Practice.

How do you take out three armed assailants, bursting into a Florida strip mall casino, their guns out and firing?

Training:

To judge by appearances, the guard is not exactly cut and chiseled. (By all means, try Patrick’s sweet potato diet—just not entirely in the form of fries!)

But how many of us could react as quickly and decisively as he did? I’ll go first: not me.

The young man he shot is recovering from his wounds, but is not cooperating with police. Until the other two gentlemen are arrested, police are not releasing the name of the guard.

But they are open with their respect:

‘It’s maybe a job where you sit for hours and something like this may never happen in your career but for it to happen and to react that quickly says something about his mindset,’ Shelley added in admiration of the guard.

‘His reaction may have saved his life and possibly the lives of others in the building.’

I don’t know what training he had. I don’t know if his side-to-side movement was part of that training (better than being a stationary target? improving his angle as the bad guys ducked?), or just nervous energy. But the instant he looked up from the Sudoku or Jumble, he clicked into action mode and didn’t click off until the threat had been neutralized. Completely. Shoes included.

How many times have we heard that instruction in our own training? How much clearer could the consequences be? When you go—if you go—you go all out. Shoes included.

(Legally, a shod foot is considered a dangerous weapon, so think twice about the shoes. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.)