posted Jun 16th, 2020 - Paul Hofstee and Bert Hajee can be considered the inventors of player-coaching team projects, probably together with the late Dr. Joel Shugar, who was recruiting his high-profile Optic Nerve team mates in the United States while the two Dutchmen had the same idea in the Netherlands.

Paul Hofstee and Bert Hajee called their 4-way team with an international lineup Punky Fish, and they used NSL meets of the Florida Skydiving League in 2002/2003 to measure their progress. They scheduled their winter training camps at Skydive DeLand according to the FSL schedule and even competed at the NSL Championship in the fall, as well.

The first Punky Fish lineup had DeLand Norgies members Lise Aune Nansen and Pål Kolbenstvedt as the player-coaches. Paul Hofstee's and Bert Hajee's idea was to push themselves to higher skills and performance levels by hiring world-class competitors and learn as much as possible in training and competition.

Lise Aune Nansen and Pål Kolbenstvedt were still DeLand Norgies members and had just won their second bronze medals at the FAI World Meet 2001. They would continue for two more years with the same Norgies lineup and add another bronze medal in 2003. The international lineup could not compete at FAI events and Dutch national championships, and the NSL Network events offered the platform that Punky Fish was looking for.

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FAI World Meet 2006			1	2	3	4	5	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		N,20,16	K,J,C,G,3	D,19,B,6	L,14,10	F,17,M,2	Total	Avg
1	DeLand Fire	US	20	27	25	17	28	117	23.4
2	Gap Nice Icarius Autrement	FR	17	25	23	21	25	111	22.2
3	Sinapsi PD	IT	19	26	22	19	24	110	22.0
4	Sky Panthers Barkli	RU	21	23	23	17	25	109	21.8
5	Arcteryx	NO	18	25	21	17	24	105	21.0
6	Spa HayaBusa	BE	19	25	18	17	23	102	20.4
7	EADS	DE	17	23	20	16	18	94	18.8
8	Danez	DK	15	22	15	17	21	90	18.0
9	Spain	ES	16	18	17	14	19	84	16.8
9	Evolution	CA	15	14	19	14	22	84	16.8
11	Team 42	SE	13	20	17	14	17	81	16.2
11	British Army	UK	14	21	16	12	18	81	16.2
13	Voodoo	UK	15	20	15	12	18	80	16.0
14	Punky Fish	NL	16	13	17	14	19	79	15.8
15	Airtite	AU	12	17	17	13	17	76	15.2
16	FILA	AT	13	16	16	12	17	74	14.8
17	Japan	JP	12	18	14	12	15	71	14.2
18	CTR Optimum	BR	13	14	14	12	17	70	14.0
19	Sky Service	CZ	12	16	13	11	14	66	13.2
20	Lithuania	LT	9	14	11	9	8	51	10.2
21	New Zealand	NZ	10	11	11	7	11	50	10.0
22	Kazakhstan	KZ	8	6	7	6	13	40	8.0
23	Estonia	EE	4	7	7	7	9	34	6.8
24	Ireland	IE	6	6	7	4	6	29	5.8
25	Cyprus	CY	3	7	7	5	4	26	5.2

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Original member Bert Hajee was done with the player-coaching project at the end of the 2002 season, even though he continued with the Dutch national version of Punky Fish. Paul Hofstee could not get enough of high-level 4-way training and competition, and the player-coaching project continued in 2003 with a new player.

Ole-Petr Hjelle was a new and eager Norwegian 4-way competitor, who was ready to take a shortcut to the national top level. He replaced Bert Hajee at the training camps and attended as many meets as he could squeeze into his professional schedule as a medical doctor. Scheduling training and competition was not easy at all, as Lise Aune Nansen and Pål Kolbenstvedt were still trying to turn bronze into different FAI medals at the same time.

Paul Hofstee and Ole-Petr Hjelle added other player-coaches to the lineup, and Gary Smith helped out at the NSL Championship 2004, where Bert Hajee was also back for another meet with Punky Fish.

Paul Hofstee and Bert Hajee had also continued with their Dutch Punky Fish lineup (Alexander Egberink, Donald Verveld, Johan Wieken) and eventually won the national championships, then competed for the Netherlands at the FAI World Meet 2006. Ole-Petr Hjelle became a member of the next Norwegian national 4-way team Arcteryx, and both teams competed with and against each other in Germany 2006.

