posted Jun 19th, 2010 - Team Eclipse is a new team taking on the A Class in the United Kingdom Skydiving League. Eclipse finished second with an 8.7 average at the first UKSL meet of the 2010 season. Fast forward four weeks to the second UKSL meet last weekend, and Eclipse finished second again, this time with a 12.7 average though.

The team had worked hard to produce this improvement, and there is probably the potential to go even faster. Eclipse was formed following the UK Nationals 2009 in which three team members had entered as a scratch team and had been so pleased with the results that they decided to continue as a "serious" team.

The team members' jump numbers range between 350 and 500, while the experience in 4-way is not consistent. Martin Cressey and Jenny Buckle, working together in the center, had previous experiences in both the Rookie and the A Class.

Point Ben Lawford had no previous 4-way experience at all, and Tail Jonny Flowers spent the 2009 season on a "Concept AAA Class Team" that had the goal of completing one page in every round. Team videographer Simon Chittick had experience as a 4-way competitor and as a tandem videographer and was persuaded into combining these skills to take on 4-way training.

On paper the team was not an ideal match, in part due to the varying experience levels and largely because team members live 500 miles apart from each other at opposite ends of the United Kingdom. However, it was still clear for the team members that the personalities combined to create a great balance between hard work and fun and that the goals of each team member were very similar.

With careful planning, hard work and a lof of driving (8000 miles so far) the logistical issues and varying skill levels were overcome, and the decision to place primary importance on personalities proved to be the right one.

Evidence for the great team dynamics were a number of issues throughout the season, including a broken jaw, a cancelled training camp and grounded kit. Team member Jenny Buckle reported that of the troubles have been overcome with a minimum amount of team fuss due to the willingness to be flexible, use good communication with an "awful lot of emails". In fact, the hardest team task yet was finding a team name that all members could agree on. Even a complicated online survey process didn't produce a unanimous result initially...

Eclipse had originally planned a training camp in May. The trip had to be cancelled as a result of the volcanic ash cloud. The new team now had to jump for the first time together at the first UKSL meet of the 2010 season.

The expectations were low, as that the team was effectively a scratch team for the first competition. It was a very pleasant surprise when Eclipse still took a silver medal in the A Class in May. The team in first place, Gr4vity, had a cushion of over 30 points after the 6-round meet, and this certainly set a target standard for Eclipse to work towards.

The re-scheduled training camp took place at Skydive Hibaldstow in June, and the team made 40 jumps together. The Eclipse members were impressed what a difference those 40 jumps made. The biggest factor in pushing up the standard was receiving dedicated coaching by Satori member Katie Woods.

Eclipse was setting out the team budget at the beginning of the season and decided that investing money in a coach was of primary importance for the team. This decision has has paid off. Eclipse asked Katie Woods to work with the team for special reasons. Jenny Buckle remembered the reasoning behind the selection of the young Satori member:

"She is not only an awesome flyer. We also felt that her attitude and coaching style would fit our team perfectly, and we were right! With Katie briefing and debriefing every single jump we got so much more out of the camp than we would have had we been fending for ourselves."

The training camp included three days of bad weather, and Eclipse made use of every one of those in the form of creeping, mocking up exits and talking through specific moves on each random and block. The team members fely by the end of the week like they had done hundreds of jumps due to the massive amount of new knowledge.

The second UKSL meet of the season followed the training camp, and Eclipse was looking forward to seeing how much the team had improved as a result of the camp. The UK team also had its own special way how to get through this meet, as a team is made up of very competitive individuals. Jenny Buckle explained:

"We decided it would be in our favour not to look at the scores until we had completed the competition to try and get us performing consistently. This meant that it wasn't until after Round 6 that we were able to run to the scoreboard and see that we were within touching distance of Gr4vity, who were once again in the lead. As the scores for Round 5 and 6 came in, we closed the gap between ourselves and Gravity to just two points. This meant another silver medal but with a hugely improved performance, we were over the moon!"

The UKSL season is now half way through, and Eclipse is very pleased with the team performance so far. There have been some real highlights for the UK team. The 17-pointer in Round 2 was a personal best for all team members. Eclipse also hasn't had a single camera bust in competition yet, which is amazing for a videographer with only 50 jumps on 4-way camera.

Jenny Buckle said that her team feels like the members have known each other for years. She thinks that the good relationship they have with each other makes a difference to the ability to work as a team in the air. Team goal now is to make the most of the training that is planned for the rest of the season and work hard on the ground to improve.

Eclipse is not afraid of looking like skydiving workaholics: "We may be getting strange looks from colleagues after breaking into a smile visualising the perfect 19 in the middle of a business meeting..."

There are two more UKSL meets this season, including the UK Nationals 2010. The Eclipse members are looking forward to competing against Gr4vity twice more. They will be well prepared to do the best in what is shaping up to be a very strong field at the national championship. However, most importantly Eclipse wants to show that it is possible "to be silly in the plane and kick ass in the air! "