Human Physiology During the Gunfight
It's been awhile since I've written something to give you guidance and after looking at all the articles I've written, there is one thing I haven't touched base on and that is what you will experience in the furball. What your body will do during the fight whether it's hand-to-gland or the gunfight. Let's touch up on some of the most basic areas that I think most of us will experience, and on a few points on how it will affect us in a furball;
This is the big one. This is the one that starts the ball rolling on everything else. You've heard of it before I'm sure but most of you out there haven't experienced it since you got into that fistfight with that other k** in 5th grade. You can try to simulate it by running a bit before you engage and some have volunteered for that adrenaline injection like I did many years ago for a simulated exercise. You will notice immediately that you feel different. It's like if you took a hand fill of No-Doze, speed and washed it down with Red Bull and a pot of coffee. Some negotiate it very well while others, meaning most have a hard time with some of them and some folks shut down and curl up into a fetal position and cry. Let's look at the side effects of this enigma.
Your heart will normally beat about 65-85 beats per minute. This is your static rate. No more, no less. It's how your body's physiology is made up to pump blood into the system. When you get excited or when your body dumps that adrenaline to a fight or flight mode, your heart rate climbs as high as 140-180 beats a minute. What it's doing is pumping blood and oxygen cells through your system whether you're fleeing that lion you came across on the Serengeti Plains or pumps blood in your system just in case you were wounded by that same lion. It's trying to get needed oxygen throughout your system so you can handle whatever ails you. Remember when I've written about that the human body is resilient? You can put multiple rounds into someone but always remember that unlike Hollywood stereotypes, someone with multiple rounds into the torso will eventually die if untreated but still has enough time to take you to the Great Void with them because of this. So if you get into a justified shoot one day, be very wary and very careful of your downed opponent. They may still have the ability to do some incredible damage before they truly leave for the Void.
As your heart races, your respiration also increases. Simply put, the heart cannot distribute the oxygen through your system unless you're intake increases as well. This is why your breaths become more rapid. Your normal respiration will be from 12-18 breaths per minute. Once the adrenaline dump occurs, it will rise up to 30-50 breaths per minute. As this occurs, you will also know that your chest will be heaving and you will move more noticeably like what you'd do if you ran five flights of stairs. You will feel as if you're out of breath but you're not. Your body maybe straining a bit to handle the workload but you'll still have enough oxygen to survive and fight. Your body is just increasing the intake to distribute the oxygen through your system.
With the Big Three that I wrote about, strange things happen. Remember why your body is doing this. It's to keep you alive in case you are wounded and or keeping your body filled with oxygen. It's our natural physiology and human evolution when it comes to fight or flight.
Here are a few of the things you can look forward to in case you get into any type of furball in the future. Sometimes all of them will happen at once. Sometimes just a few and in rare cases, only one or two will happen.
Have you seen or heard of the adage of "scaring the piss or sh*t" out of someone? It's true. It happens. At times when you've got that full morning pot of coffee and prune danish still brewing in your guts and that adrenaline dump occurs, your bladder and bowels will just let go. For some folks, they just can't help it. Some folks are just wired that way but thankfully that hasn't happened to me yet. I'm no anthropologist nor human biologist but I've survived a few fights and I've seen it occur and have been told that it's just how the body gets rid of the dead weight in order to get faster for the flight or fight. Like how a python will regurgitate whatever it's eaten to get away. Although it's not dignified, I would still advocate that I'd rather piss my pants than be the loser in the gunfight. Some folks are touchy and can literally piss their pants just by scaring them really well. Some folks do it after they leave for the Great Void and quite a few will do it during a fight. It's just that weird wiring that some folks have. If it happens, know that it's natural but I would never advertise it.
There are times where you'll focus on one skill in a fight or flight situation and all of the sudden, you go into this mode where all you think about is the task at hand rather than the overall situation. This can be deadly for obvious reasons. The best way I can describe it is if someone is shooting at you and all you can think of is getting your weapon out and engaging but you fail to find cover first. As you can imagine, this tunnel vision is narrows your ability to be aware of other threats. Are there threats to your flank that can send you to the Void? Be careful and try to avoid this. It could prove deadly for you and others around you in a furball. Your life depends on it.
