At the Todd Group we get a lot of questions in regard to not only skills and military instructors but also training equipment and weapons.
We design training equipment weapons and protectors for mil CQC/MSD specific training purposes.
There is not generally available military CQC role and duty specific training equipment designed and developed by mil CQC experts out there and most military CQC programs have to opt for equipment and protectors not designed specifically for mil CQC. Usually such products do not meet mil CQC training operational requirements of realism.
While some instructors are willing to let novice students unleash on them when they are heavily padded, they are not so keen without the giant suit and helmet.
I can remember an incident where I observed an individual take-off the helmet with a novice that was lacking in physicality and generating low level velocity strikes.
The next thing he took one on the chin and was spark out on the deck. Studio self-defence training in bulky padded suits and helmets is far removed from the rigors of hand to hand combat.
In the early days of hybridised martial arts training in the 70s and 80s some traditional martial artists with no head contact fight or combat sports experience decided to cross train like some of the big names martial arts movie stars were getting into at the time.
Many found themselves in trouble under such offensive actions on the back foot on the deck or knocked unconscious.
The reality was boxer fighters and kick boxers were trained and conditioned to deal with head contact, but many traditional stylists were not.
The same would apply to those wearing copiously over padded restrictive helmets and suits if they removed the helmet and experienced dealing with fast and hard head punches for the first time.
Negating narrow corridors and pathways climbing getting over through around or under obstacles on BHE’s or urban operators scenario training is not practical with such helmets and suits.
One of the skill sets we have instructed for decades for developing bayonet mental toughness and physical bayonet skills in training is pugil stick combative training.
Back in the 80s pugil helmets that were adapted motorcycle open face helmets with a stainless-steel grill were used for some toughener and sickener training as well as CQC actions on training.
The outcomes were negative in the sense that CQC strikes with the palm heel increased the incidence of concussion / head injuries as a result of strikes coming from below or outside the wearers peripheral vision and forcing the helmet and head upwards and backwards.
Big helmets are easier targets and for some strikes like chin jabs and uppercuts are like extended and expanded head levers increasing the risk of serious neck and spinal cord injuries.
The evaluation of wearing such protection for CQC was proven to be unsafe unrealistic and risk increasing.
In order to practice CQC with expedient action and reducing bodily target mass to the minimum, the combatant requires the same or similar body mass as when they are in battle dress and body armour.
Our findings were unrealistic, oversized padded suits and head protectors made hard foot expedient forward action and counter actions unrealistic for realistic training environments. They were cumbersome prone to catching and snagging and often made covert movements not possible.
Contact was unrealistic and did not prepare combatants for real life unprotected head and facial contact.
Observing the reality when the helmet came off and the wearer faced fast hard and accurate punches proved such equipment can develop a false confidence for the user.
Training the combative way in fatigues, CQC training dress or battledress and body armour develops immediate realism of the realities of controlled contact and accuracy.
Combatants should never take the effects of contact for granted and should employ best of battle proven means of threat neutralisation and self-protection.
They should train the combative way. However, they must remember they are only training and should turn out in the same or similar dress they would operationally.
Controlled aggression accuracy and fitting levels of contact with the intensity and speed being increased with confidence competence and proficiency is a positive means of combatant capabilities enhancement.
It also ensures they are aware of the effects of bumps and bruises that come with CQC tradecraft training.
It enhances their evasive and hard cover guard counter offensive capabilities and promotes not relying on protective kit as a primary practice.
We have tested proven and rejected wide ranging traditional fighting arts designed contact protection for military CQC realism and combatant practical capabilities enhancement over the past 90 plus years and have had to develop a CQC training specific throat and neck protector as nothing on the market for other usages was fitting for military CQC training safety and role specific purposes.
Throat and neck protection is the most important consideration in mil CQC toughner/sickner training and in CQC training and testing.
Relying on giant padded suits that over increase your footprint/mass and not being accustomed to dealing with realistic contact can lead to false confidence and not best combative conditioning and preparing of combatants for CQC actions on encounters.
Train smart the military combative way ensuring training is role and duty specific.
Mil CQC tradecraft training requires tradecraft specific kit instruction and training methods.
