How The National Training Program Started

The National Training Program, (Black Badge Program), was initially brought into existence in 1979 as a means of training new competitors in our sport. Individuals that contributed to the development of the initial training program were:

Lorna Pavelka
Dave Young
Alexandra Doroschin
Dr. W. P. Hillgartner
Michael Doehl
Murray “Doc” Gardner
Kerry Lathwell
Richard Clements
Nick Alexakos.

In 1987, Ken Bell and Mario Di Paolo organized and prepared this information into a new manual that became known as the Black Badge Manual. For the last 18 years the manual that they developed has been the first step in the process for developing the skill necessary to compete in our sport. In 2005, Mark Hamrol, Bruce McIntyre, Gunnar Christensen, Sean Hansen, Brad Kirkpatrick and Jerry Wong updated the course manual.

All of us would like to thank you for putting in the time and effort to develop this program. Your efforts are appreciated by all of the competitors in IPSC Canada.