Sheepdog Tip of the Day, During Combat tip 50
For those who don't push the envelope through physical fitness and repetitive training, Condition Gray is generally a realm in which complex motor skills begin to break down. One of the things that appear to be happening here is that bilateral symmetry begins to set in, meaning that what you do with one hand you are likely to do with your other. Bilateral symmetry can have grave consequences for a police officer in a tense situation where he is holding a pistol on a suspect. Say the suspect attempts to flee and the police officer grabs him with his free hand. This is never a good tactical technique, and it is especially bad when the officer's heart rate is racing past 145 beats per minute (bpm). His accelerated heartbeat causes bilateral symmetry, so that as the officer grabs a fistful of the suspect's shirt with one hand, he has a convulsive clutch response in his gun hand, which causes an unintentional discharge of the weapon.
Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, On Combat
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Additional Resources
For PTSD, Shepherd Resource Group.