The up and coming articles will be on past courses that have been held by the Todd Group for Close Personal Protection.
This article is based on a course in 2018 on of the first International dual country specialist close personal protection.
Our people have been CPO’s for Royalty the Rich and famous and we have given training to close protection units to Royalty as well as training diplomatic protection teams.
We have a history dating back to WW11 that has included providing not only military CQC/MSD training but also military close protection training for high ranking officers and politicians close protection in war time.
Being the headquarters source of the doctrine development and training and management programs writing we are constantly ensuring we provide our pers with the most current tactics and skills. Our tradecraft in CQC/MSD and CPP specific CQB/CQC requires our best of the best in tactics and skills as the outcomes if the means and methods do not provide the best chances of threat neutralisation can be dire and even terminal.
The Todd Group being current military elite close combat training specialists with the longest history as private specialist training providers of European mil CQC/MSD never stop in our dedication and commitment of providing the most proven and effective tactics and skills training.
Our military specialist tradecraft demands we set and maintain the highest most current safe and proven formidable threat neutralisation capabilities which comes with great responsibilities that we take most seriously.
Our pers are serious individuals that are committed to being the best they can be and want to be trained from the source delivered or overseen by a current military Master-Chief instructor.
They must accept all the challenges of training and testing with quiet commitment and make the personal sacrifices to attend our specialist small group courses of instruction conducted globally. They do this because they understand that settling for less is not an option for an informed practical realist with the smarts and resolve that’s wants to be trained in our most proven and current military elite CQC and MSD systems.
Having the resources and capabilities to conduct small group as well as individual tuition HQ and globally exported courses makes our training provision model very exclusive and unique.
Conducting specialist close personal protection courses for small groups of one or two details that include all the required skill sets to operate effectively as a close protection specialist in roles including to the rich and famous, royalty, corporate’s, sporting and entertainment super stars is something that we have provided for decades.
We specialise in specialist close personal protection, CQB/CQC/DT and our tactics and skills are always being regularly evaluated against the most current threats to ensure we stay at the forefront of our trade craft.
We have global allied military Master-Instructor associates with decades of instructing and operational service in close protection and military elite forces close combat that through cross fertilisation and knowledge sharing keep us at the forefront of their CPP skills.
We provide two week intensive courses of instruction to operators as well as those wanting to undertake a comprehensive diverse specialist close protection course of instruction with the intention of working in the close protection industry or to protect their families, friends or staff.
While most military close protection courses of instruction can run for weeks or even months, this is not viable for civilians with careers and financial restraint considerations.
The Todd Group CPP basic course is deemed a basic course only because of the two-week duration.
The course includes all the required specialist close protection tradecraft skills lectures and practical training as well as realistic hands on training exercises of longer duration courses of instruction.
It really comes down to the commitment on course of the exponent’s and their diligence in notetaking and maximising their practice of their new learnt skills during the practical training phases and on the training exercises.
Advanced CPP courses simply include increased training and training exercises duration as well as some increased threat neutralisation options and additional methods of undertaking duties.
The Todd Group has a fully equipt HQ facility in Dunedin and a major training camp close to the Dunedin airport and commissioned training depot instructors internationally.
To ensure our courses include international training exercises, it was decided to conduct training and training exercises both in country at Todd Group HQ/Camp Todd and overseas, including a long haul flight close protection exercise.
This small specialist course of instruction proved very successful and beneficial and definitely will be repeated.
While the most current tradecraft tactics and skills may be the same the realities of having to live close protection on exercise identifies every strength and weakness in both the exponents planning preparation and conducting of themselves and their operation orders.
Living the realities of close protection on exercises that require total dedication and commitment provide the exponents with a hands-on insight in regards to the nature of specialist close personal protection.
The realities of the stress factors sleep deprivation and attention to detail, especially in the conducting of advances and compiling of operation orders make close personal protection very different to the primary combative physicality dirty tricks brigade requirements of close quarter’s combat courses.
The success and effectiveness is in the attention to detail and selfless commitment to providing the safest plan and executing it without taking easy options short cuts and as such failing to deliver the safest and most detailed all-inclusive operation orders to ensure those under their protection are not compromised and are never at risk.
Such requirements mean the exponents on close personal protection courses must fully absorb themselves in the required tasks including copious notetaking and meticulous advance planning and compiling of operation orders that provide layers of protective security and safety.
Developing such operation orders requires long hours of identifying weaknesses and plugging any holes identified in plans to reduce the risk to the lowest level professionally humanly possible.
