How often are you training? Monthly, weekly, daily? Are your troops getting out of it what the intended message was? Our they learning? And lastly our the performing at there A+ game on the fire ground, or are you noticing alot of reoccurring problems?
To me your training life should be very important to your career and I always hear the quotes.
"train like your life depends on it because it does."
"train as if its the real thing."
We have them on posters hanging in our stations, t-shirts, some even have them tattooed on there body.
But are we really "training as if its the real thing" or are we getting tied up with the "gift wrapped" training (aka manufactured PowerPoint's).
Now before you go and condemn me to death hear me out, I do not have a grudge against manufactured powerpoints and I feel that they are a good TOOL that is all they are, they are not a cover and fix all training package.
I have seen some departments that spend more time going over manufactured PowerPoint's than they do covering hands on topics such as ladder deployment or handline deployments.
But why?
What is it that drives the modern day fire service to rely solely on a computer program?
I mean how are we going to learn motor skills in the fire service if we don't get out there and do it.
Now lets cover the hands on portion of trainings with one I see alot of times.
How many times have you been on a training burn where we flow 3 seconds worth of water then turn around and back out?
YET when our new firefighters do it, we blame the training. But here's the kicker question. Why were they not taught about "real world fire flow" in rookie schools?
I want to talk now about the Rohrerstown Fire Company. This is a company of volunteers who are constantly training. When I talked with Lt Hamby he explained in depth there desire to train.
In the summer they train outside alot, yet in the winter they have props indoors that they can use. They don't center there training around a manufactured PowerPoint program.They strive to train on something everyday. When you look at the pictures below you will get a feel for there typical drills.
"train like your life depends on it because it does."
"train as if its the real thing."
We have them on posters hanging in our stations, t-shirts, some even have them tattooed on there body.
But are we really "training as if its the real thing" or are we getting tied up with the "gift wrapped" training (aka manufactured PowerPoint's).
Now before you go and condemn me to death hear me out, I do not have a grudge against manufactured powerpoints and I feel that they are a good TOOL that is all they are, they are not a cover and fix all training package.
I have seen some departments that spend more time going over manufactured PowerPoint's than they do covering hands on topics such as ladder deployment or handline deployments.
But why?
What is it that drives the modern day fire service to rely solely on a computer program?
I mean how are we going to learn motor skills in the fire service if we don't get out there and do it.
Now lets cover the hands on portion of trainings with one I see alot of times.
How many times have you been on a training burn where we flow 3 seconds worth of water then turn around and back out?
YET when our new firefighters do it, we blame the training. But here's the kicker question. Why were they not taught about "real world fire flow" in rookie schools?
I want to talk now about the Rohrerstown Fire Company. This is a company of volunteers who are constantly training. When I talked with Lt Hamby he explained in depth there desire to train.
In the summer they train outside alot, yet in the winter they have props indoors that they can use. They don't center there training around a manufactured PowerPoint program.They strive to train on something everyday. When you look at the pictures below you will get a feel for there typical drills.
I am not saying nobody else does this in the world, rather we as firefighters need to be doing more of this hands on training. We need to ensure that our crews are getting everything that they need to help the citizens when it comes to there education.
So tell me whats your training life like
Big thanks to Lt Hamby of Co 67
So tell me whats your training life like
Big thanks to Lt Hamby of Co 67
