Combat Ready: Stress, Decision-Making, and Human Performance Under Pressure

What happens when training stops being predictable? From 2002 to 2012, David Burnell founded and operated the Urban Warfare Center, where military personnel, law enforcement officers, and others confronted realistic problems through scenario-based training and disciplined evaluation. Combat Ready draws on that decade of experience to examine stress, decision-making, leadership, communication, learning, and the ethical responsibility of instructors. It explains why after-action reviews matter, why safety and realism must work together, and why the measure of training is not how intense it feels—but what it prepares people to do.

The Urban Warfare Center was built around the premise that realistic training should expose problems safely, not simply make participants feel capable. Burnell examines the influence of uncertainty, human opposing forces, and unexpected outcomes on decision-making. He considers the role of briefing, scenario design, instructor judgment, communication, and careful after-action evaluation in turning an exercise into meaningful preparation.

At its core, the book argues that intense training is not automatically effective training. A sound program balances realism with safeguards, gives participants useful feedback, and measures readiness through performance rather than confidence alone. Instructors, leaders, and readers interested in human performance under pressure will find a disciplined account of what serious preparation demands from everyone involved.

Available formats: Downloadable EPUB eBook or MP3 audiobook. This is a digital product, not a physical book.