OODA-Redux

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Violence is dynamic as well as time sensitive. Decisions and actions delayed become ineffective just because of the chaos, the constantly changing dynamics. Time is sensitive and competitive for the attacker. How you utilize that time matters, it shortens or lengthens the line or the loop. 

The attacker often presents the attacked with a series if rapid overwhelming, unexpected and damaging situations with which the attacked cannot keep pace making it imperative that training and practice involve the same concepts and methods. 

Conflict is a time-competitive, observation-orientation-decision-action cycles. All involved begin by self-observation as to the situation, surroundings and whomever is their adversary. They have to then orient themselves, i.e., getting a mental picture of the situation. It is necessary due to the fluid chaotic nature of conflicts/violence that makes info-processing slower than simply observing it. Once you have that orientation then you must make a decision. That decision must take into account all the factors at the present moment of the orientation. Finally, implementing your decision making action a priority. Decisions/Actions are a yin/yang dynamic that cannot exist one without the other working together while being seperate. 

Our hope is that our actions will change the situation, not win or lose or whatever, but CHANGE the situation and thus the dynamics hopefully giving the attacked the edge to reverse things into his or her favor. This cycle will continue in each passing moment, present moment, throughout the entire situation. 

The faster you can go through the loop, faster than your adversary, the more advantage you gain increasing your advantage over his, i.e., lengthening your line. If you gain speed in action slowing the adversaries, doing something different, the more he stays in the OO bounce becoming ineffective. 

As long as your actions remain successful and faster in the loop, the more the adversary remains in a "REACTIVE" state leaving you a greater latitude toward freedom of action. The further the attacker falls behind, the greater your success in changing the situation to stopping the damage. 

This is why it is imperative one's ability to detect through observations; first, through observation detecting discomfort then one can further orientate to threat/danger levels while through thin slice processing of previous experiences, training and practices allows instant selection of actions necessary to turn the tide before being hit with surprise, etc. 

"Rapid relentless forcing of an adversary to deal with rapid series of events in order to disorient and GET INSIDE ones adversaries OODA cycle." 

Observation: find discomfort in any form; increase state of readiness; find threat/danger before it finds you and act to avoid or escape-n-evade is a priority. Observation is about body, head and eye movement; the body carries the head, the neck articulates the head, and the eyes are directed from within the head for a full 360 degree observation of environment. This allows our visual sensory system to observe, orient so the mind can decide and act. The eyes are forward in the skull for an initial 210 degree field of view with direct and peripheral visual acuity and rotation of the head and body gives us the remaining field of full 360 degree view, to the side; to the rear; to the area's above our direct line of sight. 

Orientation: Once you have attained solid visual and auditory information, hopefully long before your attacker starts his actions, you orient to the overall situation by detecting discomfort in the situation then in a person or person's who may be set to attack. Put everything in proper perspective based on that data in real time and generated assumptions of threat/danger. 

Decision: They must be practical, efficient and appropriate to the moment, present, situation. Two items, first is the subconscious part that processes millions of variables simultaneously then second, is the conscious mind that works either serially or sequentially, to either disregard/accept information of the incoming data. All done in a compressed time frame assuming all experiences through hands-on, training and practice were accomplished. 

Act: This is the phase where most spend their time in practice of, the physical actions of self-protection, where one applies those physical methodologies necessary in hand-to-hand violence to stop an attack and the resulting damage. It is here we stress that YOUR observations, orientations, and decisions are what allow you to act with relatively minor methods such as avoidance and/or escape-n-evasion or de-escalation that define the self-protection of success removing grave damage or death from the equation. 

These four steps of the loop are what make fro good situational awareness, i.e., the ability to collect, collate, analyze, and store data in a fluid, chaotic and dynamic environment, accurately predicting events based on the data BEFORE they turn into violent conflicts. 

Reference: 
DeBecker, Gavin. “Just 2 Seconds.” DeBecker Center 2008
Appendix 10 “Got a Second? Boyd’s Cycle - OODA Cycle by Ken J. Good, Director, Surefire Institute and Sid Heal, L.A. Sheriff’s Department 

For reference and sources and professionals go here: Bibliography (Click the link)

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