I write this recollection of my time with Charlie at the School of Self Defense New York with much pride being part of that special place and times.
It is also a very sad time for me personally knowing that he is no longer with us in person.
There are members that spent many more years than I with Charlie that I am proud to call friends and who have assisted me with the two included articles in this issue of Fight Times and have given their approval of the articles.
A special thanks to Charlie’s daughter Carol for all her assistance with information for these articles and his son Bryan as well as Paul Gerasimczyk for his contribution and proof reading.
The Todd Group and all its members down under convey their sincere condolences to Mrs Nelson, Carol and Bryan and families.
The following feature is a combination of the history and times of the Kiwi connection and my personal recollections of the little things that may be small in the over all long and special life of Charles Nelson but stick in my mind.
Some were personal experiences while training with Charlie and others were from my notes and video footage recorded directly from Charlie.
History of the Kiwi Connection.
From New Zealand Charlie and I were in contact from 1979 when I first contacted him on the advice of my unarmed combat instructor Harry Baldock who told me, “I have taught you all I know and you need to now train from this man Charles Nelson the world’s best in the business”.
Between 1979 and when I had saved enough money to visit and train from Charlie in 1984 he without charge sent me regular video tapes of skills to practice and written material. He only ever charged me for the first course I took and instructor qualified me at its conclusion, something that made me feel honored and proud to be accepted along with his members of many years.
Over the next ten years more than ten of my exponents from New Zealand traveled to New York to train from Charlie with me including my wife Trish and assistant instructors Howard Bell, Conal Moore and Debbie Davis. Charles Nelson is a legend down under with thousands of military and civilian practitioners having been exposed to his methods on my courses.
Charlie had a very genuine group of senior assistants that from day one of visit one did everything possible to make my stays perfect. Paul Gerasimczyk a New York police officer befriended me on that first visit and we have been close friends ever since with Paul visiting me here in New Zealand and my wife Trish and I being bridesmaid and best man respectively at his wedding in Hawaii.
Paul’s Mum and Dad had me as a guest at their home in Queens on many occasions and Paul unselfishly drove me down to Fort Bragg on several occasions and around New York endlessly. Herb Kantrowitz, Charlie’s longest member had me stay as a guest in his home for eight weeks on a training stint with Charlie in 1985 and turned on first class hospitality. This is the caliber of loyal members Charlie had as his life members, people that considered a true friend of Charlie’s a true friend of theirs.
Charlie and I spent many hours’ together training and talking about our beloved close combat, I took so many notes in those early days that I filled hundreds of pages. We would often visit Charlie’s favorite restaurants for a meal or the strongest of coffee, something he got me hooked on. He delighted in introducing me to his friends in the neighborhood and we took many walks to the local firehouse and stores.
Charlie always had his collection of Polaroid’s in his shirt pocket of his students especially his police military and visiting students and he gained much pleasure in being surrounded by kindred spirits and loved to his show these treasured pictures.
Charlie did not take kindly to fools and would give it to them straight and he was never afraid to say it as it was regardless of the truth offending.
Mrs. Nelson lit up Charlie’s eyes every time she would enter the school returning from shopping before going upstairs to their apartment and I often felt bad about the amount of time Charlie spent down in the Studio training me while Mrs. Nelson waited upstairs. When she would visit Carol in Arkansas Charlie would miss her dearly and count down until she returned. I can remember some bum hassling Mrs. Nelson on west 72nd street and Charlie and I taking a walk to sort the problem out, as no one disrespected his wife. He told me of the hard life she had had and how he had loved her from when they first met before WWII. Mrs. Nelson told me once when we were talking how proud she was of Charlie and his skill and how when she first met this handsome Marine she thought she was dating James Dean.
I spent many hours over the years privately with Charlie talking of the realities of battlefield close combat, the things that simply should not be public but military instructors need to know. For this post battle proven knowledge and wisdom I will be forever grateful for this was information not to be found in any manuals or programs. Charlie could remember details with clarity even from the heat of battle and this was one of the standout qualities that made him a master instructor and leading combatant.
I have for over twenty years traveled extensively training, instructing and for the past eight years writing features for my magazine Fight Times. I have written on just about every regarded style of self defense and many of the hi profile big names in the industry and can confidently make this statement on what I have seen out there. None of them had a fraction of the knowledge, wisdom, experience and expertise of Charlie.
