A year ago, Joe Johnson (US President) and I began a conversation to try and take the IPA Defensive Tactics Group (DTG) to North America. We decided that the best way to do this would be for Joe to assist teach at the week-long US training course that was being held in Green Bay, Wisconsin during early July 2018. With the very kind help of the NEC, IPA and the Defensive Tactics Group I was able to afford the flights. My thanks go out to those that helped with the cost. On the 4th July I travelled out to the US. Joe picked me up from the airport and looked after me for the next ten days. He and his team very generously covered everything else I required; food, accommodation, pick-ups and drop offs, shopping trips, ‘refreshments’ and access to all the training, I really could not have asked for more.
I arrived a day early so I could settle down and prepare for my presentation and defensive tactics lessons. Joe showed me around Green Bay and the surrounding area which is a beautiful part of North East America, roasting hot at this time of year but with frozen winters. I met with officers from his station at De Pere and the local Sheriff’s Department. All genuinely nice people, who showed a great deal of interest in what we were doing.
Over the next day or so serving and retired officers started to arrive from all over the world, thirty-six from eleven nations; Sweden, Switzerland, Japan, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Denmark, Brazil, Canada, USA, Germany not to mention Ken and Martin from the UK. It was an amazing mix of people and cultures which made a fascinating blend of people. Everyone was very friendly and we soon gelled into a tight knit team.
On the first day of the course Joe started off with a welcome speech to all the delegates and explained the programme which was predominantly armed and unarmed police personal safety that included active shooter, combat shooting, knife defence and open hand fighting skills. I kicked off with the first presentation on the IPA-DTG. It was hard to gauge how the topic would go down and I must say I felt the pressure. However, once started I soon became comfortable with the audience and got into a flow. I explained that the IPA-DTG was formulated by Police Officers for Police Officers. With minimum input and maximum output, that is easily taught, easily trained, easily remembered, easily recalled under stress and not gender specific! Although I overran a little there were no complaints and lots of compliments so I was very pleased I’d given a good performance. It now set the scene for my practical training session on the Tuesday, no pressure!
I’ll let Martin and Ken talk about the other sessions we were given, which were all excellent and skip to my practical lessons of Explosive Self Defence Systems (ESDS) and Spontaneous knife attack and defence. Both topics I see as essential for personal safety and key to the central tenants of the DTG; train for reality! With this in mind, I set up on a football field, wearing normal clothes and very little protective equipment. I had half the group for the morning and the other half in the afternoon. This made eight hours of full on practical teaching in full sun which would make a gruelling day. It was extremely hot and they trained hard, despite this they all put in a hundred and ten percent and got the most out of the day. Mid-morning, we were joined by Wbay the State news team who filmed and interviewed us. You can see it by following the link on the IPA website. I must say It was a real pleasure and honour to teach a dedicated bunch of people, and judging by their faces at the end of four hours training, they thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
This was truly a remarkable trip with some incredible people. As the week progressed we all became close friends. With the help of WhatsApp we are all staying in touch and I truly hope to meet all of them again.
It is the objective of the Professional Commission to expand the DTG to every Section in the IPA and hopefully this will spark the interest of those who have never heard of us (which is just about everyone!). Its free to join so if anyone is interested please contact me for more information.
Rob Stenhouse, Defensive Tactics Group Secretary
