NNSA Office of Secure Transportation (OST) Federal agents finished second overall in the 2007 World SWAT Challenge, an international competition held recently at Camp Robinson, Ark. The event included a total of 28 Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams from the U.S. Aruba, Germany, and Canada.
Each of the teams had ten members who rotated through the physically challenging events, but because of mission commitments, the OST team had only six members – which resulted in each individual having to compete in every event. This left absolutely no room for error or injury.
The three-day competition included handgun, rifle, shotgun, and sniper rifle marksmanship 
events. Each event tested the competitor’s physical fitness ability with obstacle courses and 175-pound dummy carries while wearing full tactical gear. The OST team also had the best “raw” times for each event by a wide margin. They physically dominated all the other teams.
Josh Scherrey – team captain, share’s their secrets of success.
“Preparation for the World SWAT Challenge involved a great deal of precision shooting with both rifle and handgun. Along with handgun and rifle marksmanship we also knew we had to be prepared for was 50-200 yard sprints to designated shooting positions to engage targets, as well as traversing over obstacles such as 8 foot walls in tactical gear. Jeff taught us numerous drills to focus our physical training around accelerating and de-accelerating to and from the start/stop lines we would see during the competition. Jeff’s warm-up drills also better prepared us for reducing the risk of injury, during our competition training, allowing us to train hard and safe”.
That’s the secret; Hard work, master the fundamentals of marksmanship and train like an athlete, a “Tactical Athlete”. Just say no to the bench press and curls!
This is the second World SWAT Challenge appearance by OST. They placed fifth in 2006, earning best “Rookie Team” of the event. The 2007 World SWAT Challenge will air on Versus TV on July 1.
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