Greg Payeur, Captain with Pittsfield Fire in Michigan and co-founder of Training to Perform Under Pressure (TTPUP) has been involved with the fire service his whole life.
As a fourth-generation firefighter, Greg was inspired by his father who was an instructor throughout the state of Michigan in the 80s and 90s. His great grandfather was a Fire Chief and his grandfather was a firefighter- it’s in his blood.
TTPUP was co-founded alongside Rob Blasetti, growing into a cadre of like-minded firefighters. Payeur has formed partnerships with Fire-Dex, the Gary Sinise Foundation and Bullard alongside others, brands he credits as allowing TTPUP to bring its work across the United States.
In this interview with Fire and Safety Journal Americas Assistant Editor, Isabelle Crow, Payeur discusses how he believes a different approach to training resonates with people. He sums up his perspective with the statement; 100% of the time, I learn as much from the students as the students learn from us.
When you come to one of our classes, you won’t ever hear us refer to ourselves or any of our other cadre members as instructors, because that is not really a role that we fill. We are closer to a coach than an instructor and so our job is to meet the attendee or the student at their skill level; some are extremely high and then some are extremely low.
We work on a one-to-one basis, but on a larger scale. So, we will have up to 90 students and we still manage to spend time with them independently, taking them at their skill level and developing them up to that next level.
What training is doing is programming your brain and sometimes this can be done properly or improperly. We call those training scars. Sometimes, if I learned the incorrect way to do something it is extremely difficult for me to break that. Whereas, if I had learned how to do it the right way then it is easy for me to function on the fireground.
We always talk about that being the clutch, that when your family is the one trapped inside of that fire, who is the firefighter you want going in to get them. Most likely, I would bet you, that the clutch performer is the firefighter who trains the most.
We are good at functioning during a simple activity like putting our gear on or forcing the door in a low stress environment. This is because we have no fear response kicked in- it’s easy.
Greg Payeur
When running sets and reps you can have great success with forcing a door trainer, but when in a real-life scenario a door does not respond in the same way that a practice one does. When I go to fight a fire, the behaviour of a fire inside a Conex box with a couple of burning pallets is completely different than a package inside a modern home within the United States.
Immediately, you would become flustered and this can create a domino effect leading to losses. This is where we will often see firefighter injuries and fatalities. All we must do is stop the dominoes from falling and we can start this with reality-based training, which is our philosophy.
We start off crawling, which is learning the skill. Teaching the brain and programming the individual to run a specific system. After this has been perfected, you move up to the next step. We put on all your turnout gear, so you are hot and weighed down, creating an entirely different experience. Once this has been mastered, we begin to involve emotional components.
Step by step, we put everything together. Not only are you going to force a door, but you are also going to don your SCBA mask. Here, we kick some music on so you are ramped up and we might even do a little bit of quick talk, stimulations like that.
This gets you up to what we call, the running side. We will always finish with a sprint, which is a complex scenario with multiple people working together. Now, you not only have to work in your own world, but in their world as well.
Where I see a lot of people going wrong is within these progressions. If you don’t learn how to crawl, then I’m not going to be able to walk and if I don’t learn how to walk, I’m not going to be very good at running. Without running, you cannot sprint.
By building all those blocks together, that is where the confidence and swagger comes from.
We offer a wide variety of training exercises and courses. We are broken up into the fire and then the rescue side. On the rescue side, we offer vehicle extrication, alternative fuel response and heavy vehicle rescue school.
On the fire side of things, we have our own signature programs; our first alarm company ops program, thermal imaging operator program and our rapid intervention firefighter survival training.
Control what you can control. Don’t let the environment or the surroundings control what you are doing. The easiest way to do that is by starting at the smallest thing.
Greg Payeur
Often, when we hear people talk about struggles there’s a reason why they can’t get better at it. So, my motto has always been to start at the thing you can control, how about your gear? How good are you at putting on your turnout gear and can you get it on fast? Maybe start to time yourself and each time aim to beat the previous score.
It works a bit like weightlifting, you start off not very strong at it but as you increase sets, reps and tension, the stronger you get.
The same applies with skills in the fire service; the more sets, reps and time under tension that you get- the better you will become.
In the fireground, the most important tool is the firefighter.
Within the fireground, we have controllables and uncontrollables. Things you cannot control include the building, weather condition and orientation of the structure. What you can control is mostly pre-fire, any training in preparation, the gear you have chosen or the firefighters you are supported by.
By breaking down controllable factors such as if the firefighters have been correctly prepared with thermal imagers, nozzles and hose packages, you can help to build confidence. Most importantly, you need to be looking at the gear that is protecting us and allowing us to do the job.
Your turnout gear needs to allow you to function at a high level. One of the reasons we chose Fire-Dex is because of their extra abilities with movement and the weight of the gear.
Greg Payeur
Every couple of pounds I’m starting to add to myself is going to slow me down. We don’t have any pockets in our pants because I don’t want anything that can slow me down. We have got pockets in our jacket so we can carry important things, but overall, the gear needs to set a firefighter up for success on the fireground.
What I loved about Fire-Dex was how its focus is not only meeting the NFPA standard but also making a firefighters job easier.
At TTPUP we teach body mechanics, which is how a firefighter moves throughout the building, either with a hose line or without. When I am wearing bulky gear, it is cumbersome and exhausting to move. By having gear that is designed to move with the body and is comfortable, like a pair of sweatpants, it allows a firefighter to function at a higher and safer level.
