EP 23 "Offsetting the Negative Consequences of Pressure on Marksmanship" with Daniel Cooper

Welcome to Episode 23 of the Trainer’s Bullpen, ‘Offsetting the Negative Consequences of Pressure on Marksmanship’ with Daniel Cooper. In this interview Dan discusses the relationship between stress arousal and officer performance with firearms in combat conditions. Importantly, Daniel discusses the very important systematic review and meta-analysis that he and colleagues conducted that reinforced the fact that officer performance under threat conditions can be significantly improved by ensuring the training design and implementation includes early contextually relevant pressure. The study ‘Negative Consequences of Pressure on Marksmanship May be Offset by Early Training Exposure to Contextually Relevant Threat Training: A Systematic Review and Meta Analysis, was published in Human Factors in 2023.

If your goal is to deliver training, or to train yourself, so that it develops the ability to perform well under high pressure conditions, this interview is for you. Dan Cooper exhorts firearms and skills trainers to seriously reconsider the manner in which firearms training is presently conducted in many law enforcement training academies and agencies.

Daniel is a human performance specialist who focuses on improving individual and team performance in high-pressure, high-consequence situations for first responders and tactical operators. He is currently completing a 3-year PhD research project investigating the impacts of pressure and evidence-based training methodologies in Use of Force behaviours to improve the transfer of training to performance. Daniel has built on his previous academic understanding from a double master’s degree in physiology and integrated cognitive factors and compliments this through unique experience from 18yrs service in the Special Air Service, high-performance coaching in professional sports and personal pursuits in conquering the world’s toughest extreme endurance events across the planets most unforgiving environments.