There are too many horrible things happening to count these days. And many of them are on video. Which means we see them, again and again—a knee on a neck, a baton, tear gas. Violence. Raw. Excessive.
As an explanation, I’ve heard people say that these police—the ones we are seeing abuse their power—are afraid on the job and are acting on instinct. In the heat of a dangerous job, actions don’t necessarily go through rigorous rational thought.
That makes a lot of sense. But what doesn’t make sense is the idea that because something is instinctive, it can’t change. That gets me fired up as a coach. Rewiring instincts—actually training reflexes—is what we do.