How do you define Safety in a Holster?

2009-05-12T10:00:00.001-06:00

The Professional is “The Holster” that started a reformation in the duty holster industry years ago. Mike Lowe the founder and 21 year Police veteran/trainer, could no longer tolerate the inadequate and unnatural status quo of twists, rocks, straps, flaps and snaps, and created a holster that met all the “Real world” needs of today’s street officers. Holster methodologies could no longer just focus on retention, and ignore other critical needs. Mike created a holster that was designed to meet “all” of the performance requirements demanded to define Safety in a security holster;

Strength
Security
Fast access
Unobstructed Holstering

“Anytime you compromise access for complexity and security for access this un-balanced approach creates a compromise of safety. Using the term Retention for security is like saying a paper bag will hold water, its very superficial, but if marketed well and often enough people will eventually believe it… until it counts.”

(more to come...)

SCIENCE IN HOLSTER DESIGN

2009-05-07T13:38:00.012-06:00

“WEAPON RETENTION SCIENCE HOLSTER DESIGN"

Tactical Design Labs (TDL) Professional TM Duty Holster

Officers have long needed a high security holster to defeat disarm attempts, yet not impede their performance or increase critical reaction time when drawing or holstering their weapon. They have awaited a holster that the perceptual sense of sight is not needed because sight is occupied with perceiving the threat in that the perceptual sense of vision is dominant in lighted situations. Other perceptual senses of touch and sound are available yet relatively unused to accommodate the drawing and holstering operations.

The TDL holster design is driven by current research relative to performance under stress. The TDL holster is the first in the holster industry to fulfill specific and long awaited features which do not impede performance and impact officer survival.

When the officer perceives the need to draw a firearm, it frequently occurs in an environment perceived by the officer to be an immediate or potential lethal force encounter. Upon holstering a weapon in a dynamic use of force environment or an incident of an attempted disarm of the officer; again the stress level of the officer (his survival) escalates.

PERFORMANCE UNDER STRESS BRIEF:
Performance under stress research shows that fine and complex motor skills do not perform well under stress (arousal) See appendix for expanded information on this topic from research by Merkel, Schmidtt, Bryan & Harter, Cratty, Sage, Yerkes Dobson) and that gross motor skills perform best (Schmitt’s analysis of the Inverted-U Hypothesis 1991). Schmidt offered the below figure as an example of the inverted-U as it applies to motor control and cognitive complexity. It is a clear example that “This effect appears to depend somewhat on the kinds of skills. If the skills require very fine muscular control or have important decision-making components then the point of the maximum arousal in generally shifted to the left of the inverted-U curve.”

It is known that once the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), an involuntary branch of the autonomic nervous system, activates, numerous physiological factors come into play that may negatively impact performance. Those factors include:

· Failures in cognitive processing,
· Failures in visual acuity and accuracy
· Vasoconstriction impacting the accurate performance of fine and complex motor skills.

Additionally the impact is compounded as we learn from Benson’s research (1975), we learn about the fight or flight involuntary response which has a physiological response of redirecting blood flow from the extremities which include the arms, hands and fingers.
Martens (1977) defined stress as “the process that involves the perception of substantial imbalance between (environmental) demand and response capability, under conditions where the demand has important consequences.” Martens specifically noted that there is a need for threat perception, response capability and recognition of time needed to manage the perception. If these elements are not present anxiety may develop and impact performance.

Siddle (1991) defines survival stress as that which is created by a number of circumstance to include:

· A condition that may occur when an officer is “startled” by an imminent threat of serious personal injury.
· A condition that may exist when an officer’s time to respond to a threat is minimal.
· A condition that may exist when an officer is responsible for protecting himself in a potentially life threatening situation.

REACTION TIME:
Reaction time (the time from when you perceive a threat to the beginning of your reaction to it) research indicates the need for simplicity when dealing with the number of options (or steps) in a reaction to a stimulus.
In 1960 Franklin Henry and Donald Rogers found that increases in reaction time when dealing with multiple response options result from time needed to load a motor program. Henry –Rogers found that reaction time increases when additional elements or components in a series are added to the action or when more than one limb must be co-ordinated. This is because additional time is needed to organize and download motor (muscle action) programs.

MOTOR SKILL PERFORMANCE:
Motor skill performance studies date back to 1897 when Bryan and Harter studied motor skill performance with Morse code. Cratty in the 1960’s and Sage in 1984 began the classification of motor skills according to muscle size, task complexity, fatigue and levels of stress.
Fine motor skills are those which use small muscle groups to function in a precise and accurate task. Complex motor skills are serial motor skills which have multiple components in sequence. Gross motor skills generally involve the action of large muscle groups, generally simple strength skills or skills involving symmetrical movements.

