posted Jun 15th, 2022 - The recent updates from Belgium, first by NMP PCH HayaBusa member David Grauwels alone on June 4th, followed by NSL Live Talk with his whole team on June 9th, enjoyed once again great interest and attention by the NSL News audience.

Of course, this is not so surprising, as the conversations with the top competitors in the world usually provide a lot of highly valuable athletic information for all teams and competitors, as well.

The update from Belgium naturally sparked interest in the situation on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, where Arizona Airspeed have been working on their goal to dethrone the Belgian 4-way world champions of 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2020 at the FAI Outdoor World Meet 2022 in October.

This time, it was Airspeed's senior member Niklas Hemlin alone who took the time to discuss the current situation with the NSL News. He explained that Airspeed is at their usual half-way point of a competition season, after the completion of the traditional Arizona Challenge.

It is the time of the year when the competition team takes a short break to reload with energy before picking up the training pace and intensity for the countdown to national championships and major outdoor events.

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NSL Live Talk with Niklas Hemlin - Arizona Airspeed in Round 6 at the FAI World Meet 2018

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Arizona Airspeed spent one week of outdoor training with coach Joey Jones after winning the FAI Indoor World Cup 2022 in April and then took a month-long break after the transition from indoor to outdoor training and competition. Two weeks of outdoor training followed in May before the organizational work for the Arizona Challenge.

As David Grauwels and NMP PCH HayaBusa did earlier this month, Niklas Hemlin provided just as much valuable information and insights during the online conversation, and the 30 minutes of time were just enough to touch several interesting topics.

He said that his team met again with original Airspeed member Jack Jefferies last month, who has been consulting Airspeed lineups since he turned his career into professional team-coaching in the corporate business world. His advice and experiences help Airspeed to optimize their team dynamics and the organizational effectiveness of training and meet preparations.

Arizona Airspeed's current cooperation with Jack Jefferies and coach Joey Jones has created its own interesting dynamics, as both former 4-way world champions have known each other for a long time and since their own competition careers.

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USPA Nationals 1999			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		J,K,19,G	L,D,20,1	16,15,18	24,4,23	10,A,13	M,O,H,B,P	17,Q,2	F,E,7,21	12,9,8	C,3,22	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	25	25	17	13	19	39	24	23	15	19	219	21.9
2	Airspeed Purple	US	23	24	17	16	18	36	16	21	16	19	206	20.6
3	Space Center FX	US	22	24	14	17	17	37	20	21	17	14	203	20.3
G	Sebastian XL	UK	23	21	14	16	16	35	20	19	17	14	195	19.5
4	Golden Knights Gold	US	23	22	14	16	16	33	18	19	18	12	191	19.1
5	DeLand Genesis	US	23	21	14	13	16	32	19	19	15	-	172	19.1
G	DeLand Norgies	NO	21	22	14	13	14	34	19	21	-	-	158	19.8
6	Golden Knights Black	US	21	20	13	15	16	34	15	20	-	-	154	19.3
7	Ranch Air Traffic	US	17	16	11	12	13	27	17	14	-	-	127	15.9
8	Cross Keys Cat 4	US	14	14	10	12	11	21	10	12	-	-	104	13.0
9	Hedonism	US	10	5	9	8	8	14	-	-	-	-	54	9.0

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Jack Jefferies and Joey Jones were not much in support of each other in their early days of 4-way competition. In fact, they were very fierce competitors and rivals on opposite sides. Arizona Airspeed had taken the 4-way top spot in the United States, after uniting east (Jack Jefferies, Kirk Verner) and west coast competitors (Dan BC, Mark Kirkby) successfully for their original lineup, and after moving to Eloy.

Joey Jones and Dawn English formed their own FX team project in Florida with the goal to take the 4-way top spot away from Airspeed. Space Center FX won the FAI World Cup in 1998 in the absence of Arizona Airspeed and ended up in 2nd place a few months later at the USPA Nationals.

The original Airspeed lineup with Jack Jefferies competed for the last time at the FAI World Meet 1999 and placed 2nd behind France, just a month after fending off Joey Jones' new FX challenge at the national championships. A new Airspeed lineup without Jack Jefferies outscored FX again at the USPA Nationals 2000 and then won FAI 4-way gold in 2001. Jack Jefferies was still in Airspeed's 8-way lineup in 2001 and won world meet silver. FX did not continue after 2000, and Joey Jones won his 4-way world championship title with DeLand Majik in 2004, when Jack Jefferies had already turned into a recreational 4-way and 8-way competitor.

Jack Jefferies and Joey Jones are now working together to bring the current Airspeed lineup back to the world's 4-way top spot. The first step was successfully completed with the 1st place at the indoor world cup. Chances are very promising to follow up with the most relevant title in 4-way competition, the FAI outdoor title.