• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • About
  • The Magazine
  • Events
  • Partners
  • Products
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Jobs and Careers
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Subscribe to the Magazine
American Police Beat

American Police Beat Magazine

Law Enforcement Publication

  • Home
  • Editor’s Picks
    • The power of teamwork
      Stay awake and alert on the job
      The worst rank in law enforcement
      Firearms maintenance
      Why fries need salt
  • Topics
    • On the Job
      • Wounded Florida deputy leaves hospital after being shot three times...
        Michigan police officer and bystanders hailed as heroes after...
        Florida police officers recount heroic rescue of 3-year-old boy...
        Semi-truck collides with South Dakota police cruiser during winter...
        Florida 9-1-1 dispatcher guides family member through CPR after...
    • Labor
      • LAPD “accidentally” leaks personal information of undercover...
        LAPD union proposes police stop responding to non-emergency calls
        Florida’s recruitment program lures Chicago police officers to the...
        Staffing shortages plague Cleveland police as record number leave the...
        New Orleans interim police chief aims to hire civilians in time for...
    • Tech
      • New Jersey turns to license plate reader technology to address rise...
        One of country’s oldest cold cases solved with DNA from untested...
        Crypto crime investigations
        Austin Police Department launches non-emergency artificial...
        iPhone crash detection feature helps deputies rescue driver from canal
    • Training
      • New N.J. emergency service officers ready to respond in times of...
        Working effectively in low light
        Realism and stress inoculation in training
        Avoiding conflict and escalation
        U.S. trails in police training
    • Policy
      • Wisconsin Assembly votes to require “high-risk” schools to keep...
        Oregon law enforcement and retailers seek to combat organized...
        Utah bill aims to regulate how law enforcement uses genetic genealogy...
        Opposing POVs on permit-less carry
        Ohio bill would lower minimum age to become a police officer to 18 to...
    • Health/Wellness
      • Thinking of pulling the pin on retirement?
        Expanding your identity
        Nonprofit offers telehealth therapy to upstate New York first...
        A California police department’s new wellness unit aims to improve...
        Massachusetts police department prioritizes officers’ mental health...
    • Community
      • “Tennis brings us all together”: NYPD officers bond with youth...
        First responders share love of reading with children for Read Across...
        Colorado Springs police kick off annual soccer ball giveaway to bond...
        “These are beautiful animals”: Community members gift horses to...
        Central Texas nonprofit to open law enforcement museum in honor of...
    • Offbeat
      • Ohio police rescue man from brutal zebra attack
        Motorist stranded in Oregon wilderness without cell phone reception...
        Cincinnati police work with animal rescuers to capture exotic cat...
        Not UFOs: Police departments across the country receive 9-1-1 calls...
        Texas deputy detains runaway tortoise after “slowest foot...
    • We Remember
      • Uncovering history: Railroad police officer murdered a century ago to...
        New Jersey girl supports first responders through Running 4 Heroes...
        Law enforcement from across the country join seventh annual Fallen...
        Boone County holds fifth annual Jacob Pickett Remembrance Day to...
        Farewell to a “living legend”: Oldest law enforcement officer in...
  • On the Job
    • Wounded Florida deputy leaves hospital after being shot three times...
      Michigan police officer and bystanders hailed as heroes after...
      Florida police officers recount heroic rescue of 3-year-old boy...
      Semi-truck collides with South Dakota police cruiser during winter...
      Florida 9-1-1 dispatcher guides family member through CPR after...
  • Labor
    • LAPD “accidentally” leaks personal information of undercover...
      LAPD union proposes police stop responding to non-emergency calls
      Florida’s recruitment program lures Chicago police officers to the...
      Staffing shortages plague Cleveland police as record number leave the...
      New Orleans interim police chief aims to hire civilians in time for...
  • Tech
    • New Jersey turns to license plate reader technology to address rise...
      One of country’s oldest cold cases solved with DNA from untested...
      Crypto crime investigations
      Austin Police Department launches non-emergency artificial...
      iPhone crash detection feature helps deputies rescue driver from canal
  • Training
    • New N.J. emergency service officers ready to respond in times of...
      Working effectively in low light
      Realism and stress inoculation in training
      Avoiding conflict and escalation
      U.S. trails in police training
  • Policy
    • Wisconsin Assembly votes to require “high-risk” schools to keep...
      Oregon law enforcement and retailers seek to combat organized...
      Utah bill aims to regulate how law enforcement uses genetic genealogy...
      Opposing POVs on permit-less carry
      Ohio bill would lower minimum age to become a police officer to 18 to...
  • Health/Wellness
    • Thinking of pulling the pin on retirement?
      Expanding your identity
      Nonprofit offers telehealth therapy to upstate New York first...
      A California police department’s new wellness unit aims to improve...
      Massachusetts police department prioritizes officers’ mental health...
  • Community
    • “Tennis brings us all together”: NYPD officers bond with youth...
      First responders share love of reading with children for Read Across...
      Colorado Springs police kick off annual soccer ball giveaway to bond...
      “These are beautiful animals”: Community members gift horses to...
      Central Texas nonprofit to open law enforcement museum in honor of...
  • Offbeat
    • Ohio police rescue man from brutal zebra attack
      Motorist stranded in Oregon wilderness without cell phone reception...
      Cincinnati police work with animal rescuers to capture exotic cat...
      Not UFOs: Police departments across the country receive 9-1-1 calls...
      Texas deputy detains runaway tortoise after “slowest foot...
  • We Remember
    • Uncovering history: Railroad police officer murdered a century ago to...
      New Jersey girl supports first responders through Running 4 Heroes...
      Law enforcement from across the country join seventh annual Fallen...
      Boone County holds fifth annual Jacob Pickett Remembrance Day to...
      Farewell to a “living legend”: Oldest law enforcement officer in...
  • Between the Lines
    • The imprisonment of law enforcement technology
      Persecution of the LEO is classic schadenfreude
      The rule of law is worthless without order
      School policing: a paradox of the defund movement
      Defending the honor of the LE profession – finally!
  • About
  • The Magazine
  • Events
  • Partners
  • Products
  • Advertise
  • Contact
Search

