The Todd Group’s German depot once more provided tactically correct options for those who are responsible for the safety and security of the FIFA World Soccer Championships.

Beginning in November 2005 and concluding in May 2006, the public transport authorities of the City of Leipzig, Saxony, decided to expose key personnel as well as staff members with coordination duties to the proven preventative options of the Todd System as relates to recognition and avoidance of potentially violent situations.

 

The necessity for such a preparatory further training program had been the increasing awareness of threats and dangers hooliganism posed and still poses to the image of a whole region. Moreover the geographical neighbour Poland, which is suffering from an even more severe hooligan epidemic which is spreading both to the East and the West, provided a second motivation. In addition, the fact that the game Holland vs. Iran was scheduled to take place in Leipzig generated even more concerns. On the one hand, there was the traditional rivalry between German and Dutch hooligans, and on the other hand, the fear of political demonstrations of right-winged groups which could try to benefit ideologically from Iran’s recent comments on the Israeli conflict. In other words, the threat potential was given.

 

Starting with an extensive and intensive four day test training phase in early November 2005, the evaluation procedure came to the conclusion that despite of a wide range of seminars dealing with conflict management and negotiation procedures, there has never been any kind of training before which offered such an adequate level of vital information and practical applications in such a limited time.

 

Furthermore, the holistic approach to human violence in general and soccer violence, i.e. hooliganism, including intensive analysis of video footage, criminal statistic material regarding assaults against law enforcement personnel, and most importantly the medical implications of human behaviour under extreme stress.

 

The combination of tactical information and medical data underlined the necessity of a preventative approach during the preparatory stage of any event planning project.

 

Participants included drivers of public means of transport as well as service staff members who are especially vulnerable to verbal abuses and physical violence. This proved to be an excellent opportunity for the German depot of the Todd Group to introduce some of its tactically correct principals as well as concepts of situational awareness.

The whole seminar package was constructed around two core principles which seemed ridiculously simple but proved to be invaluable for all participants – Control of Distance and the Heart rate. 

The first principle was based on the theory of the so-called reactionary gap combined with the second one – heart rate control through tactical breathing. Not only did these two simple mechanisms proved to be the best solution for most of the real scenarios described by the audience, it also proved to be the only solution for a high-stress situation.

 

Omnipresent sceptics had been cured at a very early stage when under controlled conditions the relation between reactionary speed and distance during a knife assault was being tested by the audience. This kind of realism combined with the evaluation of real life experiences triggered a fruitful and constructive learning climate which helped generating a very positive and most importantly a lasting learning experience.

 

Full speed combat demonstrations by the instructor and his assistant underlined the mainly ignored or at least underestimated influence of the genetically determined human response to high stress and once more stressed the importance of proper distance and a controlled heart rate through tactically correct breathing.

 

The more theoretical analysis of potential danger cues including body language, positioning, stress related symptoms, group dynamics, and environmental aspects to name but a few could be taken out of the class room and put into practice thanks to the great cooperation of the traffic authorities of the City of Leipzig, which generously provided tram wagons of different types in order to support and stress the realistic sides of these seminars.

 

The very positive feedback given by the police which was responsible for the legal aspects of the training program was another example that the development of the German depot goes into the right direction.

 

 

The evaluation of all seminars with approximately 100 participants came to the same conclusion: there has never been any training of this kind before and that the whole range of skills and information are 100% relevant not only for the upcoming soccer world champs but also for any kind of event planning and preparation as well as for the whole range of everyday life situations. Since its start in July 2004, we have been consistently offering tactically correct options for the quiet professional. Being now in its third year, 2006 already turned out to be another exciting year in the development of the German depot.

 

 

Many thanks for the relentless support of our work offered through “Tank” Todd and the senior instructors of the Dunedin Headquarter and the UK facility. Without such well structured and cooperative networking work and training on the other side of the globe would be almost impossible.