posted Jul 20th, 2010 - The NSL News story on 5 February 2010 reported that two teams from China were visiting Skydive DeLand for a training camp with coach Solly Williams. One of the teams was the Chinese national 4-way team that will compete at the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2010.

The same lineup had represented China at the World Meet 2008 in Maubeuge, France, where the team finished in 20th place of 23 teams with a 7.7 average after six rounds. A video was posted in the same story that showed jumps of the Chinese team in 2009.

The February story focused mostly on the skydiving career of the Chinese coach, Zhang Hongwei, who competed with the Chinese 4-way team at the World Meet 1989 in Spain. It was the first appearance of a Formation Skydiving team from China at a World Meet.

Zhang Hongwei went straight into medal contention with his team, as the US team of 1989 had to work hard to fend off the challenger for the bronze medals. China only lost in a jump-off round. The NSL News now follows up with more information of the 2010 teams.

World Meet 2008		Round1	Round2	Round3	Round4	Round5	Round6	Round7	Round8	Total	Avg
Rank	AAAClass	B,17,7	H,N,13,A	10,J,C,6	18,12,2	E,3,9	19,O,4	D,M,5,16	14,20,21	Total	Avg
20	China	7	9	8	5	9	8	-	-	46	7.7
21	Cyprus	6	5	4	5	5	6	-	-	31	5.2
22	Turkey	5	6	6	2	6	4	-	-	29	4.8
23	Slovakia	9	4	4	0	4	3	-	-	24	4.0

The Road to Russia

The Chinese delegation to DeLand in February included two teams, the Director of the Hubei Aero Sports School, He M Zhenguo, coach Zhang Hongwei and interpreter Yan Yuanling.

Solly Williams' work and the NSL News stories would have been impossible without the help of translation.

It was difficult enough for Solly Williams, as Yan Yuanling is not a skydiver and does not speak the technical 4-way language, not even in Chinese.

However, her patience and her own motivation to learn as much as possible made 4-way communication possible between the technical coach and the teams.

The national team for the Open Class competition consists of three male members (Liu Hu, Jian Xiao, Feng Feng) and one female member (Xia Lin). Meng Zhu is the female videographer of the Open Class team.

The all-female lineup that trained in DeLand at the same time is not yet China's national team.

Twin sisters Shuang and Shan Wang, Xin Tao and Siting Yu are turning the points, Fen Liu is the second female videographer in the delegation.

It was not easy for coach Solly Williams to memorize all the names for his work. Both teams helped him by accepting temporary nicknames for the duration of the training camp. Some nicknames were a natural mixture of both languages.

The NSL-TV video below includes a few jumps of both teams at the training camp in February. The videos are followed by a live NSL Talk with the whole delegation.

The talking is mostly done by Solly Williams and Yan Yuanling, and it shows how challenging the communication was.

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However, the training project and Solly Williams' work turned out to be very successful. The 7.7 average of 2008 is history.

In fact, the same lineup has left behind the 13.1 average that coach Zhang Hongwei posted with his team in 1989.

Solly Williams said that the Open Class team has posted a 15+ average this year in China. The Chinese scores at this year's World Championship may set completely new standards for the country with the biggest population and one of the smallest skydiving communities in the world.

He also said that the female lineup is the best team in the province where both teams are located. It is still not the official national team in this category.

However, the progression at the February camp alone indicates that this team could soon compete for China at the international events.