Platoon SGT Charles Nelson
Col Rex Applegate and Master-Chief Instructor Tank Todd
SGM Harry Baldock
Two generations of military Master-Instructor knowledge and instructing service
The Todd Group, the oldest private specialist training provider of our European military armed and unarmed combat and military self-defence, is where depth of knowledge, lineage and long military combative instructing records of service in our best of battle proven dirty and deadly tricks brigade mil CQC/CQB/MSD has got us to where we are today .
Long days and nights at Todd Group HQ and capacity schedules with exported courses and involvement with everything military CQC, military self-defence, defensive tactics and close personal protection related is what is required to be a trade-craft leader.
The lockdown has provided a break from the international courses circuit workload where constant flight and accommodation reservation and group facilitation demanded considerable hours of work every day and this was before we even commenced the courses.
That available time has been taken up with the demand for local and regional courses that is already running at capacity schedules.
The local and regional enthusiasts are pleased we have expanded our home country training provision.
The weekend introductory training camp at Camp Todd July 18th and 19th is the largest short course muster in the past decade and we are still receiving applications every day.
Project work is advancing well and will soon lead to another publication as well as another major equipment item and a CQC role specific tool released very shortly.
Our training team at Todd Group HQ including my 2IC Cowboy Mitchell and Howard Bell along with all the HQ assistant instructors and instructors support and assistance with all our training initiatives as well as HQ and Camp Todd maintenance and development is invaluable.
Tank Todd, Cowboy Mitchell and Howard Bell
It is and must be a team effort of CQC lifers and dedicated selfless committed exponents, proponents and instructors.
When it comes to setting standards, we have very much done it our way as there is no other training organisation that instructs our European mil close combat and MSD packages and operates a global private specialist training organisation the same as ours.
While a lot of the means and methods of running of the operation are based on our military training provision and on the lessons learnt from my former instructors, we have to change with the times with our means and methods of recruiting, vetting and when needed with our training, testing and promoting of our exponents.
The Baldock Institute’s military self-defence and military unarmed combat training provision was established in 1927.
The Baldock Institute become the Todd Group after I took over as Harry believed the facility should be under the name of the Master–Chief instructor in charge.
While Harry was winding down close to his retirement, I was committed to growing the awareness and provision of military unarmed combat and military self-defence training not only for the military but also responsible citizens looking for quick, simple and effective proven means of threat neutralisation.
Lineage, instructor qualifications and being trained in all aspects of the military CQC and military self-defence tradecraft are paramount in a tradecraft where resources must be custom designed, developed and made to fit the role and requirements just like our combative tactics and skills.
So being trained in the design, development and testing to destruction of everything mil/CQC/MSD are very important tradecraft capabilities to possess.
The Todd dispatchet double hand grip hatchet
Todd Group TSB-45 expandable rotational baton and Todd green, grey and black role daggers
Skills, equipment and weapons must be tested to destruction and never soft tested and willed to work.
Cowboy Mitchell and other members with specialist skills sets are important highly skilled tradespeople that work selflessly and tirelessly with me on the development of equipment and weapons relating to military CQC.
The Todd Group will never rest on its laurels or settle for less than the best and being a stand-alone private specialist military combative and military self-defence training provider, we must be able to adjust while maintaining the highest standards.
While I work full-time in my tradecraft, when I retire as the chief instructor and Cowboy takes over he will decide on how he will provide training under his command.
There are a range of options including weekly evening sessions, weekend short courses, weeklong intensive courses of instruction, Saturday or Sunday morning or afternoon training as well as continuing or discontinuing with contract training provision.
Whatever the decided training provision will be will be up to Cowboy but the standards will be maintained and the living progressive package of military CQC/MSD will be kept at the forefront of threats to ensure best practices and safest means of threat neutralisation.
The Todd Group allied International military close combat associates and connections including the International Close Combat Instructors Association and other allied armed forces close combat instructors will always be an important part of our operational network as sharing of knowledge and cross fertilisation is most important in staying current and at the forefront of threats.
Larry Jordan a close friend and hand to hand combat Master-Instructor
The late Bill Hall who served in the Independent Company and Bomber Command who was like a father figure to me.
We must always pay respect to our former instructors as these former military Master–Chief instructors have made our achievement, advancement and leading trade-craft status possible.
The origins of tactics and skills must always be stated as those who claim development of skills when they were developed by others are nothing more than plagiarist rats.
The Todd Group testing is a very important part of a candidate’s development and although training and testing can be hard, heavy and hostile, nothing compares to battlefield or urban actions on violence.
Testing comes with risks that must be managed and minimised and this is the responsibility of the chief instructor.
While our ranks will be made up of wide ranging individual enthusiasts of military self-defence and military armed and unarmed combat, it is those that have both high level expertise, uncompromising commitment, mental toughness and real life actions on experience that are held in the highest regard and will through their actions and attitude prove themselves as leaders by example and by prior experience.
