Sheepdog Tip of the Day, Before Combat tip 41
When learning skills and ingraining them as muscle memory or autopilot responses, it is important that only one way be taught. W.E. Hicks' 1952 study found that as the possible responses increased from one to two, reaction time increased by 58 percent. In other words, having to choose between options takes time, and the more options you have, the greater the reaction time. This is often referred to as Hicks' Law, but Sun Tzu said the same thing many centuries ago: "The more possibilities you present to the enemy, the more diffuse he is forced to become. The more diffuse he becomes, the more difficult it is for him to concentrate sufficiently to make a successful attack." We want to confuse the enemy with a variety of possibilities, but we do not want to do that to ourselves.
Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, On Combat
Sheepdog Tip of the Day services:
Follow SheepdogTip on Twitter Tip Memorization Songs
Other killology services:
Bullet Proof Mind for the Armed Citizen Seminar
The Killology web site
Additional Resources
For PTSD, Shepherd Resource Group.