What makes a security guard proficient? What skills and traits are necessary for truly succeeding in this role? It’s easy to assume competency when viewing a fully uniformed and armed guard standing at a post, but this commanding image does not ensure a full range of required capabilities. There is certainly more involved than the minimum government standards required for licensure.

Self-defense skills are vital for protection agents, as they can be life-saving in the event of an attack. They can also allow an agent to control or neutralize an aggressor, which can de-escalate physical altercations that might otherwise devolve into heightened violence. This can be particularly useful with crowds or situations involving multiple threats or exposures.

These specialized techniques are developed only through extensive and focused training, and they must be maintained with recurrent drills and practice. Such advanced training is not typically common for many private security firms, but elite protection agencies will prioritize a diverse range of tactical and self-defense education, and they will often employ agents with previous military and law enforcement experience which always provides a much more extensive training background. A broadly trained agent is one of the greatest tools in protective services, so equipping that agent with self-defense tools of their own is essential.