Kryvyi Rih inspectors of the tactical-operational response unit (TOR) challenged and in 6 weeks prepared for the Ukrainian all-around championship of bodyguards. Moreover, they performed better than most teams of special forces. They talked about the preparation and participation in the competitions with the team’s coach Dmytro Romaniuk.
– Until 2015, all-around bodyguard was a rather chamber sport – its types, rules and, however, the backbone of the participants remained unchanged. Today, among the speakers at the championships, we see more and more participants whose daily job responsibilities are not related to the topic of personal protection. Among them are inspectors of the TOR company from Kryvyi Rih, who not only performed, but also showed a better result than half of the participants. But does that mean that now bodyguards can be made into anyone with at least some shooting and driving skills?
– You can try, but in what quality will these considerable efforts result? The skills of the police are only part of the skills that the boys had when they came to me. For example, Mykola Puzhansky fights professionally. By the way, he is a pupil of the famous coach Volodymyr Korzhak, who, unfortunately, passed away this year.
I told them, “I wouldn’t take you if I didn’t know who you really are.” To prepare a team in a month and a half is an adventure of adventures. I did not want to prepare so that the audience laughed during the performance, putting his hand to his mouth. I wanted to perform with dignity, at a certain level. They did it. The only thing that failed was the shooting. Of course, I don’t want to talk about the reform of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the fact that the police shoot little from service weapons … But it affected the results of our team. Training in the school of practical shooting Disciplina helped to partially get out of the situation. Thanks to the classes there, they were shot somewhere in the middle and eventually became the eleventh among the twenty-seven participants, leaving behind many teams of special forces, which, incidentally, work directly on the profile.
– Did your acquaintance take place at the Disciplina location?
– Yes, we were united by the theme of shooting. Mykola Puzhansky was the first to come to try to train in Disciplina, he took part in our local competitions on the basis of SSK “Bear”. He liked it so much that he pulled up his colleagues – Andriy Golosenko, Maksym Zhurba, Volodymyr Dyakonov and Mykhailo Stashevsky. Now these guys are certified athletes of the International Confederation of Practical Shooting and can take part in shooting matches of various levels – national, European or world championships.
– If instructing in Disciplina is your job, then what is your motive for training for bodyguard competitions? After all, it was a completely voluntary mission, for which neither you nor the boys received special honors, but on the contrary, as far as I know, had to make sacrifices: to spend time preparing to the detriment of the family, to buy supplies at their own expense?
– And what is the motive of a person who wants to become a professional? Become better, smarter, realize, make a career. This is a normal desire of a physically and morally healthy person. I myself took part in these competitions in the past and was realized there as an athlete, but now I have become a coach and I continue to tickle my nerves and, perhaps, irritate others. It’s ambitious, I get high from it. I tell all my students that in each of them there is a part of me – in technique, in manipulations, in gestures – they all imitate my skills in certain details. It’s like a dance style – a way of handling weapons. And I like it – to share my experience in order to become more, at least a dozen, professional and trained police officers. As it turned out in the case of TOR.
– Were there any elements of competition that are present in the daily work of the police and therefore required the least training?
– All policemen knew well the protocol of rendering pre-medical care. In addition, the guys are all athletic, fit, with excellent special training – so the provision of medical care with the subsequent overcoming of the obstacle course, I think, was easy for them. All other types are very closely related directly to the protocol of personal security work, which the police could only observe from the side while participating in some activities, and the details of the work, of course, did not know. But now the boys, we can say, have become one more profession.
– What about driving? After all, this is an integral part of the work of patrols?
– Yes, the guys were prepared for 50 percent. Other elements – a police turn, a snake, entering the garage and other competitive components helped them to work out stuntman Vitaly Bondar. The leadership of the patrol police went to meet the guys in this matter, concluding a contract for training extreme driving with a professional. But, unfortunately, they managed to pass only about five classes of the course, which made itself felt during the performance. In principle, if we started at least in five months – the result would pleasantly surprise us.
– After overcoming the obstacle course, the judges remarked on the technical characteristics of the car in which the police spoke. Allegedly, its dimensions did not meet the standards. Is that so?
– Yes, there was such a precedent, but it was solved quickly and safely. To a large extent, this issue was raised by participants who have recently spoken and do not know the rules and regulations. After all, this car has performed a couple of times, just changing dresses. It has energy, charge for victory. When the boys went on a test run of the track, those who knew this car exclaimed: “Wow! Now there will be something incredible. ” They didn’t know that the team had a month and a half to prepare … But despite everything, as our team declared itself, it made other participants worry.
– At the XXIV Championship of Ukraine, the car in which the team competed was decorated in the corporate style of Disciplina. Is this the advertising campaign of the school of practical shooting, which you, as we know, are the founder of?
– Not exactly. On board of this car, as on fighters, those firms thanks to which bright and comfortable participation of a team in competitions became possible are written. These are Hard Times Printing, which made quality beautiful clothes, and the company Zviri, which sewed the guys their branded backpacks, and the advertising agency Kreative, which stylishly and brightly decorated the car.
Many patrons wished to go unnoticed. Therefore, in this interview I want to thank these interesting and not indifferent to the sport of bodyguards businessmen, our friends, who from year to year in cooperation with the Bodyguards Federation of Dnipropetrovsk region financially and organizationally support young teams.
– Are there any plans for the next competitive season?
– I told the guys that everyone who understands the topic dreams of participating in such competitions and turning around in this party. Communicating with specialists who guard the first persons of the state, bodyguards from abroad – this experience is expensive. I think they are charged. And now, after a short rest, we will start preparing for the 2022 championship.
But the main thing that I would like to say in passing, looking back on the experience of our team: do not stop there. If you take part in the competition next year and perform with dignity, it will most likely affect the future: invitations to higher structures whose field of activity is related to personal protection may follow. They have a chance to take another step – in terms of knowledge, finances, perception of the world. As it once happened to us.