At the Colorado State Fire Fighters Association’s 2025 Fire College, Chop Shop RX Instructors remind firefighters to keep your head on a swivel and stay attentive, using this little mantra… or song if you so choose….

VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION:

   A little mantra that I have, I have tip tip, whether it’s blade or tip back hand and my feet. Rarely do we look at our backhand and we never look at our feet. It’s super important that we look at our feet because just like the chief was saying, you have no protection in your feet, possibly hydraulic lines, possibly something you didn’t see ’cause you were just sucked in and you didn’t see that arm hanging out.

Just do that, and you’re resetting your OODA loop every time. And where it becomes very important is when we start ramming, because I can see the spreaders almost through their entire range of motion. I can see the shear through its range of motion, but the ram is the same thing. Tip. Tip back, hand, feet.

Eventually that ram will be outside of my peripheral vision, but you need to be paying attention on both ends of that ram because path of least resistance, if I’m forcing from this, what I consider the base, and I go and now I offer resistance that’s greater than the base. The base becomes the path of least resistance.

And now I’m gonna go that way, potentially ruining my push point. Tip. Tip. Backhand feet. Do a song. Helps me. Here we go. Tip, tip, backhand. Tip, tip, backhand. Tip, tip. Backhand feet.

* The training views expressed in this video are those of the training instructors, and not Fire Spotlight. The actions in this video are inherently dangerous and could result in death; should the viewers choose to adopt any views expressed in this video, he/she is doing so at his/her own risk. Fire Spotlight encourages viewers to review his/her department’s Standard Operating Procedures when adopting any new training views.