posted Jan 31st, 2010 - The parachuting representatives of each country meet once a year to make the important decisions for the sport at the annual IPC Meeting (International Parachuting Commission). This year's meeting took place this week in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The good news is the fact that there are not many news at all, at least not for Formation Skydiving competition. It has been quite for years now, as the sport has settled with the main set of rules, which have been working very well. There have been only a few adjustments here and there when it was necessary.

IPC's Subcommittee Formation Skydiving prepares the decisions, which are then usually confirmed by the general assembly of the IPC Delegates. Fiona McEachern from Australia is still the Chair of the committee, Trudde Sviggum from Norway is the Deputy Chair.

Fiona McEachern competed with the Australian 8-way team at the World Meet 2008 in France, Trude Sviggum is the longest standing active Norwegian competitor. She just joined the new national team in the female category, Polaris.

Several high-profile advisors provide their feedback and expertise throughout the year and at the annual IPC Meeting. There are currently seven official advisors: Sven Ibens (Belgium), Jérôme David (France), Philippe Schorno (France), Dr. Rainer "Exi" Hoenle (Germany), Sara Saccet (Italy), Anatoly "Toly" Zhirov (Russia) and Eric Deren (USA).

Sven Ibens is a founding member of the Belgian world class team Hayabusa. Jérôme David is a former French 4-way world champion and has now been the national coach of the whole French Formation Skydiving delegation for several years.

Philippe Schorno is another former French 4-way world champion who reaches back even further than Jérôme David. He was a member of the Coca Cola/TAG Team that dominated the 4-way competition in the mid 80's to the mid 90's. He is now in charge of the French Vertical 4-way competition. Eric Deren has the same position in the USA.

Dr. Rainer "Exi" Hoenle trained with German 4-way and 8-way teams in the early and mid 80s and competed with the German 8-way team at the World Meet 1987 in Brazil. He is now one of the most experienced FAI judges and attends the big international meets in other IPC missions, as well.

Sara Saccet is an experienced international FAI judge, as well. She also helped to coordinate the meets in Italy when the south European country joined the international NSL Network. Anatoly "Toly" Zhirov was a member of the first Russian 4-way teams that competed at international meets, beginning at the World Meet 1985 in former Yugoslavia.

The whole Formation Skydiving Subcommittee obviously represents all the knowledge, expertise and experiences that a sport needs for good leadership. It is not a surprise that there is less work to do for the committee year by year, as of rule changes and adjustments.

There is other work, as the international IPC meets of the 1st category (World Championships, World Cups) need to be put together.

Advancing technology also requires the committee members to keep up with the judging systems and the presentation of the sport to the participants, to the general public and the media. CamScore currently stands for the cutting edge in judging and DZ-TV technology and will cover the World Meet 2010, together with the NSL News in the journalistic area.

The location of the next World Meet in 2012 has not been determined yet. The bidding process is still open. However, Germany's bid for the World Cup of Formation Skydiving 2011 was accepted. Germany hosted the World Championship of Formation Skydiving in 2006, which became a victim of bad weather. Only five rounds were completed in 4-way and six rounds in 8-way.

The Czech Republic, one of Germany's neighbour countries, successfully completed all ten rounds in all events at the World Cup 2009 in Prostejov. Germany was stuck to a certain extent with some rules that made it more difficult to manage the final rounds of the event by then.

The combination of bad weather and difficult rules was bad luck, as the logistics of the event were perfectly managed. The German officials are now eager to wipe out the bad memories of 2006 and replace them with great experiences for the participants.

The whole set of rules for Formation Skydiving competition remains unchanged, with one exception. There was an issue at a meet in Russia last year that caused a further discussion of "self-grips" within a subgroup. The same issue was addressed before the start of the Russian Nationals 2009 to avoid any confusion.

A competitor had maintained a perfect "Mantis" position almost throughout a whole competition jump, including some piece flying for a block. The judges saw a conflict with this rule:

3.3.8 "Assisting handholds on other jumpers or their equipment within a subgroup or a scoring formation are not permitted."

After this meet, there was a new guideline for interpretation by the judges for the remainder of the 2009 season. The "self-grip" would be accepted for a random formation but not for any block inter. The judges said that one person can also be a subgroup, according to the rules. They promised that they would bring the issue to the attention of IPC's Formation Skydiving Subcommittee, and they did.

The definition of a "grip" was now changed:

"2.2 Grip: consists of a handhold on an arm or leg of another jumper. As a minimum, a grip requires stationary contact."

Another clarification was added to the Performance Requirements for a competition:

"3.3.9 Handholds by the jumper on their own body or equipment within a subgroup or a scoring formation are permitted."

Conclusion: common sense prevailed, and tunnel rats don't have to worry about their body position in freefall any longer. Let the 2010 games begin.