From the rest come the best as the old saying goes and how true it is of exponents, proponents and instructors.
Every day is filled with everything CQC/MSD whether it be the manufacture of CQC training uniforms, public speaking, consultancy, course development, a heavy schedule of meetings and answering questions and processing applications for upcoming courses and intake inductions.
Being the only training provider of our specialist services in New Zealand and for that matter globally has put us in a unique and special position.
We have mandatory conditions in regards to training provision that include phase 2 advanced and phase 3 specialist skill sets only being available to those that have passed the required testing phases and have been promoted and accepted for the next phase of training.
Phase 2 advanced and phase 3 specialist publications and productions are not permitted as exponents and proponents have had to volunteer, test and pass to be accepted to undergo such training and it would be disrespectful to them and also irresponsible to provide such dirty and deadly tradecraft skill sets training to the general public.
Todd Group IP is protected and safeguarded and we have member agreements that prevent the release or instruction of our intellectual property whether current or former exponents proponents or instructors without HQ written consent.
The last thing we would want is our tradecraft skills in the wrong hands and we would do everything legally possible to ensure any breaches were legally dealt with.
The reality is if someone unlawfully takes and misuses our intellectual property, they must not be current and consented members and could well be former members that are persona non grata.
Although we publish our general public release manuals in the US and in-house produce our introductory and continuation training video productions, we market all our own resources. This is important as private specialist training providers so we can personally provide advice and assistance and guidance to those that purchase our training resources. We always must maintain control of our IP and released introductory and continuation training resources.
You cannot achieve high level competency from non-hands on completed training where you are critiqued by a qualified instructor that can provide best individual advice and tuition that fit with the individual exponents mental and physical make up.
Like with our vetting and having to turn down individuals that do not meet our course joining requirements, we also turn down lucrative training and consultancy offers for reasons of maintaining control of the highest standards and always doing our very best to protect the integrity of our military close combat and military self-defence tradecraft.
Regularly having visiting instructors and exponents of other styles and systems and our rank-and-file getting to travel and train from allied instructors and with other military high ranking instructors on exported courses of instruction is important for familiarisation with other systems. The general consensus is that what we instruct and how we instruct it and the scope of our European military CQC/MSD is very different from other styles that are based on civilian traditional arts and competitive codes.
This is because it is European military armed and unarmed combat and military self-defence instructed by tradecraft Master-Instructors and is not based on traditional arts or competitive fighting codes but to the contrary our combat sports were derived from our European military close combat.
Our combat sports school and CQC toughener and sickener training are good means of inoculating our exponents against the contact realities of close quarter’s actions on.
Bare knuckle dirty boxing, CQC milling, Greco-Roman wrestling and kill wrestling is still part of our advanced and specialist exponents training.
CQC milling training
Trev, a tough lad after we went hard at it bare knuckle
Billy Leckie taking me through the punches
Joe and Mike, our Combat Sports School NZ Greco Champs
The bouncer work on the door and scraps in the street were a valuable proving ground back in the 70’s and 80’s when it was like the Wild West.
This is not the reality anymore with technology and changes in mentality so exponents need to get inoculated in training, testing and through combat sports.
Back in the day on the door with my bouncing partner Eddie
The Todd Group have provided training for military elite and regular forces, diplomatic protection, wildlife anti-poaching and anti-trafficking, SWAT, royal family close protection and other services and agencies over more than nine decades.
The civilians we train that achieve Phase 3 specialist rank are some of the most skilled, committed and dedicated proponents and instructors.
CQC/MSD is their primary practice and they train in it from anything between 10 and 40 years.
Where most of the services personnel that undertake CQC/MSD training have to do it as part of their basic training and because it is part of their service employment that they are paid to do, the serious civilian proponents volunteer and pay course fees to achieve their capabilities and rank, turning up week in week out along with traveling to train on exported courses of instruction.
The mandatory hours they rack up in achievement of Phase 3 Specialist qualification is 1000 training hours and most log many times more than that.
They remain current and involved as proponents and the best of them join the training team ranks.
We are working towards our hundred year celebrations in 2027 taking a pathway that best suits our objectives of setting the highest standards and doing it the mil CQC/MSD way.
Thank you to all of you that have requested an insight into the origins and operation of the Todd Group and I hope this and the previous subject matter pieces have been informative and answered all your questions.
My advice if you are a serious military close combat and military self-defence enthusiast is do your research, check out that the training is the very best possible and that the instructor is in fact military CQC/MSD trained and qualified with a long and distinguished instructing service record in military self-defence and military close combat if that is what you are looking for. There is no substitute for qualification, expertise, experience and a long respected and renowned record of instructing service to the military in military armed and unarmed combat and military self-defence.
Upcoming HQ intake induction and courses www.toddgroup.com