"Going Stupid" is a good way to describe this and think "Cool as a Cucumber" as the counter. Keeping your head in the fight and negotiate the obstacle, not the other way around. I'm sure we've all experienced life where we forget the small things that matter. Oops! Like making coffee in the morning. We're not firing on all cylinders knowing full well that we have to fill the coffee maker with water, setting up the coffee and filter and closing the lid. Imagine if you forgot to close the lid, the coffee won't brew. Imagine forgetting to fill it with water, the coffee won't brew. Imagine doing everything but then you forget to put in that scoop of coffee...you'll just have a pot of hot water. Now imagine working with a pistol or rifle. You and I both know that there is a sequence of events that have to occur if you want your bullets on target. It's the same thing at times. We just "go stupid" and forget the little things that matter, except when it comes to the fight, mistakes in this arena will cost you either time, effort or lives. This is where muscle memory comes in. This is why trainers use repetition to train muscle groups to react to a shooting situation the same way. However, I'd like to add this since it's important. If you train badly or do something repetitively oddball during that training, you will also do it in a shoot situation. Case in point, look at the Miami FBI Bank Shootout. During days of the revolver, the FBI range in Quantico trained it's agents to stack their empty casings to keep accountable for all the rounds they fired. When the dead agents were photographed where they were found...behind a bumper of a vehicle, the picture showed that they had regressed to muscle memory and stacked their empty shells on the bumper of the vehicle when they should have dumped, reloaded and re-engaged. The muscle memory took over and as a result, they were killed as they were stacking their shells. That's a crying shame don't you think? Muscle memory equals repetitive training but it must be done right because most likely in a high stress situation, you will revert to it when things are shutting down around you. Don't let this happen to you. Think before, through and after the fight.
Have you ever gotten so pissed off you were shaking and you shook for a few minutes afterwards post event? The same thing happens in a stress situation. Your body is negotiating all the chemicals that the adrenaline dump is giving you and like I've written above, it could even hamper your bladder and bowels. Your ability to run, manipulate weapons and simple movement will occur. In 9 out of 10 folks, this is the one that happens to most folks. Simple tasks like reloading will feel labored and you may have the shakes so bad that you can't even aim well. Sometimes the shakes comes from muscle failure or lack of oxygen. So imagine you get an old fat ass like me running around the PT track and all of the sudden I get into a shooting situation in the parking lot. Will I strain a bit? Yes I will. Since I left the Army and my days of security subcontracting are gone now and I've lost my girlish figure. Plus I smoke a pack a day. So, will I have a comparably harder time engaging a younger, more fit opponent? Yes I would but hopefully my experience will equalize the situation which would be most likely more substantial than my opponent. Motor Coordination is affected in different ways from adrenaline dumps to body conditioning. Just keep in mind that it may hamper you in a shoot situation or any fight where motor coordination may be mandatory to success.
Even if you had the luxury of knowing you're about to go into a fight; like a soldier knowing they were about to get into a gunfight, the anxiety starts and questions pop up in their heads. All the "what if's", "how could I's" and "will I" questions will emerge. There is no cure for this. It is a sink or swim and pass or fail challenge. As a former soldier, I've asked the same questions in my head as I literally awaited the red light to turn green and jump into the fray as I shuffled up the door of a C-141 Starlifter. I'm sure my predecessors asked the same nagging questions in their minds from Paratroopers flying over Normandy, French Foreign Legion troops fighting in Mexico, British soldiers fighting the French at Waterloo to the Roman Centurion fighting the Visigoths in Germania. For tens of thousand years have evolved combat and millions of uniforms and equipment have changed but millions and millions of warriors have come before me only to ask the same questions. There is no shame to ask them but alas, there is no cure for this. There really is no explanation for this. It is what it is and you'll just have to accept the Zen moment for what it is. It is all about training, muscle memory, self discipline and unit cohesion. To understand the art of war is to learn about the art of war. To understand the art of individual combat, you learn the nuances of individual combat the best you can and you do your very best to survive the day. It's a lot like telling your buddy all about the act of sex when you were in high school. You can teach them all the nuances but unless they experience the act themselves, it's still not the same. They have to just experience it. It's a different subject all together but the principle is still the same. It will just have to be experienced.
All the things written about above is merely the tip of the iceberg. There are many little things that could involuntarily occur. Maybe there's a few items I've neglected to write about. If you know of any please share them with the rest of the team here. There are even little things that happen due to our own particular characteristics. For instance, I have hydrosis of the scalp and upper body. Meaning, I sweat like crazy in a stress situation. It's just one of the little personal nuisances I've learned to negotiate past. Maybe you have something that happens to you. If so, share it with the team.
