Modeling of extreme situations in the fire training of students of educational organizations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia

Vasil'ev Mikhail Aleksandrovich Senior Lecturer at the Department of Special Training of the East Siberian Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia 664074, Russia, Irkutskaya oblast', g. Irkutsk, ul. Lermontova, 110 vip.medved1983@list.ru Other publications by this author

Extreme situations in the activities of police officers are a serious risk factor that can make serious negative adjustments to the performance of official activities. As the educational and practical activities have shown, extreme situations by their nature occur unexpectedly. They are rapid in their spread and have a serious impact on the subjects around him. In most cases, this influence has an extremely negative, overwhelming effect on the psyche of the participants in this process. Which, in turn, through the mechanisms of mental influence, affects the physical condition. As a result, an unprepared employee can become confused through sharply experienced fear, fall into a state of stupor, or begin to perform incorrect actions ^[3]. The cumulative result of such actions, at best, will end up not fulfilling the task, at worst it can lead to negative consequences, where the price of an error will be measured by the health or life of both the employee himself and the people around him.

To fully understand the phenomenon under study, it is necessary to give the concept of the phrase extreme situation.

An extreme situation (Latin extremus – extreme, critical) is a sudden situation that threatens or is subjectively perceived by a person as threatening the life, health, personal integrity and well-being of both the person himself and those around him who are important to him. An extreme situation characterizes a specific situation in which extreme values of subjective factors essential for life are observed: physical health and activity of a person or a social group in which he is included. The definition of an extreme situation serves to interpret accidents, extraordinary incidents, disasters, emergencies and accidents, etc. ^[5].

The author of this scientific article proposed a methodology that allows, through modeling extreme situations during fire training classes, to achieve the development of a sense of confidence, psychological self-control and the correct algorithm of actions when performing training tasks. As well as the development of the necessary skills in possession of firearms when performing official tasks in the territorial divisions of the Department of Internal Affairs.

The performance of training tasks for modeling extreme situations during fire training classes should be carried out only with training weapons and training ammunition, with strict compliance with security measures ^[2].

The scientific article is based on the methods of interaction with the Makarov pistol, as a basic and universal type of firearm, capable of instilling in the listener the necessary skills of owning a service weapon of the Department of Internal Affairs.

The scientific novelty of the proposed methods (exercises) for modeling extreme situations and overcoming them lies in the fact that they were tested for the first time during practical training on fire training on the basis of the East Siberian Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in the period 2018 to 2019 in full-time format.

At the same time, 17 students from 3 study groups, who were first recruited into police units, took part in the scientific experiment. 3 male listeners, 14 female listeners. The students of the girl for the period of initial training, did not have any skills in handling firearms. In the process of implementing the methods claimed for conducting a scientific experiment, within 1 month of training, students fully mastered the skills of handling firearms and mastered the methods of introspection and control.

The methodology of modeling extreme situations at the stage of initial training of students assumes that the training group has already mastered the theoretical course of fire training, with the mandatory passing of a test on knowledge of the theoretical foundations of fire training and compliance with safety measures when handling weapons and ammunition.

After the initial theoretical course, the fire training teacher proceeds to study the topic of mastering the techniques and rules of firearm ownership, where he can fully create controlled extreme situations for students in order to educate psychological readiness ^[1].

Exercise #1

When building a study group at the beginning of the lesson, the teacher, unexpectedly for the group, sets the educational task of conducting a small slice of knowledge for evaluation with the presentation of the survey results to the journal.             As the practical educational activity has shown, this dramatically changing educational task for the vast majority of the group's listeners is identified precisely as extreme. According to the external manifestation, it is possible to distinguish the increased excitement and experience among the participants of this process. As the systematic application of this method has shown, after about 5-6 training sessions, the quality of the training level of the study group increases significantly. In the course of the survey, the listeners of the group show confidence and an individual algorithm when answering the posed educational questions. As a result of the application of this technique, by the end of training, students have stable and confident theoretical knowledge of the course of fire training. It should be noted that the application of this technique can be carried out in various situations, both directly during the construction and when the study group is in the classroom. In this case, the element of surprise is important, through stress and the development of self-regulation processes, employees gain confidence in the correctness of their actions. And a properly developed algorithm of actions through training will not allow making a mistake in an extreme situation ^[4].

Exercise #2

The technique of creating an extreme situation in this exercise is aimed at developing the skill of handling firearms when meeting fire training standards. The surprise factor for the study group is also important here.

This exercise is recommended to be performed in the second part of the training session, when the study group is fully involved in the learning process. It is recommended that during the training session, unexpectedly for the entire study group, give the command to build. After the training group is built, set a new training task, the results of which are evaluated in the journal of the training group. The statement of the task is to meet the standards for fire training, without prior preparation, as when passing a test or exam. As practice has shown, this unexpectedly set educational task is extreme for 100% of the students of the study group. The level of excitement, anxiety and psychological stress, at the initial stage of such an experiment, very often leads to the fact that the listener, simply unable to cope with his mental state, is not able to fulfill the standard at all or refuses to fulfill it, referring to the possibility of repeating and retaking this element in fire training later.

