“To Hone – refine or perfect something over a period of time”
I sat down and figured out the other day that I have been instructing in combative and related personal security skills for a little over 23 years. I can even remember the faces of the people attending the first self protection classes that I was running for a chain of health and fitness studios way back in the late 90’s.
Since that time I have gone on to train a wide demographic. Everybody from housewives, teachers, doctors to specialist law enforcement, military, security personnel (and everyone in between) in a variety of skills. I’ve taught in little scout huts, traditional martial arts dojos, universities, government training facilities and anti-terrorist compounds, some in the UK and some….not. All were fantastic experiences and all provided their own challenges and I suspect I learned just as much as I taught. I’ve been around long enough to have seen the fads come and go, see false training Gods and Deities rise and fall, and see people try to re-invent the wheel and try to claim that the wheel was actually THEIR invention and not those pesky people from years and years ago. How inconvenient!! There is nothing new and I suspect that it will always be this way in any competitive industry.
Conversely I’ve spent just as long working in the specialist security and investigation industry either as a consultant, investigator or executive protection agent that has taken me all over the world and into interesting situations. I’ve also met and worked with some exceptional professionals and for that I am truly thankful and aside from a few years “sabbatical” doing some other projects, that we don’t need to talk about here, that was pretty much it.
Then in 2019 I decided, rather tentatively, that I wanted to step back into the instructing game. My reasons were clear. I’ve always enjoyed the teaching experience and passing on information to people willing to learn, I love the interaction of talking to people about a subject I’m passionate about. Secondly, at this time in my life and at my age I knew that I had 20+ years relevant and useful experience to pass on to people new to the Executive Protection industry. It seemed a no brainer and something that would complement our already existing security business. Thirdly I had a project in mind, something that had been itching away at me ever since I had stopped instructing. They say that you should teach what you know and that is exactly what I set out to do.
The Executive Protection: Intervention Combatives course was borne out of necessity and began its life as an internal team training project many years ago. We were a small like minded group of security operators that would bat ideas back and forth about what was necessary for the job that we were doing. The original syllabus was stripped back to the bare minimum and filtered out the unnecessary techniques that were either obsolete or unworkable. Through empirical case research of documented physical attacks and successful assassinations (and from our own practical experience) we reverse engineered the most likely scenarios and methods that a determined attacker would use. This was by no means an exhaustive list, but a framework from which to build upon.
The mission was to give a focused and contextually accurate skill-set for the Executive Protector and his/her team when dealing with real world scenarios and situations. This wasn’t “martial arts in jeans” to coin a familiar phrase. This was something unique to the role.
Our ethos is to train hard, effectively and then pressure test our learning in a force on force scenario. It is our aim to raise industry standards to the best level that we can whilst providing a continuing professional development (CPD) for those engaged in EP.
People attending our courses, like EPIC, don’t just get a run of the mill combatives course. We expect to take them further and move them into all areas of improvement. We will push them and challenge them, not just physically but mentally too. We are looking to create the “thinking man’s” Executive Protection operative; not just a “people mover.”
Similar to when we recruit EP operatives for a given task; we look for the best of the best, those people with the “right stuff “ and it was this same ethos that we wanted to instil into our Executive Protection students who pay to join our courses. I have always been of the mindset that I would rather have 8 well motivated, willing to learn individuals, rather than 20 uncommitted souls. Remuneration is very much secondary in this for me, quality and standards are, and always will be, primary.
Over recent years the EP/CP industry has boomed and training has become big business. Unfortunately in certain areas there has been an understandable watering down process and quality has been pushed aside for quantity. The commercial and financial pressure for some training providers is evident. I have seen firsthand the calibre of some of the attendees on these training courses. Some are physically unfit not only for the role but for the training, some are immature, some hot headed, and some are there because they have “nothing else to do.” I’m sorry you do NOT become an Executive Protection operative because of lack of options. It should be a vocation. A profession!
A by product of this is that people unfit for the role have a misunderstanding and/or misconceptions about what the job really entails. This can range from the new guy that wants to know what gun he’ll be carrying whilst looking after the boss in the UK (no this really happened; a 6ft 5” monster sat across the desk from me and was as serious as a heart attack!) to the people that will argue blue in the face that no physical intervention/combative skills will be needed, and thus that’s why they don’t need to train for that kind of stuff, because their planning and avoidance work was second to none. That type of attitude is a recipe for disaster. All skills can degrade over time, especially if they are not “topped up” so it is vital that they are regularly honed. A seasoned Executive Protector is the “elite” in my opinion and that is why they get paid the rate that they do. The client is paying for you to HAVE those skills; unarmed combat, first aid, tactical driving, firearms, intelligence gathering.
While we here at KCM would like to see improvements in many areas (vetting process, previous security experience, aptitude tests, intelligence skills, and basic fitness tests) we are reasonably sure that these measures will not be compulsorily introduced into the industry any time soon. However not to be outdone, KCM still tries in its own small way to influence and improve standards (as do many other enlightened EP trainers and companies in the industry). There is no discipline like self discipline and we like to think that the EPIC course goes at least goes some way to begin to redress that balance.
You won’t get hyperbole with EPIC. You won’t get a lot of name dropping. You won’t get “secret” techniques or high-fives all round. We are far too busy working hard to have time to deal with all that nonsense. What you will get are practical and relevant skills that will enable you to fulfil your role as an Executive Protector and to help you grow and carry on with your continuing professional development.
We hope you will join us on the journey.
If you would like more information about the EPIC course then please feel free to contact us at;
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