Jessica Todd, after 14 years of wrestling, has retired from competition and training in the sport of wrestling that she loved so much. Competing in wrestling and more recently grappling she has won 19 national titles in wrestling and grappling, competing at national championships conducted under the control of the two major governing wrestling and grappling organisations in NZ. She also has won 33 provincial titles, 15 South Island titles and 5 NZ club titles. Jess took gold at the Down under games and Australia cup. Jess was brought up around the Todd Group headquarters facility and as a toddler was given bits and pieces of fun related training from Trish and I.
The Todd Group was formerly the Baldock Institute established by the late Harry Baldock in 1927. Harry Baldock loved the sport of wrestling and physical culture and also instructed jiu-jitsu self-defence, unarmed combat and other combat sports. The Baldock family attended the 80th anniversary of the Todd Group in 2007 with Peter Baldock speaking at the anniversary official function of how happy his late father would be to know that wrestling had been re-established. The Baldock Institute produced multiple national wrestling champions including Harry’s son Peter and through our daughter Jess this has been repeated with her winning multiple national wrestling titles, which is something very special indeed. While at primary school, Jess took tennis lessons, played soccer, and primary school rugby league. She saw plenty of combative and combat sports training going on all around her including gruelling unarmed combat testing. When I reintroduced competitive wrestling she was under eight years of age and when she joined in for the first time under Coach Alan Rolton we could all see that wrestling suited her and she had found her sport. She began competing in her first season at eight years of age and has continued competing right up until her retirement from the sport in 2013 at the age of 21 years.
Wrestling really fitted well with her personal attributes and demeanour. She was quiet and determined in training and competition. Jess is the Combat Sports Schools most successful wrestler and over her 14 years of competing in wrestling has racked up hundreds of matches. It was obvious from the outset that her considerable strength and ability to motivate herself as well as her considerable determination, fitted well with competitive wrestling. There were many highs in her wrestling career and just like the few lows and she took them all in her stride. Jess was always quietly confident and committed and although she was a very quiet member of the Combat Sports School wrestling team, she enjoyed being on the team training and going to competitions. In her early years most of her opponents were boys and she started to defeat many of them taking out boy’s titles. Trish and I took her to the South Island Championships when Coach Alan Rolton was unavailable and she took an age and weight group title against boys. Her first taste of national championships success was before she was old enough to compete at the national championships but successfully won at the national club Championships. Jess has always trained hard and never let injury or pain affect her turning up for training or competition. She is renowned for her physical strength and to hear some good male wrestlers on the team talking of just how tough it was to get an advantage over her because of her strength, skills, and calm and controlled demeanour is testament to her uncompromising commitment. She would often dominate team training games being very hard to move or turn over. Wrestling from that young age identified and developed her tenacity and she as a little girl could climb up and down the climbing ropes with ease multiple times. I can remember a referee talking to me sometime after one of Jess’s matches and saying he heard sounds coming from her in a match against a boy where she was on her belly and he was trying to turn her over. The referee said he was initially concerned and when he looked under to check on Jess’s welfare he discovered the sounds were that of determination. Her mat time in having hundreds of matches from such a young age developed her into a wrestler of strength and skill. She always had the calm and controlled smarts that gave her the ability to win tough matches. From age 14, when she wrestled mainly female wrestlers, she thrived on the challenge to test and gauge herself against other female wrestlers. She could be sometimes cautious with the range of skills she employed in competition as winning was most important to her and the last thing she wanted to do was deviate from her strengths and risking losing. Less was better and she never made the mistake of panic causing her to mimic her opponent’s actions or stray from her signature skills. Testament of her tenacity was when wrestling against a most capable wrestler and former national Judo champion in Tayla Ford, Jess badly tore her ankle ligaments and went on winning two divisions against Tayla. This injury caused her considerable problems and still does today with it never healing properly. It took years of investigation and treatment before a top sports physician managed to identify the problem and relieve the pain to some degree. Jess and Tayla wrestled on many occasions and had the utmost respect for one another as tough opposition, both thriving on the challenge they provided each another.
In Jess’s last season she wrestled Tayla for the last two times at the South Island and National Championships, winning on both occasions and ending a career against her best long-term national and most formidable opponent. Some of the highlights of Jess’ wrestling career included winning at the Down Under Games in Australia against Australian and American wrestlers and being named joint best female wrestler with an American wrestler.
Jess wins gold and joint best female wrestler at the Down Under Games
Trish took her to the Australian cup a major international in Melbourne and she wrestled a very formidable multi-combat sports competitor in Cassie Fields who went on to be in the Australian wrestling team at the 2010 Commonwealth games where she placed 5th. Cassie Fields took silver at the Australian championships against an international wrestler and was a multiple state and national Brazilian Jujitsu champion and seasoned kick boxer. Jessica. close to 10 years her junior and at the bottom of the weight division. defeated her heavier opponent by pinning her early in the first round.
