History
Lawrence Jordan or Larry to his close friends is a twenty-four year veteran of the U.S. Army most of which was spent with U.S. Army Rangers and U.S. Army Special Forces.
He was trained in the hand-to-hand combat systems in his early military service days of former elite forces respected instructors such as the late Michael Echanis.
Larry has always known how to fight but now he was being taught how to kill quickly and quietly. He has an impressive service record in Special Operations and as a close combat chief instructor to U.S. and allied special operations forces.
While assigned to the 5th Special Forces Group at Fort Bragg as chief close combat instructor Larry was ordered to develop a deadly program of close combat for Special Forces soldiers and Rangers.
He developed the Deadly Dozen, a twelve technique series of skills that were easy to learn and remember and very effective. They were down right deadly in kill or get killed hand to hand combat keeping with the principles of disarming disabling and disposing of any threat.
It was 1990 that Tank Todd arrived at Fort Bragg for hand to hand combat instructor familiarization prior to taking his Special Forces Combatives instructor qualification course in South East Asia. Accompanied by his guide, a Captain from the 82nd Airborne and having all the necessary paperwork in order, it was off out to a wooded secluded area of Fort Bragg to be introduced to the Chief Hand to Hand Combat Instructor Master Sergeant Lawrence Jordan.
1990 Fort Bragg. Lawrence Jordan and Tank meet during familiarisation visit.
After the initial introductions training began and in minutes Tank realized how privileged he was to be an ally allowed to attend such training being conducted by such a highly skilled instructor. This was true irregular forces close combat training instructed by a most highly skilled and committed master chief instructor.
After the training was completed that day a meeting between Master Sergeant Lawrence Jordan and Tank took place in Master Sergeant Jordan's office. This was the beginning of the allied elite association that has not slowed to this day. These two close combat experts spent the rest of the day discussing close combat and making future training plans.
It was before Tank left Fort Bragg that Larry entrusted Tank with an official copy of the Deadly Dozen. He had given it to no one else outside the US Army Elite.
He later went to Fort Bliss when Larry was attending the Sergeants Majors Academy for advanced training under Larry Jordan and was and is the only non-American he qualified as a combatives master instructor.
Larry has visited New Zealand several times since then instructing on the Todd Group courses of close combat and close protection. Larry and Tank have instructed close combat in Australia, the U.S. and South East Asia and Larry has been a respected guest instructor on one of Tank's military elite forces courses. Larry has become well known down under and has trained hundreds of Tank's exponents on annual and special courses.
Retiring from the Army Larry quickly realized the dangers of civilian life for the average responsible citizen were real and that violent crime was rampant not to mention the terrorist threat. This was Larry's motivation to develop the DIRTY DOZEN a variation of the DEADLY DOZEN. He civilianised the program by making small changes to make it more relevant to the role it was going to be used for.
The effectiveness had to remain; it could not clearly be cripple, maim and kill from the outset as with its close cousin the military version. The DIRTY DOZEN was born and later publicly released in a book published by Paladin Press.
The Dirty Dozen – 12 Nasty Fighting Techniques For Any Self-Defense Situation by Larry Jordan – ISBN: 1581603177
Larry had taught the deadly dozen skills to Todd Group members including senior members for many years and had certified Tank, as the only level three instructor in the world. He had also considered three of the senior Todd Group members worthy of becoming level one Dirty Dozen instructors in New Zealand.
These three senior members were Cowboy Mitchell, Lee Smith and Howard Bell.
Cowboy and Howard are farmers and although they were honoured to be considered are unable to commit to promoting and instructing such courses but will give any assistance they can to Larry and Tank with any courses they conduct.
Lee Smith will accept to be a Dirty Dozen Level One instructor in New Zealand and will receive full support from Larry and Tank during his twelve-month probationary period.
Larry is very protective of the Deadly Dozen program and all instructors must abide by the conditions of being an instructor and complete the probationary period.
They must also remain in regular contact with the chief instructor in their country and with Larry to ensure the standards are continued and obligations met.
The following is a summary of Lee Smith and his future plans for instructing the Dirty Dozen in New Zealand.
Lee Smith's Past and Present
I am currently working as a personal trainer at Olympic Pools & Fitness Centre, Newmarket, Auckland. Although I am qualified to instruct in a large variety of areas, my day normally consists of one-on-one training or small groups for self-defence training, weight training and mixed martial arts.
I am the founder and director of Streetsmart Self Defence. The system that I teach is based on my extensive CQB training under Tank Todd in the Todd Group Systems. I have incorporated into this system Larry Jordan's Dirty Dozen of which I was recently qualified as an instructor. The Dirty Dozen is an extremely effective system of self defence. It is easy to learn and effective against larger and stronger opponents in many different situations. The combination of both Geoff Todd and Larry Jordan's systems gives any exponent, regardless of age and size, the best fighting chance that they have.
I have trained in many different styles and systems and have completed mixed martial arts fighting in which I was the New Zealand Heavy Weight Champion (2000).
Lee Smith current NZ Heavyweight Reality Fight Champion.
In my fourteen years of working as a doorman, I had many physical encounters in extremely dangerous and sometimes life threatening situations. It was always my CQC training from Geoff Todd and Larry Jordan that enabled me to effectively overcome these threats.
I do not criticise any martial arts particularly the hardened fighters that compete in mixed martial arts fighting, however, not all people have hours to train to physically condition themselves and learn all the moves required for such fighting. One difference I would like to point out is in mixed martial arts fighting, there are a large amount of rules that vary between competitions. For example, no eye gauging and no throat strikes are not rules that are adhered to in a real life combat situation. A CQC exponent is given these as some of their primary options as they will quickly and decisively finish an opponent regardless of their physical size or determination. CQC training is not designed to look pretty (I have never been in or seen a pretty street fight) but it is designed to be effective against any opponent in many different situations by repetitively targeting vital areas.
Lee Smith at the Todd Group during Self Protection training.
It has been an honour to learn CQC and qualify as an instructor under Geoff Todd and Larry Jordan and I thank them both immensely.
Yours in CQC,
Lee Smith
