UK visit from New Zealand’s

Leading CQB instructor

Tank Todd

New Zealand’s leading CQB instructor Geoff ‘’Tank’’ Todd made a rare visit to the UK recently, while on business in Europe. Tank managed to make time for a two seminar in Leeds, which was held on the 4^th and 5^th of February this year. Tank as he is effectionally known was originally trained by Harry Baldock, who was a WWII Army Close Combat instructor in NZ. From here Tank went on to train with the late Charlie Nelson in NYC.  For over ten years Geoff would make the trip to New York in order to train under Charlie’s strict supervision. In addition to this Tank later trained with the late Col. Rex Applegate during a relationship lasting some ten years via his visits to Oregon USA. Tank Todd has been certified up to a Chief instructor level by both Nelson and Applegate, along with several other modern day instructors.

Lee Morrison and Geoff  ‘Tank’ Todd.

Tank is responsible for teaching Military Close Combat and over fifty related subjects to Spec Ops, Military and law enforcement as well as civilians alike via his Todd system of CQB from his native NZ. The purpose of this 2-day seminar was to introduce students to phase one of the Todd system of CQB. Unfortunately I was only able to attend the first day, so this review is a brief overview of that. After an introduction Tank went onto talk about an array of Combative principles emphasized by a variety of quotes such as; ‘’seize the initiative and maintain it’ ‘’striking is primary, if you are wrestling you are making a mistake’’ ‘’No wrestling, just velocity!’’  ‘’Dirty tricks are your best option’’ and ‘’inner resolve is the most important thing’’ these are all things that we can relate to. Indeed any good combative system worth its salt, will build upon such foundations. The last quote related to the psychological training, which was addressed first, along with the important relationship between breathing and controlling your heart rate under stress. Tank advised that you should reassure yourself with a positive mantra such as; ‘’I will never quit!’’ and ‘’I refuse to lose!’’ Next he emphasized the importance of awareness and visual scanning for an exit and expedient improvised weapons etc. also the importance of protecting your rear and flanks along with the importance of using the tactics of stealth and deception.

These are fundamental things to all good methods of personal security, as we all should know. The commonality between us all is MINDSET and theres no difference here with the Todd System. Tank has 22 years of experience working the doors in NZ during the height of the Polynesian problem there. Anyone who has had to test their craft by frequently having to deal with guys like that surely has something to say that is worth listening to. Phase one of the physical aspects of Offensive & Counter Offensive unarmed assault, started with a talk about primary targeting. The thing to understand here is that this seminar offered an overview, of what is taught primarily to the Military if caught unarmed or as a transition to gaining a weapon. A lot of what Tank showed would need to be adapted for civilian use. What made it interesting for me was how he pointed out such differences in terms of rules of engagement, adapting the level of force to level of threat accordingly. 

Targeting is a clear example of this. The nape of the neck, being a potentially lethal target and the eyes and ear holes both primarily for spiked implement entry for a soldier. The trachea as a lethal target and the carotids for somewhat less incapacitating attacks. The knee joints are also considered a primary target in the Todd system via kicks and stomps employed with the heavy, hard-soled army issue boots of the soldier. Such low line attacks are aimed below the knee, outside and downward through the joint along with stomping attacks to the Achilles heel as a follow up.  Other principles emphasized were forward pressure and straight line attacks. Phase one is made up of primary/secondary and emergency attacks. The thinking employed is ‘’taking someone out, not taking him on!’ Todd talked about clinical thinking in combat, which he emphasized with his Police dog theory: ‘‘nice dog for his family, but put a collar on him and he becomes a controlled weapon!’’ The practical drills employed this low line edge of boot kick, as both long and close range attacks. Close range focused primarily on hands incorporating strikes influenced by both the Nelson system and what Applegate taught in his syllabus. The chin-jab, flat knuckle attacks to the throat, edge of hand blows, bent forked fingers for eye attacks, along with palm strikes, knees and elbows.  Some close range attacks combined multiple strikes on multiple target lines, such as lead hand to the eyes, rear flat knuckle blow to the throat followed by stomping the knee out with an inside edge of boot kick. There was also a nice little sequence with influence coming from Col. Biddle via Bob Fitzsimmons’s ‘’killing shift’, which focused around striking with both limbs, powered by a violent shifting of the hips.

The attack works off a forward rear elbow strike, bringing it back for a backward elbow, and then firing in a lead chin-jab off the momentum this creates. This is similar to the wheeling attack offered by John Styers in the book Cold Steel that was again, influenced by Biddle. Another one I liked employed the simultaneous use of the Chin-jab as you blast in with a knee strike ala Fairbain & Applegate. Much of the Todd system in an Offensive sense works off a frontal or side-on active guard, (the latter is very similar to that employed by Dermot O’Neill in his system from WWII) rather than any kind of natural unobtrusive position, although such positions were shown for the adaptation for civilians. Tank also showed us a few ways of securing an aggressor’s arms at close quarters, perhaps for when a lower lever of force was called for or as a means to deal with an immediate encroachment. All of these methods placed you in a strong mechanical position with a good potential to strike and/or stomp, whilst compromising the balance of the opponent. 

One of the high lights for me was actually meeting Tank for the first time, he told me some interesting stories about his days training with Rex Applegate and Charlie Nelson, the latter I can relate to as I had the fortunate opportunity to meet the late great, Charles Nelson and his family during my time training in Charlie’s system a few years back. Tank told me some funny stories from the last time he was in England when he went to the home of hard man ‘pretty boy’ Roy Shaw and how, even at 60 plus the ex-boxer still has fast hands, a conclusion that Tank came to after feeding Roy a round on the focus pads. All in all I must say that I found Tank to be a real gentleman, free from ego, generous and happy to help you in any way he can. We exchanged some contact details and plan to stay in touch in the future. In fact Geoff has agreed to submit some articles as a guest writer on our website, so be sure to look out for that.  All that remains is for me to thank Geoff Todd for taking the time out to come here and teach, thanks also to Ron for organizing the event and to those who made the effort to turn up and train.

Peace LM

                             Training group for day one at the boxing gym in Leeds.

     Tank with our very own Phil ‘Bristol bloke’ Matthews and Jimmy ‘Fatwing’ Farthing.