Park Rangers from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District conducted SPEAR training as part of their annual mandatory curriculum.
SPEAR is a close-quarter defensive training to protect against an aggressor. It uses the natural human flinch response to block an attacker and get away. The goal is to de-escalate physical confrontations and seek safety.
The acronym stands for Spontaneous Protection Enabling Accelerated Response.
At the beginning of the training, rangers completed a dodgeball exercise to show the body’s natural flinch reaction when something like a dodgeball is thrown at them. Ranger learned how to weaponize that flinch response to defend themselves against an attacker while exercising their duties in...
