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.
Grappling and wrestling are not recommended in operational military close combat but clinching is a required skill. Wrestling and grappling training does provide great physical benefits that enhance military close combat but it is the ‘take on’ rather than ‘take out’ aspects that detract from life and death military close combat and to have a military combative programme that comprised only of grappling would less than provide soldiers with all the armed and unarmed subjects required to operate at close quarters.
It is also very important that the programme be based on a system that has commonality throughout and that the basic skills share the same principles as the advanced and specialist in both armed and unarmed combat.
The reason that even effective unarmed or armed offensive or counteroffensive clinching is considered not always a primary option is simply because the military CQB principle of taking your enemy out covertly with the first contact being the only and last contact has been broken.
However clinching in sentry take outs is important and clinching at close quarters counter offensively to contain a formidable unarmed enemy buying time to gain the advantage or recover from an injury that is temporarily preventing or interfering with your abilities to go on the offensive is an option that needs to be prepared for. Some combatants are simply better in the clinch than at entry unarmed offensive.
The primary option of military armed or unarmed combat of seizing and employing deadly armed or unarmed offensive actions to a controlled specific target is a very good reason for a trained combatant to know such methods.
Seizing the back of the head upright to target the eyes, throat, groin or knee joint or seizing the belt or webbing and employing the same unarmed options are all closer to guaranteed than attacking a moving target. The same seizure skills can be combined with primary, secondary or improvised weapons.
Seize and employ unarmed offensive.
Seize and employ a weapon in a military employment.
The back of the head or back webbing can be secured if your enemy is bent forward at the waist and armed or unarmed offensive options employed.
Side T-bone seizure clinch and continued offensive.
In military close combat the preferred direction of attack is from behind or to a lesser degree the side over the front where you face your enemies greatest unarmed capabilities.
The webbing or body armour in a close quarter upright offensive can be seized and vulnerable targets taken out either with unarmed or armed options.
There are other reasons to clinch whether standing kneeling or in ground combat and as such the fundamentals of clinching need to be understood and practiced.
Number one consideration is always presume your enemy is bigger, stronger, physically fitter, armed, highly skilled, and bent on killing you. Bearing this in mind sound assessment is required prior to clinching as no matter how well you can clinch or grapple it is a tactically flawed option against a dagger or gut gun or any other weapon.
Be aware this is not a combat sports match and you do not want to stall any longer than necessary and you do not want to be in a scrummage or referees type position where you are locked up with your enemy and there is space between your bodies for weapon drawing and employment.
While increased stability is essential, mobility is equally essential if your enemy is formidable and to prevent taking him on at his own game. I have employed clinch, seize and destroy skills against aggressors in my over twenty years as a bouncer where they towered over me and had considerable experience in competition and on the street.
Sound clinch stance and body position.
The reality is that if you are wrestling in combat or in the street you are wrong especially when your enemy has plans to seize you and target your vulnerable vitals with his hands boots and weapons. I have trained combatants that have quickly taken out far greater skilled individuals by not playing their game and simply seizing, clinching and neutralising them before they knew what was happening.
I mean not a hold and hit mentality I mean violently seize ones enemy with enough force to incapacitate and employ continued close ruthless armed or unarmed targeting of your enemy’s life support vitals and senses.
Ravaging your enemy in the clinch until he is no longer a threat is an effective military combat option that is based on simple rugged not complex fine motor skills and as such is a primary option when a covert application is not applicable. The previous is an insight into common reasons for the clinch and now to the basic principles required to be able to achieve ones objectives in the clinch.
The priority in the clinch is the stance, as maintaining your balance is critical.
Assume the foot positioning of a CQB front stance and guard then widen and deepen it slightly to increase stability with minimum decreases in mobility.
Adjust it until you have a balance between stability and mobility that allows you to maintain position under load and move to advance or take the least line of resistance.
Body positioning is the second most important factor in the clinch after the stance. Always remember we are not going to grapple with our enemy only hold position, gain position on the advance, or by taking the least line of resistance in order to employ our armed or unarmed offensive assault.
Never fall into the trap of mimicking your enemy’s actions always stick to the plan of achieving primary positioning and going on the offensive with your battle proven skills.
Body contact with your enemy should be with the region of your upper torso in a straight line from shoulder to shoulder across your chest. Once you have this region contacting with your enemy you need to seize his back of his head, arms or the back of the head and one arm or his belt or webbing.
The rule of thumb with seizing and securing is that the lead hand as in the lead leg seizes or secures the high grip on your enemies back of the head throat, upper-arm or high on the webbing or body armour while the rare most hand seizes the low grip on the triceps area or on the belt either from the front or the back.