This is the big one. This is the one that starts the ball rolling on everything else. You've heard of it before I'm sure but most of you out there haven't experienced it since you got into that fistfight with that other k** in 5th grade. You can try to simulate it by running a bit before you engage and some have volunteered for that adrenaline injection like I did many years ago for a simulated exercise. You will notice immediately that you feel different. It's like if you took a hand fill of No-Doze, speed and washed it down with Red Bull and a pot of coffee. Some negotiate it very well while others, meaning most have a hard time with some of them and some folks shut down and curl up into a fetal position and cry. Let's look at the side effects of this enigma.
Your heart will normally beat about 65-85 beats per minute. This is your static rate. No more, no less. It's how your body's physiology is made up to pump blood into the system. When you get excited or when your body dumps that adrenaline to a fight or flight mode, your heart rate climbs as high as 140-180 beats a minute. What it's doing is pumping blood and oxygen cells through your system whether you're fleeing that lion you came across on the Serengeti Plains or pumps blood in your system just in case you were wounded by that same lion. It's trying to get needed oxygen throughout your system so you can handle whatever ails you. Remember when I've written about that the human body is resilient? You can put multiple rounds into someone but always remember that unlike Hollywood stereotypes, someone with multiple rounds into the torso will eventually die if untreated but still has enough time to take you to the Great Void with them because of this. So if you get into a justified shoot one day, be very wary and very careful of your downed opponent. They may still have the ability to do some incredible damage before they truly leave for the Void.
As your heart races, your respiration also increases. Simply put, the heart cannot distribute the oxygen through your system unless you're intake increases as well. This is why your breaths become more rapid. Your normal respiration will be from 12-18 breaths per minute. Once the adrenaline dump occurs, it will rise up to 30-50 breaths per minute. As this occurs, you will also know that your chest will be heaving and you will move more noticeably like what you'd do if you ran five flights of stairs. You will feel as if you're out of breath but you're not. Your body maybe straining a bit to handle the workload but you'll still have enough oxygen to survive and fight. Your body is just increasing the intake to distribute the oxygen through your system.
With the Big Three that I wrote about, strange things happen. Remember why your body is doing this. It's to keep you alive in case you are wounded and or keeping your body filled with oxygen. It's our natural physiology and human evolution when it comes to fight or flight.
Here are a few of the things you can look forward to in case you get into any type of furball in the future. Sometimes all of them will happen at once. Sometimes just a few and in rare cases, only one or two will happen.
Have you seen or heard of the adage of "scaring the piss or sh*t" out of someone? It's true. It happens. At times when you've got that full morning pot of coffee and prune danish still brewing in your guts and that adrenaline dump occurs, your bladder and bowels will just let go. For some folks, they just can't help it. Some folks are just wired that way but thankfully that hasn't happened to me yet. I'm no anthropologist nor human biologist but I've survived a few fights and I've seen it occur and have been told that it's just how the body gets rid of the dead weight in order to get faster for the flight or fight. Like how a python will regurgitate whatever it's eaten to get away. Although it's not dignified, I would still advocate that I'd rather piss my pants than be the loser in the gunfight. Some folks are touchy and can literally piss their pants just by scaring them really well. Some folks do it after they leave for the Great Void and quite a few will do it during a fight. It's just that weird wiring that some folks have. If it happens, know that it's natural but I would never advertise it.
There are times where you'll focus on one skill in a fight or flight situation and all of the sudden, you go into this mode where all you think about is the task at hand rather than the overall situation. This can be deadly for obvious reasons. The best way I can describe it is if someone is shooting at you and all you can think of is getting your weapon out and engaging but you fail to find cover first. As you can imagine, this tunnel vision is narrows your ability to be aware of other threats. Are there threats to your flank that can send you to the Void? Be careful and try to avoid this. It could prove deadly for you and others around you in a furball. Your life depends on it.
