KIMS Game – Improve Your Observation Skills

KIMS Game, or Kim’s game, is an old game or exercise that I first learned while attending the 2nd Infantry Division Scout Sniper School. (On my back, feet 6 inches off the ground, learning the Brady Bunch theme song.) I guess I should have been a Boy Scout, because Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts learn this too. (Wouldn’t have helped in sniper school, as everyone in the class had to sing the Brady Bunch theme song together.)  The game helps develop your capacity to observe and remember details. In the military it is often said KIM is for Keep In Memory, but the origin goes back to Rudyard Kipling’s 1901 novel Kim, where the young boy learns the game during his training to be a spy.

KIMS Game – Improve Your Observation Skills video recorded live on Facebook:

I encourage you to try the KIMS game and see how you do. You don’t have to learn the Brady Bunch theme song while doing flutter kicks, but as you improve, make the game harder and take some of the suggestions from the video to go out into the real world and practice so your observation skills improve.

Go to the mall and practice observing different things. You don’t have to do all the categories at the same time, but one time think of cover vs. concealment. Another time think of weapons. Another time exits, and so on. Then, when you get better you can do more than one, and get where you are quizzing yourself on everything.

Teach your kids. Make it fun. Enjoy playing it and you’ll be learning a valuable skill as you have a good time. Remember, I want you to enjoy life safely. So enjoy playing this game and learn as you do.

Here is the clip from the 1950 movie based on the Rudyard Kipling novel.