This week's EVOC Insider is supported by Easydrift

Easydrift's five-day emergency vehicle operation instructor course simulates high-speed response in a safe and controlled environment. Designed specifically for first responders, it helps operators learn their vehicle's limitations, their own limitations, and every aspect of car control while on a Code 3. We guarantee you will become a better instructor and, for fun, a better driver. 

"After 18 years in law enforcement, you think this is just another driving class… no big deal. Boy was I wrong."

Sergeant Rob Long, Cullman Police Department, Alabama 

Learn more about the five-day course here

Day one, they did everything right. Day two, they went straight to the lights.

I once worked with a senior officer who hated watching his students fail.

During scenarios out on the street, he'd coach from the right seat with small hand gestures, pointing out which lane to move into. He thought he was being subtle.

On traffic stops he went further. He'd put his window down and put his hand out to hold other traffic back, so the student could make the stop cleanly.

He wasn't careless. He genuinely believed it was important. He didn't want his students to embarrass themselves. He wanted them to succeed.

I also worked with an instructor who did the opposite.

He'd sit there, say nothing, and just watch.

I remember one student who was lost. Extremely frustrated, confused, making decision after decision behind the wheel, and none of them working. He let it go on for almost five minutes.

Afterward I asked him why.

"I was trying to prove a point."

Maybe he did. But I've seen what that costs. A student can lose so much confidence that they feel crushed. Some get so embarrassed they don't want to engage in the next scenario at all.

At that point, the point is lost too.

Back in #030 I mentioned a day on a track in Ohio. Here's the rest of it.

It was day two of the Tactical Driving Instructor course at the Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy. Every other instructor on that course had been to OPOTA before and had trained on that very track.

I hadn't. I'd never been on a track in a law enforcement driving environment: five-point harnesses, roll cages, helmets, speeds topping out well over 120 mph. The cone courses on the previous days were no problem. A track I'd never driven was a different story.

In my mind, they ramped everybody's speeds up way too soon and way too quickly. Then again, everyone else had the advantage of time on that track already.

So I was appreciative when my instructor wanted me to look good.

"Okay, Canada."

He gave me everything. When to brake. Where to position the car. I followed his guidance to the letter. Looking back, he was really driving the car. I was just handling the controls.

The runs looked great, and I got out of the car feeling like a superstar. Job done.

Then I switched instructors.

The new one didn't call it for me. Without that voice in my ear, I was braking late and turning in too early. Same track. Same car. The only thing missing was the person who'd been doing my thinking.

Those great runs were never really mine. They were his.

Looking back, I'd probably have been better off if he'd made me think it through. Make my own decisions. Maybe even make a mistake, while he was sitting right there.

I've seen the same thing from the other seat.

Day one, we guided a student through every step of investigating a vehicle before attempting to pull it over. Get the plate. Get identifiers. Gather what you can, then make the stop. Step by step, and they did it well.

Day two, a mini scenario: a vehicle wanted for a fail to remain collision (hit and run).

No intel gathered. No plate. No description of the occupants. Straight to the lights and siren to make the stop.

Everything we trained the day before, gone.

I tell students this quite often, and I mean it:

"We as instructors failed you yesterday, because you were unable to apply the appropriate tactics today."

Day one looked like learning. Day two showed what was actually learned.

That isn't just a hunch. Learning researcher Robert Bjork has spent decades showing that how someone performs during training is a poor measure of what they've actually learned. Motor learning research points the same way: constant guidance produces good runs with the instructor in the car, and weaker ones once the guidance is gone.

The help that makes day one look good can be the reason day two falls apart.

The answer isn't the hand out the window. It isn't five minutes of silence either. It's somewhere in between.

I want the student to have to work for it. The learning should take effort, and the thinking should be theirs.

But I'm watching the driving. If the mental load starts affecting how they drive, we pull over. Mini debrief. What's going on? Then we reset and begin again.

Inside that, two tools do most of the work.

Have them think out loud. Commentary lets you hear how they're processing: what they're picking up on the radio, what they're looking for out in traffic, what they're missing. You can't coach thinking you can't hear.

Ask instead of tell. Instead of pointing to the lane, ask:

"Why are you in this lane?"

"What do you think you should do?"

"Do you hurry to the residence, or keep looking for the subject?"

A question makes them decide. An answer lets them borrow yours.

Good questions work in the car just as well as they do in the classroom.

My Ohio instructor wanted me to have a good day. So did my old partner with his hand out the window. I understand both. Nobody likes watching a student struggle.

But we're not training them for today. We're training them for the next 30 years.

For most of those years, nobody will be in the right seat. No hand signals. No one holding traffic back. Just their own eyes, their own thinking, and whatever we actually taught them.

Make them work for it on day one, so they own it on day two.

Where's your line between helping and rescuing? Hit reply. I'd like to hear how you handle it.

Stay safe.

Thanks to Easydrift for supporting EVOC Insider this month.

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P.S. I couldn't have done too badly in Ohio. OPOTA later invited me back as a guest instructor:)

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Hugh Anderson EVOC Trainer | Author of Emergency Vehicle Operation Instruction: 5 Steps to Enhancing Your EVOC Training Grab the book on Amazon