There are variations or situational exceptions to the rule but this is a technically correct description.
Once you have your stance body position and have seized and secured your enemy you need to employ the continued lowering of your centre of gravity by bending your knees keeping your chest and shoulder region against your enemy but also lowering your hips down and away from your enemy.
This bodily position resembles a dogs hind leg chest to chest then slight abdominal gap with a deep low hip placement and stance.
Your head should be slightly lowered and pressed against the outside of your enemy’s upper arm on the low grip side. This allows you to maintain visual focus on your enemy’s feet to gain the earliest warning of any movement or aggressive action but also be able to change your focus to his hands.
The important aspect of having your head in this position is that simply by pivoting your boots to face the direction of your head you will be on approximately a 45degree angle diagonally forward across your enemy’s body and direction of forward momentum. By employing this positioning you are not taking him on in a force on force grapple. This angled positioning of the boots also offers additional protection for your groin.
Note your head placement can be changed to the centre of his chest or under his chin to provide vision of his lower quadrant targets and to conceal your attack of those lower quadrant targets such as the groin or knee joint in unarmed combat or the liver, spleen, groin/pelvic bowel or femoral artery targets or full disembowelment in armed military close combat.
Once you have all the previous clinching components in place the high low seizing and securing the point of body contact the head positioning the deepened and widened stance and dropped hip positioning and lowered centre of gravity you need to practice and test your placement and positioning and ability to advance, retreat or employ angled position changes.
To change from one grip to another never release both grips at the same time in other words never release one grip until the other grip is secured.
Covert weapon drawing and charging can be accomplished in the clinch in this body to body contact position or by employing a behind the head or back weapon charging or making ready action or by positioning your head under your enemies chin in the clinch and from this masked position combined with a belt seizure draw and charge the weapon.
Be aware: weapons can be drawn covertly in the clinch and used against you or in military roles you can be the one who draws the weapon.
The head and arm is achieved with an easy transition from a clinch and can be combined with a covert weapon drawing and charging. The head and arm can be further extended to achieve a rear control position where an offensive can be applied or controlled decentralisation and ground weapon drawing.
The real test as to if you have the footing and body positioning correct is to have a training partner seize and secure you and you will employ all aspects of the clinch positioning other than using your hands to seize your training partner.
Have your training partner attempt to punch, push, pull, move you in any direction, and even lift you. To combat these actions you will simply employ a cover guard with your arms and hands and maintain your body contact, head positioning and clinching stance and foot positioning.
You will glue your body contact to your training partner and maintain an affinity with the ground at all times compensating where necessary to maintain your clinch positioning.
Have him test your balance by pulling you forward and leaping backwards and disengaging to see if you can maintain your balance when your leaning post is no longer there.
You will soon discover that from this dogs bent hind leg configured low and strong body positioning and stance leaves your hands free to draw weapons or deliver committed unarmed options fully powered from the ground up.
Proving the clinch stance and stability, note this is known as the obstinate ass and the exponent must use stance and footing to control balance and maintain a combative position suitable for armed or unarmed offensive or counter offensive options.
The obstinate ass training in a deepened stance and lowered centre of gravity.
You can combat a wide range of enemy attempts to employ skills to take you down, lift you off the ground, strike kick or knee you, tackle or throw you, gouge, butt or throttle you and many other close quarter threats from this strong clinch position.
You can employ your combat takedowns from the clinch or control and restrain a prisoner. You can negate forward enemy momentum in the clinch by taking the least line of resistance or changing your position from your enemy’s front quadrants to his side or rare quadrants.
This can be achieved easily by employing footwork to T-Bone your enemy combined with using your head to not only slip from front to side but also power the movement of your upper quadrants.
The T-bone side clinch and control prior to continued offensive.
Timing and positioning are critical to employing offensive or control strategies from the clinch. You need to achieve the clinch as quickly as possible and assess and decide on your plan of attack and make any subtle changes to your foot positioning and methods of securing your enemy.
You then need to employ your set up to achieve your objective followed by the skill to achieve your objective. To combat enemy offensive attempts or to set up your own offensive the application of a weight drop to your low grip side or what we call a high low set up will advantage you and disadvantage your enemy.
From the clinch you also need to be well versed in your contingency options to counter any enemy offensive attempts. Clinch practice should include the employing of contingencies to combat the following conditions: balance loss, object impact, direction change, recover from a crouch, kneeling and decentralized position, as well as the previously mentioned enemy skills attempts armed and unarmed.
Maintaining the clinch when decentralized will put you in the Todd Systems ground combat clinch domain that will allow you to employ the ground combat strategies to neutralize the threat or make it safe to regain your footing and neutralise the threat.
