Todd Group exported Military CQC Training
I receive regular questions as to how I do what I do and have done for such a long time. The following is an outline of some of the requirements, duties and responsibilities involved.
To operate a specialist private training provision organisation in military close combat and military self-defence, there are some very important practices and requirements.
First and most importantly is the chief instructor must have trained, tested and qualified in the military close combat tradecraft and have an extensive record of instructing service to the military in military close combat.
When working in the civilian world proof of rank, qualifications and instructing service are essential to separate the highly qualified military combative tradecraft specialist from those that are not.
The Master–Chief instructor commanding and controlling a professional training organisation is responsible for the entire and overall operation and must be full-time.
In order to set and maintain the highest professional standards, there must never be compromises when it comes to training, testing, qualifications, rank and promotions.
The Master-Chief Instructor must set high work ethic standards and must be skilled in all aspects of the military CQC tradecraft.
Commitment and dedication along with qualifications and instructing service records are the measure of the Master-Chief Instructor.
These qualification must be earned and there should never be any credibility by association or less than proven official trade-craft qualifications.
These are mil CQC trade-craft credentials, qualifications and capabilities that set them apart from the rest.
Standards must never be sacrificed and there is no room for political passes, soft easy options or back door entry.
Military close combat and military self-defence requires hands-on commitment to achieving your highest standards and surpassing testing level requirements and as such there is no recognition of prior learning.
The exponent, proponent and instructor must have been trained in the specific trade-craft skills sets packages and must have proven themselves under testing.
European military armed and unarmed combat and military self-defence is considerably different to traditional fighting arts or competitive combat sports hybridised self-defence styles.
This being the case recognition of prior learning or joining up anywhere other than at an entry-level simply does not apply.
The types that change styles to try and make a name for themselves when their previous style is not getting them the recognition they crave or making them the money that is so important to them are both frowned upon and joked about.
There are no short cuts and there must be official records of qualification and instructing service.
Those that lay claim to mil CQC competency having never been mil trained, tested and qualified are wannabes and phonies.
Interestingly, we receive constant requests for instructing positions from instructors of traditional styles or sporting codes or bastardised versions of that have never trained in our military close combat systems and as such could not instruct them.
They seem to base their applications on the thought that European military close combat is made up of the same techniques and methods of training as civi traditional arts, which could not be further from fact.
The training year for the Master- Chief instructor is planned at least a year in advance and with some specialist courses of instruction including exported courses of instruction the planning advance work and organising can be initiated as long as five years before the courses will be conducted.
There is no way to operate a specialist training organisation as a one man band other than full-time and by full-time I mean 16+ hours a day.
It takes total dedication and commitment along with considerable personal and financial sacrifices to establish such a facility in the civilian sector and it takes referrals, introductions and invitations to conduct official courses of instruction and establish private specialist training facilities abroad.
Master-Chief Instructors must be able to multitask as there are many responsibilities, duties and requirements to commanding a private specialist training authority.
Recruiting drives, administration, advance planning, organising, facilitating and working with external facilitation associates is constant.
Maintaining the doctrine and developing training and management packages as well as working on the development of specialist tactics and skills for specific roles and purposes is a must to ensure the training packages are at the forefront of current threats.
Mil CQB/CQC/MSD Master-Chief Instructors command the HQ source of combative training provision and are leaders in the field not followers of styles from other countries.
Exponents, proponents and instructors get their training from the official source.
The establishment and maintaining of facilities including expanding the training delivery footprint by exported courses nationally and internationally takes considerable time and effort.
Personally as the current Chief Instructor of the oldest private European military close combat and military self-defence training organisation, I know the importance of keeping your finger on the pulse and being able to multitask with attention to every detail.
You must never drop your guard or shirk your duties and responsibilities.
Often this requires working on multiple jobs and projects on a daily basis, and to do this requires a multitasking capability of being able to work on multiple tasks and projects on the same day.
You often have to change from one job or task to another multiple times in a single working day.
Reverse planning and advance planning are essential to ensure the most important current tasks are completed under the required time constraints.
Some days it will be a matter of slow steady progress on projects along with taking care of the most important current requirements in relation to the overall operation of the training provision organisation.
I usually will divide my time between projects and duties as need be on a what is most needed first basis.
Those that are one-dimensional and cannot multitask under time restraint pressures will simply sacrifice standards and fail to deliver the required high standard of training delivery outcomes.
A single course requires everything from ensuring the required facilities are locked in for the required dates through to transport logistics, equipment provision, staffing, safety and emergency requirements and that’s just for starters.
Meals, laundry, uniforms, training weapons, on course safety and security needs must be all advanced planned for and organised.
The recruiting, vetting and administration duties are constant and must be undertaken with the same standards and attention to detail for every individual applicant.
It very much comes down to as my top assistants tell me, if you want a job done properly and on time the best pers to ensure this happens are the busy hard taskmaster types and definitely not the lazy types.
I have been asked on more than one occasion when conducting courses around the world how I manage to do the job of a training team as an individual.
My answer is that I was taught not only the tradecraft skills and how to instruct them but also all aspects of the tradecraft including how to take responsibility for every aspect of running a training organisation, courses management and courses delivery as well as problem solving.
The old paper diary and notebook have stood the test of time and are the most reliable means of ensuring tasks are completed.
Stores equipment and training weapons need to be advance planned for and all training weapons and equipment needs to be accounted for post course.
Having top instructors and loyal and committed staff equates to professional training provision.
