Caution: The contents of this article are for education purposes only. The principles described are extremely dangerous and are for military close combat training and operations only. Their application applies solely to the military.
What are the dangers of strangles on the sides of neck?
There are many aspects of chokes and strangles that must be taken into consideration as medical aspects of such skills applications.
The first is prior medical conditions that make the effects of such techniques more instant and life threatening.
There is also prior injuries that may make the victim more vulnerable to injury.
You must also consider what they are under the influence of at the time and common threats to their safety such as choking on food.
There is also a danger of the strangle being applied to the throat or the cervical vertebrae or affecting the spinal cord or vital life support lines to the brain.
The skill has many dangers and one must always remember that anyone that is rendered injured and or unconscious at your hands becomes your patient.
I have read your excellent close combat articles and am interested in the flat hand that you have referred to. How robust is this as a striking technique?
It is not a power striking technique to just any bodily target. It is a specific human weapon for specific usage.
It is for military usage to target delicate exposed vitals with the finger joints in a straight line of attack from very close proximity to the target.
In practise on soft focus targets the strike is practised with gradual increases in intensity and speed until the execution is developed with the striking surface being rigid and dead accurate.
It is not a rough and tumble technique as the finger joints are prone to bruising and injury if they contact with anything other than soft targets.
It is specific to very close quarters kill or get killed military situations and can be employed palm down or palm up in an upward downward or in uppercut directions.It is normally part of a seize and destroy execution or a deadly decided close quarters strike option.
I have read of the Baldock Institute that you took charge of from the late Harry Baldock and was impressed with the long history that dates back as long as any of the WW2 British or American hand to hand authorities.
One thing that I noticed that makes the Baldock Institute or the Todd Group today very different is that one it is still operating and two the chief instructor Tank was trained personally by Mr Baldock and other experts of yesteryear.
Do you know of any other schools that offer the same history or direct lineage and why did they not keep the Baldock Institute name?
I do not know of any other facility that has lasted in its same form for so long.
I was very fortunate indeed to be trained by Harry Baldock, Col Applegate and Charles Nelson as well as current experts such as Captain Ben Mangels, and Larry Jordan.
With out meeting the previous experts and training from and with them I would not be in the position I am today.
There is no other living person to have been trained and instructor qualified by the former instructors collectively and I am the only member of the International close combat instructors association to have been trained and instructor qualified by Harry Baldock, Col Applegate and Charles Nelson.
The main reason for this was simply because when I was training and travelling and training most of the Senior association members were in active service and not able to train outside the military.
I did however introduce Col Applegate and or Charlie Nelson to some of the Association members including Larry Jordan, and Ron Evans.
I took eight of my senior assistants to train from Charlie Nelson in New York and one to be my training partner on my first meeting with Col Applegate.
This makes the Todd Group very unique in Military close combat and this attracts serious Military exponents and instructors down under to New Zealand as well as civilian combatants.
The reason for the name change was simple.
All my previous instructors advised or recommended following in their footsteps as the chief instructor for example the Baldock Institute or the Charles Nelson School of Self Defense or Col Applegate and his Kill or Get Killed combative system.
None of them on becoming chief instructor of their system or facility traded under their former instructor’s name.
This is the way it is with Military Combative instructors or systems and it is often looked upon indifferently when others use others names or titles.
It is difficult to trademark a surname and it was the fact that I had direct lineage to the former pioneers and was a trained and qualified Master instructor of military close combat that enabled me to do so.
When you take over as a system or facility chief instructor you are responsible for the doctrine and training programmes as well as the overall operation of the facility.
You must continue to develop the system as the caretaker of it during your time as chief instructor.
The system being a living package becomes yours and should bear your names.
To future proof the system unlike some of my former instructors that only trained and qualified one person myself to take charge of the systems and facility I have trained and qualified many instructors both civilian and military and at various levels.
Could you tell me how I could get an instructors rating in your system with view to becoming a police instructor? I find the skills taught to be inadequate and would like to get into the training area with view to making a difference.
Firstly police departments around the world have their systems for many reasons and you would probably find that if you were to change from on the beat to training you might simply be teaching the same systems you refer to as less than you consider necessary.
Now to qualifying in my system you would need to complete the exponent training phases and testing as well as instructor training and testing and then work as an assistant instructor until you qualified as a basic level instructor and so on.
There is no quick way other than undertaking block courses that reduce the time taken to complete the required training.
I purchased a copy of the book combative masters and have since ordered a second copy as I gave my first copy away as a gift.
Everyone I know in the close combat fraternity that has a copy thinks its great and I couldn’t recommend it more highly.
The great thing about it is that it has the condensed important details about so many of the legends of close combatives along with many pictures.
I recommend any serious close combatant get a copy.
It would be good for Fight Times to review this great book that is a real collectors item.
That’s a good point we have sent out copies to other publications for the purpose of reviews but have not done a full review ourselves.
It has been a major success already and is a top seller with a top International six star rating that is very pleasing.
We sell hundreds of different titles of books videos and DVDs through Fight Times and the Todd Group titles outsell all other authors and titles which is testament to our position in a specialist market.
Thanks for the reminder to review one of our own titles.
When instructors are qualified with the Todd Group do they go alone or are they part of the Todd Group? Do they run opposition to the Todd Group?
The reality is training is a project to be continued and not a task to be completed in the words of Harry Baldock and all the active instructors are members of the Todd Group.
It’s a common sense professionalism and respect thing.
I would never have set up opposition to my former instructors and the credibility comes from being part of and endorsed by the official organization.
The depot instructors around NZ and the world do not have to pay any percentage of earnings to the Todd Group but do have to be current members and abide by instructor operating procedures as responsible representatives of the Todd Group.
They are proud to have the Todd Group name and be part of the long history.
They respect their superiors and realise their place as part of the Todd Group and that is why they work as part of the leading organization and never in eighty years have we had a breakaway instructor or school.
This is the advantage of having a chain of command and a command centre that is in charge and control of the entire operation. You break the chain of command or don’t follow orders and you are on very shaky ground.
That is one of the problems we have seen over the years with many traditional arts, there is simply no one command or chain of command anyone can set up shop regardless of if they have legitimate rank and service.
There simply are no advantages to not being part of the official body but there would be many disadvantages.
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
