posted Apr 30th, 2024 - Sunday was a NMP PCH HayaBusa day for the NSL News, which happened by coincidence. HayaBusa's former inside center Luc Verstrepen and former HayaBusa coach Gary Smith have been spending a lot of time together since they both started working as coaches for the Qatar delegation. They travel together to the locations where Lions and Cheetahs are training and competing, and they don't mind keeping the NSL News updated with regular NSL Live Talk conversations.

Their teams both attended the FAI Indoor World Cup 2024, together with Qatar's national 4-way team, the Tigers, and they provided feedback and observations from their perspective after the conclusion of the competition in China. In fact, they had already moved to the next location with the Lions and Cheetahs delegation, which was in Spain. More indoor training was on the agenda before they will also transition to outdoor training soon.

Only half a day later, the complete current NMP PCH HayaBusa lineup was also available for an update from Brazil, where they are training outdoors near Sao Paulo, together with teams of the Brazilian military services. The joint venture is a part of the military cooperation between the two countries' sports teams. The NSL News will go back to this newest NSL Live Talk with NMP PCH HayaBusa very soon. Gary Smith and Luc Verstrepen had moved with Lions and Cheetahs from China to Spain for their next training camp, which requires nearly a whole day of traveling. The Qatar delegations have logistical reasons for the selection of their training sites, and they have recently spent a lot of their time in Spain.

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NSL Coaches Corner with Luc Verstrepen and Gary Smith on 28 April 2024

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Gary Smith and Luc Verstrepen said that the new indoor training camp with Lions and Cheetahs in Spain was mostly dedicated to improve individual skills of all team members. Arizona Airspeed and NMP PCH HayaBusa members have often confirmed in the past that they work on their individual skills on a regular basis, as well.

They confirmed that both teams are still compromised at the moment, as they mentioned in the previous NSL Live Talk on March 6th. Both lineups had to be changed when a Lions' team member had to travel back to Qatar unexpectedly. Lions and Cheetahs both had to compete with substitutes at the indoor world cup.

It was to be expected that the two Qatar teams behind the Tigers would not be able to compete on their peak performance level. The Lions still made the Top 10 with their 8th place in 4-way Open while Cheetahs ended fare behind their 23.4 team record average.

Gary Smith and Luc Verstrepen confirmed what Arizona Airspeed's Niklas Hemlin mentioned during the NSL Live Talk a few days ago. Niklas Hemlin said that entry into the flying chamber was challenging and had to be trained carefully. Gary Smith and Luc Verstrepen said that teams often had to start at the very bottom from the safety net before getting to clean and strong air.

