Participants travelled from around the country and as far afield as Germany, the United Kingdom and Australia to attend armed and unarmed combat and defensive tactics seminars with six top instructors from the United States, New Zealand and Australia, Dunedin-based chief instructor Geoff Todd said.
Mr Todd said travel costs for the association's northern hemisphere-based members, many of whom were serving in the military, meant the convention was unlikely to be held in New Zealand in future.
Instructor Mike Janich, of Denver, Colorado, said while close-combat conventions offered members of the armed services and law enforcement the opportunity to maintain or learn skills, "what's happening is people want to be more confident about their personal safety, or maybe it's part of the quest for immediate gratification.
"With this, people can train for a few hours and, literally, use techniques that same day if they have to.
"But, obviously, with more training the more confident they will become and they will learn advanced skills for other situations."
Brisbane-based instructor Major John Whipp spent a third of this 30-year career in the Australian army as officer commanding military unarmed combat.
The skills being learnt by participants in Dunedin this week were directly linked to the unarmed combat techniques widely taught during World War 2.
But techniques had also evolved to suit an array of situations and the varying physical attributes of exponents, he said.
"It's hands on, no-nonsense stuff and there are definitely no katas [karate forms]. You have to train to deal with unforeseen eventualities, on uneven ground or in urban environments because, as I've always said, `knowledge dispels fear'.
"The other good thing about unarmed combat is it equips prisoners of war, say, to have hidden weapons.
"But it teaches everyone situational awareness so obstacles in the home, like chairs and tables, could also be weapons to use against an attacker."
Close-combat skills could also help exponents develop skills in other disciplines; Maj Whipp is a 7th Dan judo black belt who has represented Australia in the sport.
"This is a unique association. We get together at these conventions and often find instructors have come to the same conclusions [about technique] on other sides of the world at much the same time.
"But others might have a different point of view, so it's good for us as well."
ICCIA conventions are held every two to four years.