Much of what Charlie had evaluated in books, videos and personally over his career spanning over sixty years he described as defying common sense.
Charlie could never be called a traditionalist but was definitely a pioneer. In his early days of getting established there simply was not a general understanding of self defense and it came under the banner of judo and jiu jitsu. To receive publicity in those early days Charlie was requested by the media to put on a gi jacket and belt and pose doing some technique he would never teach or practice. He would say the photos were a sad reminder of what he had to do in the early days to get any publicity. If it was not for Charlie and later people like him, the European combative methods may never have been made public. He would never lower his standards or make changes to win favors and in fact did reject substantial publicity and reward when told he had to tone it down and not point out the wrongs and weaknesses in techniques of high profile instructors and their methods.
I was privileged over my exponent years to be trained and instructor qualified by pioneer Master Chief Instructors of military close combat such as Harry Baldock and Col Rex Applegate, instructors that have been senior in years with a lifetimes experience and expertise and Charlie as far as self defense goes was the worlds best. I learnt unarmed combat from Harry Baldock and special operations close combat from Col Applegate and the best urban self defense from Charlie as well as some dirty and deadly hand to hand combat skills. These evolutionary experts were very proud of their systems and Charlie was no exception and I treated him with the respect and honor he deserved and in return he gave me every assistance and the full benefits of his vast knowledge.
He admired loyalty and commitment and was very proud of the fact that I traveled all the way from New Zealand every year from 1984 until he closed the school in 1998 and some times more than once a year. Charlie opened doors for me and assisted me in my military close combat instructing career every step of the way. It was Charlie that gave me information on Col Rex Applegate that contributed to my instructor training and qualification under the legendry Col Rex Applegate.
I can remember the first time Charlie instructed me in the WWII skills of Capt William Fairbairn and Pat O’Neill as he had learnt them from Sergeant Patrick Kelly and the skills he had learnt from Col Biddle. He said he had little need to teach the military aspects he had learned on the Marine Corps hand to hand combat and bayonet courses post world war two to anyone as it was only for combat.
Before Charlie closed his school he had certificates produced for the small group of his assistants he knew to be the most proficient, loyal and dedicated and made them life members. These are the life members as certified by Charlie.
- Herb Kantrowitz
- Paul Gerasimczyk
- John McWilliams
- Allen Tino
- Bodden Sween
- Geoff Todd
- Bob Berger
- Marti Erdhiem
- Barry Leventhal
- Mike Scotland
- Phil Ellis
These loyal assistants to Charlie not only trained from him and were assistant instructors to him but also helped with the everyday running of the school.
Paul was always assisting with maintenance and Herb took care of Charlie’s laundry and brought him the clothes he liked. John was a long time aid to Charlie with publishing and promotions and Phil in the last years ran errands for Charlie and assisted him. Altino and Bodden helped with working on skills and John Paul and Altino were responsible for making manuals and videos as well as brochures.
Bob Berger had the Charles Nelson School of Self Defense jackets made and we all helped with instructing and filming or starring in the many technique videos.
These are just my recollections of what was happening when I was present.
The other life members who spent between twenty and sixty years with Charlie I’m sure could fill volumes with the life and times at Charlie’s.
Post-Incident Recollections.
Charlie, post WWII had to put his skills to work on occasions in New York and here are some recollections of these encounters.
In a bar fight he unintentionally intervened on an assault when a bully picking on an old man drew back to punch the old man elbowing Charlie in the chest. Soon he became the target of hostilities. He bums rushed the aggressor out of the bar and when attacked by the wife of his aggressor pushed her and she fell down before, with a single hand edge strike knocking her aggressive husband unconscious for some ten minutes.
In another incident he was set upon by a fellow employee while working as a roast cook at the hotel Baltimore. This happened in the men’s room where his attacker hid behind the door with an axe handle. When he tried to hit Charlie over the head with the axe handle he had covered up against the axe handle blow to his head and quickly disarmed his attacker, finishing him off with a compound close combat strangle followed by driving his thumb into his eye.
