posted May 30th, 2020 - The NSL News camera recorded even more video footage of NSL Live Talk at the USPA Nationals 2019 that has not been published yet. The comments of U.S. Formation Skydiving legends, which were posted yesterday, was the first review of the event's additional commentary by participants and officials.

The NSL News reporter was eventually shown the yellow card for using up too much precious time when USPA's Chief Judge Jim Rees agreed to elaborate on a few topics. After the opening with the yellow card, the interview included a lot of relevant information for Formation Skydiving teams and competitors from the judging perspective.

One of the relevant topics was the penalty situation for the visiting 4-way world champions from Belgium, NMP PCH HayaBusa. After nine rounds with only three point deductions, HayaBusa found four red marks on the scoresheet of Round 10. The Belgian team was on the way to skip the 28+ level and post the first 29+ average in history of Formation Skydiving outdoor competition.

The four point deductions in the last round kept the meet average at 28.9 and one point short of the historic mark. However, the 28.9 average was still the first time that a team scored higher than 27.9 which was HayaBusa's previous record number that they held together with Arizona Airspeed since the FAI World Meet 2012 in Dubai.

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NSL Live Talk with Jim Rees - NMP PCH HayaBusa's Round 10 at the USPA Nationals 2019

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It was easy to understand that NMP PCH HayaBusa were interested in the details of the penalty situations in Rounds 10, and team captain David Grauwels had asked Chief Judge Rim Rees for more information. Jim Rees explained during the NSL Live Talk what the three judges in this panel, including himself, disliked of the world champion performance and why they assigned the four penalties.

The recent NSL Live Talk with Mark "Stretch" Szulmayer, Chairman of the ISC (International Skydiving Commission) Formation Skydiving Committee, included another topic that was also a major part of the conversation with Jim Rees. He is a member of USPA's Formation Skydiving Committee that was recently in the NSL News headlines after the cancellation and rescheduling of the FAI Mondial Tanay 2020.

Mark Szulmayer and Jim Rees both pointed out separately that the accuracy of the results are their main concern in the judging process. As an FAI and USPA Judge, Jim Rees was able to provide even more details of the judging procedure.

He said that the judging panel now has the 50% review speed available to get to the most accurate results within a reasonable time-frame. The option of slower review speed came up when indoor competition generated significantly higher scoring numbers. Eventually, the rules for outdoor and outdoor judging were synchronized.

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USPA Nationals 2019			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		11		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open Class		7,C,H,P		J,21,20		O,3,11		B,2,K,E		8,Q,10		15,D,F,12		N,L,M,14		6,1,9		A,18,13		G,4,5		17,16,22		Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	45	-1	24		27		37		21		25		34		25	-1	26	-1	25	-4	-		289	28.9
2	SDC Rhythm XP	US	41		22		21	-1	33		21		23		27		25		24		25		21	-1	262	26.2
3	Arizona Airspeed	US	40	-1	24		22	-2	32		19	-2	24		29		25		21	-2	26	-1	20	-2	262	26.2
4	Defiance	US	30	-1	21		15	-4	28		16		19		22	-3	21		18	-1	18	-1	-		208	20.8
5	Ranch 2nd Generation	US	26		19		19		24	-2	16	-1	17	-1	24		18	-1	19		19		-		201	20.1
6	Kinetix	AU	26		18		17		22		13	-1	17		18	-1	17		17		17		-		182	18.2
7	Lite XP	US	24	-1	17		17		22		15		17		20	-2	16	-1	14		17		-		179	17.9
8	No Name	US	22	-4	17		14		19	-2	12	-2	13		14	-3	15		14		16		-		156	15.6
9	Aviatrixx	US	21		14		13	-1	18	-1	12	-2	15		17	-1	14	-1	12		14		-		150	15.0
10	Perris Force	US	20		13	-1	14		18		11	-1	11		18	-1	13	-1	12		12	-1	-		142	14.2

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Jim Rees said that he and his indoor judges at the annual SkyVenture New Hampshire Indoor Competition even apply frame-by-frame judging if it helps the judging accuracy and happens within the needed time-frame for reasonable posting of the scores.

There were two major factors in the past that increased scoring level and performance speed. FAI's International Parachuting Commission (IPC) decided after the FAI World Meet 2004 not to punish infringements any longer with an additional point deduction.

This rule change had an impact on the performance, as teams could pick up the speed without too much fear of losing a meet only due to additional point deductions. The scoresheets until 2004 were significantly cleaner compared to the following time periods.

The second serious impact came with the modern wind tunnels that allowed teams to develop their skills to new performance levels. Especially the top teams invested a lot of time for indoor training, which is now an important training tool for all skydivers. Speed and scoring level increased dramatically, while the judges tried to keep up with the progression. Adjustments came with the introduction of more time for reviews and application of slow-motion viewing. The slow-motion review was gradually adjusted and is now down to 50%. Jim Rees said that frame-by-frame could be a next step to guarantee the most accurate results.