posted Jun 20th, 2022 - The NSL Live Talk with Niklas Hemlin on June 15th included the coaching situation of Arizona Airspeed, where former 4-way opponents Jack Jefferies and Joey Jones have been working together on the goal to bring the U.S. team back to the top of the 4-way world.

The next topic covered Niklas Hemlin's own coaching career, which will soon bring him to facing former NMP PCH HayaBusa member Andy Grauwels, who is trying the do the same for 4-way Women team NFTO what Jack Jefferies and Joey Jones share as a goal for Arizona Airspeed.

Competing and coaching both are very relevant factors in the development of 4-way teams. In fact, coaching and the integration of new team players into an existing lineup play a major role in all team sports. The intensity of group dynamics and logistics in 4-way training and competition would make it even more important to bring these major components to the top of the priority list for each team.

There are still not many experiences and much expertise in this area of the relatively young sport. Former world-champion competitors Jack Jefferies, Dan BC and Shannon Pilcher dedicated their own experiences and interest in this territory to their careers and have become forerunners in the application of sport psychology, group dynamics and mental training.

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Arizona Airspeed lineup continuity since 1994

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Niklas Hemlin said that his own coaching is more on the technical side, while he is still trying to get as much learned knowledge as possible across to the teams he is coaching. Arizona Airspeed have obviously decided to use an external expert (Jack Jefferies) to bring the group dynamics to the best level and work with Joey Jones more on the technical side.

The lineups of the top teams and the integration of new team members play another major role in the development of a 4-way team, and Niklas Hemlin has had a lot of experiences in this area by himself. He joined Arizona Airspeed in 2011, after his time with Team Fastrax who tried to take the U.S. top position until the 2nd place at the USPA Nationals 2007.

Niklas Hemlin spent seven years with Team Fastrax, and the lineups changed annually, with one exception in 2004 and 2005, when the same lineup trained and competed together for two years. His first Airspeed lineup won the FAI world championship title at the end of the team's second year together.

He left the team after winning his first world meet gold medal and came back with the new Airspeed lineup of 2015. He has continued with the team ever since, together with Mikhail Markine since 2016, and they rebuilt the lineup even after missing the U.S. top spot in 2019.

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USPA Nationals 2007			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		11,6,K	12,E,C,A	18,17,F	4,8,P	M,20,D,9	19,16,5	B,3,O,G	13,H,2	7,22,15	N,21,L,J	Total	Avg
1	Airspeed Odyssey	US	23	26	26	23	32	24	28	23	21	27	253	25.3
2	Fastrax	US	22	26	26	22	29	21	27	24	20	27	244	24.4
3	Golden Knights Gold	US	20	25	24	23	29	21	25	21	19	23	230	23.0
4	Perris Fury	US	20	23	19	20	28	19	21	20	17	22	209	20.9
G	Arcteryx	NO	20	22	22	21	24	19	22	19	16	23	208	20.8
G	Aerokart Seloger.com	FR	18	21	16	18	26	19	24	18	17	22	199	19.9
5	Mass Defiance	US	18	20	18	18	25	16	22	19	15	22	193	19.3
6	FooZa	US	18	18	20	16	23	16	24	17	16	22	190	19.0
7	Arizona Directe	US	16	20	18	16	21	15	20	15	16	21	178	17.8
G	Nice Maubeuge Holidays	FR	17	20	16	15	19	17	21	16	15	18	174	17.4
8	Fastrax Blue	US	18	18	18	16	19	17	20	16	15	17	174	17.4
9	Arizona Ace	US	16	18	18	15	21	16	21	16	14	17	172	17.2
10	Arizona Divewerkz	US	16	13	15	15	20	14	17	16	13	19	158	15.8
11	Golden Knights Black	US	13	14	14	14	16	13	14	11	12	17	138	13.8
12	Optik Nerve	US	13	14	12	13	14	12	14	14	11	18	135	13.5
13	Team Twisted	US	13	0	9	13	18	9	17	12	11	14	116	11.6

NMP PCH HayaBusa lineup continuity since 2002

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He explained during the NSL Live Talk conversation how important the efficient integration of new team members are for a successful and quick transition from one lineup to another one. That was one of the reasons why the current lineup began their partnership with Jack Jefferies early and have maintained it.

Niklas Hemlin discussed the situation of Arizona Airspeed's current lineup and compared it with the reigning 4-way outdoor world champions from Belgium, NMP PCH HayaBusa, at the same time. He is fully aware of the challenges that any change in the lineup is bringing.

NMP PCH HayaBusa's lineups over the most recent years have been going in the opposite direction than Airspeed's, after nine years of impressive continuity. The Belgians have become experts in the area of integrating new team members and were able to defend their world championship title successfully since winning it first time in 2014. They are now in the middle of the same process with new team member Neal Willems. Niklas Hemlin's Airspeed lineup is in its third year, and there is a very good chance that this continuity will be rewarded with a new world championship title for Arizona Airspeed in October this year.