Ralph Mroz reviews the book Condition to Win, by Wes Doss
Wes Doss is the lead instructor at Khyber Interactive, one of our recommended training institutions. Khyber offers training in the spectrum of force subjects, from firearms, to tactics to empty-hands.
Like other top-tier trainers, Wes’ background includes military tenure, police and SWAT experience, certifications from lots of marquee institutions, martial arts training and full-contact competitions experience.
Just accomplishing all of this, as well as running a well-regarded training organization, should be enough to make you want to seek out his opinions. But Wes has something else in his teaching kit that many don’t: his undergraduate degree is in psychology, and he has a serious interest in the mental side of warrior performance.
He has an understanding — both from the theoretical side and the practical side — of what it takes to develop the mental attributes of performance. Every trainer will tell you — truthfully — that the mental stuff is 90 percent of winning, yet they then proceed to spend all of their time with you on the physical stuff. There’s a good reason why — while many people may possess the “right stuff,” few know how to teach it. Wes Doss does.
Condition to Win is Wes’ distillation of the knowledge about the mental contribution to performance. And there’s quite a bit of it.
From sports performance practitioners to military studies, there’s a good deal of practical, actionable knowledge out there with direct applicability to what we, as law enforcement officers, do.
The first two chapters of Condition to Win show you why mental training is vital, and provide examples. The remaining chapters walk you through the main elements of mental training for warriors: goal setting, imagery, self-confidence, concentration, physical and mental energy, and so on. These chapters provide both an easily understandable explanation of how the element works and include worksheets to aid you in actually developing them.
All in all, Condition to Win is the first book of its kind that we are aware of. It’s the first really practical manual for practitioners and trainers to help them in achieving peak performance by working on the part of it that everyone knows is 90 percent of it. Highly recommended.