Law enforcement, military, and uniformed security goes through the rigorous lessons of tactical training. This training hones the skills you absolutely need to survive in violent encounters and survival in and up to the worst imaginable situations from being under fire from hostiles, patching up a wound during a battle, and surviving in the middle of the harshest climates.
As a civilian, it might be easy to conclude you wouldn't ever encounter a situation that would require the same training for everyday life. But tactical training and know-how can help save any life in any setting, especially everyday life.
Anyone who has undergone tactical training can tell you that the skills and knowledge you gain can become invaluable, whether you're a civilian or not.
What To Do if Your Life is Threatened
Fear can make people do, say and think things that could risk their lives even further. If you don't know how to keep your head in dangerous situations, they could end up deadly. Tactical training can teach you the know-how you need as well as the skills needed to make the right decisions under the worst conditions whether you're facing armed combat or unarmed. Good tactical training courses will mimic self-defense techniques and situations the military provides for its recruits during boot camp, with civilian training courses becoming more specialized.
The goal of any tactical training is to arm you with the knowledge of what to do during crisis. When you're under pressure making a snap decision can change the outcome in seconds. You need the mental clarity and strength to be able to do so. Many tactical training courses will expose you to these stressors and pressurized atmospheres to condition you to think clearly and be prepared.
The United States Supreme Court under constitutional authority allows every citizen the right to keep and bear arms in their residence, barring they aren't in a prohibited category. Safe and effective usage of these firearms requires mental preparation, legal knowledge, and judgmental awareness as well as firearm expertise, skill, and familiarity. The military instills these principles. Law enforcement undergoes rigorous training… but do civilians?
You may know how to use a weapon already, but perhaps law enforcement or military is not the option for you and your life. Do you know how to shoot from different positions? Do you know how to quickly transition between weapons? Do you know what to do during close quarters? What about clearing a room? Trigger control? How good is your know-how with field-stripping and proper lubrication? Can you tell how to identify and engage targets that are hostile, or will be hostile under fire?
Depending on the tactical training course you take, or your background—training can instill all of this and more. How to change ammo or a magazine, weapons handling skills, understanding and handling a malfunction or shooting behind barricades can all be taught.Safe carrying is as important as self-awareness, accuracy when firing, as well as judging real-life scenarios when using a firearm of any sort and just like anything else, needs to be maintained in order to do it properly. Firearms safety and knowledge can and do deteriorate over time and are skills that should be trained often.
Benefits of Tactical Training in Your Life
The advantages of this type of training are multiple. Effective for anyone who travels frequently, who appear to be easy targets, or for security employment. Driving off a would-be robber or home invader, or worse, can all become possible with tactical training applied in real life.
- The most important advantage of any tactical training is providing you with confidence. Confidence to make the right decisions and actions. Knowing what to do in an emergency will have you knowing what the appropriate action in an emergency is, which may save your life or the life of those around you.
- While not all emergencies come with a warning or warning signs, there are many things you can do to protect yourself by avoiding these situations entirely in advance. Keep your head on a swivel--don't miss anything approaching you from a blind spot. Remaining in control and knowing how to diffuse a possible encounter can be taught in tactical training courses, providing you with the proactive steps you need to maximize potential survival.
- While some courses focus simply on firearms or self-defense, others can focus on tools, techniques, and medical know-how to handle those types of emergencies. Such as what, exactly, should you put in your first aid kit, or military backpack, how to use tactical gear, when to use it, how to use objects near you as defensive weapons and more. Some courses combine all of that and more.
Learn and apply what EMT's, Combat Medics, Paramedics and Emergency First Responders know.
TECC and TCCC (Tactical Emergency Casualty Care and Tactical Combat Casualty Care) programs are, quite literally, lifesavers. Do you know what to do in case of an extreme emergency whether it's an attack, earthquake, aftermath of a hurricane, a car crash or someone wounded in the line of fire? Can you recognize exactly what type of wounds need what, and what to carry in your emergency kits? Do you know how to handle mass casualty incidents?
If any of these questions can't be answered or you hesitate—chances are TECC/TCCC training would be a huge benefit to your life. And if it's been years since your last TECC/TCCC training, it may be time to freshen up those skills. You could save your own life or the lives of the people around you with split-second decisions and immediate care, where every second counts.
TECC/TCCC courses can teach you so many things, up to and including:
- Rapid patient assessment
- Trauma care approach to active shooters
- Mass casualty trauma care
- Wound packing
- Needle decompression
- Effectively stopping massive bleeding
- Gunshot wound characteristics and treatment
- How to use combat gauze, celox and other Hemostatic agents
- Use of tourniquets and other approved CoTCCC tourniquets
- Proper use of direct pressure
- Compression bandage use, commercial and improvised
- Tactical priorities—who to treat, when to escape, when to fight.
- Airway management and emergency airways
- Chest seals, what works and what doesn't straight from the field
- Self-care
- Trauma kit creation and use
- Phases of care and what non-experienced TCCC instructors may not be telling you
- Blast injuries
- Everything you need to know about casualty collection points
Taking a TCCC/TECC course can be applied anywhere at any time. Lessons learned from the battlefield can be applied to the middle of the wilderness by an avid climber, hiker, hunter or climber to survive the absolute worst emergencies that one could encounter.
Lack of resources, extreme weather and delayed transportation to a medical facility can happen at any moment. Your life could be in danger without you even knowing it, or you could be faced with a life-threatening situation at any second. Tactical training is an asset that will teach you how to handle anything, from the simple to the extremes and can be applied to nearly every aspect of your everyday life.