posted Feb 10th, 2009 - Bad Boys recently visited DeLand for a winter training camp and accepted an invitation by the NSL News for a live interview. The team from the Czech Republic had booked one week with coach Pete Allum to prepare for the 2009 season.

The Bad Boys lineup of five (Tomáš Beroušek, Jan Klapka, Václav Prokeš, Jaroslav Smitka, Juraj Sonlajtner) includes the founder of the Czech Republic Skydiving League, Jan Klapka, who was one of the four Bad Boys training in DeLand this time.

The NSL News has covered the progression of the Czech Republic Skydiving League ever since it was launched in 2005. The Bad Boys have been a part of the league from the very beginning and have attended each meet since 2005.

It was new for the NSL News that the lineup is still the same, as well. The team members explained in the NSL News interview how they met Jan Klapka and how the Bad Boys were formed in 2005.

The NSL News did neither pay special attention to the Bad Boys scores over the years. It was more the progression of the league and of Formation Skydiving competition in the Czech Republic in general that found the interest of the NSL News.

The consistent Bad Boys scoring progression over the 5-year period finally caught the NSL News attention during the team's recent visit in DeLand. The Bad Boys entered 4-way competition in the AAA Class and have continued there, even when Jan Klapka introduced the other competition classes in the Czech Republic year by year.

The Bad Boys are not the strongest AAA Class team in the Czech Republic. Team Skyservice has won the national championships of the past years and would be the national team. However, Skyservice competed only at the World Meet 2006 in Germany where the Czech team finished in 19th place with a 13.2 average.

Skyservice, with Jirí Jirman, Jan Lukavec, Štepán Tuma and Zbynek Živný, won the national championships in 2007 and 2008, as well, but the team has not attended an international meet since 2006. The 14.6 average at the national championship in 2008 was the highest meet average of a Czech 4-way team in history.

The Bad Boys posted a 12.1 average at the same competition and try to get closer to the best AAA Class team in the Czech Republic. Year by year, the Bad Boys have climbed up in the Czech rankings step by step and have finally arrived in the runner up position.

The recent training camp in DeLand included a few days of 2-on-2 training with coach Pete Allum, plus player coaches Thomas Hughes and Ian Bobo. The Bad Boys want to get familiar with a faster pace and a new level of 4-way performance where they can eventually compete for the national championship.

However, winning in the Czech Republic is surely not the most important goal for the team. The progression of Formation Skydiving competition at home and the great group dynamics of the Bad Boys and within the whole 4-way community is at least just as important for the team members. Jan Klapka, founding father of the league and the team, has somehow transfered a casual and fun attitude to his 4-way environment.

He is the oldest player in the team and has experienced a lot of history in his country before he began to make history himself, with the inauguration of the Czech Republic Skydiving League.

He was born in 1961 when the Czech Republic was still a part of the socialistic Czechoslovakia and the eastern block of Europe. He lived there through the Russian invasion of Prague in 1968. He made his first skydive in 1979 and experienced the sport in a socialistic society, which included free jumps in exchange for club duties. He explained in the interview that it was nice to get free jumps. However, he did not like to wait and work so long until he could make the next jumps.

Things changed for him and for the skydiving community when the iron curtain fell in Europe in the late 80's. Czechoslovakia separated into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and both countries adopted the free market economy of the western world. Prague, the capitol of the Czech Republic, became one of the most beautiful historic cities in the world, and the first privately run skydiving businesses grew in the new system. Jan Klapka was a part of this new development.

Czechoslovakia had always had two state governments and two skydiving federations, one for the Czech Republic and one for Slovakia. The central federal government in Prague held the two states together and under socialistic control. The peaceful separation on 1 January 1993 left the two skydiving federations in place, and not too much changed in the administration of the sport.

Czechoslovakia was represented at two world meets (1989 - 8.3 and 1991 - 6.0) before a team from the Czech Republic posted a 9.8 average in 1997. The World Championship of Formation Skydiving featured the one and only showdown between a team from Slovakia (27th - 5.9) and another one from the Czech Republic (22nd - 8.1) in Spain 2001. Teams from the Czech Republic competed again in 2003 (21st - 7.9) and 2006 (19th - 13.2) when Skyservice represented the team's nation in Germany.

Jan Klapka had already made his own contribution to the history of skydiving in the Czech Republic by then. The 2006 season was already the second year for the Czech Republic Skydiving League that he launched in 2005 after a winter visit with his Bad Boys in Florida where he also collected league information.

Skydiving competition in the Czech Republic has obviously come to a point where the skydiving community feels ready to host a major event. The 16th FAI World Cup of Formation Skydiving takes place in Prostejov this year, combined with the European Championship 2009. The skydiving center in Prostejov is located approx. two hours southeast of Prague.

Hosting the World Cup 2009 shows how much recognition the Czech Republic has already gained in the skydiving world. It is the peak of a progression, which is also reflected by the league and competition activities, and last not least by the progression of the Bad Boys. The video of the live interview with the Bad Boys can be viewed by clicking here.