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W.I.N. will help you win

How do you win a fight? By remembering the acronym W.I.N. – “What’s important NOW,” said Brian Willis, a retired trainer with Calgary , Canada PD who instructed at the recent IALEFI Conference.

This means you should apply a sliding scale of priorities depending on the dynamics of the fight and initiate a triage approach to your actions.

What is your top goal at this very moment in time? Is it to debilitate the right arm he’s pummeling you with? Is it to protect yourself from a weapon he’s just revealed? Is it to get him cuffed now that you have him under control…or is it to get away from the offender so you can regroup?

Winning a fight can be a moment-by-moment endeavor and skipping ahead or falling behind can be a mistake. Prioritize your immediate goals — offense? arrest? defense? get help? — and think W.I.N.!

For more on Brian Willis’ winning mind-set training, visit www.winningmindtraining.com.

Gary T. Klugiewicz is the director of ACMi® Systems, and a member of the Team One Network that in cooperation with the Northwest Wisconsin Technical College provides defensive tactics, firearms, and tactical training throughout the United States. He is retired from the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Department after 25 years of service where he was promoted to the rank of captain.

Gary has a background in Knockdown Karate where he won national championships and fought several times in Japan. He brought this high impact intensity to law enforcement training.

Gary’s name has become synonymous with the development of safe but realistic, intense, dynamic simulation training. As former Street Survival Seminar instructor and nationally known defensive tactics instructor, Gary has impacted literally 100,000’s of law enforcement officers.

His training is an officer survival program in action. Gary is the developer of the Active Countermeasures System of Unarmed Blocking and Striking Techniques that is the cornerstone of High Level Control Tactics. He has developed programs for police, corrections, mental health, security, and military personnel.

Gary’s team tactics training for SWAT, CERT, and Crowd Management Teams are among the best in the world. His instructor training programs stress adult learning, sub-skill development, guided discovery, decision making simulation scenarios, and positive group debriefing techniques.

Even more importantly, as a righteous police officer use-of-force defense expert, Gary has defended scores of officers in legal proceedings. Currently, he is the lead instructor for Verbal Judo’s Tactical Communication for the Correctional Professional training program.