Jessica also had 3 exhibition bouts with other experienced senior wrestlers not only holding her own but also dominating. Against the heaviest senior wrestler she was most competitive and the considerable size and weight advantage was what made the difference in the end. She took the next exhibition match by a pin. She surprised everyone by not only being competitive, but beating some of the best of them. She was to wrestle Louise Randall, the female who won in the 59kg class at the Australian Championships, but immediately before Jess and Louise took the mat they cancelled the bout and Jess was most disappointed. At one NZ championship, after winning her age and weight division and having to cut weight to oblige a female wrestler in a higher age group division that was unopposed, she won both matches easily and that older female wrestler won the best female wrestler trophy at the national championships. As Jess moved up through the age groups and weight divisions, there were lesser numbers of competitors for her and she really looked forward to any competition she could get and the stronger the competition, the better. Scott Hewitt, an all American wrestler who wrestled and coached for our Combat Sports School team, was instrumental in teaching Jess some different skills and she enjoyed his coaching very much. Jess is a thinker who listens and takes advice on board, she enjoyed the coaching at camps and the encouragement she received from seasoned wrestlers such as Jodeen MacGregor, Aaron Miller, and Stephen Hill. Their advice and encouragement really did motivate her and she appreciated them taking the time to encourage her as a young wrestler. Kevan McLaughlan was a great supporter of Jess and his tips and coaching really made a difference and although she never shows much emotion or gets overexcited, we as her parents could tell the positive difference such support and assistance made. In her early days, she focused more on upper body strength skills, clinching and chucking down but as time went on, by means of Scott Hewitt, her leg shoots became a bigger part of her wrestling. Jess at one of her fist national championships was told on the mat that her method of clinching with both hands was not legal and was surprised as she had used this method up until then without ever being pulled up on it in competition. She adjusted her clinch and changed to a one handed version to control and pin her opponent winning the national title. The Combat Sports School team knew when Jess was on the team she would rack up multiple titles adding to their chance of winning club trophies. This included winning the most successful club at the National Championships. Jess was awarded with many club and provincial special awards over the years. The medals trophies and certificates were not that important to her but competing and winning on the mat was. Unfortunately, many girls on the wrestling team had short-term wrestling careers, but Jess stayed committed, participating in training and competition as much as possible over her 14 years involved in wrestling. Alan Rolton provided Jess with sound basics skills that enabled her to combine her physical attributes achieving top results.
Unfortunately, her date of birth narrowly excluded her from some internationals that she dearly would have liked to compete at like the Youth Olympics. Jess never let off the mat aspects affect her wrestling and she believed wholeheartedly that the most important thing was giving your very best on the mat. Often you would see Jess studying for exams between wrestling matches such was her commitment to not only her sport but also school and later University. Jess was a class act recipient awarded by the Prime Minister John Key. Columba College had to produce a new sporting blue for wrestling especially for Jess. I believe Jess being around the combative training facility all her life must have had a positive effect in relation to being mentally tough with her training hard and competing even harder. Over the years I have learnt from her and from observations the reasons why she committed to the tough sport that wrestling is. She believes in fair play, and giving participation your very best and importantly good sportsmanship. She does not appreciate easy options or anything less than tough competition and respecting your opponent win or lose. She prepares well quietly and methodically accepts defeat graciously and respects formidable competitors. I never interfered with her wrestling training but Trish and I always supported her and she knew if she asked for advice or assistance I would give it. The Todd Group’s NZ Combat Sports School has specialist coaches and instructors that oversee their code or system and are in charge, but we all help each other if called upon. I can remember at one national championship in a best-of-three competition after winning the first match easily and being ahead in the second match she made an error and lost the second match. I watched her leave the mat congratulate her opponent and then take some quiet time to reflect on her error and prepare for the third and final match. I’ve spoken to her over the years about psychological conditioning and it appeared she had taken it on board. After she had completed her psychological preparation and visualisation, she was back to her same quiet self and took the third match with ease. I always wanted to teach her more military self-defence and unarmed combat, but this has to be up to her. Every now and then she would let me know she had taken on board the importance of primary combative skills such as stamp kicks when play fighting directing them below my knee joint. Jessica does not like unnecessarily hurting or injuring anyone and that is why wrestling appealed to her in the early days because it was physically tough having to win without striking, kicking, strangling, choking or hyperextending an opponent’s joints. She very much enjoyed the team environment and camaraderie as well as the good sportsmanship nature of competition shaking your opponent’s hand before and after a match. Steve Varga, a champion power lifter, assisted Jess with strength and conditioning training over the last several years and his expertise and influence really made a considerable difference. He was impressed with the weights she was lifting and her quiet but determined demeanour. She also very much respected and appreciated the training and encouragement she received from two top NZ wrestlers in Steve Reinsfield and Vinnie Roxburgh. Jess admired committed participation but was less impressed with competitors that were not willing to step onto the mat and face other wrestlers and grapplers for no other reason than they believed they could not beat them but would never admit it and would make excuses why they could not compete. She always trained hard, even when injured and was stubborn to the point of never giving in. I would say to her you need to wear ear protection in training to avoid cauliflower ears as looking like Schreck would not be very attractive for a young lady. She usually would not wear ear protection, simply saying, “I don’t need them.” Jess had offers to train and compete overseas, even in her early years and many top coaches from other combat sports codes recommended she compete in their codes, but Jess was committed to wrestling and discounted such advice. That is until the New Zealand Grappling and Wrestling Association was established and provided combined wrestling and grappling competition on a major scale. A new competition was bought in at the National Championships titled the Kings and Queen of the mat. You had to win all your matches in wrestling and submission grappling in the senior division to be crowned the Kings and Queens of wrestling and grappling by the New Zealand grappling and wrestling Association.
