History of the Leopard Challenge

LEOPARD History
In the mid 1970's while at the Sports Medicine Center of the University of Maryland's Kinesiology Department, Dr. Davis conducted some of the original research on the relationships between fitness and occupational tasks. From this federal grant, he branched into a number of high-stress, common denominator professions, including a considerable body of work in the law enforcement arena. Most recently, under a consulting contract to the FBI, Dr. Davis created a simulation of a foot pursuit course that could be transported and objectively scored. Several years later, ASLET contacted Dr. Davis with a request to design a fitness program with a performance component that could become a competition that paralleled the excitement of his ESPN Firefighter Combat Challenge. The LEOPARD was redesigned with several overarching mandates: the program had to be non-punitive (in other words, no job action would be taken against individuals as a consequence of their performance); it incorporated critical and essential functions, stress a number of physiological systems; it would lend itself to TV as an entertaining sport-like event and it would come with a national awards and certification component. Here is where the Leopard program derived its roots and it is quickly becoming the icon of Law Enforcement Skills Training.

The first year of the LEOPARD Challenge is now history, and although the year was not without some issues, the overwhelming majority of participants and sponsors agree that the flag has been planted and we're headed in the right direction. Few associated with the LEOPARD fail to see its potential and there is little doubt that over the next few years the LEOPARD Challenge will be the biggest sport in law enforcement.

Every participant in the LEOPARD Challenge is to be congratulated for taking the public plunge and showcasing what it really takes to be a competent police officer. You are all now part of the LEOPARD family and we are proud to be associated with every one of you.
We would like to inform everyone what we are doing over the winter to improve the LEOPARD competition and experience. Our objectives are:
Increase the reliability of targeting system.

We have already begun work on the pop-up targets and the visibility of the steady targets. Our aim is to make the new targets work for every run and to ensure competitor and spectator alike can visually observe when a target has been hit. We will be re-looking all aspects of the operation our targeting system and will be running a reliability study at Ft. Meade this winter.

Review the Rules and Procedures
Over the winter months we will review the rules that are posted on the webpage and ensure they accurately reflect the operation of the competition. In addition, we will revamp some procedures that allow competitors to use their own belts, handcuff and magazine cases. We want to make the competition and the administrative details of the LEOPARD as simple and hassle free as possible. We also want the rules to clear, consistent and straightforward.

Improve our marketing/promotion within the law enforcement community
Our goal for the 2004 LEOPARD Challenge is to have 50 participants at each venue and 5 players in each competitive category. To do this we need to reach more departments and more individual officers. Beginning in early January we will be launching a multimedia campaign to brand the LEOPARD and increase its visibility.

Establish an advisory council of competitors
We are developing a list of individuals from across the country that expressed interest in being part of an advisory council. In short order we will establish the council as a channel for competitors to provide their input so that we can evolve the LEOARD to include good ideas from all quarters. The objective here is to be inclusive and do those things that make it easier to play and to recognize participants within the bounds of good economics and competitive practices.

Enhance the prize package
We think the prizes awarded for the first year, were on balance, excellent; but during the course of the tour a number of other companies have expressed interest in joining the LEOPARD Challenge. We will be contacting them and attempting to enhance the quality as well as the depth of the prizes we provide.

Launch a Canadian Tour
As Dr. Davis indicated at the awards banquet, we will launch a Canadian LEOPARD Challenge in 2004. Our initial inquiries have been positive and we expect to have 4-5 events in Canada next year as well as a Canadian National Championship that we have already agreed to show on TSN (pending signing of a contract).

We don't plan to sit still but move forward, applying the lessons of year one to enhance all aspects of the LEOPARD Challenge. We welcome your input, if you have ideas or suggestions please get them to us. We want to extend a very deep appreciation to all the sponsors, competitors and supporters of the LEOPARD, without whom we could not have launched the tour.
 
2003 LEOPARD Challenge National Championship Results
The nationals were held at the Pikesville Armory on 17 & 18 October. The finals had 64 participants from 12 team and 6 individual competitors. The semi-finals were held on Friday the 17th of October and every competitor was given two runs on the course with their best time used as a qualifying time. The top six teams and 6 individuals in each competitive category advanced to the championship round. One Saturday individuals and teams were time-matched for one run. Times from that run were used to determine placing. Congratulations to Maryland State Police team #1, the 2003 LEOPARD Challenge National Champions