posted Jun 17th, 2017 - I changed my mind. It's not the first time and fortunately our social and political system allows that, even though I often get in trouble at home when I do that...

Almost a year has gone by since I last reflected on the part of our sport that is very close to my own heart, as I love to share things in my life with my own kids. Flying together is one of them, even though it does not happen often enough.

My 4-way vision was that we all could not only fly together - girls and boys, teenagers, women and men - but also attend meets and enjoy 4-way competition with each other, and without separation into different categories.

I still believe we can do that and I still have no doubt that we are unique with this situation. Nobody has sent me any evidence yet that there are other sports in the same wonderful situation. However, my own vision might not be the best way to provide the 4-way juniors with the best environment.

TURNING POINTS: 4-way Juniors - Part 3

The extra time at the World Challenge 2016 in Bedford that I took to watch the younger generations doing their thing was simply fun, as they are so playful and don't take things too seriously—while they are still performing very well. Of course, I kept my eyes on the 4-way juniors in the years gone by, not only since it is a part of my job. The experiences are still the same.

I am also still grateful that the legislators in our sport have not separated the girls from the boys in the official 4-way junior category, as they did in 4-way open/4-way women. Not yet...

So, what has changed, actually?

I was back in Bedford this year, right after the French Indoor Nationals, and host Paul Mayer had now sent his own Bodyflight junior teams into the 4-way battle, the Bodyflight Recruitz. Within two weeks, I had the opportunity to enjoy watching the French 4-way juniors of the Aerokart Ak'demie teams (French Indoor Nationals), the Czech Hurricane Factory juniors and the British youngsters (World Challenge).

World Challenge 2017			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Total	Avg
Rank	AA Class		F,G,D,P	9,J,18	E,7,M	19,13	4,L,8	2,21	C,14,20	1,K,O	A,6,11	N,B,H,Q	15,22	Total	Avg
1	Skydive University Slovakia	SK	29	17	29	14	16	16	13	20	17	35	-	206	20.6
2	Bahrain	BH	26	17	30	15	17	16	15	17	16	28	15	197	19.7
2	Alakran	ES	27	20	27	14	15	16	13	18	17	30	14	197	19.7
4	HF Junior Cubs	CZ	23	19	27	12	16	14	17	19	17	31	-	195	19.5
5	HF Junior Flies	CZ	23	14	25	15	13	13	11	16	15	23	-	168	16.8
6	Koloncok	HU	18	15	24	12	12	13	13	16	14	28	-	165	16.5
7	Tahma	FI	22	16	21	11	11	12	14	17	11	23	-	158	15.8
8	Zero!	IT	25	14	20	11	11	13	12	14	13	24	-	157	15.7
8	Brain Storming	IT	21	16	22	10	13	13	13	14	12	23	-	157	15.7
10	Salty Jacks	UK	16	16	22	10	11	13	12	14	13	23	-	150	15.0
11	Vantage	UK	18	13	17	10	13	12	12	14	12	22	-	143	14.3
12	Ballista	IE	19	12	18	11	9	10	10	14	13	22	-	138	13.8
13	Lobster Therma4	UK	17	11	14	9	11	10	10	14	10	20	-	126	12.6
14	Manticore	UK	17	12	19	8	9	11	8	12	8	21	-	125	12.5
Rank	A Class		D,J,P	M,C,7	G,21	E,H,19	F,B,8	Q,O,9	6,2	N,K,A	4,L	F,2	21,A	Total	Avg
1	Olczyk Flyspot Team	PL	27	31	17	21	25	28	17	29	20	21	-	236	23.6
2	Space Marines	IT	22	23	17	19	21	20	15	23	14	19	-	193	19.3
3	Random	IT	12	17	14	15	13	14	12	19	12	13	-	141	14.1
4	Poor 4Cast	UK	15	15	12	10	15	18	10	19	11	12	-	137	13.7
5	Reunited	NO	15	17	8	13	14	15	11	18	8	9	-	128	12.8
6	Got Shots	IE	14	15	11	12	10	16	7	6	9	10	-	110	11.0
Rank	Rookie		D,G,M	L,H,K	B,N,C	J,F,E	O,P,Q	A,E,M	A,C,O	Q,K,B	F,J,L	D,N,H	G,P,B	Total	Avg
1	Bahrain	BH	25	24	24	21	24	32	23	23	33	23	-	252	25.2
2	Omega4way	PL	21	21	26	28	25	30	19	27	31	18	-	246	24.6
3	Aeropotam's	BE	15	19	21	29	21	26	23	18	29	18	-	219	21.9
4	ACT One	BE	21	15	22	25	23	22	19	19	26	12	-	204	20.4
5	Janas	IT	14	15	15	19	19	19	16	18	18	15	-	168	16.8
6	VR-UNiQ	IE	8	9	8	14	12	13	11	13	13	8	-	109	10.9
7	3CAAD	UK	10	9	11	13	10	12	10	10	14	7	-	106	10.6
8	HF Junior Blue	CZ	10	6	11	14	10	13	10	10	11	9	-	104	10.4
9	Recruitz 1	UK	9	10	8	11	9	6	8	8	13	7	-	89	8.9
10	CJ Rookies	DK	6	3	6	13	5	6	5	8	12	2	-	66	6.6
11	Recruitz 2	UK	5	5	4	4	5	5	6	6	5	5	-	50	5.0