There was grappling by now being conducted at the Todd Group’s Combat Sports School and Jess decided to support this new competition. She attended grappling under Caleb Steven, our now head wrestling and grappling coach, for several weeks prior to the 2011-2012 national championships. Jess very much enjoyed training under Caleb with his introduction of new skills and variations of skills. The day before the national championships, she asked me for some assistance with training and we went over to the gym and it was very apparent from the outset that she did not intend to submit any one but wanted to win by dominating them physically accumulating points. I told her this was not the best way to go about winning a national title and encouraged her to learn a few submission techniques in case she needed them. I showed her a hard take down and a hybrid variation of a wrestling pin technique that could be used to submit an opponent as well Baldock Institute methods of moving from position to position on the ground to accumulate points. These methods of the Baldock era proved still to be primary practises and Jess used them to change position with ease. On the day, Jess won all her wrestling matches and then all her grappling matches competing against judo, ju-jitsu and Brazilian ju-jitsu competitors. She methodically utilised her ground strength and ground game to accumulate points winning every match.
Jess found competition grappling considerably less physically demanding than wrestling where its constant action if you do not want to get warned and potentially disqualified for passivity. She was pleased when grapplers and MMA fighters also competed in wrestling providing new and different opponents. Jess wrestled a very willing BJJ and MMA fighter, Kate Aroa, winning both matches and was pleased to get competition in wrestling from other combat sport codes competitors that were willing to try wrestling competition. Jess won every match she has had in grappling. She has also dominated against grapplers competing in wrestling. She fully realised grapplers competing in wrestling are disadvantaged competing in a different combat sports code with different objectives and rules. Jess had no issues with competing in grappling using mainly her wrestling skills to dominate opponents. In a small competitor sport in NZ such as female wrestling it was important for competitors from other codes to participate to provide varied opposition. In 2013, she decided to defend her Queen of the mat title and this time I insisted on her adding to Arsenal some simple submissions skills. She reluctantly agreed and for the first time in the final match submitted her BJJ opponent by means of a choke putting it on very carefully so as not to harm her opponent.
Jess employed the same level of determination and preparation to her studies as she did to her wrestling competition and I believe the hard training and competition wrestling provided flowed through into her academic studies. Jess graduated in 2012 from Otago University with degrees in computer science and information science and in 2013 hascompleted an honours degree in computer science.
In 2014, she will move away from Dunedin taking up a position as a graduate developer in software engineering. This will bring her wrestling and grappling involvement to an end. She will be dearly missed as that quiet, committed and very tough member of the Combat Sports School wrestling and grappling team. She will now look at new physical pursuits and I’ve advised her not to be encouraged to return to the mat in wrestling and grappling after retiring from competition. She needs to let the injuries and wear and tear on the body settle down. It is time for Jess to focus on her career now as this is most important to her future. I have seen all to many fighters that compete in tough and sometimes brutal competition for such little rewards and then find after their competitive time is over they have little future prospects due to committing so many years to training and competing. Jess has the smarts and balanced 14 years of combat sports competition with achieving her academic objectives that have led to her securing excellent employment. Jess like our adopted son Lucan possesses great physical and psychological attributes in relation to hard Combat Sports training and thrives on the challenge of tough competition. Lucan to date has not lost a fight in the tough sport of Muay Thai. Jess and Lucan have made us very proud and the both of them share in some very special qualities. They have a genuine respect for one another as family and in relation to their uncompromising commitment to their combat sports codes. Lucan is also a Todd Group advanced CQB/CQC exponent with a real future in the Todd Group, a family and loyalty based specialist global training provision organisation.
In my field of military combative training and of training specialist tactical operators, I always enforce the reality of knowing when to retire or change from an operational role to a training role. I believe Jess has achieved all she can in New Zealand in wrestling and the time is right for her to step away as the only female to date to be crowned not once but twice the Queen of New Zealand wrestling and grappling. So this brings 14 years of training and competition provincially nationally and internationally to an end for Jess. As a father with a lifetime commitment to military close quarters battle and self-defence, I would dearly like her to get involved with such training in the future, but that is up to her and I don’t like my chances of her doing so. Mini Tank, as we know her, is the epitome of what I look for in close quarters combat exponents in relation to possessing the highest levels of inner resolve and commitment to objective achievement. Life after wrestling and grappling for Jess begins now and she is looking forward to the challenge of her career in the computer science field.
