star trek - Are Enterprise security personnel trained in combat?

I have begun rewatching a few Star Trek TOS episodes, and have been struck by the apparent ineptitude of the Enterprise's "redshirt" security personnel. Even when compared to security teams of later series (TNG, DS9, VOY, for example), they appear to have essentially zero training:

• They are frequently overpowered and subdued by unarmed opponents


• They regularly fire their hand phasers "from the hip," though this one is explainable if phasers have a type of smart-aiming that real-world firearms do not


• They wave phasers all over and gesture with them while talking, something that would never be done by someone trained with a lethal weapon



• They exhibit irrational behavior (for example, repeatedly attempting to fire hand phasers at the Nomad probe despite the probe surviving a direct hit from a photon torpedo.)

This question may seem somewhat frivolous, as I believe the "answer" is merely that the show is a product of its times, and nobody expected realistic military tactics on an action/adventure that was in many ways a "space western." However, I think this can also be explained in canon in that the security guards are similar to something like modern-day private security guards: they are trained only for dealing with minor disputes that might arise on a large starship, not for repelling hostile invaders - their weapons are more for intimidation than actual use. This is in contrast with Starfleet's more militaristic beginnings depicted in Enterprise, where the ship's complement eventually included MACO's trained in combat tactics.

I'm pretty sure there's no canonical answer about this, but has it ever been addressed in other materials? I can't even remember a throwaway line about how "our personnel aren't equipped for that!" or some such statement. It seems to me that it would provide a plausible in-universe explanation, so I have trouble believing I am the first to have thought of it.

Answer

They are highly trained in hand to hand combat etc. Tasha Yar explicitly states this to an alien guest on the holodeck in TNG:

Episode: Code of Honour

Tasha: I think you should know that there is no physical training anywhere that matches Starfleet, especially its security people.

There are also several references made to their training by Worf and Tuvok although I cannot recall the exact dialog.

The fact that they are functionally ineffective should be interpreted as a plot device otherwise most shows would be very short and not very exciting.

In the same way that Star Wars' Storm Troopers are all terrible shots on screen despite Obi Won mentioning that blaster shots could not have been made by sandmen and only imperial storm troopers are so precise. Otherwise Han, Chewie and Luke would have been immediately killed in the corridor in A New Hope when trying to resuce Leia.