Meet Tim Burke, founder of The Tactical Games (VIDEO)

Carrying weights, running sprints, climbing walls, and shooting guns. That’s the Tactical Games in a nutshell. As the event’s founder Tim Burke explained, “You have the shooting sports and you have the adventure races … but what this [Tactical Games] is, it’s an amalgamation of all that brought together under one roof.”

A couple weeks ago, I caught up with Burke at the second annual Tactical Games in in Autryville, North Carolina, which is about 25 miles away from Fort Bragg, where he shared with me his vision for the games and its future.

Tim Burke, founder of the Tactical Games, tells Guns.com what inspired him to create the unique event. (Photo: Noah Alkinburgh/Guns.com)

Burke said he sees the Tactical Games blending the two things –Army training and private security — together. (Photo: Noah Alkinburgh/Guns.com)

As Burke explained, the Tactical Games were heavily influenced by training exercises he learned in the Army, where he served the bulk of his 24-year career in Special Operations. But his idea came together when he entered the civilian world doing private security and guarded and befriended a man named Greg Glassman, who created CrossFit, a fitness routine consisting of rapid-fire aerobic and anaerobic exercises.

Burke said he sees the Tactical Games blending the two things together. “They forge elite fitness (and) we take those elite athletes, give them a gun and make them dangerous,” he said. “So, they crown the fittest man or woman in the world, we crown the most dangerous man or woman in the world.”

“They forge elite fitness (and) we take those elite athletes, give them a gun and make them dangerous,” Burke said. “So, they crown the fittest man or woman in the world, we crown the most dangerous man or woman in the world.” (Photo: Noah Alkinburgh/Guns.com)

“Anybody can compete, but it depends on what you want to get out of it,” Burke said. (Photo: Noah Alkinburgh/Guns.com)

Although Burke said he originally envisioned law enforcement, military, fire fighter, and other first responders as his target audience, since launching the games about a third of the participants have been civilians. But “anybody can compete, but it depends on what you want to get out of it,” he said and added they should train as “operational athletes,” meaning people who are “able to shoot, move, do very demanding physical things, but when they get to the end of doing the physical they still must be able to perform the technical.”

For those who do not have the military or LEO background that want to compete in an event like this, his advice was, “join a CrossFit gym, get fit, get healthy, then get some training. Get to the range, learn to shoot, because it’s not ‘either or’ for this it’s ‘both and’.. You have to be fit and you have to technically proficient and safe with a firearm.”

For those who do not have the military or LEO background that want to compete in an event like this, his advice was, “join a CrossFit gym, get fit, get healthy, then get some training.” (Photo: Noah Alkinburgh/Guns.com)

“Get to the range, learn to shoot, because it’s not ‘either or’ for this it’s ‘both and,'” Burke said. “You have to be fit and you have to technically proficient and safe with a firearm.” (Photo: Noah Alkinburgh/Guns.com)

In the future, Burke, who operates the Tactical Games out of Florida, said he already has several regional events planned for 2019 – like in Meridian, Mississippi, in February – and has been fielding inquiries about bringing the event international.

“We are right now where the CrossFit games were 13 years ago, so we’re just getting started, but we’re already going like this,” he said as he raised his hand as if a line climbing the Y-axis. “I think among athletes and athletes that shoot, we are going to be the biggest shooting event on the planet.”

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