Greetings Street Survivors! Welcome to a whole new year of training and skill development, along with new challenges to the defense of your family. This is the season when many people commit to New Year’s resolutions, which makes it the perfect time to commit to improving your personal defensive skills. If you have a family, you should also consider new skills for your growing children as they can handle more each year, both physically and mentally.

The number one skill I feel you can pass onto your children, is Situational Awareness. In my view this goes way beyond what is happening around your immediate area, although that is critically important. Your children should be developing skills that let them know if somebody is lying to them, if someone is carrying a concealed weapon and if there is an immediate threat to them at school, work or at the movies. This is NOT the development of paranoia; this is the definition of preparation. It is a skill best learned over time in stages that build on each other. 

Another skill that should be developed, is confidence. Many Karate studios use this as a reason to join their youth programs. As the student improves the mastery of certain techniques, they develop better focus, body control, improved breathing skills and learn to be part of a team. All of these benefits can apply to your family training program to develop personal skills. You can even invite other family members and friends to participate and make it a fun and competitive atmosphere.

“Nasty Nick” is the name of the U.S. Army’s Special Warfare Centers’ obstacle/confidence course at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina. This extremely difficult course aids in the development and assessment for Green Beret candidates, as well as Psychological Operations and others. Every stage of the course gives you that ‘no way I can do that’ thought when you first see it. Completing each of the over 20 obstacles on the mile long course, builds a sense of confidence that is hard to measure and sets you up for tackling bigger and badder challenges that life throws at you. Seems like this translates well to the main job of a parent in today’s America.

Helping your children to think out of the box, can take many forms from games to sharpen their skills while taking a family road trip, to asking them questions about their surroundings 2 minutes after sitting down in a restaurant. Cross-training is another common methodology used in the Special Operations community. The simple definition is, each member of the team teaches their specialty to other team members, at least to a point where they can fill in when necessary if a team member is hurt or indisposed. How can you apply this concept to your own family training?  If your ten-year-old son likes archery and has skills in that area, let him teach his siblings under your direction. Horseback riding, martial arts, knot tying, dog training, fishing, hunting, darts, etc. Anything that can teach hand-eye coordination and build confidence would be useful. 

Knowing the challenges that America continues to face, should be the only motivation you need to put a training program together for your family, and get serious about getting engaged.

Rick ‘Pirate Hunter’ Grover strongly believes we are all in this together, and the more we learn and train, the better we will be prepared for any eventuality. This makes all of us part of an amazing neighborhood team of American Patriots. God Bless America!

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