posted Feb 23rd, 2017 - The Sun Path Products NSL News reported on 31 January 2017 that the British national indoor team in 4-way Women, Volition, was planning to increase the training efforts this year and what kind of an impact this could have.

Volition's direct opponent in this category in the United Kingdom has been NFTO, even though both teams represented the country in different events. Volition competed for Great Britain as the official national team at the FAI Indoor World Cup 2016, while NFTO won the bronze medals at the FAI Mondial 2016.

The two British teams have no agreement with each other to continue the same way and not bother each other. To the contrary, Volition has not yet excluded to compete at the UK Nationals 2017 and qualify for Australia 2018, and NFTO would not mind first competing at the FAI Indoor World Meet this year in Montreal, and then again in Australia.

However, the qualification event for Montreal was the World Challenge 2016, where the winner of the UK showdown in 4-way Women won the tickets to Canada. The World Challenge 2016 was the first direct confrontation between both teams, and Volition became the indoor national team for the FAI Indoor World Meet 2017.

Volition was far ahead of NFTO in Bedford last year (23.2 - 19.9) and the distance had become smaller (24.2 - 22.7) when both teams met again at the FAI Indoor World Cup 2016. Participating countries can have more than only one team per category in their delegations at world cups, while only one national team competes at world championships.

The World Challenge 2017 will be the third duel between Volition and NFTO, and the stakes will be high once again for tickets to the FAI Indoor World Cup 2018.

World Challenge 2016			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Women		P,2,10	8,F,15	G,14,17	L,H,E,13	M,7,O,1	16,21,11	N,D,4,9	18,20,A	Q,19,3	C,K,B,22	Total	Avg
1	Volition	UK	19	18	21	29	29	19	29	21	21	26	232	23.2
2	Montreal Fuzion	CA	21	24	22	26	26	21	23	19	21	27	230	23.0
3	NFTO	UK	19	20	18	22	26	14	25	15	20	20	199	19.9
4	Les Stunts	BE	18	20	15	23	23	15	21	16	19	19	189	18.9
5	Valkyria	DK	15	15	13	18	20	13	17	12	15	17	155	15.5

NFTO has competed at five other meets since the World Challenge 2016, while Volition visited only the FAI Indoor World Cup after the Bedford meet. However, the defending indoor champion continues with more training and competition with the same lineup.

NFTO had a few personnel changes after the FAI Mondial 2016 before settling with the final lineup for 2017 - 2018. In fact, NFTO competed with three different lineups at the last three indoor meets (Bodyflight Revenge - FAI Indoor World Cup 2017 - Wind Games 2017) and the new lineup will post their first scores at the World Challenge 2017.

Volition member Liz Matthews filled in for Maria Russell at the Bodyflight Revenge, who was back for the Flyspot meet where NFTO competed for the last time with the original 2016 lineup. New member Catherine Anderson was then competing at the Wind Games 2017, where Lynne Murray substituted for new member Debbie Lamsley.

FAI Indoor World Cup 2016			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	T.	Avg
R.	4-way Women		15,11,6	7,2,A	J,B,18,5	E,19,Q,3	8,P,21	12,L,O,C	G,20,F,16	10,D,22	N,9,K,4	14,M,17	T.	Avg
1	French Girls Weembi	FR	21	29	31	30	26	28	26	23	34	31	279	27.9
2	Volition	UK	22	25	27	27	22	23	21	20	31	24	242	24.2
3	NFTO	UK	20	26	26	26	20	23	22	19	24	21	227	22.7
4	No Mercy	PL	18	22	22	21	14	21	23	17	26	21	205	20.5
5	Flyspot Chicks	PL	17	20	17	20	19	18	20	14	22	18	185	18.5
6	Team X	SE	15	21	12	22	17	16	18	15	21	17	174	17.4
7	CZ Ladies	CZ	12	18	11	17	15	16	12	13	20	16	150	15.0
8	Vesce	SI	13	17	14	16	14	13	14	10	17	14	142	14.2
9	Not Your March	HU	11	15	11	12	11	13	11	9	15	13	121	12.1

NFTO 2016 members Maria Russell and Ane Brentford are not coming back, while Vana Parker and Anna Hicks decided to push even harder for the next two years. Goal is to turn the 2016 bronze medals into something even better in Australia 2018.

Returning member Vana Parker said that it is never easy to find team mates with the same high goals, and it was even more difficult this time since the Volition members were obviously not available. However, NFTO was fortunate enough to find Savolo member Debbie Lamsley, who competed for South Africa at the FAI Mondial 2016.

Debbie Lamsley now follows the same path as Vana Parker did longer ago when her whole South African national team Voodoo moved to the United Kingdom. Vana Parker said that Debbie Lamsley will be eligible to represent the United Kingdom at the FAI World Meet 2018 in Australia.

The other new NFTO member is Catherine Anderson who made her way through the 4-way categories from Rookie to AAA with UK team Full Stop. She had Volition member Sian Stokes and Satori XL member Ian "Milko" Hodkinson in her team. Vana Parker said that this guaranteed a "superb base to work from, while she is also very talented and super keen".

It was not easy for the new NFTO lineup to assign the slots, as all current members are most familiar with the front piece. Coach Gary Smith helped with advice, and only Catherine Anderson continues in her point slot. Anna Hicks moves from point to outside center.

Vana Parker has been outside center since 2004 and now switches to the other center slot. Debbie Lamsley is completely new in the tail position.

Wind Games 2017			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Women		D,2,P,13	C,21,11	Q,O,17,A	6,10,18	5,E,K,22	19,1,F	8,20,J	L,N,7,9	16,M,15	14,G,H,4	Total	Avg
1	French Girls	FR	25	24	41	21	29	28	23	39	25	25	280	28.0
2	Wom'in France	FR	20	21	33	16	22	21	19	26	21	23	222	22.2
3	NFTO	UK	21	19	28	15	19	18	20	31	21	23	215	21.5
4	HF Chicks	CZ	20	18	29	17	20	19	21	25	21	19	209	20.9
5	Flyspot Chicks	PL	19	19	24	16	18	20	16	27	20	18	197	19.7
6	Papea Feminino	ES	11	17	20	13	15	16	16	22	16	18	164	16.4
7	Not Your March	HU	13	11	17	11	12	15	12	19	12	15	137	13.7

The new NFTO lineup had a rough start. Debbie Lamsley missed the first indoor training camp and the Wind Games due to a water-skiing injury, and alternate Lynne Murray stepped into a new slot for her, too. However, NFTO used the meet for competition experience and still had a good start with a 21.5 average.

NFTO lost the team sponsorship just before the FAI Mondial 2016 and now has to finance training and competition before the British Parachute Association (BPA) will help after winning the qualification. The new lineup has come up with a training program that includes 15 hours of wind tunnel time and 120 - 150 jumps until the UK Nationals 2017 in August. Gary Smith is NFTO's head coach, and HayaBusa point Dennis Praet will also work with the team at some of the tunnel camps in Empuriabrava, Bedford and Dubai.

Vana Parker said that the new NFTO lineup is incredibly enthusiastic and focused on the task ahead: "We are all working hard on our fitness and searching for sponsorship to be able to increase the amount of training that we can do."