posted Aug 28th, 2015 - The aftermath of the 4-way competition at the UK Nationals 2015 continues with the impressive story of the team in 2nd place, 4mula.

There was not really a doubt that Satori XL would win the gold medals with the comeback lineup that included two former XL members, John McIver and Pete Allum. Satori won eight of the ten rounds with sole highscores and allowed 4mula and Vision 99 to tie the scores in Round 9, while 4mula even outscored the winner in Round 10.

Satori XL will now begin making plans for the 2016 season and the competition at the Mondial 2016 at Skydive Chicago, while 4mula is getting ready to compete for the United Kingdom at the FAI World Cup 2015 in Teuge, Netherlands. The Sun Path Products NSL News followed the 4mula history to the team roots, and the story begins in the British 4-way Rookie Class of 2010.

May 22nd, 2010		Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Total	Avg
Rank	Rookie	K,L,F	E,A,N	P,Q,O	J,B,C	D,G,M	H,L,E	Total	Avg
1	High Altitude Heroes	5	3	9	7	4	7	35	5.8
2	RAFSPA Typhoon	1	7	8	6	4	8	34	5.7
3	Raykipo	3	6	9	2	4	3	27	4.5
4	AGC Fact	2	6	8	2	1	7	26	4.3
5	4mula	4	4	5	5	2	4	24	4.0
6	The Badgers	3	1	2	1	1	1	9	1.5
7	Sky Rappers	2	1	1	1	1	2	8	1.3
8	Abbasynthe	1	1	1	3	0	1	7	1.2
9	Rost Beef	0	2	3	0	0	0	5	0.8
10	Buckshee	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	0.2

4mula was born when team founder David Rodgers retired from playing soccer at a semi-pro level and started skydiving. His wife bought him an AFF course when his first daughter was on her way.

75 jumps later, 4mula was ready to compete in the Rookie Class of 2010 with the team's first lineup (Simon Ashley, Kris Woickekoswki, David Rodgers, Martin Jarvis).

Former 4-way Women world champion Claire "Sparky" Scott was coaching 4mula's Rookie Class lineup and continued with the team throughout the AA Class level. 4mula completed approx. 50 training jumps and 10 hours of wind tunnel time and started with a 4.0 average at the May meet of the United Kingdom Skydiving League 2010.

David Rodgers remembers that the team was not very happy with the results: "We were pretty pissed off at this and wanted to remain in Rookie Class next year and win it."

UK Nationals 2011			Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Round 7	Total	Avg
Rank	Rookie		N,P,F	B,J,C	G,E,A	K,D,O	M,L,Q	H,A,L	K,M,G	Total	Avg
1	4mula		14	11	13	13	13	15	9	88	12.6
2	Sky Vandals		5	8	9	6	11	9	9	57	8.1
3	Satori Blue		7	7	7	6	9	9	9	54	7.7
4	RAFSPA Hurricane		6	6	8	9	4	10	8	51	7.3
4	EJ3		8	9	7	7	5	7	8	51	7.3
6	Azure 4		9	12	6	5	5	7	6	50	7.1
7	Fiasco		8	8	7	6	7	7	3	46	6.6
8	Space Invaders		6	5	6	6	8	6	6	43	6.1
9	Atmosfear		9	3	2	9	4	9	6	42	6.0
10	4-Play		6	8	3	4	6	6	7	40	5.7
11	WiiFly		7	4	5	5	7	5	6	39	5.6
11	Harry Hill		7	5	3	2	7	8	7	39	5.6
13	4th Element		4	6	5	3	7	6	6	37	5.3
14	Hydra		4	5	6	4	3	5	5	32	4.6
15	LSOS		4	4	4	4	3	3	7	29	4.1
16	Covered In Bees		4	4	3	0	5	3	3	22	3.1

Marcus Wallen joined the team for the 2011 season and replaced Martin Jarvis. Simon Ashley and Kris Woickekoswki switched their slots in the front piece, and 4mula was ready for the team's second year. There was some trouble though, as David Rodgers explained:

"The British skydiving community frowned at this, as it's seen as cheating. Over here, if you remain in the Rookie Class after doing it for one year you're made to feel wrong and dishonest. Anyway, we stayed and improved and won with a 12.6 average in 2011."

4mula moved up into the A Class in 2012 with the same lineup. It became another good year with another set of gold medals at the UK Nationals after 10 to 15 hours of indoor training and 70 jumps. 4mula missed the ESL gold medals that year only after a collision with the team videographer in Round 1 and 15 seconds of lost working time.