Disengaging from the clinch and employing an unarmed offensive ravaging assault that can incorporate a combative take down designed to use the terrain to add to the injury is a sound improvised option.
Likewise the employment of improvised weapons in the clinch adds effectiveness as the chosen objects that are of a more robust composition than human flesh will achieve an easier and increased effect in most situations.
The Todd Systems for special operations close combat incorporate lethal clinching for quick and quiet enemy neutralization that can be employed from the front side and rear.
The rear clinching is the primary option and provides the highest levels of safety for the operator being furtherest from your enemy’s bodily weapons and senses.
The rule re what category of offensive option to apply is often decided by your enemy’s position. If they are upright you need to usually employ skills that target vitals that are the most relevant in the upright position and usually see the effect of the attack take the enemy upward and backward before they are decentralized, however if they are bent forward and down at your waist height or lower you would target vitals that are both close and promote instant downward travel groundwards.
The previous is the usual but there are exceptions to the rule like when in the upright clinch you employ close quarter stamping kicks that would put your enemy straight down or when your enemy is at your waist height or below and rather than employing an offensive that will put them straight down a cross face may be employed to turn your enemy away from you and change their position so their back is to you and they are on their side exposing their nape of their neck, eyes and throat.
In military close combat the use of your senses is very important at close quarters when you may be in low or no light. In the clinch you need to use your eyes to identify targets offensive enemy actions or any enemy foot movement that may signal the initiation of an offensive.
You must also listen for any sounds that are familiar with the drawing or making ready of weapons or the arrival of enemy accomplices.
The sense of touch applies to your footing on greasy and uneven terrain where your toes, heel, and ball of the foot in your boot act as senses and methods of countermeasures to common risks in the clinch in combat.
The sense of touch also applies to your hands where by being familiar with battle dress you can locate such items as the webbing or belt and follow them to target vitals.
Practise while blindfolded like with dismantling or assembling a weapon is valuable practice indeed.
Familiarization in the clinch, blindfolded practise using the sense of touch to seize and control webbing and locate targets.
The principle of the clinch is simple maintain your position and footing and prey on your enemies weaknesses and mistakes. Target exposed vitals and any mistake like turning his back to employ a traditional throw where he cant see you and exposes his life support vitals to attack exploit it as in military combat you must take advantage of any weakness or error.
The clinch should be looked upon as the easy and lazy option at close quarters and should not involve excessive dynamic movement or energy wasting. Simply glue yourself to your enemy and let him carry your full and increased weight by dropping your centre of gravity in what the Todd system has named as the Pooh position and employ minimum effort offensive actions to cause in military combat death and destruction to the maximum. After all, the acronym for TODD is tactical operational death and destruction or take out death and destruction.
You must also employ breathing control and exhale with every combative action to increase performance and decrease physical risk.
The Todd systems have a definite training progression that provides the best of battle proven unarmed methods to combat the most likely threats first.
The first phase of training is phase one as it enforces the importance of not grappling or countering in close quarters situations but instead employing unarmed offensive assault or preventative measures Anti-grappling.
Phase Two of the Todd Systems or more advanced training is the close quarters phase where exponents learn to employ clinching, enemy decentralization and ground combat as well as enemy control and restraint and advanced self protection.
Phase Three is the armed and advanced specialist take out close combat phase of training as well as a wide range of close combat related operational skills.
All three phases have self-protection and counter-offensive content relevant to the level of training and perceived threats.
The Todd System does not provide to the general public the complete content of the phase two or three training simply because our exponents have to test and be selected and earn the right to promotion and advancement and also because we have respect for military personnel we train to restrict certain advanced or specialist skills as much as possible for their safety and security. We also must act responsibly with the provision of some material that simply has no place in civilian life.
The Todd Systems in advanced and specialist military programmes content include some very different and deadly skills that are based on military roles objectives and operational considerations and not on any combat sport or traditional arts.
We have had master level martial artists comment that they had never seen such decentralization manoeuvres or ground combat and the military armed aspects are very different to anything they have ever seen.
We get many inquiries as to how individuals can learn phase two and three modules but to learn such skills in full requires hands on training and the inner resolve to undertake test phases.
2007 will be our 80th anniversary and we have maintained our standards and status through exponent selection phases of training and the tough testing phases.
While the above is an overview of one sub module of phase two training the only way to become confident and competent in such skill sets is to take the training hands on.
This edition of the close combat files has been to make readers think on the importance of learning the many aspects of every aspect of close combat and clinching is but one related skill set or sub-module in the full package of armed and unarmed close combat.
A considerable amount of this edition of the close combat files would be deemed only for military kill or get killed close combat and is for information purposes only.
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
