Train Firefighters and Yourself Effectively

At times we focus all our efforts on quantity of training and unfortunately even measure ourselves against other companies using this metric. How much are we out stretching hoselines, searching, throwing ladders?  It is the easiest thing to measure.  Instead, maybe, we should focus our effort on the quality & relevance of our fireground training and focus on small gains.  This equates to higher performance for THEM. That’s what training is truly about.

Steps to help effectively train yourself and your company include; Communicating the goals of the training, how it applies to your operational directives, staffing models, and how do we implement these using our go-to strategy & tactics. When all crew members are on the same page it’s a whole lot easier to get buy-in.

“Once you have buy-in then what?” is a question we have heard quite often from firefighters across the country.  This is a balance of essentially resting on your laurels and pushing your crew to the point of focusing too heavily on data and times.  The goal is to always keep the “Why” at the forefront of all firefighter training.  This comes down to culture and how you and your crew members are showing up every shift and every training evolution.  Simple steps can help you and your crew achieve a higher level of proficiency while also keeping the underlying mission at the forefront of training.  We love to use the Learning, Practicing, and Training terminology:

Learning:

This stage is foundational and is a necessary step in the process.  We shouldn’t ever stop learning and you definitely shouldn’t skip this step.  Items in the learning phase include book time, basic skill introduction and initial reps for development.  This is a slow paced step focused on a new or forgotten concept.

Practice:

This stage is focused heavily on securing the foundational principles acquired through learning and now wear testing them on the drillground.  These reps are still slower at 50%-60% speed but we are still focused heavily on things like body mechanics, book smart to street smart applicability, and trying out new concepts.

Training:

This stage is 80%-100% of full speed and should be used wisely.  This stage will present full speed challenges and full speed decision making.  Use this stage sparingly but realize that this is a fantastic area for us to train and test ourselves against some solidly set metrics.

Plug this methodology in to pretty much everything you do.  Breath work, tactical fitness and of course firefighter basic skills and see how much more you and pur crew progresses and learns along the way!