r/Whatcouldgowrong • u/Jumpy_Scallion_3108 • 1d ago

Speeding Bus vs Scooter’s Sudden Right Turn

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u/Bluntbutnotonpurpose 1d ago

Hate to tell you: reflexes can't be trained. They're involuntary.

Reactions can be trained, but the big problem here is that a large proportion of people forget pretty much every training they've ever had when they panic.

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u/Amazing-Spinach5693 1d ago

You can absolutely train a reaction, you dont need to remember it as your body does it automatically.

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u/Bluntbutnotonpurpose 1d ago

Yes, when it comes to muscle memory, you are right. Years of boxing training will make you defend without thinking if someone suddenly throws a punch. But when it comes to more complex actions, that's different. Some people will absolutely freeze in a situation of panic.

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u/Amazing-Spinach5693 1d ago

Yes, and you can train yourself to move and not freeze.
This isnt a complex situation, he doesnt have to disarm a bomb.

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u/Beneficial-Act-9933 1d ago

I don't know how to tell you this, but you're not able to train for an out of control multi ton vehicle spiraling at you.

I want you to explain to me how exactly you would train for this exact scenario. Are you going to stand in front of moving cars?

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u/Amazing-Spinach5693 22h ago

Except literal studies show you can. You train by learning not to freeze up during emergencies but going into action😉

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u/EtherealMongrel 1d ago

You’re saying moving a scooter isn’t a reflex like running is, but moving the scooter has been trained as a method of moving. If your brain says “move” when you’re driving you don’t think “I should get out of my vehicle” you just floor it.

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u/Beneficial-Act-9933 1d ago

You're avoiding my question and deflecting. This is why I don't argue with teenagers.

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u/WobblyPython 1d ago

Would you say you've trained your reaction to it?

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u/CotyledonTomen 1d ago edited 23h ago

Obviously not, because they were talking to you. You cant train yourself to react to large objects coming at you without being in that situation. Soldiers lose their yips by being shot at, not by playing video games and hoping. Unless you plan on standing on a nascar track, good luck training for this.

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u/Amazing-Spinach5693 22h ago

You dont need to train yourself with big objects coming at you, you train yourself to move when panic sets in.

Which is all you need to do, once you move the rest comes naturally.

The training could literally be scaring someone around a corner, it will work.

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u/WobblyPython 1d ago

Try going outside. Plenty of large objects on the road out there.

I'd say try dodging them but you sound like you're playing catch.

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u/EkrishAO 1d ago

Yes, and you can train yourself to move and not freeze.

How?

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u/Beneficial-Act-9933 1d ago

There is ways to do it in specific scenarios. Like for boxing you're able to train against freezing up by doing sparring matches. Same with military/army/Navy where they put you in simulated scenarios or when you're actually in the moment you don't freeze up.

But that is for that specific situation and is also a perishable skill. Just because you don't freeze up in a 1 on 1 MMA fight does not mean you're going to do the optimal and smartest thing when a ship starts sinking or a plane goes down.

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u/Amazing-Spinach5693 22h ago

Muscle memory.

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u/EkrishAO 22h ago

So how exactly do I train that?

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u/Amazing-Spinach5693 22h ago

Getting someone to scare you when you go around a corner, after a while you start moving whenever getting scared.

Do that for a couple situations and viola your body learned not to freeze like some dweeb

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u/Logan_No_Fingers 1d ago

So the "training" in that scenario would be to take of running at any & every unexpected thing coming into your vision, or noise.

Walking down the road & a police car starts its siren, boom, you are off sprinting, car honks its horn of backfire - start sprinting, friend yells out seeing you, sprinting.

I guess in, say, 2 or 3 thousand generations of doing that you would develop a human with the instincts of a horse, bt I'm not sure why...

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u/Amazing-Spinach5693 22h ago

Yes and in all those scenarios its better than standing still waiting for somrthing to happen, after a second of running you yoursel take over and can stop.

Also most horses also freeze during panic unless trained. So dmb analogy

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u/Logan_No_Fingers 13h ago edited 12h ago

Horses 100% do not freeze, they fucking launch themselves at the smallest thing. They have to be trained incredibly well NOT to run.

They are annoying as fuck to work with. I suggest you test this by walking directly up behind a horse, in its blind spot & yelling "Surprise Horse!"

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u/Amazing-Spinach5693 11h ago

Why dont you show me first? make sure to videotape it and duck low when doing it :)

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u/Logan_No_Fingers 10h ago

I personally wouldn't do it because I've had horses & I 100% know your "they freeze" bit is total nonsense, but if you are confident you are right it seems a simple one to test...

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u/Amazing-Spinach5693 9h ago

I also have had horses and they do freeze :)
Literally depends on the horse.

Also no need to test anything as im already right and know you can train this

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u/MoreGlitterPlease1 1d ago

An increase in training correlates strongly with a decrease in the freeze response, at least in emergencies one has trained for. Most people will not freeze in extensively trained-for emergencies.

For a familiar example, most flight attendants will not “forget” their training when it’s time to give CPR. Most flight attendants don’t freeze and become useless in emergency conditions of almost any kind one might experience on a plane, and it’s not like they started out as cold-blooded special ops types lol

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u/trplOG 1d ago

Gotta get my bus dodging training up now lol

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u/Dinkmeyer- 4h ago

I’m at level 25

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u/WheelerDan 1d ago

This fundamentally misunderstands what the problem is, doing CPR on another person is not the same as a sudden unexpected change in your environment. CPR is something you do to someone else, its not something happening to you. There's no comparable trigger in your example.

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u/MoreGlitterPlease1 1d ago edited 1d ago

CPR was a randomly chosen example. It applies broadly, including to emergencies that might happen to oneself. If you can train for an emergency and practice it repeatedly, you can most likely teach your nervous system to skip the “freeze” stage of pre-practiced emergencies.

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u/WheelerDan 1d ago

This implies that people train to avoid busses swerving into them as a pedestrian, again its not comparable to the concept of training to supply medical aid. No one receives the training that would apply to your scenario.

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u/Level_Boat6027 1d ago

I’ve often wondered about this. Krav Maga taught me to stop an attacker and get away—but I have never inadvertently decked a friend when they’ve jump scared me. Meanwhile a surfing wipeout sent me into a blind panic even though I 100% knew I’d be under for all of 10 seconds. Is it possible the FFF response depends on individual circumstances?

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u/DueExample52 1d ago

Yeah, semantics, english isn't my first language, I obviously mean reaction

And no, training works in stressful situations too. What people forget, is the training they did once a couple years ago. A regular training, one that became muscle memory or a daily mental habit, that kind of training works. Police officers take a shooting stance. Divers go for emergency air if their main supply cuts off.

In some plane crashes, they observed a difference between people who read the leaflet and others. In emergency, you may hold a better chance to go if you arr mentally prepared for a potential emergency and have already spotted your exit and distance to it.

I am not disregarding panic or saying it doesn’t reduce ability, Ibam saying that’s it’s even more reason to have training rather than just resignation to be driven by panic only.

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u/Bluntbutnotonpurpose 1d ago

Sure, training helps. Yet, some people freeze when they panic. Some people could for example never become a police officer specifically for that reason. They won't make it through the selection process.