Todd Group specialist security training course in close personal protection 1997
Professionals and the public alike will be pleased to see new legislation that will ensure door staff and crowd controllers are licensed and trained.
The Todd Group formerly the Baldock Institute was established in 1927 and is the oldest tactical training provider of its kind not only in New Zealand but globally.
There is no other organisation in New Zealand that are subject matter experts with the high-level expertise and as longer history as private training providers to the military, police, security, close personal protection, and in civilian self-defence.
The Todd Group’s founder the late Harry Baldock was a World War II Army unarmed combat and self-defence chief instructor and at his Dunedin Institute post-World War II trained police including taking them for their physical requirements training and self-defence.
Geoff Todd the current chief instructor since 1986 and director of training has been a professional full-time self-defence tactical control and restraint security sector instructor for the past 30 years and a military instructor for 20 of them. The Todd Group have provided complete army training as well as globally training specialist police and close personal protection units. These services include consultancy and delivering basic advanced and specialist training packages including qualify the instructor programmes.
They are careful to distinguish between consulting to authorities on training and tendering for delivery of such training to ensure there is no conflict of interest.
The Todd group director of training Mr Geoff Todd is an instructor qualified decedent of the world’s leading experts in defensive tactics self-protection and close combat of yesteryear and today.
Between 1985 and 1999 he personally trained tested and qualified internationally under such experts as the late Col Rex Applegate of World War II office of strategic services expertise and the late Charles Nelson of the school of self-defence New York City, the first self-defence school in the US providing training based on European military and police tactics skills and procedures.
He also trained and qualified as a Special Forces combative master instructor.
He not only has trained thousands of crowd controllers and doormen in New Zealand and Australia but has also conducted training in the United Kingdom United States of America Southeast Asia and the Middle East to specialist police and military units.
Geoff Todd has personally been involved with training doormen and crowd controllers in New Zealand for over 30 years and was inducted into the World Martial Arts Hall of Fame first Australasian induction in 1996 as instructor of the year for unarmed combat.
Tactical control and restraint training at the Todd Group in the 90s
Geoff Todd is an author and producer of manuals and DVDs on tactical training to reduce risk increase favourable objective achievement and outcomes while maintaining the highest levels of safety.
He has been a designer and developer of defensive tactics and self-protection programs for over 30 years, providing programmes that arm operators with knowledge increasing responsible practices and decreasing the need for physical skills.
He is the producer of not only tactical training manuals and DVDs but also the audio CD combative code of conduct an instructional tool for law enforcement security and military personnel. This CD provides operators with information on how to avoid using excessive force through over reaction as a result of the psychological stress of high risk situations and control the psychological effects of high risk high stress situations.
This valuable training aid identifies triggers and potential risk situations and provides information on how to avoid, defuse or de-escalate such situations through proven conflict resolution.
The Todd Group also specialise in psychological preparation to cope with and operate effectively in risk situations where violence is a reality through sound tactics, individual self-control practises and providing training in situational assessment and decision making including providing training and tactical assessment to identify hidden dangers and read body language.
The Todd Group had been involved with research and development in psychological conditioning tactical applications stretching back over 20 years and are soon to release a complete training package titled from brain to boot providing security, military and police operators around the world with a complete package to ensure they are prepared and ready to professionally undertake their duties.
Geoff wrote both a close personal protection program and doorman’s course for delivery under the NZQA system a number of years ago, based on many years of personal experience and exhaustive research.
The Todd group comprises of 35 depots/instructors nationally and internationally and has a professional instructing team of over 50 instructors.
Todd group instructors are required to complete not only all the training and assessment phases but also must have logged over 1000 hours to qualify as a systems specialist instructor.
The instructors working on the instructing team range in experience from instructors and proponents of the training systems of between 10 and 30 years’ experience.
Todd Group instructors in Australia have been delivering crowd controllers training and licensing courses for many years delivering Todd Systems conflict resolution de-escalation and physical defensive tactics and self-protection principles and skills.
The Australian industry being very similar to New Zealand in relation to security training and operations for crowd controllers and with many tradecraft practices having mutual recognition ensures the packages delivered across the Tasman have relevance to New Zealand and can be easily modified to meet the laws of the land or the authority required specifics for New Zealand requirements.
The Todd group applaud the Government and related agencies for this new licensing initiative and believe not only personnel working on the front line of the hospitality industry will be more responsible through vetting and training but also the training providers will have to be confident, competent and qualified and have their credentials checked before being able to deliver the required level of training.
Being a specialist training provider requires training and qualifying on tactical training courses that are specific to the roles, duties and responsibilities of the trade purpose and are far removed from say fight or martial arts training.
Such instructors will obviously have course reports references and certification outlining they have completed such tactical training courses and qualified up to instructor level.
Tactical instructor qualifications are testament to the individual having undergone specific training moving up through the ranks over the years and achieving the objectives to become instructor qualified in the specific security subject and role related trade craft practice.
Qualified instructors with substantial instructing experience are required to not only deliver lessons and training but also oversee assessments and furnish course reports.
Taking the crowd controllers and doorman’s organisation from an unlicensed virtually anyone with the physical attributes or menacing look can be employed to a regime of all applicants being vetted and trained by approved qualified specialist training providers will surely improve standards and safety for everyone concerned.
The hospitality industry in recent times through liquor licensing laws has gone a long way to ensure patrons are of age and not adversely under the effect of alcohol to be allowed admittance to licensed premises.
Crowd controllers and door staff had been expected to deal with restricting entry or removing subjects and often with no formal or approved training.
This new licensing and training regime will surely improve the hospitality industry even further increasing the public’s perception of crowd controllers.
The Todd group has always realised the importance of its rank and file comprising of instructors that are subject matter experts in required core and related subjects such as the medical aspects and have a doctor on the instructing and management team with experience in tactical training.
They also have long-term crowd controllers that have qualified as instructors and former military and police personnel working on the instructing team that have all moved up through the ranks and instructor qualified. It is very important in order to understand the industry and purpose you are providing training for that you have instructors that have extensive backgrounds in the industry.
Geoff himself headed doorman and crowd controllers working with them on the front line for over 20 years.
Geoff Todd and Jon Moke working on the door back in the mid 70s
The Australian model of the crowd controllers training and licensing package is something the Todd Group had been involved with through their Australian depots for many years and have on file ready to modify to New Zealand laws and requirements of the New Zealand authorities program requirements.
The Todd group with a nationwide instructor base and with the training and management package ready to go combined with their 84 year proven record as specialist training providers at the highest level will certainly be interested in the tender process for this new line of instruction as we believe we are best placed to deliver this specialist training from a credibility and capability point of view.
The industry, the staff and the public in general deserve high quality training from high quality instructors and the Todd Group is well positioned to deliver on all counts.
