Originally Posted By: Pete
I did talk to one guy who worked as a Gov't agent for many years. He said he had been in one real exchange of gunfire. His comment was that his heart was beating so fast, and he was so preoccupied with the situation, that he actually didn't remember even drawing his weapon. Next thing he knew - his pistol was in his hand and he was firing at the attackers. So there's a situation where "training took over".


This is very normal. The saying goes something like "you won't rise to the occasion, you will fall to the level of your training."

I've taken classes that included stress inoculation -- force-on-force scenarios designed to cause a full-on body alarm reaction. I experienced tachycardia, and a degree of tunnel vision and auditory exclusion, even knowing that we were using Simunitions and it wasn't real. The more we did the easier it got, and my physical symptoms of stress were reduced.