Hardwired to SurviveComing Soon

Recognize the Overload.
Manage the Response.

The science of what stress does to you on the worst calls, and a free tool to start taking back control.

For law enforcement officers, and the instructors who prepare them for the split-second decisions that matter most.

Start free, in 60 seconds

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Free, no spam. The tool and guide arrive in 60 seconds, plus first word on the book launch and a launch-day discount.

Hardwired to Survive book cover
What actually happens

Under stress, your biology takes over.

When it does, any of this can happen: vision tunnels, thinking jams, hands fumble, and the skills — drilled a hundred times — are not there. That's fight-or-flight, your survival wiring, doing its job at the worst possible time. It is human biology, not negligence, but the costs run high: discipline, criminal and civil liability, injuries, and lives.

Officer safety, de-escalation, and sound tactics all begin with recognizing when your own biology is working against you, and training to manage the response.

Grounded in decades of human-factors research on performance under stress.

Who it's for

For everyone who runs toward it.

Anyone can stumble, and some fall. When the stakes are life and death and every call is second-guessed in hindsight, officers need evidence-based tools to push back.

01Your life

The read that comes a half-second too late is the one that decides whether you go home.

02Their life

A phone mistaken for a gun is a tragedy for a family and a weight you have to carry.

03Your career

The same seconds decide an indictment, a lawsuit, or a termination hearing. Better is also defensible.

The free kit

Reset on demand.

The Reset Breath: one long exhale you can run mid-call to pull your arousal down and buy a beat to think. The guided tool walks you through it and pairs with your watch so you can watch your heart rate drop; the field guide shows the science behind it, and the tactical pause that follows.

It will not make a bad scene safe. Used with the training in the book, it can buy you the beat that makes your next move a better one.

Breathe In
TrainingComing with launch

The course.

The book's method as guided video training. Work through the biology of stress, the ways it degrades performance, and the training that pushes back. Built for individuals and agencies looking to reduce error, mitigate adverse outcomes, and enhance organizational performance.

MembersComing later

The Debrief.

A members-only room to talk through what acute stress does on the job, the tunnel vision, the auditory exclusion, the calls where your thinking jammed, and to ask and answer the questions you can't get into at briefing. Plus training ideas from me as I share them.

What it is
  • Members-only, and off the record.
  • Compare notes, ask questions, swap what works.
  • Training ideas straight from Dave.
From inside the arena

Scholar's knowledge. Practitioner's voice.

D.M. Blake, PhD spent years on the street making the calls this book is about, then retired on an on-duty injury and earned a doctorate in psychology with a focus on human performance.

Today he is a consultant and expert witness, retained across the country to analyze police use-of-force cases, including officer-involved shootings, and to testify on human performance under stress. He has stood in the shoes he writes to, and has since been cross-examined on every claim in these pages.

Launch list

Get it the day it drops.

One email when the book launches, plus a launch-day discount, and first word on the course and The Debrief.

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