"What's your tone?"

"Often its not WHAT you say but HOW you say it"

Are we setting our new recruits for failure from the start? Think of the tone of voice used when instructing new firefighters? 

Obviously, the need for recruit discipline, attention, and movement with purpose on the training ground is strong and completely understood. However, a 'rush, rush, rush' & 'push, push, push'... during tactical parts may not be best practice. Especially early on in the tactical learning, this method can increase the new recruits anxiety and therefore lead to and increase of: mistakes, missteps, the creation of bad habits and not 'think,' just 'act.'

If consistently thrown into a frenzied tactical training environment, we may just be creating a few of our own 'monsters.' While every fire officer wants a disciplined firefighter, they also want someone who will just not run blind into a burning building, always do a left hand wall search, or fail to think of a plan "B" because... thats what they did repetitiously at the fire academy training ground. 

The 'rush, rush, rush'... and 'push, push, push'... may have its place nearing the academies end, when the tactical proficiency needs to be put under pressure, but best practices show a graduating the level of intensity in repetitive realistic training scenarios will yield the best results!