Executive Protection Specialist – Advanced Training Course

Want to take your career in Executive Protection to the next level?

With advanced Executive Protection training from Pacific West Academy, you are just 32 teaching hours away from making that dream come true.

Our Advanced Executive Protection course aims to upgrade the executive protection capabilities of law enforcement personnel and executive protection security officers and train them to work as a security team (4 security officers) as well as awarding successful graduates with a more respected form of certification.

If you have previous experience as a member of law enforcement or an executive protection officer, look no further. Our Advanced Executive Protection Training course is the perfect next step for you. This course takes fundamental knowledge and builds on it to deliver excellent results. It provides practical training that will allow you to work as part of a security team in the future.

The course is instructed in collaboration with Israeli Tactical School. So, before continuing to protect others, why not protect your future by enrolling in this valuable advanced training.

Advanced Executive Protection Course Overview

As you’d expect from an advanced course, you will benefit from in-depth, specialist training that can serve as the catalyst for climbing the career ladder. We cover a wide range of subjects, eventualities, and procedures. You will complete the course with a comprehensive knowledge of the most advanced techniques in the executive protection industry while the certification is a valuable addition to your professional resume.

There are no areas of executive protection that this course does not cover in great detail. You will, for example, work on your fitness during the course. Training drills and “Box” drills are incorporated as standard. Moving into the specifics of security, you will also be taught how to plan, manage, and executive a three-car motorcade. You’ll receive instruction that will allow you to operate as part of the Counter Assault Team (CAT) vehicle when operating in motorcades. Expanding your knowledge even further, you will also be provided with a complete guide to planning and executing full security operations.

While the 32-hour course is challenging, the hands-on approach ensures that all students are guaranteed an enjoyable time too. After all, you’ll absorb so much more when the work feels rewarding.

We also recognize the importance of providing combat training to those undertaking the Advanced Executive Protection Training course. To meet this need, we offer two individual types of training. First and foremost, you will learn advanced hand-to-hand combat techniques. Secondly, the course will also provide a thorough grounding in standing and kneeling weapon deployment.

Overall, the level of instruction you receive will successfully build on your existing knowledge so that you are ready to seek a better job in the sector. It will provide you with an operational-level ability to perform the role of an executive protection officer. The Advanced Executive Protection Training course is incredibly complex and rich in detail. However, it also delivers the information in a simple, easy-to-understand manner that fully prepares you for an even better career in this sector.

Why choose Pacific West Academy?

• At Pacific West Academy, we are proud to be able to offer a number of financial resources to veterans. We believe that the courses we provide offer a route to secure, stable employment by building on the skills of former military personnel. We seek to try and ensure as many veterans are able to benefit from security guard training as wish to do so. We do this by offering a range of options that can provide the resources, and support veterans may require to enroll on our courses. If you wish to find out more about our veterans programs, please do get in touch or read more on our website about the opportunities that we have available.

• Pacific West Academy is an Advanced Security Concepts, Inc (ASC) company. ASC is one of the best-recognized names in the security industry. All of our students can be sure that they are learning from a company with a strong background in the security industry. In fact, the directors of ASC have over 80 years’ worth of experience in the security sector. They are thus well placed to know precisely what prospective security personnel require from training.

• As well as being part of one of the most recognizable security firms in the world, Pacific West Academy has a staff of qualified and certified instructors. These people deliver training courses to the highest standards. Our instructors are highly adept at delivering complex information in a manner that is easy to understand. They take their role as educators very seriously. Pacific West Academy has been able to assist 1,700 students on the next step in their career. It’s clear our instructors are doing something very right indeed!

Why not get in touch with us today?

We welcome all questions from potential students. Please do feel free to get in touch and we’ll do all we can to provide the answers you need.

When you’re ready to make a booking, just give us a call, and we’ll go through all the essential information you need to know. We look forward to hearing from you soon and welcoming you to Pacific West Academy to begin your Advanced Executive Protection Training. The road to a brighter future in the industry starts now.

At Pacific West Academy, our executive protection training program approaches CQB not as a set of pre-rehearsed actions, but as a cognitive skill set. It’s a thinking game, and the ultimate goal is not just to win a gunfight, but to dominate the battlespace through superior information processing. This article breaks down our unique philosophy, moving beyond the myths to show you what truly effective CQB looks like in a professional bodyguard training context.

The Foundation: Separating Marksmanship from Tactics

Before we can even discuss tactics, we must address the fundamental skill of shooting. CQB is a theory and a tactic, but shooting is simply shooting. We believe these two skills must be trained separately before they can be effectively integrated.

Why this separation? An elite competition shooter with no tactical experience can learn CQB relatively quickly because their weapon handling and accuracy are already second nature. Conversely, an operator who knows all the tactics but struggles with marksmanship will find it much harder to get up to speed, but will have better tools to handle any emergency. Our executive protection school builds its curriculum on this principle: master the firearm first, so you can dedicate your mental bandwidth to tactics when it matters most.

