When it comes to firefighter training, realism isn’t just about smoke machines and fire props—it’s about preparing the mind as much as the body.
That’s the philosophy behind the work of Greg Payeur and Rob Blasetti, instructors with Training to Perform Under Pressure. Their approach blends psychology, human performance science, and a deep respect for the fundamentals to create training that sticks.
As Fire-Dex ambassadors, Payeur and Blasetti trust our gear to help them get the job done. We talked to them about their passion for teaching, the importance of reality-based training, and why confidence is key on the fireground.
It’s important to know that realistic training and reality-based training aren’t the same thing.
Blasetti describes the difference as a series of things versus a system. Realistic training, he says, is dealing with things like furniture, fire trucks, hose lines, and smoke machines. It’s taking physical items from the real world and using them to train.
Reality-based training, on the other hand, is more of a system of training. It often involves the elements of realistic training, but is a whole system that encompasses the mental in addition to the physical.
That system is inspired by Ken Murray’s Training at the Speed of Life, a method of training developed for the military and police. It follows a deliberate progression: static drills, low-level scenarios, high-level scenarios, and finally, complex scenarios.
Payeur calls it the “crawl, walk, run, sprint” model, explaining that while it sounds like a buzzword it’s actually a helpful framework to follow.
“We start off in a static setup, which is a comfortable environment,” he says. He and his team work in a very specific manner. The first step is to “gain the trust of the people that are working with us and training with us so that there's no feeling of being judged by their peers on what they're doing.” Trust allows people to let their guard down in practice, which in turn can help to reveal weak points in their techniques.
“We don't look at failures, but we want people to go through the systems and find the flaws within the systems and we fix those,” he says. “And we have to do that at a static level because if we start right off moving up into some sort of scenario, what will happen at that point in time is that failure then sets with them and it gets programmed in their brain that ‘when I did this last time I failed.’ So we stopped that with that crawl.”
From there, they move to the walk (adding gear and more movement), to the run (adding an emotional component with music and competition), and finally to sprint (complex scenarios with realistic smoke, calls, trucks, etc.).
At the heart of their method is a deep understanding of how the brain responds to stress. Blasetti says that brain chemicals released by stress (like norepinephrine, epinephrine, and cortisol) can either be helpful or harmful.
“You want to be excited enough to be able to operate at a high level to make quick decisions that you were trained on, but also not too excited to where you're overloading the system,” he explains. “Cortisol is acidic. If too much cortisol enters your brain, it starts short-circuiting the system. This is when we start making mistakes—what we call irrational fight or flight.”
The walk/run/sprint method is specifically designed to combat that irrational fight or flight response. By building up skills in a safe environment and then by adding in intentionally stressful environments, Blasetti and Payeur hope to give firefighters the skills they need and the mindset to carry out those skills in the real world.
Blasetti says creating that stressful atmosphere is key. The brain knows that the training tower isn’t real, that the fire may not be real. He says the question they ask is “How can we manipulate the environment to make the mind think that it is a stressful atmosphere? And then what we do is during our classes before, we give them the mental skills that they need to help them be able to operate at a higher level.”
For example, they borrow a technique from military training for thermal imaging: scan and breathe. Blasetti explains that the imager can only process so much information so fast. Their system is about slowing down and breathing, picking up every little detail to make better decisions.
Payeur and Blasetti don’t just teach tactics—they build systems. “We’re programming your brain,” Payeur says. “We’re writing the code so that when it’s time to force a door, it’s second nature.”
That includes building “if-then” statements into training. “We’re building a playbook. If it’s a residential building, then I have one play. If it’s commercial building, I have another play” Payeur explains. “When you get on scene, you call the play based on what the fireground gives you.”
Blasetti and Payeur see themselves as coaches rather than instructors. They compare what they do to baseball coaches. They point out that even superstars of the baseball world still rely on coaches.
“No matter how good you are, you still have coaches, otherwise you’re going to stay stagnant and not progress” says Payeur. “A rookie coming out in the field is going to pick up a lot more from their hitting coach than that veteran. But that veteran is still going to pick stuff up and they're still going to learn from it.”
That means the level of coaching is dependent on the student. “We don't necessarily teach you how to force a door, though we certainly will if we need to,” says Payeur. “But to continue the analogy, if I’m a pitching coach, I’m going to take your fastball and add a mile per hour to it. That’s a big deal in the world of pitching. Instead of going four innings, I'm going to teach you how to go seven innings. And maybe you don't have a curveball, so I'm going to teach you how to throw a curveball.”
It all comes back to their core ideal of always learning. Payeur says, “The worst thing you can ever be in your training is inbred. That means you don't want your training just to be what you're seeing within your own organization, your own state, your own region, because that's the only way you're going to know how to do it.”
“We’re not here to show you one way to do something,” Blasetti says. “We’re here to help you find your way. We’re going to give you a system, but you’ve got to build your own version of it.”
That coaching mindset also means creating a safe space for failure—and recovery. “We never let anyone leave the training ground with a loss,” Payeur says. “If someone struggles in a scenario, we make sure they go back and get the win. That’s critical. You don’t want to program failure into someone’s brain.”
Ultimately, all of the training and psychology is designed to help in the real world. Payeur says he first became interested in the mental side of things after realizing his own limitations as a younger firefighter. “We had a close call—one of my firefighters fell through a floor. We got him out, but my training failed me. Not the tactics, but the mental side. I didn’t understand what was happening in my own head. That’s what sent me down the rabbit hole of human performance.”
Blasetti agrees, adding that he’s seen the training be useful in many other areas. “Understanding the fear response doesn’t just help on the fireground. It helps in life. In arguments. In stressful meetings. It’s about staying in control.”
And that’s the core of their message: training isn’t just about doing—it’s about thinking, reacting, and staying calm under pressure. It’s about building confidence through repetition, systems, and support.
When the pressure’s on, you need to trust your training, the people around you, and your gear. Faulty equipment (or worse, equipment that’s bad to begin with) is the last thing you need in a high-stress environment.
That’s why training must include the equipment you wear on the fireground. But it’s important that whether you’re on the training ground or the fireground that you have gear you can trust.
As Payeur puts it, “The battle on the fireground is always going to be won up top. But your gear is part of that system. If you don’t trust it, it’s one more thing your brain has to worry about.”
Just like training, PPE from Fire-Dex is designed to give you an edge on the fireground. It’s about adding time before heat stress sets in with breathable turnouts. It’s about the peace of mind from particulate-blocking hoods. It’s wearing a jacket that fits well and doesn’t restrict your movement in high-stress scenarios.
So train like it’s real. Build your systems. Understand your mind. And make sure your gear is as ready as you are.