posted Feb 18th, 2012 - The NSL News story on 3 November 2011 introduced the female 4way lineup of the Golden Knights with an NSL Talk during the USPA Nationals 2011. The US Army's 4way ladies had outscored the Black lineup by three points and won this internal Golden Knights competition while the Gold lineup won the silver medals.

The Golden Knights Black team now turned the table with an impressive performance at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championships 2012 where the female lineup could not even keep close to the same Black lineup that competed in Eloy at the end of October.

The Black lineup had finished with a 17.7 average at the Paraclete XP Indoor Skydiving Championships 2011 and now posted a 23.0 average in Raeford a few weeks ago. It was a completely different style and performance level that caught not only the NSL News attention. The Black team looked like a well trained 4way team.

Paraclete Indoor 2012		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	C,20,13	B,18,O,8	K,A,16,Q	H,F,J,4	2,11,10	M,E,21,22	P,L,3,12	14,6,D	G,1,19	N,5,9	Total	Avg
3	Golden Knights Gold	20	27	32	36	20	27	25	25	27	34	273	27.3
5	Golden Knights Black	22	23	27	28	18	23	21	23	19	26	230	23.0
6	Golden Knights Women	18	21	17	29	16	23	21	21	19	26	211	21.1

The Golden Knights Black was indeed a well trained 4way team this time, as Golden Knights team captain Brian "BK" Krause confirmed during a live NSL Talk after the competition, which took place in the flying chamber of the Paraclete XP windtunnel.

It did not take long for the Black team to catch everybody's attention. The 22-pointer in Round 1 outscored the Gold team by two points. The NSL News became interested right away to find out more about this obvious change.

In the past two years, and even in the old days of Golden Knights 8way excellence and dominance in the USA and in the world, there was usually one highly competitive 4way lineup at the same time, while the second half of the 8way team focused mostly on the 8way event. Brian "BK" Krause made an attempt to change this situation at the beginning of the 2009 season and showed it at the Shamrock Showdown 2010 with a mixture of experience and talent in both 4way teams.

Rounds 1 - 10 of Golden Knights Black - NSL Talk with the Golden Knights delegation

He did not like the results of this strategy towards his 8way goals well enough and switched back to the Gold lineup with the most experienced team members and the new 8way members in the Black lineup. However, he still changed the approach to his 8way progress last year and requested more 4way training for the Gold lineup.

The reason was not the fact that the female lineup had outscored his Black team at the USPA Nationals. He had taken a closer look at the French 8way team that has always consisted of members who were also very strong 4way competitors, especially in the recent history of French 8way teams. France has won the 8way gold medals at the World Meets in 2006, 2008 and 2010.

The second half of the French 8way lineups kept themselves in shape by doing a lot of 4way training. Nobody had to twist their arms to do that, as French 8way godfather Emmanuel "Manu" Sarrazin loves 4way. It was no surprise that he got the open slot in 4way when Jeremie Rollett left the team at the end of the 2010 season.

It was in fact the French strategy that two highly experienced 8way competitors, Clement Martin Saint Leon and Emmanuel Sarrazin, trained and guided the new members, coming from the French national B-Teams, to the very top level of 4way skills, while the national 4way lineup was busy with training and competition.

The excellent 4way skills would guarantee that all 8way members were always ready to focus on specific 8way techniques and skills. This way, the French 8way teams could count on a fast progression in 8way, even if there was not that much training time available.

France will once again need success with this strategy, and even more than ever this year. The complete 4way lineup is also doing 8way, and national coach Jeremie Rollett has to make sure that his second half of the 8way team is ready to perform on a very high performance level at any time. It will be even more challening in 2012, as the Golden Knights now have a second 4way team on a much higher performance level, as well. It's also a challenging situation for the female lineup of the Golden Knights. However, they count on their advantage with 4way exits...