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.
No physical aspect is more important in military close combat than stances, guards and footwork.
While the best option is if an operator can maintain the element of surprise and remain covert in a ready neutral stance with out a guard it is unlikely in most situations where battle dress will give them away.
In any situation where the operator is compromised and a close quarters encounter is on then hard targeting or risk reduction is a priority along with offensive and counter-offensive options employments.
Risk reduction and hard targeting requires the individual to be able to maintain an affinity with the ground and hold a stable platformed position as well as move fast and steady and guard themselves.
There are many variations of stances and guards in various systems that provide various levels of protection and that have good and bad points technically.
The methods I instruct were battle proven in military battle over the last century and have evolved from the old formalized military combative origins of the ancient Europeans.
They have stood the test of time and I believe have not been superseded and in this edition of the close combat files I will detail why.
The same or modified variations of these combative stances and guards have been employed also in the oldest competitive European combat sports.
The front and side guards covered in this edition of the files allow for the wearing of webbing vests or body armour and provide maximum levels of preventative retention of weapons and equipment on load bearing belt order/webbing or vests.
This not only increases seizure prevention and increases retention it can reduce being caught or confined in a clinch at close quarters.
The neutral stance allows for your arms to be bent at the elbows and your forearms rested on your webbing pouches in front of your abdomen to reduce mass or they can be outside your vest or webbing at your sides in a relaxed but ready position.
Many traditional or competitive stances have never been trialled and tested with military kit and weapons and in a military role and applications – this is a serious fault indeed.
The first is the neutral stance or self defence stance that is employed in covert operations or in urban applications where you can maintain the element of surprise.
This is a stance not a guard position as your arms are at your sides.
Your feet should be shoulder width apart or slightly narrower as you need mobility before any clinch situation actions are on.
You must have an affinity with the ground by ensuring the balls of both feet are in ready contact with the grounds surface for a fast offensive assault or counter offensive evasion.
You can easily break a two metre reactionary gap by pacing back and remaining in a neutral stance or transferring to a front guard and stance to employ an evasion and counter-offensive.
Your stance can also be deepened and your centre of gravity lowered simultaneously with raising your arms in a cover guard if stationary counter-offence is required “the poo” as it is known in the Todd Systems.
From the cover guard position you effectively make yourself a smaller and more stable combatant and reduce your target mass that you have to protect.
You may also modify or change your stance by sliding one boot back until the toes of that boot are in line with the heel of the forward boot with the feet shoulder width or slightly wider apart.
The orthodox stance in this stationary cover guard position would have the master side boot moved backward and the non-master side boot forward and closest to your enemy. In a neutral stance in the ready position your toes and heels would be slightly off the ground and your knees slightly bent like you were a sprinter in the blocks ready to go. In a clinch you can easily take or change to a heavier more flat footed stance.
If you were flat footed your movement off of the mark would be as much as fifty percent slower.
Without webbing I like to keep my arms at my sides and my hands in the flat hand position to enforce the controlled tactical mentality over the clenched fist fight mentality. This arm and hand position also is more covert and lending to palming or masking weapons or your intentions.
I call it my police dog principle as the police dog at its family home is a pet, however on the job it is a tactical option and a weapon.
When an operator wants to go tactical by employing the flat hands position he is preparing for combat not a fist fight.
From the neutral stance it is very easy to launch a long or close range armed or unarmed offensive assault or employ counter offensive options.
The neutral stance and the modified neutral stance and cover guard provide a primary position in the clinch range to employ leg stamps, axe kicks, chin jabs, flat hand strikes etc and to cover and covertly draw and employ weapons.
It is very low stress and easy to remain covert from a neutral stance or if compromised break a reactionary gap, change your angle, evade or go on the attack. It is also very easy to change from a neutral stance to a front or side guard.
Prior to any close quarters clinch situation in the neutral stance mobility is more important than over employed stability as you need to maintain your element of surprise and move swiftly with no unnecessary trailing boot lag or drag that may restrict your ability to move out of range or into range quick time.
The front guard and stance is utilized mainly for long range unarmed offensive assaults with your boots or prior to a counter offensive option.
