The last 5 years has seen female bodyguards grow in popularity and their pay increase to in some cases surpass our male counterparts.   Many principals (clients) that are in showbiz, royal families or even politicians are interested in hiring female bodyguards for their safety. Thousands of dollars are paid in contracts between security companies who provides females bodyguards and V.I.P’s.  However, because there is such demand, many of these are under trained and put into place just to provide a body, yet they insufficient experience and training.

Because of the high demand in female bodyguards and the difficulty to find and hire trained ones, many security companies are hiring female who just have a related experience but not specifically bodyguard training. What is the problem of hiring a female that has an experience as police officer or a private investigator or being a martial arts athlete instead of a female who has passed through a specific bodyguard training and certification courses?

In order to answer that question we have to explain what does a  female bodyguard course consist of? Some of the topics the student is train in are:  Armed and unarmed combat, on her own or covering the V.I.P.  Police officers are trained to cover themselves and return fire, but a bodyguard has to learn not to cover herself but to cover her principal’s body. Our instinct tells us to cover ourselves in dangerous situations. It requires many hours of practice to overcome it and learn automatically to cover someone else with your own body.

A female bodyguard will be trained in risk analysis and management, anti-terrorism, body language, how to identify and react in explosives devices, organization of event security, self defense techniques, First Aid, how to react in hostile behavior, driving skills, media management, walking drills, armed and unarmed combat, etc.

Everyone has an experience in his own field. A police officer in law enforcement, a private investigator in investigations, and a martial artist is an athlete in fighting. If you have heart problems you wouldn’t choose a plastic surgeon instead of a cardiologist, even though they are both doctors.

In my previous work experience I had to work in a team with colleagues that didn’t have the needed bodyguard training. So, I had to pay attention twice and cover their back. But who was there to cover my back? I knew that I couldn’t rely on them and feel safe, if anything happened they would not be able to react professionally. Why? Because no one has trained them how to appropriately provide protective services.

If you are a female who want to work in security industry, take a minute and think seriously of the importance of being trained. Your previous related experience will help you but by its own doesn’t  make you suitable and ready to work as a bodyguard. You can find many bodyguard courses available. Whatever you choose for your professional training be sure that is from a certified body.  This means that their curriculum has been validated, given attention to and reworked in some cases to meet some standards.

ATHENA Worldwide and ATHENA Academy(TM) promote courses and female bodyguards around the world with the first centralized formal location for the promotion of females in the close protection industry. We are the answer to many who would like an all female training staff in the areas of – Child Protective Services, Nannyguard(TM), Bodyguard Training, Urban Awareness and many other female self defense issues.

Most that have a desire to learn how to provide protective services really enjoy their training, they look forward to it and embrace the challenges.  If you have the desire to make protective services a career as a female bodyguard, then contact ATHENA Academy by going to http://www.AthenaAcademy.com and learn how to get started.  A counseler will be assigned to you as you work through your training to help you get the most applicable education for the services you would like to perform.

Denida Zinxhiria, CPSS