They're heavily armed, physically fit and here to win! The US National SWAT Championships are underway and it's not only worth your time, it's VERY cool. From a vendor tent that would make a firearms enthusiast drool to BIG weapons only the experts can fire, this competition is big time. The men and women who are competing here are from all over the world "we are special forces from the Police, in Germany" Nick told me when I visited with him Wednesday. Nick said this weekend gives his team the opportunity to do things they can't at home. "We have no chance to do things like this in German and it's a big challenge for us and practice too."

Click here to hear Nick and Thomas from the German team talk about being here for the competition.

So there is a team here from Germany but there's also one from Germantown. OK, maybe you haven't heard of it but Germantown is a suburb on the east side of Memphis, they're guys told me they are in their second year here and they altered their approach. "The slogan goes with these competitions is you can't outrun a miss." What did he mean by that? In the past his guys had focused more on physical fitness and not enough on their shooting skills. "This year we tried to work a lot more on our accuracy" he said "we spent a lot more time this year on our shooting." They also appreciate being able to exchange ideas "it's chance to kind of interact with other departments all over the country and learn from each other" they told me. "From the different kind of tactics that we do, the equipment that we carry and why we carry it" he wrapped up.

I found Charles Tolbert from Trooper lodge 41 of the Illinois State Police cleaning his weapons as he prepared to take part in the competition. I asked him what the most valuable part of the weekend was "you feel the stress you cannot re-create in training" he began. "You can try to re-create difficult training and things like that but you can't re-create those butterflies, that loss of motor skills and things like that" he finished.

Check the gallery of pictures here.

While there are over 700 professional SWAT, sniper, and tach-med teams here, they also let the amateurs shoot Wednesday. Yes, I was one of those armatures, see that video below!

Anthony Caspers is the team leader for the Minneapolis SWAT team. To him the chance to see how his guys match up with the other elite is a big deal. "We're all type A personalities, we want to win, no one wants to be last" he said. "You look over, you see that guy sitting next to you, trying to go as fast as he can go and shoot as well as he can, it drives you and that's the best part of the competition" he commented.

As I wandered around like a kid in a candy store, I found the Ft. Smith SWAT and Police guys practicing, click here for that video.

The championships are open to the public, check the schedule below.

Thursday, 20 October US National SWAT Championships
 0800-1700 Day One Team Competition
 1100-1530 Vendor Exhibition Day Two

Friday, 21 October US National SWAT Championships
 0800-1245 Day Two Team Competition

Saturday, 22 October US National SWAT Championships
 0800-1330 Day Three Team Competition
 1900-2130 2011 Awards Banquet - Renaissance Hotel