Being able to work with external associates including global facilitators is an essential part of operating an expansive private specialist training provision organisation.
The development of training equipment and weapons requires familiarity with design and production of such training kit and comes with the necessity to be able to work with other trades people to ensure projects are completed.
The Master-Chief instructor must be able to make decisions for the betterment of the group even if such decisions may not be popular.
You need to be firm but fair and when necessary hard-nosed, definite and deliberate.
Because of the nature of the work and for security reasons you may have to export your training provision and be responsible for every aspect of the logistics, training provision and courses management in foreign countries.
When you consider the roles and scope of military close combat and military self-defence requirements and the specific training required resources that must be there ready for exponents on muster to utilise, there is no room for error.
The course must be conducted in the set time frames and must be equipped for every training requirement as there is no provision for additional hours let alone days.
The Master-Chief Instructor must be flexible and innovative to ensure the best training is delivered and the highest levels of competency are achieved on course.
When the training day ends the course management continues well into the night, leading up to testing and completing course reports for every tested candidate.
There are processes and practices for every aspect of training delivery that begins with accepting noms and ends with completing course reports after the course has been completed.
Extensive knowledge of how to set up courses of instruction including training exercises, battle handling exercises and testing courses are important to ensure the required training is provided as well as the candidates are tested under sudden aggressive shock action/actions on realities.
The instructing team must all be highly trained in the same skills packages and must employ the same skills sets training in the allocated time frames.
They must understand how to deliver all aspects of CQC from drills to command through regular and irregular training regimes as well as conducting CQC/MSD specific methods of training and testing.
Being able to identify omissions, faults and errors and holes in training and testing provision plans prior to training commencement is of the upmost importance.
Having knowledge of conducting training and testing courses in wide ranging locations and varied terrain and under different training conditions and environments is most important with specific roles training provision.
I personally export courses of instruction that include combine jungle, beach and amphib training BHEs and testing that requires multi-tasking setting up and conducting.
Leading instructors have experience in how to facilitate and problem solve enabling them to deliver primary training and testing on every course of instruction and under wide and varied conditions.
Problem solving at real time is a necessary skill when through unforeseen factors outside your control changes in plan need to be made.
I learnt this not only in training, but also by working with very experienced people on how to get the job done and overcome Murphy’s Law occurrences.
I can remember on a large course of instruction with limited available training areas and facilities at our disposal where I was having to address cold winter weather conditions and safety issues when a commander made a suggestion based on practical smarts common sense and long-term training provision experience that solved all my problems.
This type of hands on achieved capabilities ensures continuous fluid training provision is conducted.
For the past 93 years the Todd Group, formerly the Baldock Institute have been conducting our military armed and unarmed combat and military self-defence courses of instruction under the same modus operandi and ethos that being setting and maintaining the highest possible close combat standards and never compromising the quality of training delivery or required testing phases mandatory high standards.
Training or testing must never prejudice or favour any exponent/candidate.
If it was easy and didn’t require hands on earned quals and extensive service every wannabe could be doing it and standards would be compromised which is not acceptable in the deadly tradecraft of military armed and unarmed combat and military self-defence where it can come down to kill or die.
There is a huge responsibility with primary military combative training provision and instructors must be fully committed and dedicated to the tradecraft.
They must be selfless and driven by doing their very best to ensure their understudies have the best chances of high level objective achievement.
High level instructors must be motivated by high level training provision above all other factors.
While delivering a course down time is taken up with planning the next course and working on training programs development as well as writing training manuals and developing training resources.
There are never enough hours in the day and it’s very much a matter of keeping ahead of the immediate requirements.
My mentor for military elite CQB/CQC/MSD was the late Col Rex Applegate and it was his instruction, advice, direction and support that has enabled my career in military elite close combat.
Commitment, dedication, qualification and a long record of service are what makes a leader in the field of military close combat.
I have continued with all aspects of my mil CQC/MSD tradecraft like some of my former military combative instructors did which makes for interesting and diverse days and nights which are more a commitment to me than just a job or hobby.
From publishing manuals to public speaking through to mil daggers and CQC equipment design and manufacturer along with constant training provision is the norm.
The instructors lineage level of mil close combat quals and record of instructing service combined with their commitment to all aspects of the tradecraft are testament to the calibre of instructor.
You can’t be a leader in the CQC trade-craft without achieving such rank and a having a long record of instructor service.
Setting up and operating private specialist CQC training facilities comes at a considerable initial and ongoing cost and this is something that instructors should understand before they undertake the establishment of such a set up.
You need to think about why there are so few full time mil CQC/MSD training providers globally and what is required to be recognised as a trade-craft leader in the field.
The Todd Group is the only global private training organisation of our European mil CQC/MSD trade-craft skills sets with the qualifications achieved directly from previous generations of military leading Master-Chief Instructors that we possess.
We are the current care-takers of the doctrine/IP that our former superiors entrusted into our care and we have a major responsibility to ensure it is developed and continued at the highest level.
Mil CQC/MSD is a close, small and specialist trade-craft and leaders are identified from the rest by their quals, instructing service records, established CQC facilities and their involvement in all aspects of the trade-craft.
You just can’t decide to be a mil CQB/CQC/MSD specialist; it takes decades of training testing and achieving of rank and those that have done so will have the proof of qualification and expertise and capabilities to conduct such training.
In the words of military elite CQC instructor mate in answer to outsiders questions as to what such training is like, if you want to find out what it’s like join up and find out for yourself.
