Crowd combative CQC drill training.
The Todd Group are the longest private training providers of European military CQC and will celebrate our 90th anniversary as military, law enforcement, and civilian training providers of military self-defence, military unarmed combat, law enforcement defensive tactics and close protection instruction providers in March 2017.
The Todd Group has expanded its training provision globally by considerable over the last three decades. This has been attributed to the instructing team conducting courses internationally by referral as well as request and Todd Group proponents after passing their test phases conducting training and managing courses in their country of origin or residence.
Our Germany Chief instructor Ken Oesterreich is one such CQC proponent who has been managing our annual course in Germany since 2013. Ken has a PhD, but makes his living from instructing Todd Systems contract courses in Germany.
The Todd Group courses are very different to your average civilian martial arts based self-defence course. Different because the Todd Group are the oldest training providers of our kind and are current military training providers and different because some of our exported courses are made up of combined civilian exponents and military groups as well as the Todd Group having instructor qualification lineage of no other training providers.
The Todd Groups instructor qualified direct lineage to military combative expert pioneers such as the late Sergeant Major Harry Baldock NZ Army unarmed combat chief instructor WW11,Charles Nelson USMC platoon Sergeant and Hand to hand combat instructor WW11 and Col Rex Applegate Chief instructor OSS WW11 make it a very specialist and unique organisation.
This combined with instructor qualifications from later generations of military Master-Chief instructors and our long history of military training provision including current and ongoing training provision to the military elite sets us apart from most.
The Todd systems are European military same basic principles fundamentals tactics and skills orientated with packages being made up of trade craft practices that have commonality and combine with cohesion and fluid action.
The higher the stress and danger levels the lesser the response time and greater the need for tactics and skills that are same skills set and enable real time fast mapping changes on the move that maximise maintaining momentum and provide highest levels of maintained safety in objective achievement.
The training testing and qualification regime is military structured based on setting and maintaining the highest military CQC standards and exponents must undertake mandatory training hours to enable testing qualification and promotion.
The testing phases are very self-revealing and candidates must surpass the required training levels under all modules tested to avoid being removed from the testing phase.
The Todd Group being under the command and control of a current military CQC Master instructor and with military CQC instructors on the training team ensures the training is proven current CQC trade craft practices.
Course are often made up of civilian enthusiasts and military groups put on courses by their services making the training experience very different to your normal civilian self-defence course.
This makes the experience very different to your normal course provision by hobbyist and semi commercial civilian self-defence training providers and instructors.
Interestingly many such instructors have never been tested or had to achieve combative competency of the level of our phase 1 basic exponents.
We have a commitment to providing the highest level military CQC training we can for responsible exponents and must do our upmost to ensure course joining clearances are undertaken to identify those that meet course joining conditions and those that don’t.
Some individuals that instruct civilian martial arts based self-defence styles that have attended Todd Group courses before that did not even volunteer for testing advertise the fact of attendance and participation as part of their profiles and promotion without ever accepting the challenge of being tested and passing their test phase achieving qualification.
In the black and white world of CQC this portrays a lot in regards to credibility by association without proving oneself.
This says a lot to a trained tested and qualified CQC proponent about someone that has not done what they have but includes in their self-promotion mention of attendance and participation only.
In a specialist trade craft such as military CQC referrals are what matter as those that have come up through the military CQC ranks tested qualified and proven themselves are known by those that matter and count.
Recruiting from the civilian sector by majority attracts services personnel past and present and civilians that have done their research and want to be trained in a military self-defence and CQC system under the control of a military CQC Master-Chief instructor and the instructing team. This is what attracts exponents on courses like the recently conducted Germany course. True civilian military CQC enthusiasts know that settling for anything less than the best most current and proven of military CQC and Military Self-defence is not an option. They know it will be challenging but must be to best arm them with military CQC and self-defence capabilities.
Some on course have previously failed phase 1 testing others have attended multiple phase 1 courses but are not ready or willing to volunteer for testing.
