posted Jul 29th, 2020 - The NSL News has had several conversations with Golden Knights team captain Andrew Starr in the past, even increasingly when he began training and competing with SDC Rhythm XP, after JaNette Lefkowitz announced that she would step back from her inside center slot for a while.

The last NSL Live Talk with Andrew Starr was posted on May 10th. The situation had changed once again after the cancellation and rescheduling of the FAI Mondial Tanay 2020. He could not continue with his double duties between the Golden Knights and SDC Rhythm XP for an additional year and had to withdraw from his 4-way commitment to the U.S. national 4-way team for the next world meet.

The NSL News visited North Carolina this month for new updates from some of the best U.S. teams, which began with the first NSL Live Talk with the complete new Arizona Airspeed lineup on July 17th. Golden Knights team captain Andrew Starr was available when the NSL News came back to North Carolina a week later.

As many other Formation Skydiving competitors, Andrew Starr is a passionate golfer, and the next NSL Live Talk conversation took place at a different golf course in the area. He and his team mates have been working on individual skills with members of the Golden Knights Formation Skydiving team, and the Gold and Black lineups were back together in the Paraclete XP flying chamber the next day. The new video is showing both teams in training action.

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NSL News Live Talk with Andrew Starr - Golden Knights Indoor Training

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Andrew Starr explained in an earlier NSL Live Talk with his 4-way and 8-way team mates Jennifer Davidson and Jeshua Stahler during a winter training camp at Skydive City that the Golden Knights were planning a new and different approach to their training plans.

He confirmed that the new strategy was still the same. Jeshua Stahler added later that the new approach also included more breaks and different methods in other areas, such as mental training and physical relaxation and preparation.

All 8-way members were actually in 4-way training the next day, and individual skills drills were a part of the same indoor training day.

Andrew Starr said that there has not been much 8-way training at all this year. It was not only the new training plan that kept the Golden Knights from doing more 8-way indoor and outdoor training. He explained that it is difficult to have all nine team members always available at the same time.

The U.S. Army team cannot reach out to any top competitor at any time to help out when injury or sickness is grounding a team member. 8-way training for the Golden Knights is only possible under perfect circumstances, and the chances of having the complete lineup together are half of a 4-way team, or even less.

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Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2020			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		21,15,10	7,5,G	13,L,11	3,K,B,6	19,8,9	M,P,14,C	N,A,17,1	20,16,Q	F,22,D,H	0,2,4	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	22	34	27	27	27	32	35	27	37	27	295	29.5
2	SDC Rhythm XP	US	23	35	26	25	26	34	31	25	35	27	287	28.7
3	Golden Knights Gold	US	21	28	24	24	25	28	29	22	29	24	254	25.4
4	Skydive Midwest NEXT	US	17	24	20	23	21	29	24	20	27	19	224	22.4
5	Befokte Dose	ZA	15	24	20	24	19	28	23	20	27	19	219	21.9
6	XPG4	US	16	24	21	23	19	30	20	18	24	20	215	21.5
7	Aviatrixx	US	16	22	18	21	20	23	20	18	24	19	201	20.1
8	Golden Knights Black	US	16	20	18	17	18	22	20	14	22	18	185	18.5
9	Air Force Apollo	US	15	18	14	17	17	20	18	14	22	14	169	16.9
10	Air Force Angels	US	13	18	16	15	15	22	17	15	19	15	165	16.5

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Golden Knights Gold and Golden Knights Black at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2020

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All 8-way teams are in a similar situation, and it is much more challenging to manage an 8-way team successfully, compared to a 4-way team. The currently five best 8-way teams in the world all had their own obstacles, almost at the same time, and beginning with the Qatar Falcons in 2019. The Russian Tanay 8-way team, FAI World Cup winner of 2019, had to train with alternate Alexey Minaev when Andrey Barabash broke his leg at the beginning of the year.

The French national 8-way team, silver medalist in Eloy last year, was facing a personnel change this year, when Clementine Praet decided not to continue with the French national teams in 8-way and 4-way Women.

The U.S. national 8-way team Airspeed XP8 have not had much training with the complete lineup yet. Matt Davidson, who joined XP8 together with his 2019 Airspeed team mates in 4-way, Niklas Hemlin and Mikhail Markine, had to step back after some indoor and outdoor training to get ready for his hip surgery.

Last and not least, Andrew Starr also had his own answers to the same question that the NSL News has asked the Formation Skydiving celebrities. Without knowing the follow-up topic of Round 1 he connected the need of competition practice and experience directly to the most challenging competition round...