Paul Cale

Paul Cale is the CEO of Kinetic Fighting Pty Ltd (KEF Group)

Paul Cale currently oversees the delivery of the Army Combatives Program (ACP) and Individual Combat Behaviours (ICB) training for the Australian Defence Force (ADF). Regardless of who his client is, Paul is driven by the company mantra, ‘excellence over everything’.

“We pride ourselves on uncompromising standards of training and quality of content,” says the former Commando Sergeant.

Paul has been involved with the Australian Army for 30 years, either as a soldier or a preferred contractor, as he is today. For most of that time he was a member of the Special Forces (SF), serving in the 1st Commando Regiment and 4RAR Commando before he became a founding member of the 2nd Commando Regiment (2CDO) in 2009. As a Commando, he was deployed five times on combat tours to Afghanistan and Iraq, and at home served as a team leader in the Tactical Assault Group, Australia’s elite anti-terror unit comprised of Commandos (TAG-East) and SAS operators (TAG-West). Paul’s personal hand-to-hand combat experiences in theatres of war, and those of his fellow Commandos, have guided his development of the Kinetic Fighting system. This evolution began when, as a sergeant with 2 CDO, Paul redeveloped the Close Quarter Fighting (CQF) course for Special Forces, and co-founded the 2 CDO Integrated Combat Centre (ICC). Paul later created the Infantry Integrated Combat (IIC) course being used by the entire Australian Infantry Corps, and is now the Army’s subject-matter expert in delivering the Army Combatives Program. ACP Level 1 is compulsory training for all Australian soldiers.

In 2017, Paul was appointed Head Coach of the Australian Defence Force Martial Arts Association (ADFMAA) and continues his work enabling soldiers to develop their unarmed combat skills. Paul had previously co-founded the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) Combat Centre, working as a coach and specialist consultant to the AIS. For several years he worked with Olympic combat sports teams and their embedded sports scientists, and also led the implementation of Special Forces selection methodology in several other sports including cycling and water polo.

Paul has been involved in combat sports and martial arts since the early 1980s and holds black-belt ranks in eight different systems. These include Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ), Kudo Daido Juku, Kyokushin karate and three aikido styles (Yoshinkan, Tomiki and Gyokushin Ryu), as well as the Olympic combat sports of judo and taekwondo. Paul was the first Australian to earn a Kudo black belt and was the first branch chief of the International Kudo Federation Australia (IKFA). He now runs his own independent martial arts training and assessment body, Jissen Budo International, with branches around Australia and in Asia. In 2019, Paul was awarded his 7th Degree rank by Hanshi Bryson Keenan (8th Degree black belt, Goju-ryu karate), one of his first instructors and also a former soldier.

As KEF Group’s CEO, Paul draws on his experience and that of his specialist staff to ensure Kinetic Fighting maintains its position as a world leader in close-combat and personal protection training.