Training

Hick’s Law versus establishing dominant position

Chad Lyman Published January 11, 2020 @ 4:03 pm PST

iStock.com/DNY59, iStock.com/kali9

Hick’s Law is a phenomenon that is often quoted within the training industry. It was originally applied to early computer systems and stated that too many options for the computer to consider would cause the system to bog down and hesitate. Early defensive tactics and martial arts instructors took this concept and applied it to combatives training. Hick’s Law is no longer relevant to computers, and I do not believe it applies to effective combatives training, either.

In a law enforcement context, Hick’s Law states that if an officer trains in multiple techniques to respond to a threat, once they are put under pressure and attacked, they will be “frozen” and unable to select one of the techniques in the heat of the moment. While frozen with indecision, the officer will get overwhelmed by the suspect’s attack, often leading to them doing nothing but cowering in the face of the attack. In training that I have personally conducted, the officer may remain frozen, even while being hit or shot at with simunition rounds, until they are verbally prompted to fight back.

The counter principle

As a result of Hick’s Law, many trainers decide the answer is to only give students one or two options in response to a threat. These “options” are commonly taught as one or two key techniques. This approach can be limited in its effectiveness as well. Over the years, I have learned that any technique can fail or be countered, regardless of Hick’s Law. I teach this principle to students through the “counter principle.” The counter principle says that nothing works all the time, in any situation, with any opponent. Any technique chosen may fail or be countered. If this is true, how then do I choose which one or two techniques I will pick to teach as an answer to Hick’s Law?

Officers who train with uncooperative opponents understand that Hick’s Law is an illustration of why technique-based combative training systems fail, whether your system/curriculum has 200 techniques, 20, or even just one or two. No matter what you pick as the technique to train, you will encounter several problems. The technique you choose may not be something that all of your officers are comfortable performing or even capable of executing.