Simply theory or short small aircraft charter flights or simulations in a grounded aircraft do not provide the realism of the required planning and conducting of protection duties on long haul flights that require more than 24 hours of continuous ground and flight committed protective duties.
From evasive driving to aggressive ramming under ambush through to close protection aimed and instinctive point shooting and the Todd Group close protection tradecraft specific CQB/CQC field of expertise under actions on can take the exponent outside their scope of prior capability and comfort zone.
The meticulous attention to detail of conducting threat assessments and security surveys and instruction on how to develop professional operation orders expose exponents to considerations that they would not normally think of let alone have to spend hours going over with every attention to detail.
Maintaining a discreet status while providing high level protection on training exercises requires a whole new skill set and a very specific demeanour.
Providing protection on exercises in an English-speaking country and then in a country where the first language is not English is a very important part of our specialist close personal protection basic courses.
Utilising indigenous trusted assistants for information, advice and translating as well as respecting culture and customs require exponents to be as informed as possible and conduct themselves with constant consideration respect and care.
Exponents must forget about their home life traits personal wants and must adopt a selfless professional attitude that is about their role as close personal protection specialists and about their protectee’s safety, comfort, wants and needs.
The close protection specialist must be able to manage their time including rest time to be ready and prepared 24/7 and this requires planning preparation and practice to set and maintain a state of constant ready and preparedness.
Forgetting one’s role duties and responsibilities including forgetting your position on the food chain or slipping into a rest and relaxation off duty or tourist mode will increase risks and must be identified in training and corrected to ensure such traits are not repeated especially on any real life close protection assignment.
Intensive close personal protection specialist courses of instruction and realistic extensive training exercises operating in one’s home country and a foreign country with language barriers and different customs and culture are the best way to identify exponents every strength and weakness and ensure they are best exposed to what they will face on real life close protection details.
In short they need to live close protection under the pressures of intensive extensive training exercises that include all the inter action requirements of everyday life under close protection roles and duties.
This was the case with the most recent Todd Group specialist close personal protection course and the attending exponents by the course end had learnt a new specialist tradecraft skill set and a lot about the requirements of working in such a high stress attention to detail required tradecraft as well as about themselves and the strains and stress of specialist close personal protection.
The close personal protection course is a certified course completion course not a tested course of instruction due to time restraints and as such it is very important that exponents fully the understand and have squared away their tradecraft primary practices.
Being privy from day one to the exponent’s instruction and overseeing and critiquing the training exercises identified the considerable gained competencies by the attending exponents.
From the actions on ambush drills training at Todd Group HQ and the driving and shooting training through to the close protection specialist related close quarters combat and close quarters battle and all the other tradecraft skill sets the course was a capacity schedule of learning training practising and preparing and undertaking of realistic training exercises.
The exercise included land rail, maritime and the demanding long haul flight exercise between Dunedin Auckland and Bangkok finished off with a road transfer exercise of two hours duration to our destination at Chon Buri.
Another course done and dusted with a military and crowd controllers course to be delivered then a final course for 2018 in Thailand for a full muster phase 3 specialist proponents CQB/CQC/MSD course of instruction leading up to the Christmas break.
2018 has been a capacity schedule of specialist courses and the strict and to the point firm fear and impartial course joining conditions and requirements combined with CQC codes of conduct contracts have eliminated the previous large numbers of unsuitable applicants before they get past the initial application stage which has provided more available time for course planning administration and course conducting.
Small group specialist elite training in the most current employed CQC/MSD tradecraft practices is a speciality and something that is possible through our 90+ years of expertise and course conducting assisted by our global allied contacts and international facilitating assistants.
It is most beneficial to be able to recruit the fraction of a percentage minority that meet our high course joining standards over having to recruit the entry-level masses.
The quietly confident individuals that accept the challenges of our training understand that there are no easy options political passes and being trained in the most current and proven military CQC/MSD/CPO systems, comes with responsibilities and demands personal and financial sacrifices.
After all if they are not prepared to travel train and pay course fees for specialist training as well as volunteer for training and testing, they are not showing themselves as the practical realist committed types we are looking for.
If it was easy and was not challenging and did not require volunteering sacrifice and stepping up and surpassing the highest possible standards it would not best prepare exponents.
While many of our close personal protection course exponents apply already being actively employed in the close protection industry and others post courses have gained positions on close protection contracts, more than ever come on courses for their own protection and for their families, friends and employees protective safety and security.
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