PW_3_2019

Professional Development

COPS 2019: Uddevalla, Sweden Chris Duncombe , BTP Branch and Simon Hensley - West Midlands Branch Chris Duncombe and Simon Hensley were winners of a Section UK competition for a bursary to attend a Defensive Tactics Group course in Sweden. They submitted a short entry saying why they wanted to go and what benefits it would bring them and the IPA. Chris’s Story A lmost 50 officers from 15 countries attended the course , in April 2019, which was held in Uddevalla, Sweden. The syllabus covered a mix of unarmed skills, knife defence, point shooting, marauding terror attacks, groundwork and a host of other stuff. I am hugely grateful to Section UK, which provided me a bursary to attend. Our next session was about the psychology of aggression; engaging in practical techniques to condition officers to switch on and switch off aggression. Controlled aggression is a very important concept and something that is usually only learned through experience.

The last session of the day put everything together into a series of shooting and rescue drills. It culminated in a drill where you are (with closed eyes) attacked with pads, fend off the attackers and then run to rescue an injured colleague, whilst shooting a third assailant. It was great fun and incredibly useful training. We all came from different countries, but over just a few days, we had bonded as true friends. That is fundamentally what the IPA is all about, and I take off my hat to Sergeant Arthur Troop for his big idea all those years ago. For me, the main benefit was about bringing the skills I would learn on the course back to the UK, and teach them to my officers to keep us all safe on the job.

Uddevalla is a small town in Sweden, where the Defensive Tactics Group was born back in the 1990’s. The area is lovely; we enjoyed a stroll down to the lake and into the nearby forest. At 20°c with blue skies it was gorgeous, and the stress of London soon melted away. After our walk, we went to the police station to meet our trainers and the legend himself; Slavo Gozdzik. Slavo was the founder of the DTG and creator of the Explosive Self Defence System (ESDS). We had a couple of lectures, including one about a marauding terror attack in a nearby town a few years earlier. Day two was our first full day of training, which began with a session on trauma. After that, we were put through active shooter drills in the local nuclear bunker (yes, you read that right). I learned some basic tactics on a Street Survival Skills seminar at Gimborn and had a chance to see what I remembered. I was only shot once, which isn’t bad for my few hours practice 10 months ago. In the afternoon we moved onto the ESDS (Explosive Self Defence System). This is the signature technique of the DTG and is incredibly easy to pick up and is not dependent on strength or regular training. The technique involves focused aggression, with open hand strikes and slaps; the hand prints I had across my body were a testament to its effect. The next day began with arrest techniques. The Swedes have developed a method of handcuffing someone who turtles up and keeps their arms close to their body. I have been in this situation professionally on many occasions and was impressed with their technique.

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POLICE WORLD Vol 64 No.3, 2019