posted Mar 11th, 2011 - New arrivals at the dropzone in DeLand today included the French national team in the Open Class, Aerodyne Aerokart Maubeuge, and UK team SonicNutz. They started their training camps in preparation for the Shamrock Showdown 2011, which begins with Round 1 on Friday morning, March 18th.

French coach Marin Ferre is now working with both 4-way teams, which keeps him and packing master Fred "Toshiba" Leroux busy enough. NMP-PCH Hayabusa finally got in the air over DeLand, as well, and outdoor coach Joey Jones is working with the team.

The NSL News invited the present coaches (Solly Williams, Gary Smith, Joey Jones, Shannon Pilcher, Marin Ferre) for a new round of NSL Talk, the "Coaches Corner", on Saturday morning. Hopefully, the logistics and coordination between coaches and teams will work out, so that a lively discussion of the situation before the Shamrock Showdown will be on NSL-TV tomorrow.

Two of the top contenders are now obviously training side by side in DeLand, while Arizona Airspeed is still in Eloy. The two top contenders in the female category are also sharing the training facilities in DeLand, the French Deep Blue Defenders and Germany's ISB Air.

The British team SonicNutz was one of today's new arrivals. The NSL News covered the team plans for the 2011 season on 22 December 2010. The Shamrock Showdown was on the SonicNutz agenda, and the UK team followed up on it.

Gary Smith is working with SonicNutz, and he is a very busy coach now. He has ISB Air and Whooops under his supervision, as well, and probably keeps his eyes on the Hayabusa performance. Even more work is coming soon for him.

The SonicNutz performance at the Shamrock Showdown will offer a preview of this year's situation in the United Kingdom. Helen Arnold (Point), Darren Atter (Center Outside), Simon Cathrine (Center Inside) and Dave Honeybone (Tail) placed 3rd at last year's UK Nationals with a 16.5 average.

The NSL News headlined the previous story with the plan that SonicNutz will pick up the speed for the 2011 season. The 16.5 average is a great foundation and may allow SonicNutz to get much closer to the scoring level of the teams in the first two places last year, Satori and Team Bodyflight.

In fact, SonicNutz may have a great chance to get to the very top in the United Kingdom this year. Satori has a personnel change since Katie Woods has moved to Florida. Team Bodyflight's lineup was not complete yet, according to the latest update of the World Challenge 2011. All three teams will eventually have their own UK Showdown at Bodyflight Bedford in April.