K38 instructor Shawn Alladio sets up thoughts and discovery for students who train with her. Focusing on how we view our world on various levels of cognitive reasoning for water rescue applications.

1. Dimension and the Rescue Mindset All Rights Reserved - Copyright 2016
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Our Three Dimensional World and Our Rescue Mindset – Part 1
The Interpretation of Our Moving Shadows – Who We Are
Outline: How we think, how we behave and the results therein. Can we change our controlling measures? Absolutely.
How do you use your senses? Do you trust your intuitive self and incorporate this into your rescue actions? You can hear
phantom sounds that are not precise or your mind may interpret them inaccurately. There are processes that our brain
interprets our sensual input. Our brain will try to find meaning with sounds. Will we accept them or challenge thoughts?
When I was working in the Lower 9th Ward in NOLA post Katrina, driving down I would stop at a location, shut my engine
off. I would blow my whistle hoping to hail a human holdout. I would listen….and all the birds in cages inside houses went
wild! No human response. That told me about a secondary reality. It had not dawned on me that there were that many
birds in cages left behind. The perception was humans, then dogs as priority for animal recovery, then cats.
But the reality was when I stepped into a home, birds, gerbils, aquariums, pets that didn’t register as being important, yet
my mind grasped there was more to this incident than searching and putting spray paint X’s on houses, there were
thriving communities of need. How to process all that and respond accordingly to create positive impact? Sound and
moving shadows were the 2 most noticeable aspects of the work in this environment.
EXPRESSIVES
1. EMOTION
2. THREAT
3. DISTRACTION
4. ADRENALINE
5. SYMBOLS
6. MOVEMENT
7. VERBAL
Expecting a change to occur is something we need to engage with our senses. We expect certain things to be probable
and to happen.
Emotion can play on your actions. The tone of the voice, words used, body language and the stressors around you,
managing your boat, incoming threats, you need to stay centered, balanced, relaxed but strong, calm and purposeful.
Example: Asking a survivor for their ‘Hand in The Air’ is a myth when serving a real rescue. When in fact our survivors
are struggling to keep their airway above the waterline or risk drowning. That last thing a professional operator will do is
say ‘Give me your right hand’.
The reality is their ears will be underwater maybe full of water only hearing muffled sounds or sensing vibrations. Their
clothing will be heavy from waterlogging if they still have any on, and their fatigue can be extreme.

2. Dimension and the Rescue Mindset All Rights Reserved - Copyright 2016
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There may be more than one survivor. They may not see you, hear you are care at all at a certain phase of diminishing
ability to survive. How does ones focus allow an instructor to set the stage to failure? By the training methods we allow.
Training exclusively from this behavior modeled by instructors can create great harm when a student encounters a true
survivor and doesn’t have the mindset to deal with the reality of heavier body weight, the difficulty of loading, the
elemental pressures and the emotional and psychological pairing of defeat.
The focus of our thoughts ‘now what’, and then doing ones best in that stressful moment to go beyond the reality of known
physical movements will have to come to the dividing line of the taxation of what you were taught vs what you will do next.
Either you will create something that will get you by and bring the survivor(s) back, lose your RWC and find yourself in the
water away from your vessel in need of rescue, or you will cause harm.
Maybe not; maybe you will rise above the hardness of this compounded struggle and find the courage to trust your
instincts and pull it all together. Essentially destroying what you were taught and arriving at a realistic meeting of how to
truly operate during a rescue or recovery. Your ending will be the most important part.
Expecting to be able to change behavior to correlate is IMPERATIVE to your safety, your mission and your team.
Heading out at night, the dimensional change is impressive. Students will focus better and train smarter. You must
challenge your training and your instructor.
On to Part 2
Semper Spero,
Shawn Alladio
Your Instructor
Images by David Puu Photograph