During the Millennium Team Cadet European Championships 2025 in Skopje, North Macedonia, a memorandum was signed, specifically supporting the the police force of the Republic of North Macedonia. This week, during the European Youth Olympic Festival, the programme was put in to practice and was attended by President of the European Judo Union, Dr TOTH Laszlo.
President Toth was joined by Panche TOSHKOVSKI, Minister of Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of North Macedonia, Aleksandar JANEV, Director of Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of North Macedonia as well as members of the Judo Federation of North Macedonia; President Vladimir TRPANOSKI, Vice President, Miodrag STOJANOIVC and Sport Director, Dejan MICKOSKI.
President Trpanoski explained,
We have worked on that programme a long time but due to changing government it needed to be postponed, now we have the right moment to start and we are beginning with the police. The European Judo Union have helped us to donate tatami and judogi, now we start with some training sessions but we will continue and I believe it will be one of the most successful programmes.
Led by Head Police and Military Commissioner, former athlete, Grand Prix winner and senior European medallist, Major KRIZSAN Szabolcs, the session demonstrated some of the concepts of the programme,
The local police here were well prepared and very motivated, I enjoyed the work and it was very successful. Judo is very good, and I would like to pass on this knowledge because it can really help in life-threatening situations, so in my opinion it could be very itself. We will start with the basics of course, but in Skopje, the police were very well prepared and everyone had a martial arts background.
Krizsan has a wealth of experience, in both judo and the military which makes him the ideal candidate to lead on this project,
In the Hungarian Defensive Forces we use this programme and President Toth gave me the opportunity to be Head of the Police and Military Commission, now we have this collaboration with the European Judo Union. In my opinion as a soldier, judo is one of the Olympic sports whose movement material is used effectively by the armed forces. The main direction of the programme is to get to know moves, gripping, standing techniques, ground fighting, development of complex self defence skills and it can integrate in to the training programmes of the armed forces.
This programme is designed to develop cooperation between sporting and law enforcement communities, so that they can benefit from judo basics that will support self-defence methods. There are many complex self-defence skills, but with the judo knowledge, we can contribute to the prevention and avoidance of injury.
It is an opportunity to share expertise on discipline, leadership and training methodologies between judo coaches and police trainers. Judo of course prides itself on the values it represents, and aligning with military, we share concepts such as respect, camaraderie and persistence.
The programme was carried out by the training staff of the Hungarian Defence Forces, and the goal is not to train professional athletes, but to provide the armed forces with knowledge they can use, even in life-threatening situations. In addition to learning techniques, it was found that the combat exercises contributed significantly to the team cohesion and development of self-confidence.
Prevention is a pillar of the programme, and data showed that soldiers suffered around 70% less accidents during training than their rookie counterparts. In the case of training tasks, common injuries include shoulder sprains requiring medical intervention, which are typically the result of uncoordinated falls.
Krizsan’s background has always been military as he explains,
I graduated from the National Defence University when I was 21 years old, the former Hungarian Defence Minister gave me the chance to be a professional athlete and soldier at the same time. I was a fire safety officer but the aim was to get the good judo results. I tried to do my best on both sides and I have been serving for 13 years now, so I have a lot of experience. I have been a combat safety instructor and I used my experience there, and now in the commission.
Now I am responsible for the sport coordination of the Hungarian Defence Forces, we have two sport companies and I lead these, with more that 200 subordinate soldiers.
Author: Thea Cowen