Intro Information
The Contact Dominance Level One Certification is a 4.5 day course.
Each day consists of 3 primary segments:
- Lecture (60 minutes)
- Subject Matter Training (3 hours)
- Application Exercises (2 hours)
Breaks, lunch, and drilling refreshers/warm-ups are also a part of each day.
Curriculum
Day One
Lecture Topics and Resolutions
- What is DT, Subject Control, and Contact Dominance? And why does it matter?
- What do you mean by "technique?", and how it drastically affects your success-failure percentage
- The In-Service Instructor’s true objective, and the conceptual nature of a Threat Spike
Subject Matter Modules
- Threat Spike One and why after almost 50 years of DT we still aren’t addressing it
- Threat Spike Two and redefining a “win” in DT
- How to engineer a class that officers will tell you they actually appreciate
Application Exercises
- Multiple Officer Subject Control and experiencing the power of Skill Symmetry
Day Two
Lecture Topics and Resolutions
- How to focus on what you really need, and your permission to ditch the rest
- What is a realistic segmentation of training time? (The FMS Model)
- Building your first No-B.S. Lesson Plan (that you’ll feel great about) in 10 minutes or less
Subject Matter Modules
- Which concepts to borrow from the Combat Sports and why to avoid the “program-killers” like the plague
- How to categorize and choose your takedowns carefully, and why they really don’t matter that much anyway
- Making life easier for your chief, training supervisor, and officers; a simple paradigm swap that everyone will appreciate (including yourself)
Application Exercises
- Building the attribute of adaptation into your drills; the single most important skill you can have
Day Three
Lecture Topics and Resolutions
- Why high-intensity, protective suit drills are like radiation, and knowing when your class is ready/not ready for them
- Keeping it simple; your three key responsibilities as an instructor and how to stop carrying everyone else’s water
- Class-killers (type 1): Beating the pre-meditated training injury to the proverbial “punch
Subject Matter Modules
- Threat Spike 3 and the difficult nature of programming “responses” (but we have a solution for you)
- Threat Spike 4 and why you should always look for technique redundancy
- Why we must stop underestimating subject-noncompliance, and how to help officers overcome their fear of an event
Application Exercises
- Class Flow; how tempo and energy determine the efficiency of your class
Day Four
Lecture Topics and Resolutions
- Class-killers (type 2): What to do and say when the “Department Alpha” tries to take over your class
- Cognitive Misdirection and Progressive Desensitization; how your friends in neuroscience can help you have a more successful and enjoyable class
- Older, injured, and smaller statured officers; Need-Based training and the simple switch to help those who need it the most
Subject Matter Modules
- Stopping the insanity; 3 simple skills to teach so you can stop trying to cram 4 years of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu into 4 hours of in-service time
- The undeniable principles of successful street striking; teaching a new generation of officers how and when to connect (and that a punch in the face isn’t the end of the world)
- When there’s nowhere else to go; generating a balance disruption or misdirection when you’re overpowered and out of options
Application Exercises
- Watching your class come alive; Three Dimensional Training and the Art of the Drill
Day Five (a half day)
Lecture Topics and Resolutions
- Grade Inflation and how it has made DT (and everything else) suck
- This Is Not A Game; the Sunk-Cost Fallacy and why it keeps getting officers killed
- Letting go of the DT Orthodoxy and trusting your instincts as an instructor
Subject Matter Modules
(There are no new Subject Matter Modules on Day 5)
Application Exercises
- Putting it all together; the Art and Science of Contact Dominance