coming from inside the program!
The Big Ideas: What We’re All About
What are we doing here and why are we doing it? With an assist from Mike, Jim lays out the secret; the keys to the whole mission of Tactical Tangents. These are the key concepts to helping the Doers do things better in the tactical world, whether military, law enforcement, or general personal defense.
From Waco to Uvalde, and Combat Planning to Zombie Prepping, Jim walks us through the key ideas in the Tactical Tangents Podcast. We hit OODA Loops, Flight Safety, Shooting Training, Talent Selection, and Personal Resilience.
Instant Expertise (just add experience)
It’s easy to find yourself thrust into a position where others regard you as an ”expert”, but what really constitutes expertise? Do you have it? Can it be acquired? When will you feel like you have it? (And why feeling like an expert should be a warning sign…)
What makes an expert? Are you one? Do your friends or your employer consider you one? How does one go about seeking expertise? Relatedly, it’s a big and confusing internet out there and every day you are confronted with people who claim to be experts. Jim and Mike have some tips for separating the expert wheat from the poser chaff, especially when that purported expert is in the mirror.
Mandalay Bay Mass Shooting Debrief w/ SWAT Commander & Patrol Sergeant
The largest mass murder in the US since September 11th shook the country on October 1, 2017 at the Route 91 Country Music Festival, leaving 58 (now 60) people dead and countless others wounded. We sat down with retired LVMPD Lt. Will Huddler and Sgt. Ashton Packe to hear their stories and lessons learned.
Countering the Stalker
Stalking is a problem that often isn’t recognized until it’s well out of hand, and advice from friends and relatives is often limited to platitudes about restraining orders or buying a gun. Our hosts take a look at the nuts and bolts of the problem with an eye to strategy and the recognition that legal solutions can be frustratingly time consuming.
Training: The Good, The Bad & The Dangerous
In a crossover episode of Tactical Tangents, Mike sits down with Danimal of The Thin Brewed Line to talk about setting up a training program to keep officers alive on the streets…and in the training environment. In a dangerous profession, the danger shouldn’t be coming from inside the program!
The Big Ideas: What We’re All About
What are we doing here and why are we doing it? With an assist from Mike, Jim lays out the secret; the keys to the whole mission of Tactical Tangents. These are the key concepts to helping the Doers do things better in the tactical world, whether military, law enforcement, or general personal defense.
From Waco to Uvalde, and Combat Planning to Zombie Prepping, Jim walks us through the key ideas in the Tactical Tangents Podcast. We hit OODA Loops, Flight Safety, Shooting Training, Talent Selection, and Personal Resilience.
Instant Expertise (just add experience)
It’s easy to find yourself thrust into a position where others regard you as an ”expert”, but what really constitutes expertise? Do you have it? Can it be acquired? When will you feel like you have it? (And why feeling like an expert should be a warning sign…)
What makes an expert? Are you one? Do your friends or your employer consider you one? How does one go about seeking expertise? Relatedly, it’s a big and confusing internet out there and every day you are confronted with people who claim to be experts. Jim and Mike have some tips for separating the expert wheat from the poser chaff, especially when that purported expert is in the mirror.
Tactical Case for Restraint
One of the key flaws in civilian tactical training is how much time and effort we put into shooting and fighting skills and how little time and effort we put into conflict resolution. If all we teach is shooting, and the one tool in your “toolbox” is carbine skills, then the whole world might tend to look like a shooting range to you. That is a dangerous habit pattern…
Philando Castile
In July 2016 a police officer in Minnesota stopped a car and the driver informed the officer that he was armed. The driver was apparently reaching for his wallet, but the officer perceived that he was reaching for the gun. The officer gave him instructions to not reach for it, the driver said that he wasn’t, and somewhere in the mix the officer shot and killed him. The driver’s name was Philando Castile. The officer was charged with manslaughter but was acquitted by a jury. He was fired by his agency.
Riting for Cops
Poor writing kills cops. It kills cops because it doesn’t play well in the media or in court. That stilted pseudo-professional way of writing in passive voice makes cops sound intentionally opaque, robotic, and incompetent. Bad writing invites scrutiny, ridicule, and enhanced oversight by people who are far-removed from tactical reality…
Gun Handling
CAREFUL WITH THAT THING!There’s a video going around that shows a group of officers clearing a...
The X, Defined
FIGHT OFF THE X: Tactics for actions upon contact with a lethal threat in an ambush have remained relatively unchanged since I began my professional life in a world where something like that was a reality…
Balance: Training and Life
BALANCE: THE TOTAL PACKAGE We have a saying in dog training that you don’t fix one problem without...
Threat Assessment
THREAT ASSESSMENT; Threats of harm should always be taken seriously, but in many cases the person making the threat is only trying to exploit their victim or elicit a reaction for a perceived wrongdoing.
Two Types of Learners
TWO TYPES OF LEARNERS Psychologist Carol Dweck is known for her work on implicit theories of...