Charlie told me once while at a counter in a donut shop a loud ruffian pushed him and other customers out of the way as he was ordering and referring to Charlie as the ‘old guy’ said he would be paying for his order. Charlie struck him once on the carotid with a hand edge strike knocking him out and said to the shop attendant jokingly he can pay for my order.
Charlie always maintained the element of surprise and never assumed a stance; in fact he would often portray himself as afraid and vulnerable and then do the unexpected taking his aggressor totally off guard and with controlled aggression and exact skills.
January 1976 a college graduate under the influence of drugs and alcohol entered Charlie’s school and Charlie refused to train him in his condition. The following is from the offenders post situation written statement and from Charlie. After Charlie sent him away he decided to return and fight Charlie rather than taking his own life. He also said he had been training in karate prior to the incident and had seen Charlie’s sign several times and wanted to be trained by a Marine Corps Instructor. Charlie evicted him again on the second visit and when he tried to rip the door off its hinges attacked his hands with a piece of water pipe.
The fight that ensued saw the sixty-one year old five foot seven inch 130lb Charles Nelson fall down over twenty concrete stairs fighting his attacker every step of the way and continue the encounter out on the street. Even after the police arrived the offender still being out of control saw Charlie have to lend a hand as the police struggled with the violent offender.
In his letter of explanation and apology to Charlie the offender described how he was out of his mind on drugs possibly angel dust and how as a result of the fight with Charlie he was hospitalized for over a week with head injuries and broken hands.
From the 1970’s onwards Charlie had more and more martial artists come to him for training.
One article of the time covered the story of a large black belt instructor dressed in his gi and belt entering the school asking Charlie where the instructor was and was told you’re looking at him. “What do you know about martial arts and what could you do he said and Charlie said I don’t claim to know about martial arts but I do no about combat demonstrating his famous swivel punch to him through a six inch New York phone book, shocking him and knocking the wind out of him making him on recovery decide to bow and leave.
Charlie always believed it was better to avoid confrontations but if that was not an option he could attack or evade from close quarters and deal out deadly force quickly and quietly maintaining the element of surprise until it was actions on.
He didn’t believe in having several ways to combat many threats of the same or similar type but would have only one the best one to combat all similar threats.
The most important aspect of Charlie’s system was the fact he had used it and taught it for real combat where it had defeated highly trained enemies.
He had personally in combat and in civilian life fought, trained and worked out with practitioners of every type of fighting art and combat sport.
He was a direct descendent of Masters of European Military close combat systems and had been instructing for much longer than most of the later big names in commercial martial arts.
He had evaluated and proven ineffective more self-defense skills than most could ever imagine or will ever learn in many life times.
The thing that concerned Charlie more than fame or fortune was simply that he taught the best methods that gave his students the greatest fighting chance. He would say that a fighting chance is what you get against a formidable enemy in combat nothing more, nothing less and you better be one move ahead of your enemy and prepared to fight to the end and do the unthinkable.
Some traditional martial artists saw Charlie as a threat being a military Instructor who fought and taught the dirty and deadly methods for war and then there were some boxers and wrestlers that thought Charlie taught mystical martial arts and they felt threatened.
On one occasion when challenged by a young boxer he agreed to show his skill and did so completely out smarting his opponent.
The young dumb boxer didn’t know when to quit and pushed for another chance at proving himself, only to walk into the hand edge of Charlie’s guarding arm across the bridge of the nose.
Charlie through him out when he recovered and as he left he commented you wouldn’t get away with that on Sugar Ray and Charlie replied he wouldn’t be so stupid to go looking for trouble.
In 1984 one of Charlie’s students, a New York Police Officer Adam Kasanof while riding the sub way out of uniform at 1pm found himself sitting between two muggers; one who had him at gun point and the other at knife point. He had practiced how to end such a situation in training with Charlie before and quickly called upon this training. He brought him self time by appearing to comply and getting his wallet out from his jacket but in one swift move deflected the muzzle of the pistol, drew his own weapon and shot the pistol armed offender dead followed by immediately breaking a reactionary gap from the edged threat and turning his attention to the fleeing knife holder that was captured on leaving the train in the tunnel. The officer attributes his success and safety to Charlie’s training.
This is where Charlie and his teachings were very different from many methods; they had been and were still being employed in military combat and by police in life and death situations. He had piles of letters from his students that had used his skills against armed attackers successfully in the line of duty.
