Ep. 178: Why Training Fails Under Stress | Chris Butler on Perception, Video Evidence, and Use of Force

About this episode

Chris Butler discusses how stress affects perception and the shortcomings of traditional training methods under pressure.

What looks obvious on video often tells the least important part of the story. Chris Butler has spent decades inside high consequence decision making, as a search and rescue technician, a police inspector, a force science instructor, and an expert witness called into hundreds of use of force cases. In this conversation, we dig into how stress bends perception, why traditional training often fails under pressure, and how video evidence can mislead investigators, leaders, and the public. We explore the difference between performance and learning, why mistakes are essential for real skill acquisition, how decision making degrades under stress, and what trainers, coaches, and leaders across any field can learn from force science. This episode is for anyone responsible for training others, leading teams, or forming opinions based on partial information. Key themes and takeaways Why performance during training is not the same as learning How retention and transfer actually work under stress The danger of linear, checkbox driven training models Decision training vs technique training Why video evidence feels convincing but can be wrong Frame rates, fisheye distortion, and perceptual…

People in this episode

Host: Travis Bader

Guest: Chris Butler

Topics covered

• training under stress
• perception
• use of force
• decision making
• video evidence
• performance vs learning
• leadership

Keywords

• training
• stress
• perception
• video evidence
• decision making
• force science
• learning
• leadership

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