How safe do we feel in society? This is an important question. The police plays a big part in this. In Germany, daily training with judo as a connecting element, where its values play a key role, is an important factor to make people feel safer.

Every year, a police trainer workshop takes place, which deals with fitness and physical performance. On this occasion, new ideas and suggestions for the implementation of sporting content for the police are discussed.

Around 40 sports trainers from the police from all over Germany took part in the seminar this year, which was held in Eutin, Schleswig-Holstein, the seat of the German Police Sports Board (DPSK). DPSK Chair Dr Maren Freyher personally welcomed the participants from all federal states.

In addition to topics such as sports mental training, judo was presented for the second time under the leadership of Johannes Daxbacher, the IJF Police Commission chair.

Daxbacher was particularly pleased to be able to welcome successful police judoka, who are now in positions of responsibility themselves and are committed to police sport, especially police judo, in their federal states.

"Kay Grapentin from Schleswig-Holstein, Andrea Otremba from Rhineland-Palatinate and European Police Championship medallist Kerstin Schmidtsdorf are active in their federal states and thus support the sport of judo and self-defence in police sport,” he explained.

Many topics were discussed during the workshop, including combative games and questions about injury prevention. “Injuries on the job have many consequences and are often associated with absences. We need to prepare for the physical conflict that unfortunately can occur when in the field,”added Daxbacher.

Finally, the judo values were a basis of some discussion. “We discussed the absolute necessity for value-conscious action by police officers and presented the transfer of international judo values to police values,” concluded Johannes Daxbacher.

Those elements are crucial when it comes to handling complicated situations. Bringing together experts and police officers to practise and discus judo will definitely help build a better and safer society.

Source: Birgit Arendt, German Judo Federation

Pictures © Christian Mann, DPSK.

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