posted Jul 5th, 2009 - The NSL News follows up on the July 1 story, which included the videos of the Midwest Skydiving League teams that competed at this year's season opener at Skydive Chicago.

The NSL News promised to upload additional videos later, focused especially on AAA Class team SDC Rhythm XP. The new round of NSL-TV videos includes all six rounds of the MWSL shooting star and also additional rounds of the new AA Class lineup, CSC Pareto Optimal.

The NSL News has covered SDC Rhythm XP already a few times this year. The story on 30 January 2009 introduced the new lineup with Center Inside Rob Radez and included a link to a tunnel training session at the beginning of the year. A comprehensive update followed on 17 June 2009.

This story was posted before the season opener of the Midwest Skydiving League where Rhythm posted a 16.8 average. The story's headline "SDC Rhythm XP will challenge Mass Defiance's record average this year" was speculating on the MWSL team's potential and based on the scores at the Paraclete XP Indoor Skydiving Championship 2009.

The 23.1 average at the indoor competition surely stands strongly compared to the Mass Defiance scores at the same location in 2008. Mass Defiance posted a 21.6 average with a different lineup and ended up behind Rhythm's 2008 lineup (22.2) last year.

How does the same challenging headline stand after Rhythm's first outdoor scores of the 2009 season?

It is more realistic to compare the Mass Defiance scores of 2007 with SDC Rhythm XP this year.

The New England team and USPA Advanced Class champion of 2006 posted the "amateur record average" of 19.3 at the USPA Nationals 2007.

Mass Defiance attended the June meet of the New England Skydiving League 2007 (Archives > 2007 > Leagues > New England > Results) and posted an 18.0 average after six rounds. SDC Rhythm XP had a 16.8 average after the six rounds at the MWSL June meet a few weeks ago.

The competition draw at the MWSL meet was probably a little bit slower compared to the NESL meet in June 2007, as it had one more block (13 - 12) and a lower number of random formations (6 - 8) in the six rounds. The NSL News audience has the opportunity to campare the sequences and the according scores directly with each other.

Mass Defiance still had the stronger start into the 2007 season. The team followed up with an 18.7 average at the 10-round Paraclete XP Money Meet in July before posting the 19.3 average in September at the USPA Nationals 2007.

However, SDC Rhythm XP is not far off the Mass Defiance pace of 2007 at this point in time. The MWSL team is highly motivated and trains harder than ever, while coach Kirk Verner keeps pushing it forwards. The 19.3 average still seems to be in jeopardy...