The systematic application of this technique, alternating through 1-2 training sessions, led to the fact that by the end of training, the training group fully fulfilled the fire training standards for an excellent assessment. In this case, the factor of an extreme situation was the main motive for improving psychological readiness, with subsequent positive results in educational activities.

Exercise #3

The methodology of this exercise is aimed at developing the listener's attentiveness in matters of compliance with safety measures when handling firearms, through the creation of a controlled extreme situation.

The initial stage in the handling of firearms is its check for uncharged. When conducting fire training classes, especially at the initial stage, many students, even before the shooting training stage, have a rather unformed attitude to firearms and quite often try not to fully comply with the requirements for safety measures. This is primarily expressed in the fact that when working with a training weapon at a training place, students can point the weapon in an unsafe direction ^[7]. The exercise proposed below is aimed at creating conditions under which students form the right attitude to understanding the degree of responsibility when working with firearms in the future.

The method of creating an extreme situation is to place a training cartridge in the chamber in the training pistol before the arrival of the training group for the lesson. When conducting classes in the knowledge slice mode, take into account the correctness of the employee's actions when handling weapons. Namely, to conduct a proper inspection of the weapon for the presence of its charge, with the use of security measures. As the practical application of this technique has shown, the training cartridge in the chamber was a complete surprise for the vast majority of listeners. As a result, many listeners, experiencing a mental experience, could not continue performing actions to check weapons.

The use of this technique made it possible in the future, when conducting fire training classes, to radically change the attitude of students to the issues of compliance with security measures and, as a result, led to the absence of violations when handling weapons in training sessions.

Shooting practice in fire training is one of the most difficult and important elements in the training of an ATS officer. The complexity of this training task lies in the fact that, having approached the stage of target practice, the listener must have a set of knowledge and skills that allow him to successfully perform this task ^[3]. But at the same time, the successful development of theoretical and part of the practical material on fire training does not give a full guarantee for the shooter that nothing extraordinary will happen during the training shooting that can affect the quality of shooting and compliance with safety measures. And as practical training shooting has shown, such phenomena occur quite often, in the form of various delays, as well as to a lesser extent the psychological unwillingness of the listener to fire a firearm.

In the methodology proposed below, the methods of modeling extreme situations are indicated in order to educate psychological self-regulation at the firing line, for students who are afraid of a shot, as well as mastering the methods of self-control, identification and elimination of delays when firing a Makarov pistol that can affect the quality of this educational task.

Exercise #1

This exercise is aimed at creating a controlled extreme situation, in order to develop psychological readiness to fire a firearm.

As the practice of conducting training shooting has shown, especially at the initial stage, the main problem in the production of a high-quality shot is the fear of the listener in front of firearms and the sound of a sharp pop from the shot itself ^[6].

During the training shooting, a shift of the most prepared students is formed, they are the standard in shooting training for those students who experience psychological difficulties at the initial stage of training. From these listeners, a shift of no more than 3 people is formed (for quality control), and this group is located from the shift performing shooting at a distance of 3-4 meters from behind. At the initial stage of such an experiment, the listeners identified such a technique as extreme, by means of sharply increased psychological experience and fear. Accordingly, the firing leader is located behind the firing line at a distance of 1-2 meters, carrying out general shooting guidance. The task of a group of listeners located behind the firing line is indicated in the form of monitoring the performance of shift actions at the firing line, as well as the immediate feeling of close exposure from the sounds of a firearm shot. The use of such a technique after 3-4 classes almost completely removed the problem of psychological fear of a shot and, taking into account the work with the training weapon idle, at the training site allowed to achieve good and excellent results when performing training shooting in the future.

Exercise #2

The second and no less important factor affecting the quality of training of students during shooting practice is the creation of extreme situations in the form of imitation delays when firing a Makarov pistol. As practical exercises have shown, high-quality testing of such actions with a training weapon idling allows, while firing firearms, to be more confident in the event of any type of delays, and develops the ability to independently, making the right decisions, continue to perform training shooting.

This technique involves recreating the types of delays on the training weapon, with further independent actions to solve this educational task by the students.

Given the technical specifics of the Makarov pistol, there are 5 types of delays when firing from this type of firearm, these are:

- Misfire;

- Under-covering of the cartridge with a bolt;

- Failure or non-promotion of the cartridge from the magazine to the chamber;

- Grabbing the sleeve with a bolt;

- Automatic shooting.

The creation of extreme situations in the implementation of this training task consists in the fact that the listener must be at the training place with a training weapon, after modeling the delay, independently identify the malfunction that occurred, identify the cause and independently apply ways to eliminate this delay ^[5]. It is important to note that the systematic application of this technique made it possible by the end of the training course to form the necessary skills for students to overcome mental stress and skillful actions to eliminate all the studied types of malfunctions of the Makarov pistol during shooting and its operation.

Undoubtedly, when conducting fire training classes in the system of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, elements of an authoritarian pedagogical nature prevail. This phenomenon is primarily due to strict compliance with regulatory legal documents clearly prescribing the procedure and rules for conducting classes aimed at preserving the life and health of students during training and further service in practical bodies.