Paul and I had another long conversation after the event, which included the situation of the 4-way juniors. He is running a wind-tunnel operation and surely understands the potential of new generations of flyers for his own business.

However, he has also always been a man with a vision and new ideas, and I listen carefully when he is bringing up a topic. He has now worked with his own Bodyflight Recruitz juniors, and he has observed the activities of 4-way junior teams and competitors for many years.

In fact, it was at the World Challenge 2008 when the first 4-way juniors (Justin and Kayla Tinucci) competed in Bedford with Team Future (Rusty Lewis, Daniel Perry).

After the many years with a growing number of young competitors in Bedford, Paul Mayer has come to the conclusion that they should have their own event. Of course, I gave it additional thought after he brought up the topic and explained his position carefully.

French Indoor Nationals 2017		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AA Class	P,Q,21	D,B,14	M,H,J,22	C,7,F	O,A,11	13,8	N,K,19	G,E,2	6,15	1,9	Total	Avg
1	Aerokart Ak'demie 2	26	24	24	30	20	12	25	22	20	22	225	22.5
2	Aerokart Ak'demie 1	26	24	25	25	22	15	22	23	20	21	223	22.3
3	EFMP Filles	23	21	20	25	18	12	19	19	13	16	186	18.6
4	The Outsiders	19	22	20	24	17	16	10	19	15	16	178	17.8
5	Aerokart Ak'demie 3	20	17	18	23	17	12	18	14	14	15	168	16.8
6	Shamal'In Clermont	21	21	18	21	17	13	19	9	14	14	167	16.7
7	4Flux	17	18	17	24	18	9	18	16	11	14	162	16.2
8	BonoZorus	10	18	15	19	14	11	14	15	9	11	136	13.6
9	Los Pollos Locos	14	15	14	16	13	11	13	14	9	13	132	13.2
10	Lemniscate ASPU Maubeuge	17	13	13	18	11	10	8	12	11	12	125	12.5
11	Caelestis ASPU	15	15	12	15	13	8	11	10	10	13	122	12.2
12	Toobiz'air Lens Dunkerque	11	12	13	18	8	8	11	12	10	10	113	11.3
13	Canop en Boite	12	11	13	14	9	5	10	11	8	8	101	10.1
14	Yapuka Vannes	12	11	13	14	9	8	11	7	9	5	99	9.9
15	Nev'Air PCP	4	10	17	14	8	9	11	10	5	7	95	9.5
15	Les Anonymous	11	11	11	14	10	7	9	7	5	10	95	9.5
17	Titanium	10	12	11	13	8	6	7	7	9	5	88	8.8
18	Weembi by Fretoy	8	7	7	7	5	4	6	5	6	3	58	5.8
19	Team 47 LCA	8	5	9	8	7	2	4	5	5	3	56	5.6

FAI/IPC has already given the 4-way juniors their own leaderboard (AA Class) and medals, and I don't know what their motivation and reasoning was. Fact is that the 4-way junior meets are still taking place at the same time and the same place where the 4-way seniors are conducting their events and activities.

Paul Mayer believes that 4-way juniors should have their own and separate events, where only 4-way juniors would interact with each other - inside and outside of the flying chamber.

He has a good point when he looks at the normal "everyday" environments of juniors and seniors and translates it into a meet environment.

The event life of 4-way seniors surely includes adult beverages and language, and the interest in other parts of a meet environment is different, too, compared to the juniors. I had to agree when I began to do what I like the most: Compare to other sports.

The junior and senior environments are not only separated due to major athletic differences. Different age groups just simply behave differently, in life as well as in sports. I am afraid that we will have to acknowledge this to conduct our own sport responsibly.

I am a little bit sad about this change of my own mind, as I love the fact that we can fly together and share the joy. However, we may have to wait until the teenagers turn into adults - whenever that would be officially - before we share the same environment, next to the flying chamber.

Paul Mayer is once again the first to take action on it. He plans to run the first "Youth World Championships" in September this year - and 4-way seniors are excluded...