posted Jun 27th, 2020 - The NSL News was on a special mission during the USPA Nationals 2019. Goal was to ask as many world-class Formation Skydiving competitors as possible a very important question: What are the benefits for teams and competitors of attending as many meets as possible?

It took a while until the collected footage was sorted and edited. Result was a video with highly valuable answers and feedback by U.S. Formation Skydiving legends for any teams and competitors who attend meets. Kurt Isenbarger, Dan BC, Jennifer Davidson, Matt Davidson, Eric Heinsheimer, Brian Krause, John D'Annunzio, Kirk Verner, Mark Kirkby, Eliana Rodriguez and Craig Girard shared their thoughts with the NSL News audience, and the video was finally posted with the NSL News story on May 28th this year.

It was not the end of this special mission. The feedback of FAI Judge Jim Rees was added a day later, and the NSL News also followed up on the same topic long after the USPA Nationals 2019 were completed.

The question and the answers are timeless and have applied to all sports and Formation Skydiving competition for as long as teams and competitors have been attending meets. Only by attending meets they can really find out how judges evaluate their performances and how they stand compared to other athletes.

---

---

Why should teams and competitors attend as many meets as possible?

---

One of the more recent NSL Live Talk conversations was recorded on 8 June 2020. Gary Smith and Jeremie Rollett discussed several topics, which were mostly related to the corona virus crisis and its implications on the Formation Skydiving competition world.

However, the conversation included the same topic at the very end of the online interview. Gary Smith and Jeremie Rollett are two of the most successful and experienced competitors and coaches in the history of the sport. Their feedback became even more interesting when they could not recall exactly what their friends and U.S. legends in the sport had provided as answers when the question came up unexpectedly at the end of the NSL Live Talk conversation.

Gary Smith and Jeremie Rollett both presented new and different perspectives when it seemed like the previous input had already exhausted the topic, after the input from the U.S. Formation Skydiving competition legends at the USPA Nationals 2019.

There is apparently no end of the benefits that regular meet attendance is bringing to teams and competitors. Gary Smith compared the situation in Formation Skydiving competition with other sports and pointed out the differences.

---

FAI World Meet 2008			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		17,P,4	H,13,7	6,M,1	9,22,C	16,J,8	K,F,G,18	O,Q,5,12	Total	Avg
1	Maubeuge	FR	23	18	26	22	22	24	16	151	21.6
2	USA	US	18	18	26	21	22	19	16	140	20.0
3	Ex3mo	IT	20	16	22	17	18	18	15	126	18.0
4	EADS	DE	21	14	20	15	16	14	14	114	16.3
5	Connextion	UK	15	12	15	13	14	13	12	94	13.4
6	Belgium	BE	14	11	16	11	14	14	12	92	13.1
7	South Africa	ZA	14	9	16	12	13	11	-	75	12.5
8	Spain	ES	13	6	13	10	13	13	-	68	11.3
9	Australia	AU	11	5	10	9	9	7	-	51	8.5

---

"Each round should feel like a Round 1" - Jeremie Rollett with the French national 8-way team in 2008

---

NMP PCH HayaBusa's world champion coach first brought up the psychological part of competition environment and went beyond the performance pressure that it usually creates. He explained that team mates often behave differently compared to the training situation when they go to a competition. The group dynamics can change easily and may create new unnecessary challenges. Training and competition environments are never the same, not even similar.

Gary Smith likes to compare skydiving competition with football/soccer games, which happen on a weekly basis. The teams and players are used to audience, referees and opponents due to the frequency of the exposure to the game environment. He also explained how he trains his teams to be ready for Round 1.

His recipe for Round 1 and the first meet day is to treat both not differently compared to the day before the next morning of a training day. Round 1 should be treated like any other later competition round or like a training jump. Again he compared with other sports and pointed out that there are not enough meets in Formation Skydiving competition to get used to Round 1.

Jeremie Rollett added that competition should always be the goal and the justification for any training: "You don't want to be the world champion in training!" He agreed with Gary Smith that there are not enough meets to collect comprehensive competition experiences. He has a similar approach to Round 1 as Gary Smith: "There is no Round 1. There are ten rounds, and Round 1 is one of them. In fact, each round is a Round 1." This approach worked well for his winning French teams. He cannot recall a bad Round 1: "You have to see and feel each round as positive pressure. You should desire each round."