Some are current services and departmental CQC or defensive tactics instructors that have the confidence and intestinal fortitude to undertake basic phase 1 training and testing simply because they want to be the best proponent they can be and want to learn the best CQC skills from instructors that have the expertise qualification rank and long records of instructing service to armed forces.
So this is some background and inside to what individuals and groups are looking for when they sign up for Todd Group week long intensive CQC courses.
The courses are generally small groups of each phase of training being conducted simultaneously.
Small groups of specialist training provision conducted and controlled the military CQC way.
The courses require little space and equipment and can be conducted practically anywhere.
Unrealistic protective suits and high tech equipment are not required and when you consider military CQC is a dire last resort or is a very specific requirement means of threat neutralisation it’s about as primary trade craft skills orientated and terminal as it gets.
The Germany course comprised of a phase 1 basic course, phase 2 advanced course and a phase 3 specialist course all conducted simultaneously but separately.
Six full days went extremely fast with exponents committed to self-improvement and wanting to get as much as they could from the Todd Group HQ provided training.
The phase 1 delivery was geared towards primary phase test training and preparation practices.
Edged weapon disarming under incoming assault.
Phase 2 worked on familiarisation with the phase 2 advanced modules and then on combining them with phase 1 skills to combat and counter unarmed and armed violent threats.
Phase 3 worked on mainly CQB/CQC skills at arms.
Ken undertook his course manager duties with attention to detail as well as instructing phase 1 and 2 groups on course.
He showed excellent hospitality in taking care of all the Todd Group visiting proponents’ needs as well as on day 7 taking us to Colditz and Dresden site seeing.
Early on the course all ranks combined for an introduction or continuation training in the Todd Systems specialist mental toughness and psychological enhancement training From Brain to Boot package.
Combining the Brain to Boot tactics with the individual exponents selected unarmed offensive and unarmed counter offensive skills increased their confidence and CQC skills competency greatly.
The initial familiarisation with the tactics and skills major and minor components of the Brain to Boot package was delivered by presentation and demonstration where I verbally detailed the drill and actions on commands.
The next stage of the B2B training was individual exponents deciding on their means of threat neutralisation and actioning them to the B2B audio CD instructions which revealed a considerable increase in understanding of the B2B package as well as a higher state of CQC readiness and confidence in skills employment commitment.
During the allocated times for CQC questions the exponents asked some sound and important questions and had them properly answered in regards to the most current military Self-Defence and Military CQC trade craft practices.
Several first up morning session DVD presentations of previous test phases and Todd Group historic productions were shown.
The phase test DVDs were to install in the exponents the importance of objective achievement deliberate actions and how 1 to 5 second threat neutralisation is the priority.
Being mentally prepared for actions on encounters for unarmed combat where you are not using weapons capabilities is the most important factor when up against a ruthless highly trained determined formidable foe.
The fatigue from constant put downs and psychological effects of not having protectors to rely on in regards to getting injured or injuring training partners takes its toll but this is what week long intensive courses are all about.
Enduring adversity and maintaining mental toughness constantly assessing and deciding on the best means of threat neutralisation and employing it with controlled calculated aggression requires constant vigilance attention to details and real time assessments and decision making .
All exponents’ traits are so obvious in such an environment and instructions can identify individual’s strengths and weaknesses easily.
The final duty was to conduct the phase 1 test to prove the individual volunteer candidates capability.
Phase testing is a very individual and personal thing that must never be taken lightly or undertaken unless the candidate is ready and willing.
They will know if they are honest with themselves if they are ready if they have the CQC smarts and their instructors will know it and advise them accordingly.
I am pleased to report the single candidate surpassed the phase 1 testing requirements passing his phase 1 test and achieving promotion to phase 2.
Phase 1 testing.
This was not an easy task being a sole candidate and the effects of CQC fatigue in the CQC actions encounters and battle handling exercises were staring to show along with the usual obvious signs of CQC contact.
The dates for the 2017 annual Germany course have already been set and the course joining instructions and on-line application facility will be provided on the Todd Group HQ website later this year. [email protected]
The course dates are May 6 to 11 2017.
