posted Feb 9th, 2005 - Former DeLand Majik member Joey Jones looked beat up when he visited at the NSL office last week. He did not come from a fist fight over the Majik future, or from a tough skydiving training session. Jones regularly attends a local martial art training. The fight training the night before the visit left the marks on his face. However, Jones volunteered for the picture and added that this kind of training has been a part of his workout for a long time.

The NSL News was interested in Jones' feedback as of the current rule changes and his relationship and future with DeLand Majik. The current world champion team announced a new line-up for the 2005 season yesterday. Jones is not a member of this new line-up any longer. However, he will still be a part of the Majik project and attend this year's World Games in Germany with Majik's 2004 line-up.

Jones explained during his visit in the NSL office in DeLand that he feels like he needs a break after years of hard training and competition. He is currently lacking the motivation to continue with the same intensity as in the past years. Another casual year of training and competition with Majik might have been more appealing to him. The Majik plans for the 2005 season seemed to ask for too much effort at this point.

Jones said that he did not exactly know what line-up Solly Williams and Doug Park would put together at the time of his visit. He knew that Williams and Park were working on a plan for this year. He also knew that his team partner of many years, Doug Park, "does not like the idea of not competiting in 4-way". Park and Jones have been training and competing together since 1995.

Jones explained that he never really took a serious break from intense training and competition. Whenever there was a break from top level competition, he filled the time with player coach positions and coaching. Space Center FX kept him and Park busy in 1995 and 1996. FX took a year off in 1997, while Jones continued as a player coach for Eyes on Florida.

FX came back together in 1998 and continued throughout the 2000 season. Jones got another year off in 2001 when FX was finished. However, he filled the 2001 season with the player coach position for Touch of Majik. DeLand Majik was formed in 2002 and peaked with the world championship gold medals in 2004.

2005 could become a real year off for Jones if he does not accept a new player coach position. He will continue with his coaching career in any case: "I have a lot of coaching business with the military, and I will continue to work with the special units of SOCOM and Navy." He explains that these military elite units accept only coaching from world champions, no matter which sports or other skills are required to be drilled. He teaches the body flight for these units at Ft. Bragg and in Arizona.

Jones himself is a former US Marine Corps member without active combat experience. His military coaching business began when Lou Massie, a Dallas Thunder member and former Navy Seal, introduced Jones to the Navy and recommended his coaching services. He founded a company called "Flight Solutions" for his military coaching services.

Jones will also continue to work with civilian teams, even though he will focus on the military business. Team Fastrax plans 2-on-2 coaching camps with Jones and Park. The Canadian national 4-way team Stratosfear, the Belgian military 4-way team NMPV and Dallas Thunder have scheduled training camps with Jones as the coach in 2005.

Jones, who is 34 years of age, still has no doubt that he will be back in competition eventually: "The Majik is not there for me this year. I have to get my life together first of all, including finances, my wife Lena's school, and the house needs attention. I have never really had a break in all these years. I plan to pick up the pace again in 2007."

Jones approves the current rule changes. The new penalty rules, including the decreased damage for infringements, were supported by DeLand Majik. "It simplifies the judging process", Jones comments. He does not think that teams will become sloppier, at least not on the high performance level: "Sloppy skydiving hurts the rhythm and quality level work. Most of the teams have already followed the idea of moving on in any situation. The new rules will not change much in this area."

He still sees the possibility of teams trying to take advantage of a lower punishment for mistakes: "The judges might see more infringements in the future. However, theoretically it should not change the actual judging at all, and it will become much easier and very simple. There are only two buttons: you score or you don't, that's it. We will hopefully see more synchronized score sheets with 5-5 decisions and less split decisions."

The NSL News finally asked Jones to rate the top teams competing for the medals at the major events of the 2005 season: "The Golden Knights, DeLand Fire, Fastrax, DeLand Majik and both Airspeed line-ups will compete for the medals in the USA. I think that the Golden Knights have the best chances to win the gold medals", Jones answered.

The international situation was the last topic. "We have no information about the French 4-way team, which is completely new. The Golden Knights and Italy's Sinapsi PD might compete for the gold medals, and there could be an open race for the bronze medals, with France and some of the newcomer teams like Belgium or Norway."