The front guard when employed for a counter offensive option at the required minimum 2 metre reactionary gap allows the operator to hold ground and be ready and capable to evade an incoming unarmed attack and quickly assess and identify enemy exposed bodily targets and neutralize them.
The front guard at the controlled counter offensive distance may present the entire frontal bodily targets to ones enemy but from this position it is easy to evade to a side guard or employ stationary counteroffensive options.
Should your enemy realize that the range is too great for them to be able to effect an unarmed attack and they opt for continued stalking into range you can control distance by edging back and off the confrontation line and then employing your counteroffensive being stalked contingency option.
The front guard can easily be widened and deepened in the clinch and your centre of gravity lowered to reduce bodily target mass and increase stability prior to employing armed or unarmed options.
The front guard description is as follows:
The toes of the rear most boot in relation to ones enemy will be in line with the heel of the front boot with the boots shoulder width apart, ground contact with the balls of both boots ensuring an affinity with the ground surface. The toes and heels of the boot slightly off the ground’s surface in a ready to move position.
Booth knees slightly bent and the back straight with both eyes locked onto your enemy’s eyes showing you are not afraid and are ready and to ensure you can achieve the earliest warning of head movement towards you.
You must maintain peripheral vision and not get tunnel vision.
Your arms will be at 45 degrees and your hands the width of your head apart in either the flat hand or hand edge position.
The reason for the 45 degree angle and having your hands inline and so far out from your face and body is to make you as harder target as possible and prevent your hands being knocked into your eyes and face, without showing your full reach.
Your body in this guard position is very rectangular and well covered and you can easily move your hands back to a cover guard position if required.
Your front boot can be flattened out to provide flat foot contact with the ground to increase stability and back foot utilized to initiate ground up power via the ball of the foot.
On inspection an exponent in a front guard is a very difficult target to penetrate.
I have seen variations of the front guard with changed hand positions but they tend to provide gaps in the cover guard in my opinion and may be good for non combat applications but in kill or get killed military close combat you want to be the hardest target possible.
The 45 degree arm positioning and the narrow gap between the hands provides a very narrow window of opportunity for an unarmed strike to breach the guard.
The arms being inline with the outer extremities of the body mean the operator is only protecting his frame and vitals and not creating gaps by guarding open space.
The hands being no wider than the outside of the operator’s head in width provide tight cover and by utilizing the space between the guarding hands as a sighting system a direct focus can be maintained for offence or counter-offence.
While some styles use a lead hand guard with the rear hand further back, especially in traditional fighting arts or combat sports where, by nature of the hand strikes, more power is required to score points or knock downs, the military striking methods being aimed from close to point blank range at very delicate life support systems and human senses require lesser power and travel to achieve their objective, or can be cocked and employed from a cover guard.
Safety is the first priority and combined with dirty tricks and skills to disarm disable or dispose of ones enemy the true front guard is our preferred option at extreme close quarters or in the clinch.
The combative hand strikes are powered from the ground with full foot to head commitment before the arm is extended and usually the arm is extended from a cover guard or side guard positioning.
The front guard and cover guard provide cover against round house strikes and provision of deflection against straight line or uppercut strikes that come between the sights which are the hands and forearms when in the front guard position.
The important part of covering against roundhouse strikes when evasion is not possible is to lock the palms of your open guarding hands above your ears on your skull and make rigid your forearms to absorb the impart of the strike.
In the case of deflection from a cover guard in your front guard and stance always deflect the striking arm with your directly opposite forearm so as not to turn your back on the enemy's free arm and expose your nape of your neck.
In a front guard where evasion is not an option against a kick, the kick is combated with a leg stamp or axe kick executed with your lead boot.
The Side Guard
The side guard is predominantly employed to execute close range unarmed offensive assaults comprising of entry strikes to injure incapacitate or distract followed by a finishing blow to target exposed vital points on the injured enemy.
That is the objective but it is often necessary to employ contingency options or continued unarmed offensive assault skills.
The side guard is also employed to deliver limited long range unarmed offensive assault options (stamping kicks).
The side guard description is as follows, feet shoulder width apart, body and boots pointing in the same direction head turned to the non master arm side and the non master arm at right angles with the hand either in the hand edge position or flat hand position.
