Survival and Survival

After three+ days of private lessons and brawling with the Rochester Crew (Official Motto: "It's your move.") Spent another four days in Sonyea State Forest on a survival course led by Toby Cowern of Tread Lightly (who I will link if he ever gets his own damn website.)

Struck, maybe slammed by the similarities in what we teach and how we teach it. I shouldn't be, I've known since I butchered my first deer that survival was survival. Toby teaches the mindset and skills for one set of problems, I teach for a slightly different set. But the mindsets are very similar. As they should be. The only big difference is the immediacy of time in my world, but both scenarios hang on a common thread: If you don't do something, you will die. (And if you do the wrong thing, you will die quicker.)

So Toby teaches that the first thing you must do is acknowledge the situation for what it is. You ARE lost. This IS a survival situation... and Peyton Quinn teaches that the first rule of surviving an assault is: Do not deny it is happening.

Because this is where we see people die. Peyton with victims freezing in denial, Toby with people who had the equipment and didn't want to break the seal on their emergency kit.

Toby teaches that if your primary problem is in the future, it may be a motivator but it is not a survival issue. I remind students that survival fighting is on the lowest level of Maslow's hierarchy, and most in our society have no experience with the two lowest levels at all.

Toby teaches Stop and Think as his first two steps to recovery. I borrow from Gordon Graham and apply it to violence and tactical operations: If there is no immediate threat, you have discretionary time. Use it. Think. Plan. (And this is the biggest difference in mindsets- in a wilderness survival situation, discretionary time is common. In an assault it is a precious gift.)

Toby says, "As mammals, we're crap. We shouldn't be at the top of the food chain, except for our brains." He then adds that your brain will be your biggest help or it will hurt you a lot. Sound familiar?

The essence of survival when you are lost is to attract attention. One of the best tactics in survival fighting is to attract witnesses...

So who said these, do you think? The wilderness survival instructor or the guy who deals with thug stuff?

"Deal with the immediate threat first."

"Make your plan and then act on it. Do not change the plan unless you get new and relevant information."

"Will is more important than skill is more important than equipment."

"Do things as efficiently as possible with the minimum movement."

"Be prepared to do whatever it takes."

Survival is survival. To an extent.