posted May 21st, 2009 - The NSL News has received a lot of information and insights from Joey Jones, former World Cup and World Meet champion with Space Center FX and DeLand Majik, over the years. Joey Jones is now a full-time coach and still always ready to update the NSL News in his lively and energetic style.

He has recently been working with Belgian's national team Hayabusa Defence and Sweden's national team Evolution. Both teams competed at the World Challenge 2009. Hayabusa's ten tunnel rounds were already a part of the NSL YouTube TV coverage of the Top 12 in Bedford. Evolution's ten rounds have now been uploaded and are available for reviews, as well.

The NSL News story on 4 April 2009, posted during the event coverage from Bodyflight Bedford, included the video of a live interview with Joey Jones. He commented the situation before the teams went into the chamber for Round 1.

Seven weeks have already gone by since the completion of the World Challenge 2009, and Joey Jones has continued to work with his two teams in Europe. He is currently based in Empuria Brava, Spain, and coaches in both the Bedford and Roosendaal windtunnels. He is working there and at other locations with teams and individuals, as a part of his Flite Solutions coaching business.

He recently updated the NSL News with news from his activities in Europe, which are mostly related to the two national 4-way teams under his wings, Hayabusa and Evolution. Joey Jones reported that there have been many activities at Bodyflight Bedford and in Empuria Brava where he is located at the moment.

He finished the the last windtunnel camp with Evolution this month, which was the third one this year. It brought the team's total tunnel time close to 15 hours, as coach Joey Jones added up the hours. He mentioned again that the team's goal is to break the national point average record of 17.8 held by the former Swedish national team Phoenix. Evolution had posted a 20.1 average at the World Challenge 2009 and a 16.1 average at the Swedish Nationals 2008.

Joey Jones explained the work for the team that lies ahead to accomplish the goal:

"Stepping it up from the 16.1 average last year required a few changes of block techniques. They took on the new techniques and are on track to challenge the record. It's quite a challenge, but the team is very motivated and working hard on and off the DZ. They are training physically, mentally, and have quite an aggressive jumping schedule. I am looking forward to their progress at the Swedish Cup/NSL meets!"

The meet schedule in Sweden includes three competitions this year, two of the Swedish Cup series and the national championship. The first competition is scheduled for June 13.

Next stop for Joey Jones was his second outdoor training camp with Hayabusa Defence in Empuria Brava. It was the team's third camp this year, and Joey Jones provided a summary of Hayabusa's situation at this point in time:

"Things are coming together for the new line up. In order to maintain their place in the world rankings, this new lineup has some challenges ahead. One of them are the exits from left-hand doors. The Belgians are traditionally right-hand door team. Moving to the left-hand door requires either mirror-imaging everything or sliding their current exits across."

Many other teams were forced to make the same adjustments vice versa when the World Meet 2008 was awarded to Maubeuge, France. The left-door teams had to work hard to master the challenge of the right-hand door of the Pilatus Porter. The NSL News covered this topic extensively in 2007 and 2008.

Joey Jones remembered how other teams worked on this very important part of 4-way competition and reported how Hayabusa Defence approaches it:

"I think the French teams were always sliding it. Airspeed has done both but they slid last year. In our first camp, we decided to slide and focused on the exits of random formations. In the second camp, Hayabusa consolidated those exits, and in this camp we are focusing on the exits of the blocks. We will also consolidate the block techniques the way we trained them in the tunnel.

There are a few tricky exits, but the team's athleticism seems to be helping them handle the more difficult ones. They have two more training camps to step up their game before the World Games in China. This will be their first outdoor challenge coming off an impressive debut at Bodyflight's World Challenge indoor meet."

He added that other teams were training hard in Empuria Brava at the same time. The French female Aerokart Deep Blue lineup and the other national A and B teams in 4-way and 8-way were in full training swing. Joey Jones said that he is expecting a great 2009 season: "It is shaping up as another great season in all classes on the world level."

Joey Jones will now go back to the United Kingdom for some tunnel coaching and team building:

"I will be assisting Russ George getting back in the game and putting a British Senior team together. Russ was out of the sport for a few years and is eager to get back into competitive 4-way. His last team was USUK, a AA Class team in 2003, and then Last Resort in 2004. Also comitted to this project is Mark Fletcher, a former member of AA Class team Frenzy in 2008 and Rookie Class team of 2007.

We have been training hard in the tunnel getting their skills ready for the next level. Currently the team stands as a 3-way with myself as a player coach looking for one more player. That is not set in stone though, it all depends on the commitment displayed by others surrounding the project. Either way, good luck to the new British senior team, lets see what we can do!"