The perfect door supervisor team

I worked on the doors of clubs and pubs for several years, due to my background in martial arts. So I thought I would share my views on what combination of team members would make the perfect door supervision team.

In my opinion, your perfect team of door supervisors needs four different types of team members. Obviously the amount of team members depends on the size of the venue. You might have two different staff on two venues opposite each other.

The prefect door team would consist of the following:

1. One big and scary guy (usually unshaven, very tall or very wide or both) basically they are physically very tough usually from a background of Rugby or Power Lifting. Guys this size can tend to have a bit of a beer belly but they can walk the walk. They might not even say anything on the door they might just stand there and look menacing.
2. A good communicator – they talk the talk by building rapport with people, they could be ex-military. They stop problems before they start by spotting them and being proactive. They usually suggest two ways of progress, the easy way or the hard way. In my opinion they have to give choices because if you feel you have no option you will fight. This guy also needs to be cool under pressure as people might push them to see how far they can go with them looking for weaknesses. It’s all about controlling their emotional state which comes from practice.  What I am saying is they are mentally tough. These guys can talk the talk and walk the walk.
3. A skilled guy – these guys are extremely fit and fast and they probably have a background in martial arts or boxing. They will deal with any problems quickly and scare others off by doing so. This guy could even be 10 stone as they don’t have to be that big, just great fighters. He is more of a walker than a talker.
4. The female team member – again she can talk the talk and walk the walk because she has a background in either martial arts or female rugby. A very good  standard female Judo champion could easily take out an average weight drunken guy. The added advantage of having a female team member is they can take the testosterone out of a situation because she can get in the middle of things and work the male egos a bit. When the two male door staff are outgunned, she can get in the middle of the trouble as its very unlikely a male will hit her. Another advantage is that she can search women on the door and she can go into the girls toilets to look for trouble or drugs etc.

You would usually have a minimum of two guys working together but the best scenario is to have the four. The other two could be just around the corner, so they all work together as a team. If something is going wrong in one of the venues the security company can change the team accordingly.