If you want to develop big biceps, don’t do squats, and if you want to get stronger/bigger legs don’t do bicep curls. In weight/resistance training this is known as specificity or SAID (Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands) i.e., your body will make exact, targeted adaptations based on the specific demands you place upon it e.g., if you target your biceps and increase the weight/load you place on them they will get stronger etc. Bicep training doesn’t cross over into developing stronger legs. This seems, or should seem, obvious, however we often have “blind spots” concerning specificity in other areas e.g., I once worked with a combat medic who served during the Falklands Conflict, who went on to be a firefighter, and later worked in security on the door, who was paralyzed by public speaking. This was a man who kept a cool head under fire, ran into burning buildings etc., but if you asked him to speak to even the smallest of crowds fell apart and developed a stutter. He had learnt to manage and control his fear in certain contexts but was unable to apply that same fear management and control in others. This is important to understand when we come to look at fear management/control when dealing with aggressive and/or violent individuals. Just because we are good at managing fear in one context doesn’t mean we are good at managing fear in all.

                One of the most important factors regarding fear management is self-efficacy, which is about believing that you possess the knowledge and skills to influence an outcome. I became much better at de-escalation, after I had successfully de-escalated situations that would otherwise have become violent incidents because I started to believe I was able to control and influence the outcome. However, my confidence, and my fear-management in dealing with highly aggressive verbal confrontations and conflicts, has aided me little with my fear of heights. Learning to manage fear in one context didn’t translate to another e.g., when I tried to address it through rock climbing, at an indoor gym, with all the safety equipment on, I still couldn’t because I didn’t trust in my ability to control the outcome. I would guess that if I’d stuck with it long enough and started to feel a sense of control, I’d have learnt to manage that fear better, however that wouldn’t necessarily mean I’d have been able to climb up the ladder (75-100 feet) of a fire truck; different context, different fear management. My training in a similar context (rock climbing) would aid me in my ability to control a fear of heights, but it wouldn’t be directly translatable, as there is still a number of major differences between being indoors with a partner looking out for your safety, and climbing a ladder on your own with the wind blowing etc.

                Repeated exposure to a specific threat can produce what is known as habituation, i.e., a stimulus that initially produced a strong response may become less emotionally powerful when repeatedly experienced without any serious consequences. I remember the first time someone physically threatened me when I was working on the door. Even though I wasn’t naïve enough to believe this didn’t happen, experiencing it was another matter. After a couple of months, experiencing such behavior routinely, it didn’t arouse the same emotional reaction as it initially did. This doesn’t mean the original emotional state disappeared completely. I don’t know of anyone who worked door security who operated in a state of Zen calmness, and I’ve seen even the “coolest” operator overreact etc., however when you are continually exposed to something and nine times out of ten nothing bad happens, either because you’ve been able to control the situation, or you realize which types of threat are hollow and which are real etc., it becomes much easier to control the initial and natural fear you once felt. Once again, the ability to control and manage fear in that context doesn’t mean it translates into others.

                This also goes for fighting. I’ve known great boxers and martial artists who were 100% confident going into the ring, but feared a verbal altercation in a parking lot, with an unathletic, incompetent idiot. Equally, I’ve known people who had no fear of dealing with people in real-life confrontations but were scared to put on a pair of gloves and step into the ring. This is where the concept of specificity comes in. Whilst sparring is an important training tool, on its own it doesn’t replicate many of the factors that are present in real-life confrontations, and I’m not even getting into the potential presence of weapons, banned techniques and multiple attackers etc. A sparring match is controlled and has defined outcomes e.g., it ends after a period of time, when a number of points have been scored, a pin has been secured for a certain amount of time, or a person “taps” due to a submission etc. When you are confronted with a highly emotional and aggressive individual in a pub/bar it is the fear of uncertainty which has to be managed. The fear management that rock climbers, combat medics and firefighters have developed due to exposure, through training and experience etc., don’t translate. The uncertainties in those fields, don’t translate to this type of threat, however confident they may be before the incident.

                I rarely worked door security on my own, and it was always a different experience to working security as part of a team. When you’re part of a team you know that someone has your back. Theoretically, it’s the same job, however when you’re on your own, it’s a different context to when you have support, and are part of something bigger etc. This is where scenario-based training, that has multiple outcomes,  rather than one “successful” one becomes extremely important. Building “uncertainty” into your training, in a safe manner, helps to develop fear management. Some of the best training experiences I’ve had are the ones where you go “they’ll never makes us do that”, and then they do. This isn’t an excuse for some of the reckless training that I experienced in my youth, but an opportunity to deal with the fear of uncertainty, in the contexts in which we are likely to experience it.