ESL Championship 2012			Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	A Class		O,9	D,N,21	M,19	Q,2	E,6	4,P	K,J,H	B,L,G	C,A,7	8,F	Total	Avg
1	Paradox Kassel	DE	14	11	11	11	12	12	13	10	12	10	116	11.6
2	4mula	UK	9	11	13	10	11	11	13	11	12	12	113	11.3
3	MACH4	NL	16	7	8	11	10	10	16	12	10	10	110	11.0
4	Brakcs and the Banggang	BE	14	6	11	11	10	9	14	12	11	9	107	10.7
5	O wat leuk	NE	14	8	11	7	11	9	12	14	9	9	104	10.4
6	Fun	BE	15	6	10	10	9	10	13	10	11	9	103	10.3
7	Anti Gravity Ninja Swans	UK	9	7	9	9	8	7	10	9	8	10	86	8.6
8	Blue Rebels	GR	8	7	10	9	8	8	8	10	10	7	85	8.5
9	TNT	NL	12	7	7	5	8	4	10	10	7	6	76	7.6
10	Dutch Paradocks	NL	8	8	5	6	8	7	8	7	8	6	71	7.1
11	The Slowdive	BE	8	7	7	7	9	7	9	4	7	5	70	7.0
12	Get A Grip	BE	2	4	3	4	5	7	9	7	8	6	55	5.5
13	ODESSA	BE	3	3	6	4	5	1	8	7	6	4	47	4.7
14	OLRAAIT	BE	6	7	2	2	3	3	7	5	5	4	44	4.4

Kris Woickekoswki was leaving 4mula at the end of the 2012 season to have a baby, and the team needed a new Point. Kate Lindsley joined the 2013 lineup for the first year in the AA Class. 4mula started with a 100-jump training camp with Dan BC in Perris, which turned out to be a great experience.

4mula added 30 jumps in the United Kingdom and 15 hours of wind tunnel time, and it still did not flow yet: "We felt slow, and things weren't clicking. We had a bad UK Nationals meet scoring an 11.3 average and were beaten by Joey Jones and the Ninja Swans." However, that's where 4mula first saw the Joey Jones style and technique...

4mula followed up with silver medals at the ESL Championship 2013 after a great 1-point battle with Les Stunts, Belgium's current national team in 4-way Women.

UK Nationals 2013		Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Round 7	Round 8	Total	Avg
Rank	AA Class	19,4	1,15	J,7,C	Q,L,13	9,G,20	H,11,2	K,8,21	P,6,M	Total	Avg
1	Anti Gravity Ninja Swans	9	10	20	10	13	11	14	19	106	13.3
2	Aerodyne 4mula	11	7	15	11	9	12	11	14	90	11.3
3	4Nations	12	9	15	11	13	12	7	9	88	11.0
4	Satori Azure	9	6	11	10	12	9	9	14	80	10.0
5	Fiasco	9	7	11	8	9	8	10	14	76	9.5
6	RAFSPA Merlin	7	5	11	9	9	7	7	9	64	8.0

Marcus Wallen left the team at the end of the 2013 season, and the remaining 4mula members decided to ask Joey Jones to become the player coach. He agreed, and original member David Rodgers remembered the rough start into the first AAA Class season: "Boy, did we frustrate him...!"

It did not get much better any time soon: "In 2014, we planned 150 jumps and 15 hours of tunnel time, but half way through the season, Simon broke his collarbone never to return."

Sian Stokes filled the open 4mula slot at the UK Nationals 2014 for a surprisingly high 17.4 average. However, Sian Stokes would not continue with the team, and 4mula had to find a replacement for the 2015 season.

UK Nationals 2015			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		2,11,21	19,E,6	F,8,16	H,J,7,Q	13,10,17	4,A,L,20	O,1,22	14,D,C,9	P,15,B,3	N,G,18,K	Total	Avg
1	Satori XL		17	20	21	33	16	19	17	24	20	20	207	20.7
2	4mula		14	18	19	24	15	18	15	19	20	21	183	18.3
3	Vision 99		13	18	16	28	12	18	13	22	20	17	177	17.7
4	NFTO		14	16	17	24	11	17	15	16	17	17	164	16.4
5	Eclipse		15	15	16	23	12	15	13	18	15	19	161	16.1
6	Tetris		13	15	15	22	11	14	13	16	14	13	146	14.6

Renata Herenova became the new Tail, and 4mula completed 165 training jumps with the new lineup, plus 12 to 15 hours of tunnel time, before winning the silver medals at the UK Nationals 2015.

Original team member David Rodgers has a total of 760 jumps by now, which he all did with 4mula. He believes very strongly in the benefits of mental training for skydiving competition and even completed a Master Practitioner Sports NLP to improve his own performance. The team applies the training methods for the mental side of the sport, as well, and they play a big part in the 4mula training.

David Rodgers and 4mula are not done yet. He still wants to compete and improve and sets new goals. Some of them are in a different area though. He has two children (6 and 7) who have been at the meets in the last five years and fly in the wind tunnel with their father, who sees 4-way team training and competition as a part of their education: "I enjoy being a role model to them about learning, being dedicated to it, improving, failing - to then learn from mistakes, and above all competing. Hopefully it'll have a positive impact to them."