Stall spin awareness training has two main focuses: acquiring knowledge and learning techniques to avoid a stall and the spin that it produces, and learning how to recover from a stall and/or a spin should they occur. At most flight training schools the emphasis of stall spin awareness training focuses on the avoidance of stalls and spins. However, some schools teach pilots to recover from stalls and spins by intentionally inducing them during flight training. Currently, many high tech, well-funded flight schools opt to conduct the experiential side of stall spin awareness training using flight simulators, with the academic side of avoiding stalls and spins remaining basically the same.

A stall occurs when an aircraft exceeds its critical angle attack; that is, when an aircraft achieves an angle of attack that exceeds its angle for maximum lift, its wing stalls and risks sending the aircraft into a dangerous spinning pattern that is difficult to recover from. The speed at which an aircraft exceeds the critical angle of the relative wind (frontal airflow) is its stall speed. Aircraft stall speeds are listed in the U.S. Department of Transportation's Airplane Flight Manual (AFM) and Pilot Operation Handbook (POH). In addition to aircraft configuration upon landing approach, stall speed may also be contingent on factors such as aircraft weight, turbulence, altitude, temperature and an aircraft's center of gravity.

In the spirit of prevention being the best medicine, pilots are encouraged to study the aspects of stall speed mentioned above in relation to their particular aircraft, as well as consider more subjective factors, such as the role that pilot distraction and weather effects can play in the onset of a stall. When pilots become confident in their abilities, they have a tendency to lose focus on the seriousness of the cockpit. In numerous cases, stalls have resulted from pilots' failing to maintain proper aircraft control as they marked distance calculations, read a chart, located a checklist or attempted to retrieve items from the glove compartment. In terms of weather effects, pilots should be aware that even slight accumulations of ice or frost on an aircraft's wings could affect its stall speed by altering the shape of the wings.

In the majority of fixed wing aircraft, including all airliners, the final line of defense against a stall is a stall warning system. Stall warning systems vary by aircraft, but airliners contain a "stick shaker" system that vibrates the yoke when a stall begins at the wing root, at which point the wing tips are still operable. Especially in airliners, quickly canceling an impending stall is essential to preserving lift control, as the turbulence from a stalled wing can blanket the aircraft's T-tail arrangement, making a stall extremely difficult to recover from.

While actually learning to recover from a stall and a spin is essential to flight safety, the majority of stalls and subsequent spins result from pilot errors that should have been prevented by aircraft knowledge and vigilant piloting, making prevention the best medicine after all.