Sharpening the Warrior's Edge: A Review

I have recently read Sharpening the Warrior's Edge: The Psychology and Science of Training. It is one of those books that has been on my "to get" list for some time, but I kept putting off making the purchase. Now I'm sorry I didn't buy and read it years ago.

After I finished chapter one, I knew this book would make a difference in how I will conduct the training portion of the WARSKYL Conference (October 11, Peoria IL). This one chapter tells how to structure training to ensure that students will successfully acquire the skills taught and put their confidence in them.

Here is a summary of the author's areas of expertise from the Warrior Science Group site:

Mr. Siddle is internationally recognized as an expert in the study of combat human factors, use of force and counter-terrorism training. Mr. Siddle is often credited as the pioneer who initiated the study of survival stress and how it impacts the performance of law enforcement officers, military personnel and combat aviators. His pivotal research into the influence of the Sympathetic Nervous System on perceptual processing, cognitive processing, motor performance and memory, is now widely incorporated in all facets of use of force, combat and survival skills training. Just as importantly, Mr. Siddle research is routinely used to help defending law enforcement and military personnel against charges of excessive force.

Don't let the physiological jargon fool you. Sharpening the Warrior's Edge is written so that the average home-educated person can easily understand it. It's only slightly harder for those who, like me, graduated from the public school system.

The bottom line is that Siddle expertly relates how to train warriors in skills that work under combat stress. This may be important to you if you need to construct a training curriculum. But it could also be useful for you to evaluate any training you receive (individual, class, print or video) as to whether it is really equipping you to get the job done.

Finally, the last chapter on mindset is worth the price of the book.