One of many letters describes an officer attacked with a knife disarming and disabling his attacker in textbook fashion thanks to Charlie’s teachings.
I can recall a foreign unarmed combat instructor entering the school while Charlie was training myself and another exponent and requesting to not train but observe after showing off his resume. After two hours of training Charlie took a break and left us in the school. Not seconds after Charlie had left did this visitor insist on showing me his way of doing things, which I declined stating this is Charlie’s school and he gave the order to stop training. The next statement he made sealed his fate. He’s an old man and what would he know or someone from New Zealand know?
No one got away with disrespecting Charlie and I gave him some severe character adjustment that only ended when my training partner intervened and the would be expert grabbed his resume and left fast time. Charlie returned and asked if the so-called expert had attacked me and I replied he had tried. He said he had watched him eye ball me and thought he would leave momentarily giving him a chance to make his move and me to teach him a lesson.
Then there was the post mortem when I had to recall my every action and Charlie was quick to detail my errors, and yes he was right.
He basically told me I had used my skills like a Tank and should have ended it quicker and with less fuss.
Charlie loved to hear of my crowd control team back home and how we used his control and restraint skills regularly. I can remember trying to take some on the job action shots for him only to find the developed photos were too dark, out of focus or just clean missed their target subject much to Charlie’s disappointment.
Charlie was a man’s man and I could talk to him about anything, nothing would surprise or disgust him and he was a fiercely loyal friend who cared about his students and their families.
He would always ask of my wife and how my daughters wrestling was going.
He had a good sense of humor and had even had a children’s cartoon book written about him and his school titled Noel the Coward.
This was a story of how a boy was bullied until his dad took him along to Charlie’s school of self-defense that was.
Complete with animal cartoon characters Charlie was chuffed by it and it brought a big smile to his face.
Getting near the time when he closed the school down he asked me as the only one of his life members that was running a school of self defense and close combat full time if I was interested in moving to New York and taking over, he even had an immigration attorney for me to talk to re moving state side. I thought about it long and hard and had to respectfully decline as I had my family and military instructing to consider, as well as the continuation of my facility in New Zealand that was the oldest private close combat school in the world.
I was so proud he had asked me and gut wrenched by not being able to make the move, but we both knew it was the right thing to do.
Charlie loved to be involved with assisting me with military close combat skills developments and I would when I needed his expert opinion call him and together we would assess the options.
I can remember making a videotape for Charlie some time before I first went to train off him and Charlie phoning me very excited about the content and how some of the battlefield skills took him back to his Marine Corps days.
Charlie was a respected member of the International Close Combat Instructors Association, a position that he was very proud of and in fact featured on the Association video Extreme CQB The Association with its members being all military qualified close combat instructors was very special to him. I never mentioned one instructor to another out of respect to the instructor I was training with at the time.
However from time to time he would ask how Col Applegate was health wise and if he was still working in close combat. Likewise Col Applegate would frequently ask of Charlie and stated he had heard from military sources of his military hand-to-hand combat expertise during WWII and in later years how he was the world best in self-defense.
Over the years I had told and shown videos of Charlie to many of the association members who were chief instructors of Special Operations Groups from all over the world.
They all had the utmost respect for Charlie and many were longing to meet him.
Larry Jordan and Ron Evans were two such instructors that for many years had relished the opportunity to meet the master of masters and I arranged a visit to Arkansas after we had finished our time in the UK.
The smile that came to Charlie’s face when he answered the door said it all and I felt so humble once again to be in the company of my Master Chief Instructor. All three of us were trying so hard to do everything right and Larry’s wife Zelda must have thought we were all back at school in the headmaster’s office. Charlie soon had everyone at ease and practicing a few moves including Zelda as well as posing for a few snap shots. Charlie was very happy having Larry and Ron accompany me on the visit, especially with them being instructors of Elite Forces.
That night I showed him some new skills I had designed and some modifications I had made to previous skills and explained why. He passed his judgment and offered his advice and finished by saying they would work and I had done a good job. We all went for dinner and afterwards I stayed on at Charlie’s apartment until the early hours training and sorting out plans for the future.
