One of the most important aspects and advantages in relation to military close quarters combat, close quarters battle and military self defence is the fact that  it is when required it is evaluated and kept current.

When I developed  the Todd systems based on my training and qualifying  from the late Harry Baldock, the late Col Rex Applegate and the late Charles Nelson. I knew I had a responsibility to ensure not only the continuation of their work, but also to ensure the systems comprised of the most current and proven skills.

Between the early 1990s up until 2010 the Todd system remained relatively unchanged other than skills developments on request from services. From 2010  the complete doctrine has been reassessed and  as a result of this  some skills have been made dormant or obsolete and some  skills further developed along with some specialist and specific roles and applications skills  have been  developed in relation to military requests.

After 2010 when  the doctrine has been revisited  made current and future proofed for now.  The training manuals were redeveloped for military special operations and as such the complete packages were made up of the most current and proven tactics and skills.

This is very important in the military combative world where the  enemy is always considered striving for superior armed and unarmed combat capabilities.

Times change and so do combative methods of both allies and enemies.

If it was not a living package it certainly would not provide the best capabilities to neutralise the most current high risk enemy capabilities.

The reality is  military close combat  skills are dirty  deadly and must be the most proven means and  methods  that provide the highest chance of objective achievement.

The ballistic edged and bludgeon weapons capabilities combined with combat boots and hardened hand and battle dress protection provide considerable increases in the chance of objective achievement and when combined with covert takeout’s maximise the likelihood of achieving the objective.

The combat mind set of utilising everything and anything at ones disposal to neutralise the threat provides considerable safety advantages as well as a far more guaranteed means of threat neutralisation than taking the enemy on and  fighting them.

My former instructors were at the forefront of battle proven tactics principles and skills for their time and  era .

By majority much of the skills used in combat of yesteryear still provide good objective achievement capabilities because of them being deadly and dirty options from the outset.

The other skills or components of skills employments have needed to be improved to ensure they are the best means of objective achievement.

This in no way means the legendary pioneers got it wrong but it does outline the importance of the military master chief’s need to remain current and at the forefront of allied and enemy, combative capabilities.

The Todd systems signature unarmed combat skill set for example being stamp kicks provide considerable reach and power capabilities over striking skills as well as reduce risk by using the boot over bare-hands.

However striking skills can provide considerably more speed in execution because they are not load bearing limbs holding up one’s bodily weight and safety is increases against injury by sap gloves or brass knuckles.

While executing combative skills in combat against a foe that does not know of your combative capability and is not familiar with your combative system ensures greater chance of objective achievement, the same could not be said when the same systems skills are pitted against one another in training or  testing.

The same or a similar  reduction in the chance of objective achievement is increased when employing the skills against a confident  competent and ready combatant over an enemy lacking in skills or intestinal fortitude.

The combative master – chief instructor must also be able to provide variations of the same  skills that match and meet individual  combatants physical and psychological make-ups and capabilities.

Using the stamp kick as an example, it can be employed from long or medium range inwards with dirty tricks distractions or deception.

It  can also be employed  from close range inwards  to point-blank body range  utilising line of vision and mental focus distractions combined with maximising safety through hard cover guarding.

Point blank body contact range employments can maintain the element of surprise by using the combatants own bodily positioning to prevent vision by the enemy of their  lower legs  and as such masking the decided target.

The kick can be employed in a single entry combined  high kicking leg lift action or in a swift expedient sliding entry combined with a second components high lift action set up stamp kick execution.

In training under battle handling exercises and testing phases the individual combatant’s objective achievement options will be apparent and obvious.

This is against combat and is that are highly trained in the same systems skill sets making objective achievement is that much more difficult.

Often the individual combatant’s primary options objective   achievement   capabilities will be low in regards to objective achievement against a formidable ready same system trained enemy party.

Simply by the re-evaluation process changes can be made to specific skills to increase the likelihood of objective achievement.

Some of the skills I learned as an exponent 30+ years ago with circular movement employments, that I have changed to straight-line footwork employments  have increased entry time and stability by considerable.

Some of employment ranges have been decreased by half a metre or more and when combined with direct line of entry capabilities sliding foot work and combined deceptive actions providing hard cover guarding, effectiveness and objective achievement has been increased by considerable.

Could you imagine employing a combative system skill that was developed for another time culture and as a result of this was not specifically developed to neutralise the most current and high-risk threats.

When we develop new skills or make skills components changes  the skills are tested and proven before being  adopted and then  included  in the doctrine and added the to the specific training packages.

When I re-evaluated the entire doctrine, the reality was there were minimal skills that were deemed obsolete and removed and less that  were made dormant.

There were far more skills that had been developed from the early 90s onwards that had been proven and adopted that needed to be included in the most current hardcopy training will show packages.

It is the duty of the master – chief instructor to ensure the combatants have the most current proven safe means of threat neutralisation and objective achievement.

This requires tactics and skills to be regularly evaluated to ensure they are ahead of enemy threat capabilities.

The evaluation assessment and testing processes must be strict and to the point and  test individual skills to failure under extremes.

The skills and tactics regular evaluations and proving is a very important part of ensuring the individual combatant is armed with the best of battle proven most current means of incapacitating or eliminating deadly enemy threats.

The Todd systems civilian CQC and Self-Defence tactics and skills are drawn from these military developed tested proven and adopted packages.

Those with the combative smarts that are realists seek out instructors with the specific skills and qualifications for their self protection.

The confidence they gain in the knowledge that the skills  being instructed have been tested as part of the Todd group’s military combative testing regime is considerable.

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