Great Article ~ OODA ~ combat mind set

[Diablo]

Mental Preparation for Confrontation
by C. Allen Reed, Kaiden
@2004 C. Allen Reed
Training in the martial arts does not involve just learning the physical skill involved in fighting. You must also learn when to fight, when not to fight, and/or how to avoid getting into a fight. The concepts discussed in this article will help you make these decisions.

Awareness Color Code
The Awareness Color Code was developed by Col. Jeff Cooper, a famous firearms instructor and one of the founders of the International Pistol Shooting Confederation (IPSC). Cooper’s Color Code consists of four levels each of which is represented by a color; white, yellow, orange and red. The colors are symbols of the state of awareness you want to maintain to survive a possible confrontation.

I like to use the analogy of driving a car.
White- Remember the last time you blew through an intersection and then realized there had been a stop sign? Or the last time you were stopped at a red light and the driver behind you had to honk his horn to remind you the light had changed to green? Both of these times you were in white. In other words, you were daydreaming or thinking of something else instead of being focused on what was going on around you. Think about the times that someone you know has passed you in the hall and you weren’t aware of them being there until they were right on top of you. Yup, you were in white. Most people spend most of their lives in white, which is why so many crime victims claim they never saw their attacker until the attack had begun.
Yellow- This is the state of relaxed alertness you want to be in at all times. This is the state of awareness your driver’s ed teacher meant when he told you to be a defensive driver. Being in yellow means you are constantly scanning the world around you, checking for possible problems. You are looking in the rearview mirror for that rapidly approaching car that is weaving in and out of traffic. You are looking ahead to see the lights of the police car off on one side of the road. You are looking for someone who may be hiding in the shadows near the entrance to your apartment building.
Orange- In this state something has alerted you to a possible problem and you are prepared to make a decision and act on it. The ball bouncing out into the street from between parked cars is a famous problem from your days in driver’s ed. The car that seems to be going just a bit too fast at the intersection up ahead, as if the driver has not seen the stop sign on his side of the intersection. The guy loitering near your car in the parking lot for no apparent reason. These are all possible problems that you may need to solve very quickly.
Red- In red the bouncing ball was followed by the kid; the other driver did fail to stop at the stop sign; the guy loitering by your car is now rapidly approaching you. In other words, the crisis has arrived, and if you do not make the right decision and make it right now, you could be seriously hurt.

OODA Loop
Col. John Boyd of the U.S. Air Force came up with the idea of the OODA Loop. Boyd’s contention was that in any confrontation, whether between individuals or armies, both sides have to go through a four-step analysis of the situation. These four steps are; Observe, Orient, Decide and Act (OODA). Boyd argued that in a confrontation the side that ran through its OODA Loop first and cut inside the opponent’s OODA loop, much like a fighter plane getting inside another plane’s loop, would win the confrontation.
The problem in most criminal situations is that the attacker has already completed the first three of the four steps so the defender has to react very quickly to catch up. However, the person being attacked has one advantage: the attacker will assume that the surprise and shock of the attack will disconnect the defender from his OODA Loop. Yet if the defender has been using his Awareness Color Codes correctly (see above) he should have already been going through his OODA Loop and be prepared to short circuit the attack.

Determining Your Response in a Confrontation
When you are in a confrontation you must keep three words in mind to help you decide on your response to the assault; Ability, Opportunity and Jeopardy .
Ability- What ability does the attacker have to injure you? Is the attacker making verbal threats but not being physically aggressive? Is the attacker armed with a weapon? If he is armed, what kind of weapon is it? Is it a contact weapon like a knife, or is it a weapon that can be used at a distance like a gun?
Opportunity- Does the attacker have the literal opportunity to hurt you even if a weapon is involved? If you are locked in your car and the attacker is banging on the hood and making verbal threats, you probably don’t have the right to run him down. Is the attacker armed with a knife but standing across the street? Are you inside your house or apartment? Are you incapacitated in some way, e.g. already using a cane to get around or in a wheel chair?
Jeopardy- How do you feel about the threat from the attacker? Is it a twelve year old kid with a pen knife threatening to kill you? Or a six foot man with a twelve-inch bowie knife who is ten feet away and he can reach you in one step? Can you slam and lock the door of your house and make it to the phone to call the police before the drunk at the door carries through with his threat to beat you up? Are you a woman who is only five feet two inches tall, confronted by three men all taller and heavier than you are? Each situation will determine how you feel about the jeopardy you are in.
When involved in a confrontation you must use those three words; Ability, Opportunity and Jeopardy to analyze the level of force being used against you and how much, or little, force you will need to respond. Obviously you often will need to make this analysis very quickly, but if you have been using your Awareness Color Code and your OODA Loop you should be able to make the analysis and your decision correctly.

[swdr]

Nice article. He seems to have left off the last half, tho.

[wcpassegai]

I stumbled on your posting just now. I was amazed to see that he had mentioned the three giants of what I term Tactical PHilosophy in one article - Boyd, Cooper and Bruce Lee. Boyd's presentations provide a superb structure for how to think your way through combat. Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do is still revolutionizing the martial arts, and Jeff Cooper started everyone down that same road in connection with armed confrontations.

One of my favorite Bruce Lee quotations is "Freedom of expression towards the ultimate reality of combat is the goal of all martial artists." If you took the effort to understand all three of these men you would have a superb foundation.

Thank you for the contribution.