{"id":169130,"date":"2022-02-23T13:23:56","date_gmt":"2022-02-23T19:23:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/?p=169130"},"modified":"2026-09-15T13:26:40","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T18:26:40","slug":"beyond-ooda-varg-freeborn-podcast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/skills\/tactical\/beyond-ooda-varg-freeborn-podcast\/","title":{"rendered":"Podcast #781: Beyond OODA \u2014 Developing the Orientation for Conflict and Violence"},"content":{"rendered":"

The OODA Loop \u2014 the OODA stands for Observe, Orient, Decide, Act \u2014 is a strategic tool designed to help people make better decisions when facing any kind of competitor or opponent.<\/p>\n

My guest today says that when that opponent is a seasoned criminal, the Orient component of OODA \u2014 a person’s mindset \u2014 is the most underestimated and critical part of the model to understand.<\/p>\n

His name is Varg Freeborn and he’s the author of Violence of Mind: Training and Preparation for Extreme Violence<\/em><\/a>, and Beyond OODA: Developing the Orientation for Deception, Conflict, and Violence<\/em><\/a>. We begin with how Varg’s life story has uniquely positioned him to understand the dynamics of violence from the perspectives of both the perpetrators of crime, and the would-be preventers of that crime. Varg shares how he went from being a convicted felon to a self-defense and firearms instructor who’s worked with both civilians and law enforcement.<\/p>\n

We then turn to why it’s so important to understand the difference between the orientation of an average person and the orientation of a violent criminal, and why, when the two collide, the latter has a real advantage over the former. We end our conversation with what you can do in terms of mindset and training to close that gap, and be better prepared to handle a violent encounter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The OODA Loop \u2014 the OODA stands for Observe, Orient, Decide, Act \u2014 is a strategic tool designed to help people make better decisions when facing any kind of competitor or opponent. My guest today says that when that opponent is a seasoned criminal, the Orient component of OODA \u2014 a person’s mindset \u2014 is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":195163,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[156,42259,42394],"tags":[42240],"class_list":["post-169130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-podcast","category-skills","category-tactical","tag-self-defense"],"featured_image_urls":{"large":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/781-538x280.png","medium_large":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/781-768x432.png","aom":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/781-372x230.png","reactor-320":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/781-320x180.png","reactor-640":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/781-640x360.png"},"yoast_head":"\nPodcast #781: Beyond OODA \u2014 Developing the Orientation for Conflict and Violence | The Art of Manliness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/skills\/tactical\/beyond-ooda-varg-freeborn-podcast\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Podcast #781: Beyond OODA \u2014 Developing the Orientation for Conflict and Violence | The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The OODA Loop \u2014 the OODA stands for Observe, Orient, Decide, Act \u2014 is a strategic tool designed to help people make better decisions when facing any kind of competitor or opponent. My guest today says that when that opponent is a seasoned criminal, the Orient component of OODA \u2014 a person’s mindset \u2014 is […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/skills\/tactical\/beyond-ooda-varg-freeborn-podcast\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/facebook.com\/artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-02-23T19:23:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-09-15T18:26:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/781.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brett & Kate McKay\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" 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