SINGAPORE - When the circuit breaker last year put a halt to face-to-face classes and physical training sessions, Assistant Superintendent Venu Arsh got creative to keep his trainees physically and mentally fit.
The senior trainer with the Singapore Prison Training Institute conducted daily hour-long live Zoom fitness sessions for his prison officer trainees from his home.
The 41-year-old also used a digital journal mobile app, so trainees could enter password-protected reflections to share with trainers.
When in-person training resumed in August last year, ASP Venu, with a team of trainers, put together a revamped physical training session to incorporate technical manoeuvres the trainers would need on the job.
ASP Venu was named Home Team Trainer of the Year (Full Time) in December last year.
Following a demonstration of the new tactical physical training session at Home Team Academy last Thursday (March 11), ASP Venu said: "When an officer is suddenly faced with an adversity or confrontation, he will not know what to do for a few seconds, and a lot of things can happen in those few seconds.
"What can we do to eliminate this combat freeze is to infuse tactical techniques into the (physical training) sessions."
The training was piloted for entrant prison officers going through the Prison Officer Course in September last year and was formally implemented in November.
A total of 66 trainees were trained under this new format, which needs to be conducted in person using equipment such as batons and punching bags so that trainees know how much force is required.
Aside from keeping trainees physically fit, ASP Venu continues to check on trainees including those who have graduated from the course using Penzu, the digital journal mobile application trainees used for their journal writing during the circuit breaker.
ASP Venu said: "The app is still there for the (graduated) trainees who were using it, and they have gotten so used to it and like it... They write things like 'We miss training. We miss the camaraderie', so those kind of sentiments are now still being shared with us."