How do you know that the suspect will be vulnerable to the one or two techniques you choose? What if the technique you choose to teach all your people happens to be the strength of the bad guy they are fighting tonight? Do you think adhering to Hick’s Law will save your officer tonight? An effective training curriculum is one that teaches principles and concepts first, and then uses technique to deliver those principles. At the core of your “system” should be the concept that you should dominate position regardless of the technique you choose to teach or train. Hick’s Law is correct — you should not have a collection of techniques as your base curriculum.

The reality of the counter principle can also be explained with this: If you only have one option, it is not an option; it is a necessity — it better work. If you have two options, it is a problem: Which one should you use? This can cause a delay, and your inaction can lead to defeat. If you have three or more options, you have created a dilemma for your suspect, and you have legitimate choices and options. If one option or technique doesn’t work or is countered, that is no problem. Due to having a dominant position, you have the time to transition to the next option. If something doesn’t work, regardless of the reason, well-trained officers will switch to another option and continue to pursue their ultimate outcome, which is custody and control. They don’t get frozen or stuck on any single option, or attempt to pick the “perfect” option.

I recognize the legitimacy of Hick’s Law as it relates to not being a “collector” of techniques, so how do I justify the apparent contradiction I teach above? Effective training provides an answer for Hick’s Law for a couple of reasons.

First, I teach that officers should stay outcome-based. In other words, options and techniques trained should lead to a clearly defined outcome. For regular police work, the desired outcome is custody and control.

Second, the curriculum should be principle- and concept-based. The techniques an officer may use are interchangeable and really don’t matter, as long as the technique they choose does not violate any established principles and leads to a desired outcome of custody and control.

Training in dominant position strategy

At the heart of any DT curriculum should be the idea that dominant position should be sought throughout the encounter. I teach officers to carry out this dominant position strategy by consistently trying to deliver on some key principles.

First, the officer needs to be committed to staying mobile and continuing to move throughout the encounter. This includes the officer moving themselves, moving the suspect or moving around the suspect. The officer can use movement to create and release pressure. The officer should push, pull and circle as they deal with the suspect’s resistance. I teach officers to use movement to establish dominant positions and to use movement to escape inferior ones. If an officer gets caught in an inferior position where their mobility is limited, I teach them to actively fight to become mobile and escape the bad position. Through the principle of mobility, the officer can control the distance in the fight. The officer controls the distance by creating space when they want to move, or taking it away and crowding the suspect when they want to limit the suspect’s movement.

If the officer stays attached to the suspect, the officer should strive to establish and maintain an angle. Controlling a suspect’s head can be a key to being able to create and maintain angles. We will talk more about this later.

Second, a key principle is to consider potential transitions throughout the whole encounter. The officer may transition from empty hand to weapons, defense to offense, or vice versa. The officer can decide whether to stay attached or disengage, or go from one technique to another. If an officer stays committed to the concept of consistently transitioning from one position to the next, from one technique to another, always working to gain more control of the suspect and ultimately get them into custody, then the officer will not be defeated or paralyzed by either the counter principle or Hick’s Law. If something is not working, the officer can move on to another option. All of your training should be showing you transitions that lead to your LEO outcome of custody and control. 

Third, the officer should maintain the ability to disengage from the suspect if the officer feels they need more resources, are losing the position they are in or want space to transition to a weapon system. The officer may also make the decision that they no longer want to be attached or engaged up close and personal to the suspect.

The single biggest counter to Hick’s Law is for the officer to establish the most physically dominant positions possible. Once an officer achieves these spots, they should strive to maintain them, or if countered, re-establish them. Once the officer has a dominant position, they have multiple options. They can stay attached, disengage, strike, use a weapon or execute a takedown. The real key to dominance is not to be required to perform the “perfect” technique, but rather for the officer to achieve a position that allows them to be dominant just based on the position they are in. Once the officer establishes this dominant position, the multiple options do not slow them down because they can use multiple “correct” options.

