posted Feb 22nd, 2009 - The NSL News continues to introduce teams from other countries that visit the USA for winter training and competitions. This time, the winner of last year's German Skydiving League (DSL - Deutsche Sky Liga) season, Final Four, accepted the invitation for a live interview at the NSL office in DeLand.

Three of the current team members, Thomas Mack (Center Inside), Martin Steimle (Tail) and Arthur Wensel (Center Outside), founded Final Four in 2003 and started off with a 7.0 average. Point Christian Wirth joined the team at the beginning of the 2008 season. Final Four performed at a 12.5 average level by then. Stephan Engel is filming the team.

The NSL News asked the team about its history and the current situation in Germany. The German national teams in 4-way and 8-way had reduced the distance to the top of the world between 2004 and 2006. Team EADS finished in 5th place at the World Meet 2004 in Croatia where the German 8-way team FSC Remscheid took the 4th place. EADS slipped to the 7th place in 2006, while FSC Remscheid ended up in 5th place on German home turf.

The downslope continued in 4-way at the World Meet in France 2008. Germany's new national team FSC Eisenach finished in 10th place with the lowest meet average (18.3 - 18.8 - 17.4) of all three world meets. The new national 8-way lineup of Team EADS posted the highest average in German 8-way history and still ended up only in 4th place behind Italy. There was no Russian 8-way team in France.

The Final Four members explained in the interview the difficulties for German teams and competitors to turn into full time skydivers. They said that there is not enough skydiving activity in Germany to support full time skydivers. The main reason is the weather. They think that it is only possible to be a top competitor in the sport by working full time in the skydiving business.

Final Four is a team with five skydiving "amateurs". Each team members has a full time job in Germany and uses the vacation time for training camps and competitions. Final Four attended four meets in Germany last year and finished in 5th place at the DFV Cup, the most relevant competition of the 2008 season, with a 14.1 average.

The current German national team, FSC Eisenach, won the competition with an 18.3 average after ten rounds but did not attend enough meets of the German Skydiving League to be eligible for the championship. The team in second place, X-Ray Remscheid, was also far ahead of Final Four and challenges the national team for the top position.

The German national team in the female category, Chicas, took the 3rd place at the DFV Cup with a 15.7 average and was also still too far away for Final Four. The second all-female lineup, Incognito, gave Final Four a real competition and won by one single point with a 14.2 average.

The same five teams will probably compete again for the top spots in Germany in 2009. Final Four plans to make 250 training jumps and will probably add another five hours of windtunnel training to the agenda.

The national championship is coming up in 2009, which is the qualifyer for the World Meet in Russia 2010.

The race for the status as the national team will most likely take place between FSC Eisenach and X-Ray Remscheid. The Chicas have to defend their position against the continuing challenge of the young Incognito lineup. Final Four's goal is to continue with the team's consistent progression as a "hard core weekend team".

Former DeLand Majik 4-way world champion Solly Williams has been working with Final Four in the past and drilled the team once again in February in DeLand. He has the reputation as a straight talking and hard working coach, and the team gave him an according German nick name: "Schleifer", which translates like grinder or sharpener.

The "Schleifer" got the team once again to a new performance level after the 2-week camp in DeLand, and the provided videos show that Final Four will be ready to increase the scoring level this year, as well. The NSL News will follow the team's progression and the German 4-way competition throughout the 2009 season.