"Going Stupid" is a good way to describe this and think "Cool as a Cucumber" as the counter. Keeping your head in the fight and negotiate the obstacle, not the other way around. I'm sure we've all experienced life where we forget the small things that matter. Oops! Like making coffee in the morning. We're not firing on all cylinders knowing full well that we have to fill the coffee maker with water, setting up the coffee and filter and closing the lid. Imagine if you forgot to close the lid, the coffee won't brew. Imagine forgetting to fill it with water, the coffee won't brew. Imagine doing everything but then you forget to put in that scoop of coffee...you'll just have a pot of hot water. Now imagine working with a pistol or rifle. You and I both know that there is a sequence of events that have to occur if you want your bullets on target. It's the same thing at times. We just "go stupid" and forget the little things that matter, except when it comes to the fight, mistakes in this arena will cost you either time, effort or lives. This is where muscle memory comes in. This is why trainers use repetition to train muscle groups to react to a shooting situation the same way. However, I'd like to add this since it's important. If you train badly or do something repetitively oddball during that training, you will also do it in a shoot situation. Case in point, look at the Miami FBI Bank Shootout. During days of the revolver, the FBI range in Quantico trained it's agents to stack their empty casings to keep accountable for all the rounds they fired. When the dead agents were photographed where they were found...behind a bumper of a vehicle, the picture showed that they had regressed to muscle memory and stacked their empty shells on the bumper of the vehicle when they should have dumped, reloaded and re-engaged. The muscle memory took over and as a result, they were killed as they were stacking their shells. That's a crying shame don't you think? Muscle memory equals repetitive training but it must be done right because most likely in a high stress situation, you will revert to it when things are shutting down around you. Don't let this happen to you. Think before, through and after the fight.
Have you ever gotten so pissed off you were shaking and you shook for a few minutes afterwards post event? The same thing happens in a stress situation. Your body is negotiating all the chemicals that the adrenaline dump is giving you and like I've written above, it could even hamper your bladder and bowels. Your ability to run, manipulate weapons and simple movement will occur. In 9 out of 10 folks, this is the one that happens to most folks. Simple tasks like reloading will feel labored and you may have the shakes so bad that you can't even aim well. Sometimes the shakes comes from muscle failure or lack of oxygen. So imagine you get an old fat ass like me running around the PT track and all of the sudden I get into a shooting situation in the parking lot. Will I strain a bit? Yes I will. Since I left the Army and my days of security subcontracting are gone now and I've lost my girlish figure. Plus I smoke a pack a day. So, will I have a comparably harder time engaging a younger, more fit opponent? Yes I would but hopefully my experience will equalize the situation which would be most likely more substantial than my opponent. Motor Coordination is affected in different ways from adrenaline dumps to body conditioning. Just keep in mind that it may hamper you in a shoot situation or any fight where motor coordination may be mandatory to success.
Even if you had the luxury of knowing you're about to go into a fight; like a soldier knowing they were about to get into a gunfight, the anxiety starts and questions pop up in their heads. All the "what if's", "how could I's" and "will I" questions will emerge. There is no cure for this. It is a sink or swim and pass or fail challenge. As a former soldier, I've asked the same questions in my head as I literally awaited the red light to turn green and jump into the fray as I shuffled up the door of a C-141 Starlifter. I'm sure my predecessors asked the same nagging questions in their minds from Paratroopers flying over Normandy, French Foreign Legion troops fighting in Mexico, British soldiers fighting the French at Waterloo to the Roman Centurion fighting the Visigoths in Germania. For tens of thousand years have evolved combat and millions of uniforms and equipment have changed but millions and millions of warriors have come before me only to ask the same questions. There is no shame to ask them but alas, there is no cure for this. There really is no explanation for this. It is what it is and you'll just have to accept the Zen moment for what it is. It is all about training, muscle memory, self discipline and unit cohesion. To understand the art of war is to learn about the art of war. To understand the art of individual combat, you learn the nuances of individual combat the best you can and you do your very best to survive the day. It's a lot like telling your buddy all about the act of sex when you were in high school. You can teach them all the nuances but unless they experience the act themselves, it's still not the same. They have to just experience it. It's a different subject all together but the principle is still the same. It will just have to be experienced.
All the things written about above is merely the tip of the iceberg. There are many little things that could involuntarily occur. Maybe there's a few items I've neglected to write about. If you know of any please share them with the rest of the team here. There are even little things that happen due to our own particular characteristics. For instance, I have hydrosis of the scalp and upper body. Meaning, I sweat like crazy in a stress situation. It's just one of the little personal nuisances I've learned to negotiate past. Maybe you have something that happens to you. If so, share it with the team.
9 years ago