It was 2018 and two weeks out from the New Zealand wrestling championships that were going to be held in Dunedin when Joe Dobson decided to start training in wrestling to compete at the nationals.
Joe has been a long-term exponent of our CQC and has passed phase 1 testing and is a phase 2 exponent at Todd Group HQ.
After attending phase 2 training two weeks out from the nationals, I spoke to the phase 2 group about the benefits of wrestling training, especially Greco-Roman wrestling for CQC foundations enhancement, that Joe walked up the stairs after CQC training and started wrestling with the intention of competing at the upcoming National wrestling championships.
Joe is a physically fit and strong minded man and his physical attributes and physicality are well suited to wrestling.
The combat sports school is most fortunate to have such an innovative head coach in Caleb Steven and Joe under his coaching in a short time frame has achieved excellent results.
The days of yesteryear for wrestling in New Zealand where there were big numbers in all divisions are no more and there are considerably reduced numbers training around the country, however, the combat sports school has had a resurgence of recent.
Joe after two weeks training took out the heavyweight Greco Roman and Freestyle wrestling titles at the National wrestling champs, truly a top outcome.
I believe Joe was hooked on wrestling from the first night after CQC training and his commitment has been nothing less than full on and increasing with every day.
After the national Championships Joe had decided he wanted to attend the Oceania wrestling championships in Guam and decided what he needed to do was get to know and get known by the wrestling fraternity. He contacted champion wrestler Stephen Hill from Christchurch and arranged to go to Christchurch and train up there.
Stephen Hill was trained by his uncle Kevan McLaughlan from a young age and had achieved high level accolades in New Zealand wrestling as well as training in Russia and competing internationally.
Joe had the opportunity to train and wrestle with all Blacks Joe Moody, Owen Franks and Luke Romano.
Joe Moody another understudy of Kevan McLaughlan had achieved high level success wrestling in New Zealand and overseas, including in Russia.
Joe had been doing his homework and was determined to get as much training knowledge and mat time as possible.
He put an application in to compete as part of the New Zealand team at the Oceania’s in Guam and his application was approved.
Joe won gold in the Greco-Roman wrestling heavyweight division and bronze in the freestyle heavyweight division.
Joe is a fireman and has been an advocate and recruiter of others to get into wrestling including fellow firefighter Mike Johnston.
Mike is a very fit and strong man at 108kg with extensive backgrounds in gymnastics and weightlifting.
He was the ideal training partner for Joe with his physicality strength and open-minded willingness to learn new skills and practice them gaining improvements very quickly.
Joe’s next competition was the North Island wrestling championships near Wellington where he won the heavy weight under 97 kg divisions in both Greco-Roman wrestling and Freestyle wrestling.
I had spoken to Joe about the Australia cup a top international competition down under and he through his desire to gain international experience travelled to Melbourne to compete at the 2019 Australia cup. Unfortunately he could only compete in freestyle wrestling as there was no Greco-Roman and although Freestyle is not his primary wrestling style, he still managed to win a bronze medal up against experienced wrestlers.
Joe’s appetite for undergoing available training and competition with every new training or competition trip just grew.
His next international competition was the world fire and police games in China where he had the opportunity to compete against wrestlers from other countries and took out the Greco-Roman gold medal and Freestyle bronze medal.
Still in his first two years of wrestling, he has trained with and competed against wrestlers from Mongolia, Russia, Georgia, China, India, USA, Poland, Netherlands, Germany, Australia and Pacific countries.
This has taken huge personal and financial commitment and an uncompromising mentality to self-improvement and of course a burning desire to be the best he can be and achieve the best results, he possibly can.
He has sustained injuries that go with the sport of wrestling and has not let this affect his desire and determination to manage and train through injuries with an unaffected goal driven mind-set.
He has had to fund all his training and competition trips himself such is his desire and commitment geared at striving for elite wrestling status.
His goal driven desires and objectives are well known to all of us close to Joe and that have observed him in and out of training where wrestling dominates a lot of his available time.
Outside of training, he is heavily involved with researching wrestling and making contact with wrestlers and coaches that he can gain experience and advantages from in the pursuit of his wrestling goals.
Joe and Mike attended a training camp in Karapiro and from every training experience under different coaches, Joe has learnt new skills and training tips and methods that all add to his arsenal of skills and increased knowledge.
Mike has not only been a great training partner for Joe but has become a very formidable wrestler in his own right with the following results achieved. Gold in the super heavyweight Greco and silver in freestyle at the 2019 NZ Champs. He also won the Best Greco Roman Performance trophy at the NZ Champs.
Below Mike in the blue and Joe in the red
After the training camp at Karapiro Joe competed at the New Zealand wrestling championships in Hamilton 2019 where there were a contingent of Australian wrestlers competing.