The Core Concept: CQB as Information Dominance

The central pillar of our CQB philosophy is this: Controlling the amount of information you gain, maintain, or lose within an enclosed space. Forget complex choreography; success in CQB is about managing what your senses are processing. “Information” is anything and everything you can perceive in the environment.

What constitutes information in a tactical environment?

• What you see: Threats, exits, light, darkness, obstacles, shell casings, blood, and shadows.
• What you feel: The temperature of a room, something underfoot like blood, or the distinct tactile feedback of your slide locking to the rear—a stimulus that tells you to reload.
• What you hear: Talking, walking, screaming, or bangs.

Your goal is to intake all this data and make an educated decision based on it. To manage this flow, we teach three primary solutions:

1. To Gain Information: You must start “pying” or methodically clearing angles.
2. To Maintain Information: If you see a certain amount of a room and don’t want to gain or lose anything, you either hold your position or move in a straight line to adjust your distance without changing your angle.
3. To Lose Information: This is a deliberate trade-off. You only give up information on one area to gain more valuable information on another. An example is clearing a center-fed room; you must lose sight of one side to fully clear the other.

The Geometry of Survival: Correcting a Fatal CQB Flaw

One of the most common and dangerous mistakes we see is using the center of a doorway as a pivot point. When an operator does this, their line of sight arcs through the room, but their body becomes exposed to un-cleared areas long before they can see them. We’ve seen this lead to operators being late to the gunfight—turning to engage a threat they’ve been exposed to for critical seconds.

This method is a no-go in our training.

The solution is to change your axis of rotation. Instead of pivoting on the threshold, you use the nearest wall of the entryway as your axis. By “pying” off this near wall, you remain concealed from every part of the room you haven’t yet cleared. You slice the room into small, manageable pieces, processing information all the way until you reach the point of entry. This isn’t some esoteric tactic; it’s the fundamental principle of shooting from a barricade.

Context is Key: Adapting CQB for Close Protection Training

Military CQB tactics are often designed for a team. The goal of “flowing” into a room is to get as many guns in the fight as possible, with each operator responsible for only a small 15% slice of the room. This method is built for speed and overwhelming force, but it comes at a cost. The first person through the door faces a notoriously high mortality rate—as high as 87%, according to instructor cadres.

In executive protection, you are often the only one. There are no six dudes behind you to take up the slack. Rushing to your death isn’t an option.

Furthermore, your objective is different. In the military, the mission was to take over the building, clearing every single room. In EP, if you have your client, your primary duty may be to barricade yourselves and wait for law enforcement. If an active shooter is present, your goal might be to simply draw their attention to yourself to keep them from shooting anyone else, a psychological tactic to protect others. The context of your close protection certification dictates a more deliberate and thoughtful approach.

Pace and Precision: The Hasty vs. Deliberate Method

Because context is everything, operators must be able to control their tempo. We teach two modes: hasty and deliberate.

• Deliberate: This is a slower, safer method that allows you to take the time to process small bits of information. The closer you get to a known threat or “indication,” the more deliberate you become.
• Hasty: A faster technique, you gain information quickly, but take on more risk. This is used when dealing with “maybes” on the way to a known threat. If you hear shooting down a long hallway, you’re not going to deliberately pie every open door along the way; you’re going to move hastily toward the indication to engage.

The Gateway to Danger: A Smarter Approach to Doors

Doors are one of the most dangerous thresholds. Our bodyguard school teaches a specific, methodical process for handling them.

1. Classification: First, understand what you’re dealing with. We simplify it to four types: push, pull, lift, and slide. For most structures, you’ll face push or pull doors. You can tell the difference by looking for the hinges; if you can’t see them, it’s a push door.
2. Easy Side vs. Hard Side: The “easy side” is the side with the doorknob; the “hard side” is the hinge side. You always want to work from the easy side if possible. Opening a door from the hard side exposes you in the fatal funnel of the doorway for a dangerously long time.
3. Let the Room Breathe: Before you commit to opening a door, check if it’s unlocked. A quiet turn of the handle tells you if the door is free-floating. After confirming it’s unlocked, back off the door. This prevents you from being right in front of it if someone decides to shoot through it. This small step avoids the loud mistake of trying to kick or ram a door that was simply locked with a deadbolt.
4. Weapon Position: When manipulating a doorknob, your weapon should be positioned to deliver effective shots to a high-thoracic region on an average-sized male. It should be in a structured, single-handed position that allows for immediate, accurate fire if necessary.

Conclusion: Earn Your Bodyguard Certification with Real-World Skills

Effective CQB isn’t about looking cool or replicating military tactics without understanding their context. It’s about managing information, controlling your exposure, and making smart decisions under pressure. It’s a skill set that must be adapted for the unique challenges of the executive protection field, where you are often a solo operator whose primary duty is defense and client safety.

Ready to move beyond the Hollywood version of close protection? Explore our executive protection training courses and earn your certification with instructors who prioritize what actually works.