It was on this visit he put it to me that like him I should trade under my own name not just the School of Self Defense as I had for many years. I knew he liked leaders not just followers and others had also suggested I do the same like all great pioneers of close combat had through history. That was the start of the Todd Group and Todd Close Combat Systems and once again Charlie got it right.
There can only ever be one Charles Nelson and no one could ever take his name or place except to practice and instruct what he or she had learnt from him.
I am very fortunate to have had over three thousand hours of tuition from the worlds best in the business. Charlie was a Master of Masters and not only taught skills and principles but also taught me how to problem solve, assess and develop correct strategies and ways to combat threats quickly quietly and safely.
Charlie loved the challenge of combating difficult situations and to be part of that teaching and learning process was a true education I will always remember and utilize. He would collect media accounts of violence from all around the world and perform postmortems on them establishing what would have been the best way to combat the situation. He had thousands of such reports.
We kept in touch after that final visit by phone and mail and later via Carol by email.
I would always send Charlie copies of my magazine Fight Times and when I phoned him he would usually say I needed more self-defense content and less of the stuff that could get readers killed. See if you knew Charlie you would realize that for him there was no other reason to train or fight except for real.
While he could respect anyone’s right to practice whatever they chose, he could not accept or tolerate self-defense programs or techniques that were anything other than the best options to combat the threat.
He also despised traditional arts calling them selves unarmed combat, close quarter combat, close combat or close quarter battle as this implied they were military systems and that the instructors were military qualified.
I can remember a visitor asking Charlie once if it was because of fighting in the war that he had little time for the traditional arts and he replied “Hell No, I train countless martial artists who have immigrated from the East in practical self defense. My reason is simple if it doesn’t work then it should not be said to be the answer to dangerous situations where you may only get one chance to win and there is no second place winner in the real world of violence, only a loser.”
Charlie’s demonstration to those that thought sport or tradition was enough was to ambush them at weapon point with a training knife or practice pistol from any angle or position and ask them to show him what they would do now.
He would follow by showing them how and astonishing them with his mastery of combating life or death situations and endless situations and variations.
Charlie had his own terms and titles for skills such as the ED Sullivan or Jack Benny stances, the swivel punch and all the reasons why behind them, he never left you wondering why. He would quickly remind you if he ever saw you with your arms crossed that they should never be crossed, only positioned less dominant arm flat over dominant arm ready to lead and finish and stay safe against your arms being pinned against your body.
Charlie could be a sneaky as they come and surprise you with dirty tricks such as spitting in your face or advising ladies in sexual assault situations if the situation presented itself to have a tongue sandwich biting the tongue off and follow up with even deadlier tricks.
Charlie had methods to control distance, defuse situations or leave a way out for the aggressor, apply stand up combat holds, control and restraint from on your feet rather than the ground, ring a rapist’s scrotum, disarm any street weapon in any circumstances, escape any hold, attack to incapacitate or eliminate from any range and all the contingencies to fit changes in threat or situation, how to aid a victim and combat multiple attackers, how to combat fighting arts of the world and methods for women and children.
In the military hand-to-hand program he had unarmed takeouts, ground combat, knife fighting, riot stick, drills with the 1911 A1 .45 pistol, bayonet combat, entrenching tool and prisoner taking as well as skills for close protection.
I was only one of Charlie’s loyal life members and I know people like Herb, Paul and the rest of the team could tell us a lot more of the life and times of the man we all respected so much – Charles Nelson.
These have been just some of my memories of the Master of Masters of Military Close Combat Charles Nelson, the greatest self defense instructor that ever lived and the last of the legendry evolutionary pioneers of European Close Combat and self defense.
Interested in Close Combat Training? Todd Group Depots are located throughout New Zealand and at various overseas locations.
For more information on Todd System of Close Combat see the following books, dvds and cds:
- Close Combat Books
The Do’s and Don’ts of Close Combat – Tactical C&R – Control and Restraint – No Nonsense Self Defence – Military Close Combat Systems Phase One – Combative Masters Of The 20th Century - Close Combat DVDs
Self Defence of the Elite – 80 Years of Combative Excellence – Primary Option Control & Restraint – Military Unarmed Combat – Phase 1 - Close Combat CDs
Technique To Command – Combative Code of Conduct
