Does MA help you size up a situation?

As a military man rather than LEO or security, our hand to hand training was laughable. The one real benefit that translated from martial arts to the army was sensing intent. I'm curious: do LEO's find that MA helps them "read" people?

If I'm totally honest, I would have to say no. I think reading people is something that comes with experience, and no amount of training can adequately replace real life encounters.

That said, I think training in martial arts does give me the tools that allow me to be aware of both other people and myself. I think it is important to have an understanding of such things as zanshin, mushin and so on, and martial arts is athe best way to get that understanduing that I've found.