He achieved gold in Greco-Roman wrestling and bronze in freestyle wrestling and was selected on a long list for the upcoming Olympic Games subject to qualifying.
He subsequently was selected for the New Zealand team to compete at the Oceania wrestling championships in Samoa, unfortunately the week before leaving for Samoa the Oceania’s were cancelled due to a measles outbreak.
The UWW announced after the cancelled Oceania’s that those that had entered would receive automatic entry for the Olympic qualifiers in Morocco.
Just days before Joe left for Morocco he dislocated his shoulder in training, just a problem to be overcome for Joe and certainly not a reason to stop him travelling to Morocco.
Joe was in transit in London bound for Morocco when he found out the Morocco Olympic qualifiers had been cancelled.
Joe made the most of the trip by travelling to the Netherlands to train with a friend he had made in China at the fire and police games.
This highly experienced wrestler Leon Van Os runs wrestling in the Netherlands and wrestles in the same weight division as Joe making this training stopover an excellent opportunity for Joe.
Leon Is a semi professional wrestler in Germany wrestling in the German league where he gets paid to wrestle win or lose.
Joe got to train and wrestle every night at different wrestling clubs in different parts of the country.
Leon is also a Greco-Roman specialist and Netherlands champion as well as British champion.
All his family wrestle and they even have a climbing rope in their apartment between the three stories so they can get in strength and conditioning to enhance their wrestling while at home going between floors.
Joe believes that both of Leon’s daughters and son who are at the top of the divisions in the European league are destined for top international honours.
As soon as he could, after this excellent training opportunity, he headed for home as ports were closing with the covert -19 threat.
Joe never stops learning including learning about his development needs and told me he has identified that he needs to work on his leg strength and his base.
He keeps in contact with our head coach Caleb Steven daily keeping up his training striving for his best improvement and achievements in a tough sport that challenges and motivates him.
Joe is also committed to assisting Caleb with growing the combat sports school wrestling club at Todd Group HQ.
The numbers are growing again with a good mix of male and female wrestlers across most age and weight divisions.
Joe has learnt as part of this CQC training that European combat sports origins date back to ancient Greco-Roman close combat training and share commonality and foundations and fundamentals, especially in the base principles.
Both Joe and I believe that wrestling and especially Greco-Roman wrestling is beneficial to our military CQC as the ancient techniques honed in combat sports competition provide excellent capabilities to hold ground and position and prevent decentralisation.
When combined with CQC dirty tricks brigade skills the CQC exponent’s capabilities are increased by considerable.
Phase 2 exponents and all exponents for that matter would benefit from Greco-Roman strengths that would not only improve their close quarter’s skills but also enhance battle fitness.
Joe would like nothing better than to see more CQC exponents downstairs climb the stairs and get involved with wrestling training.
From ancient Greco-Roman and Celtic warfare, close combat training to gladiatorial life or death competition and combat sports including at the ancient Olympics, wrestling is truly a test of skills and high level inner resolve.
Joe has through total commitment and sacrifice, including having to fund all his travel and competing has produced outstanding results in his pursuit of combat sports high achievement.
CQC Times is a MUC military unarmed combat, CQC military close quarters combat, as well as armed combat CQB close quarters battle and MSD military self-defence on-line magazine and not a combat sports magazine but with Greco Roman wrestling’s strong connection with ancient military close combat as a progression from battle field training to combat sports it is important to provide such information for those interested in CQC that want to improve their capabilities at point blank range in the clinch.
Being able to maintain ones footing prevent being taken down combined with CQC hard cover guarding enables threat neutralisation skills to be effectively employed.
Caleb and I conduct joint training where we familiarise exponents with combat sports skills and enemy fighting styles techniques and then provide training in threat neutralisation by means of military CQC.
There will be more fundamentals training based on our combat sports Greco Roman and freestyle wrestling included in our CQC training and on intensive week long courses.
The combat sports school is an important part of the Todd Group formerly the Baldock institute and our founder the late Harry Baldock’s involvement in wrestling and physical culture dates back over 100 years and his provision of military unarmed combat and military self-defence training dates back 93 years. The Baldock institute became the Todd Group in 1983 when I took over but harry stayed on until 1986.
We have trained many champion wrestlers over the decades and have a leading status as European military armed and unarmed combat and military self-defence specialists with a lineage of no other trade-craft training provider.
Caleb our head combat sports coach training his charges in Joe and Mike to winning NZ heavy weight and super heavy weight national titles respectively is testament to our current status in the top combat sport of wrestling and our ongoing wrestling training.
We provide wrestling training not only at Todd Group HQ but also on exported mi CQC/MSD courses.
Caleb instructing wresling on a mil CQC course Thailand
