It’s harder than we think. In training, we pursue perfection. Our goal is to execute every move, every decision, every impulse to the nth degree of excellence. To ensure we achieve this in training, we create artificial environments conducive to such an outcome.
In the real world, we face a factor very hard to train for. Uncertainty. We do not know what the weather will do, how our opponent will respond, how we will deal with the pressure, how easily we will adapt to variable stimuli.
It quickly becomes evident, that although a zen level of subconscious mastery will be useful in dealing with uncertainty there is another key ingredient. Responsiveness. Our ability to think on our feet. Our ingenuity, foresight and intuition. Our gut.
This is much harder to train. In fact, in most cases, experience is the best teacher.
Training for reality is best done on the job.
Sidebar: augmented and virtual reality programs could prove very useful here to increase the range of exposure to ‘real-time’ experience in a simulated environment to accelerate learning through a guided process.