Keep Executive Protection Teams Sharp
By TorchStone Senior Analyst, Ben West
Training and mental fitness distinguish a truly professional executive protection team from a group of bodyguards. Visit TorchStone’s Executive Protection Training Program to learn more about improving your team’s capabilities.
Cautionary Example: The Beverly Hills Incident
May 2025, in Beverly Hills, armed assailants robbed a social media influencer known for flaunting his wealth online. As any good influencer would do, he filmed the aftermath of the attack. The social media influencer expressed his exasperation with the large, muscular bodyguard beside him, who could only shrug and offer the excuse, “They had guns.” The frustrated victim shouted in response, “Where’s yours?”
Critical Difference Between Bodyguards and EP Professionals
TorchStone has written at length about the difference between bodyguards and executive protection professionals. As we noted back in April 2021, “Unfortunately, there is a widely held misperception that if you want to hire a bodyguard, all you need is a large man who knows how to use his fists and a gun. But nothing can be further from the truth.”
A professional Executive Protection (EP) agent understands that mental fitness is often more important than physical fitness when it comes to protecting a principal. Before stepping outside with a client, an EP professional conducts a thorough security advance of the site to be visited, assesses threats of the location they’re visiting, coordinates resources to mitigate the threat, plans logistics of movements, and communicates expectations with the principal.
Yes, they may be armed and trained in self-defense, but physical force is always the last resort. As TorchStone has noted, “If an executive protection agent has to resort to the use of force, they have failed, as their primary mission is to avoid such situations.”
Why Prevention Matters
The role of an EP professional is to ensure their principal’s day runs smoothly. Certainly, using force against a would-be assailant is preferable to a principal suffering injury (or worse), but even a thwarted attack reflects poorly on the principal, harms their reputation, and raises potential liability issues. It certainly distracts attention from the objective at hand.
The May 2025 incident highlighted above clearly involved a bodyguard and not an EP professional. He was a physically imposing figure who relied on intimidation alone. He failed to anticipate the robbery, failed to act during the attack, and failed to move his principal to safety afterward. In the video, the bodyguard seemed as shocked as the principal by what had just happened.
Rising Demand for Executive Protection
In the aftermath of the December 4 assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, there has been a clear increase in demand for EP services in the corporate world and beyond. Understandably, executives, their board of directors, and their shareholders do not want a repeat of that assassination.
Executives, board members, and shareholders now view professional protection as a business necessity. Companies must understand the distinction: a muscular bodyguard may look imposing, but only trained EP specialists can truly safeguard principals.
Executive Protection Beyond the Boardroom
While the industry uses the term “Executive Protection,” the scope extends well beyond corporate leaders. EP professionals protect high-profile individuals such as government officials, celebrities, athletes, and religious leaders. For an example of the breadth of individuals who face threats due to their profession, review our latest monthly Executive Protection report.
Training an EP Team
Adequate training from seasoned practitioners is a key distinction between bodyguards and a professional EP team. Whether it’s getting new hires up to speed or sharpening the skills of veterans, a good EP team is a trained EP team. And while physical training is a critical component for the job, mental training is what prevents attacks and disruptions from happening in the first place.
Core Training Areas for EP
Protective Intelligence & Threat Profiling
Mitigating a threat means identifying it and assessing it. This requires a basic understanding of the principles of protective intelligence. TorchStone also strongly endorses implementing a protective intelligence program to support the missions of EP teams.
Corporate – EP Protocols
Protecting executives means working in professional settings. Protecting the principal is the number one priority, but teams also need to balance discretion and tradecraft to be flexible so the principal can focus on the mission at hand.
Advance Work, Risk Mitigation & Management
Similar to protective intelligence, avoiding disruptions requires knowledge of the terrain and plans for keeping movements as smooth as possible. EP teams need to know how to assess sites ahead of visits, anticipate issues, and develop mitigation strategies.
Close Protection Teams, Leadership & Coordination
Working in a team requires strong interpersonal and communication skills. Having a clear team leadership structure and assigning clear roles and responsibilities maximizes precious resources and ensures that an EP team is working together to make the principal’s life as smooth as possible.
De-Escalation, Interpersonal Effectiveness & Communications
An EP professional will defuse conflicts before they escalate. Interpersonal skills are used to avoid force, protecting both the principal’s safety and reputation.
Secure Ground Transport Operations and Counter-Surveillance
Driving skillfully, including executing evasive maneuvers when necessary, is essential. All the while, an EP professional needs to be watching for subtle clues that could indicate potential threats while maintaining 360° situational awareness.
Emergency Action Planning and Strategic Response Coordination
Finally, an EP professional needs to have a plan in place in case things go awry. This means having the right contacts within local law enforcement, medical providers, and other emergency services. An EP team can quickly get their principal to safety with the proper contingency plan.
Training Opportunities with TorchStone
As practitioners of the craft, TorchStone offers training courses to EP teams and can customize trainings based on clients’ specific needs. However, our basic courses cover all the required qualities outlined above.
TorchStone’s three-day training course in September is designed to provide EP professionals with theoretical instruction combined with practical applications in the field. Students in the course will hone their craft in the classroom, on the driving track, and at the shooting range at our facilities near Franklin, TN. The three-day course will conclude with a scenario designed to test the students on all the skills they have worked on over the course.
Our instructor cadre includes former operators and supervisors from the FBI Hostage Rescue Team, FBI Director’s Protection Detail, U.S. Attorney General’s Protection Detail, U.S. Secret Service Dignitary Protection Division, U.S. Department of State Diplomatic Security Service, and elite Department of Defense units.
These professionals bring decades of direct EP and threat management experience to the training floor—imparting skills, mindset, and standards that can only be taught by those who have operated at the highest level.
The Bottom Line
Do not be fooled by appearances. Intimidating-looking bodyguards with improper or no training create liabilities instead of providing protection. Investing in a professional EP team means focusing on the real qualities that keep people safe—and that requires training. Keep your team’s skills sharp with TorchStone’s premier EP Training Experience.