FAI Indoor World Cup 2024			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		8,C,7		K,G,12,B		6,4,H		20,1,5		15,10,A		F,O,P,21		19,M,9		J,13,E,22		16,3,N		L,Q,D,18		Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	35		36	-2	32		29		29		44		39		29		31		39		343	34.3
2	Aethers	FR	32	-1	33		31		27		26		40	-2	36		28	-1	30		36	-1	319	31.9
3	China	CN	27	-4	33	-1	31		26	-1	21	-3	44		32	-3	29		29		33	-1	305	30.5
4	Qatar Tigers	QA	29	-1	32	-1	25	-3	25		25	-1	41		35		28		27		33		300	30.0
5	NFTO	UK	26		27	-1	25	-1	25		23		36	-3	32	-1	27		23	-2	32		276	27.6
6	XPG4	US	29		28	-2	26		25		24		39		31	-1	25	-1	23	-3	26	-3	276	27.6
7	Papea	ES	30		28		25		24	-1	23	-2	38	-1	33		25	-1	22	-1	26	-3	274	27.4
8	Echochamber Oceanside	SE	24	-2	30	-2	27		25		22	-1	37		29	-3	24		25		28	-1	271	27.1
9	China	CN	25		27		26		24		22		33	-4	29	-2	25	-1	20	-3	30		261	26.1
10	Fly X	IT	27	-1	26	-2	23	-2	22		22	-1	37	-2	30	-1	24		21	-3	27	-2	259	25.9
11	Qatar Lions	QA	23	-2	22	-5	26		21	-1	19	-2	35	-2	30		25		25		26	-3	252	25.2
12	Crazy Dragons	CZ	24	-1	24	-2	21	-2	20	-1	18	-3	34		30		23		21	-1	26	-2	241	24.1
13	China 2	CN	25	-2	30		25	-1	19	-2	14	-4	34		27	-1	19	-4	20	-1	19	-5	232	23.2
14	Netunos	BR	19	-2	27		21	-2	18	-2	16	-2	30	-5	29	-1	23		21	-1	27	-1	231	23.1
15	Out Of The Blue	NL	23	-3	23		19	-2	19	-2	17	-1	34		27		21		22		22	-3	227	22.7
16	Indonesia	ID	22	-4	23	-5	21	-3	18	-4	18	-1	30	-2	25	-1	20	-1	16	-5	26		219	21.9
17	Indonesia	ID	23	-3	21	-6	15	-7	15	-4	16	-2	30	-3	24	-1	19	-2	18	-3	21	-3	202	20.2
18	Qatar Cheetahs	QA	21		19	-2	20	-1	19		13	-3	27	-2	25	-1	22		14	-4	19	-1	199	19.9
19	Só Pressão	BR	18	-2	22	-1	17	-1	18		13	-3	25	-5	22	-2	19	-1	19		23		196	19.6
20	Singapore	SG	19		13		19		13		15		26	-4	16	-5	17	-1	17	-1	18		173	17.3
21	Fire Phoenix	IT	16	-5	15	-4	16	-1	14		14	-1	23	-2	19	-2	17	-3	13	-2	19		166	16.6
22	South Korea	KR	14		18		18		10		14		22	-3	18		16		16		16		162	16.2
23	Singapore	SG	17		15	-3	16	-1	14		11	-2	23	-4	16	-3	15		13	-1	17	-1	157	15.7
24	Thailand	TH	12		15		14		11		12		22		18		14		14		12		144	14.4
25	Thailand	TH	11	-8	15	-3	15	-3	11	-2	11	-2	20	-5	17	-2	13	-3	15	-1	14	-1	142	14.2
26	Yangon	MM	8	-11	15	-2	16		10	-3	12	-1	23	-1	16	-3	15		10	-5	15		140	14.0
27	Indonesia 2	ID	12		11		13		13		11		20	-1	19		13		11		15		138	13.8
28	Singapore 2	SG	10		12		12		5		9		18	-5	18		13		13		11		121	12.1
29	Singapore 3	SG	6		10		13		8		9		10	-9	12		8		11		8		95	9.5
30	Malaysia	MY	2		2		1		3		3		7	-2	5		4		6		3		36	3.6

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Qatar Tigers - Qatar Lions - Qatar Cheetahs at the FAI Indoor World Cup 2024

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The entry into the flying chamber was different compared to other wind tunnels, and even Arizona Airspeed needed special practice to get used to it. The Qatar coaches saw similarities with exits from jump planes, which have their special details and may change, too, depending on the hosts of the outdoor events.

Qatar's national 4-way team, the Tigers, had no troubles with their unchanged lineup of the past decade. They reached the 30-average level again at the Wind Games in February (30.1) and confirmed it in China (30.0) with the bronze medals in 4-way Open.

The Qatar Tigers had reached the 30+ level first time at the with coach Gary Smith and improved it to 30.5 at the World Challenge 2019, French Indoor Nationals 2018 (30.3) followed by the 30.2 average at the FAI Indoor World Championship 2019. The same lineup then dropped below the 30-average level in their next indoor meets and are now back to their full potential with new coach and former NMP PCH HayaBusa member Andy Grauwels.

Gary Smith and Luc Verstrepen admitted that they were shocked when they first saw China's 4-way Women team in the flying chamber. They explained that they applied a breath-taking speed and seemed to accept mistakes and penalties to an unknown degree. Then they were shocked again to see a few days later how quickly the performance quality was adjusted to the scoring level that won the 3rd place on the combined AAA Class leaderboard with a 30.5 average, five points ahead of Open Class bronze medalist Qatar Tigers - after 13 point deductions. Gary Smith and Luc Verstrepen were also very impressed with the hosting of the event by the wind tunnel in Macau, China.