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FAI World Meet 2008			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		B,17,7	H,N,13,A	10,J,C,6	18,12,2	E,3,9	19,O,4	D,M,5,16	14,20,21	Total	Avg
1	Airspeed Odyssey	US	30	32	24	16	29	21	28	15	195	24.4
2	Maubeuge	FR	28	30	23	17	27	23	28	18	194	24.3
3	HayaBusa Defence	BE	27	33	23	17	27	22	25	17	191	23.9
4	Sky Panthers Barkli	RU	28	30	22	16	28	20	27	17	188	23.5
5	Arcteryx	NO	27	29	21	17	25	21	26	14	180	22.5
6	Evolution	CA	25	27	22	17	24	18	26	16	175	21.9
7	Spin Team	IT	23	21	16	13	21	16	21	-	131	18.7
8	Dynamic Fource	NL	22	20	16	12	21	16	22	-	129	18.4
9	VIVA	CH	19	23	17	13	21	15	18	-	126	18.0
10	FSC Eisenach	DE	21	17	14	13	21	15	21	-	122	17.4
11	Airtite	AU	15	21	16	11	19	16	-	-	98	16.3
12	Magic 4	LT	19	19	13	13	16	15	-	-	95	15.8
12	Danish Blaze	DK	18	20	14	11	16	16	-	-	95	15.8
14	Voodoo	ZA	17	18	15	11	19	14	-	-	94	15.7
15	Evolution	SE	16	18	14	10	16	16	-	-	90	15.0
16	Tigers	FI	19	19	14	10	16	9	-	-	87	14.5
16	Monkey Circus	AT	14	19	15	12	16	11	-	-	87	14.5
18	CTR Optimum	BR	15	14	11	10	17	14	-	-	81	13.5
19	Fusion	UK	15	17	14	8	16	6	-	-	76	12.7
20	China	CN	7	9	8	5	9	8	-	-	46	7.7
21	Cyprus	CY	6	5	4	5	5	6	-	-	31	5.2
22	Turkey	TR	5	6	6	2	6	4	-	-	29	4.8
23	Slovakia	SK	9	4	4	0	4	3	-	-	24	4.0

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Ole-Petr Hjelle even became an FAI medal contender with Arcteryx at the next world meet in Maubeuge 2008. There he met Paul Hofstee again, who was now training and competing for the Netherlands with Dynamic Fource. Their former player-coaches Lise Aune Nansen and Pål Kolbenstvedt had retired from high-level 4-way training and competition by then.

The disbanding of the Dutch Punky Fish lineup at the end of the 2006 season, and new teams Dynamic Fource and Arcteryx were still not the end of the Punky Fish story. All original and later team members are still active in the sport. It was another Norwegian 4-way and 8-way competitor who recently made an effort to put a lineup together for the Norwegian Nationals 2020 in July.

Kjetil Nordin is very familiar with player-coaching projects as a member of Martial Ferre's Veloce QRF signature lineup. Pål Kolbenstvedt joined QRF for this year's Paraclete XP Indoor Championship and competed together with Kjetil Nordin at the end of February. Together they decided to ask Lise Aune Nansen and Ole-Petr Hjelle for a Punky Fish comeback in July.

There was still an important piece missing though, the team name. Kjetil Nordin himself had competed for Norway in 4-way Open at the FAI World Meet 2010, where he met Paul Hofstee with Dynamic Fource. Now he asked his QRF team mate and current member of the German national 4-way Open Class team Oceanside AtomiX for permission to use the Punky Fish team name. Paul Hofstee agreed, as three of his early team mates are still in the lineup. Punky Fish will be back in July and have a very realistic chance to win the Norwegian Nationals 2020...

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FAI World Meet 2010			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		10,7,12	3,11,5	J,M,Q,P,L	19,1,13	N,18,20	K,17,8	2,15,H	4,D,6	O,E,9,G	22,B,16	Total	Avg
1	Aerodyne Aerokart	FR	21	22	56	20	22	24	22	24	40	26	277	27.7
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	22	21	53	23	20	24	23	25	40	23	274	27.4
3	Sky Panthers Barkli	RU	19	21	56	21	19	21	23	22	41	21	264	26.4
4	NMP PCH HayaBusa	BE	21	21	55	20	17	20	23	22	36	18	253	25.3
5	Evolution	CA	19	19	51	20	18	22	21	21	31	18	240	24.0
6	Sinapsi	IT	19	19	49	16	20	17	21	19	37	19	236	23.6
7	Paratec-Saar	DE	16	18	53	17	15	18	16	19	30	-	202	22.4
8	Satori	UK	18	18	47	16	17	18	17	18	29	-	198	22.0
9	Dynamic Fource	NL	17	18	44	16	16	15	16	18	26	-	186	20.7
10	Pro Team	FI	17	16	43	14	15	17	17	17	28	-	184	20.4
11	Bodyflight Voluntas	DK	17	15	37	16	15	18	16	18	-	-	152	19.0
12	Voodoo	UK	15	15	31	13	14	14	15	17	-	-	134	16.8
13	Bardagi	SE	12	13	35	12	14	12	14	16	-	-	128	16.0
14	X3M4S Elements	NO	14	11	30	14	13	15	13	16	-	-	126	15.8
15	China	CN	12	13	30	13	12	14	14	14	-	-	122	15.3
16	Atmosfera G4	PT	12	10	28	13	13	14	14	14	-	-	118	14.8
17	Sky Dragons	SI	12	12	21	12	12	11	13	13	-	-	106	13.3
18	Kazakhstan	KZ	10	7	17	9	10	11	10	11	-	-	85	10.6
19	Ukraine	UA	6	7	11	9	9	9	9	9	-	-	69	8.6

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