TRAINING RESEARCH:
Training competently in physical skills and equipment use creates confidence in one’s ability to perform. That confidence can greatly reduce stress, control the SNS allowing for enhanced information processing, reduce reaction time and increase the performance of fine and complex motor skills.
PPCT Management Systems Inc., a recognized international standard in the research and performance of officers experiencing survival stress has been modeled by numerous use of force programs. The PPCT System maximizes learning potential of training and thus enhances the quality of training time. This training system is a result of studies which provide a scientific basis requiring all use of force training to be based upon simplicity, both in technique selection and the number of skills within a system.

TDL INTERPRETATION OF RESEARCH:
TDL submits that existing “security” holster systems featuring traditional retention system design with the good intent of officer safety, actually conflicts with motor skill performance research. TDL submits that:

· An officer who perceives the need to draw his holster, re-holster in a dynamic environment or defend his weapon from a disarm attempt will experience survival stress.
· Holsters which primarily function on gross motor skill movements will perform better under survival stress.

· Traditional holster retention systems require fine and complex motor skills in the functioning of thumb snaps, rolling hoods, clam shells, rocking locks etc., to both draw and holster (see tactical scenario below) a weapon. Fine motor skills (thumb snap hood removal) do not perform well under stress.

· Multiple-level security holsters, due to the multiple elements in a series and the potential need for the co-ordination of two limbs (holding the holster &/or weapon while snapping etc. the holster), will increase reaction time. Reaction time is slowed due to the performance stress.
Additionally, it will take more time to get the weapon out of the holster due to the multiple skills that have to be performed. Traditional holsters must not only be put into the holster, but the hood covered, thumb snapped (frequently a two hand job) trigger guard locked into a pressure plate, etc.

· Training simplicity is enhanced by the ability to learn the skill quickly, thus creating confidence in one’s ability to perform.
This system of training is a result of studies which provide a scientific basis requiring all use of force training to be based upon simplicity, both in technique selection and the number of skills needed to use a holster.

Additionally the TDL design methodology develops a holster based upon the officer’s actual needs as supported by documented studies identifying how officers react under stress.

A tactical scenario sets an example of the re-holster issue:
Picture this. You are clearing a building, weapon drawn as customary and as you cut the pie on the corner a subject is seen charging you. He will close the 20 ft. distance in under 1.5 seconds, (quote closing distance research by Rinegans/Hontz) he is unarmed and not a lethal threat. What do you do with the weapon? Do you perform defensive and offensive non-lethal skills with you weapon in your hand? Or do you try to holster, snap, hood, lock rock, etc., to your multi-level holster to get it in a secure position? Do you need to look at the holster due to all the multiple features in order to complete the holstering when you should be looking at the threat?

TDL HOLSTER LOCKING DESIGN; DRIVEN BY OFFICER PERFORMANCE AND SURVIVAL

The TDL holster addresses the issues of performance under stress, motor skill research and reaction time considerations with its patented locking system.
The TDL holster locking system is controlled by the index finger by design. That design comes from the extensively trained motor action of keeping the index finger on the side of the handgun frame (auto pistol or revolver) until ready to shoot. That index finger position along the frame is configured into the TDL holster’s locking mechanism, so as you grasp the weapon in the “finger on the frame” position, the locking mechanism is released and the weapon is free to draw.

That same locking mechanism also allows the holstering process to occur without loosing visual contact of your environment or threat. As you holster with the gross motor skill of placing the weapon into the large, easy access opening of the TDL holster, you feel and hear the weapon inserting and locking into the holster.

Appendix:

Merkel, Schmidtt, Bryan & Harter, Cratty, Sage, Yerkes Dobson

Merkel (1895)
One of the first reaction time studies found relating to the number of stimuli and how they impact reaction time.

Bryan and Harter (1897)
Studied the skill acquisition and motor learning principles of Morse code.

Yerkes-Dobson, (1908):
Conducted one of the first recorded studies on stress relative to motor skill performance and found that “optimal arousal for behavioral efficiency decreases with increased task difficulty or complexity”.

Levitt (1972)
Levitts research narrowed the definition of arousal by using heart rate as a measure for stress. Levitt found that “optimal performance for information processing and motor skills occur when the resting heart rte is between 115 and 145 BPM. Perfomance deteriorated quickly when the resting heart rate accelerated beyond 175 BPM”.

Weinberg and Hunt (1973) as stated by PPCT(1989)
They found that high or even moderate levels of stress appear to interfere with fine muscular control and decision-making. Cognitive complex skills degrade with even slight increases in stress. In contrast, motor skills dominated by large muscle groups, that have minimal fine motor contrl and very little decisionmaning or cognitive complexity, were not effected by high levels of stress.

Benson (1975)
Benson states that, “When we are faced with situations that require adjustment of our behavior, and involuntary response increases our blood pressure, heart rate, breathing, blood flow to the muscles, and metabolism, preparing us for conflict or escape..” He later states that “When fight or flight response is evoked, it brings into play the sympathetic nervous system, which is par of the involuntary nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system acts by secreting specific hormones. These hormones, epinephrine and its related substances, bring about physiological changes of increased blood pressure, heart rate and body metabolism.”