One of the most dominant positions an officer can achieve is an angle. The angle allows the officer to continue to be mobile and respond to counters by the suspect. This can be defined as any time my hips face the suspect and the suspect’s hips face away. By this definition, an angle is only achieved if I am offset from the suspect to one side or the other, or I am behind them and squared up to them. I can create an angle whether I am close to the suspect or far away, but space allows the suspect to easily counter the angle by turning to face me. 

An angle is such a dominant position because from an angle, an officer does not have just one or two options — they have multiple options. They can stay attached, disengage, strike, use a weapon or execute a takedown. When training puts officers in a position that accounts for the fact the options may fail, but the officer can still actively choose where the fight will take place, they can stay in control of the encounter.

Conclusion

Willingly going out and facing violence and danger in your regular workday is one of the most daunting and rewarding challenges anyone could accept. Training should put officers in a position to dominate their opponents. This requires the officer to dominate position throughout the encounter. Ultimately, compliance is the goal of any encounter with a suspect, but officers cannot choose when a suspect will comply or resist arrest. When officers achieve dominant positions, suspects often “feel” dominated, and that can lead to a resistant suspect changing their mind and becoming compliant. If the suspect continues to resist from an inferior position, the officer is in a better position to dominate the suspect, control them and ultimately take them into custody.

The principles in this article are just a few that officers can use in an encounter. Whatever the officer decides to do, if they have been trained in a principle-based system, they will not be brought down by the challenges of Hick’s Law or being technique-based. Officers should be living, breathing problem-solvers who stay outcome-based and adapt well throughout the fight. Keep training to develop the ability to establish dominant positions, which will give you multiple options to control and dominate your suspect. Then go train it some more.

Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in the January/February 2020 issue of LVPPA Vegas Beat, the official publication of the Las Vegas Police Protective Association.

As seen in the January 2020 issue of American Police Beat magazine.
Don’t miss out on another issue today! Click below:

SUBSCRIBE TODAY!

Categories: Training

Primary Sidebar

Recent Articles

  • Uncovering history: Railroad police officer murdered a century ago to be honored in D.C. memorial thanks to North Carolina museum’s research
  • Wisconsin Assembly votes to require “high-risk” schools to keep armed school resource officers on campus
  • Wounded Florida deputy leaves hospital after being shot three times in ambush
  • Michigan police officer and bystanders hailed as heroes after rescuing victims in fiery car crash
  • LAPD “accidentally” leaks personal information of undercover officers to watch-dog group
  • Florida police officers recount heroic rescue of 3-year-old boy trapped in sinking car
  • Semi-truck collides with South Dakota police cruiser during winter storm
  • Florida 9-1-1 dispatcher guides family member through CPR after toddler almost drowns
  • NYPD officer rappels down skyscraper to save man from jumping to his death
  • New Jersey girl supports first responders through Running 4 Heroes program

Footer

Our Mission
To serve as a trusted voice of the nation’s law enforcement community, providing informative, entertaining and inspiring content on interesting and engaging topics affecting peace officers today.

Contact us: info@apbweb.com | (800) 234-0056.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram

Categories

  • Editor’s Picks
  • On the Job
  • Labor
  • Tech
  • Training
  • Policy
  • Health/Wellness
  • Community
  • Offbeat
  • We Remember
  • Jobs and Careers
  • Events

Editor’s Picks

The power of teamwork

The power of teamwork

July 23, 2021

Stay awake and alert on the job

Stay awake and alert on the job

July 20, 2021

The worst rank in law enforcement

The worst rank in law enforcement

July 19, 2021

Firearms maintenance

Firearms maintenance

July 04, 2021

Privacy Policy | Your Privacy Options | Notice at Collection | Copyright © 2023 APB Media, LLC | Website design, development and maintenance by 911MEDIA

Open

Subscribe

Close

Receive the latest news and updates from American Police Beat directly to your inbox!

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.