Both eyes will be focused on the inside of the non master arm forearm to reduce the access to the nape of the neck. The targets of the face and throat are on the inside of the guarding forearm and make cover and deflection not difficult.
The non master hand can easily form a cover guard by taking the hand and placing it on the nape of the neck to protect the back of the neck while using the same elbow to cover and deflect or stop any strikes that’s line of direction is from the frontal inside or outside of the lead guarding arm.
The master hand is positioned immediately under the adams apple to act as a back up should a strike get past the lead non master hand.
This side on position with the boots and the body turned away from the forward enemy offers groin protection and makes the body too wide to be seized in a body hold as well as providing the minimum window of opportunity for an unarmed strike.
Counter-offensively kicks when in a side guard are combated with a leg stamp either at the kicking leg or the stability leg which ever presents itself first and closest.
The real benefit of employing close range strikes and combinations from the side guard over a front on type stance is that you provide so much lesser target and can move very fast in a side on position chasing your retreating enemy and targeting exposed vitals until the point of safety when they are injured incapacitated or disorientated and the final swivel manoeuvre or finishing skill as its termed can be employed.
Side guard entry strikes include the hand edge and elbow entry strikes and palm jab strikes.
The finishing skill is employed post swivel manoeuvre that takes you from a side guard to a front guard and utilizes the increased power of the turning of the body from side on to front on and the forward ground up to head commitment behind the finishing skill.
Torque drive and velocity by fully committed extension and immediate retraction from the ground up and comprising of multiple strikes and stamping kicks combined with continuous zeroing in on your enemy is possible from side to front guard transitions and skills executions.
The front and side guards combined with all the continuation options and contingencies that the Todd Systems incorporate provide a full package of options to combat a wide range of unarmed threats.
It is safer when load bearing to enter in a side guard, maintaining as narrow as possible body mass and target to your enemy.
Footwork is broken into two modules 1) Offensive and 2) Counteroffensive.
Offensive footwork provide the combatant with the ability to stalk into range from either a front or side guard by maintaining an affinity with the ground and moving the front boot inch by inch and with every forward boot movement replacing the trailing boot.
Stalking is always methodical and at the same pace staying zeroed to your enemy until you get into range to execute your entry steps.
Entry steps are committed medium length steps preformed in the same manner as stalking but at rapid pace and cover much greater distance.
The rear boot always does the driving off and the front foot is first to move forward immediately followed by the rear trailing boot.
Sliding is a method that is similar to stepping but is employed in slippery conditions.
The rear trailing boot slides along the slippery surface maintaining ground contact to increase stability.
Counter offensive footwork comprises of edging back to control distance inch by inch in the opposite application to that of stalking forward.
The front boot drives and the rear boot is first to move back immediately followed by the forward but trailing boot in relation to your forward enemy.
Pacing back is a method designed to break a reactionary gap between you and your enemy for counter offensive evasion purposes.
This is achieved by taking large paces back with alternating boots in rapid succession leaving your enemy standing in position.
Usually two paces or two metres is the minimum safe reactionary gap to the ready position prior to evasion.
From this ready position evasive side steps or parry’s can be executed.
Ideally in military close combat you would opt for taking your enemies rear flanks or at worst side flanks but if compromised or against a formidable enemy you most likely will face your enemy front on and have to stay centred to reduce risk.
Remaining centred to your enemy and knowing your execution ranges combined with changing your stances and guards to deal with changes in situation or changes in your combative planning are a critical aspect of close quarter combat.
The Todd Systems fast mapping practises on the move install in the combatant correct assessment and decision making on the move and under battle stress and require the previous stable and safe guards and stances to give the combatant the best combative chance at victory.
These stances and guards have commonality with the stances and guards employed for armed combat with a pistol, submachine gun, assault rifle, shotgun, riot stick, baton or knife and that is a major advantage when going tactical that the very platform and footwork are the same and are second nature through practice and muscle memory.
While walking and running are humanly natural forms of movement stalking and stepping forward and edging and pacing back and swivel transitions from side to front on are not like wise front and side guards are not natural human positions and all these must be combative tactical options that are trained in and practiced constantly.
Drills in footwork stances and guards and technique to command as well as practical and battle handing exercises and skills stands are all important methods of practicing combative stances, guards, footwork and skills.
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
