posted Apr 24th, 2007 - The NSL News published the last update of the Formation Skydiving competition business in Germany on 11 October 2006. Last year's competition season was over, and the teams were in the process of making plans for the 2007 season. The news from Germany were interesting enough since the best two German 4-way teams decided to join for a new 8-way project.

The NSL News evaluated the 8-way situation by then and considered the chances of a German 8-way team to win medals at a future world championship. The former national German 8-way team, FSC Remscheid, had already made it to the 4th place at the World Meet in Croatia 2004.

The NSL News article of October 2006 concluded that there might be realistic chances if all necessary components of the plan fall in place as planned. The two best German 4-way teams, EADS (19.3) and Next Generation (19.5), have already posted meet averages in 4-way that indicate the skills level required to get to an 18.0 average in 8-way.

German4way, with the same line-up as the formerly known "Next Generation" (Max Thiele - Point, Jörn Thiele - Centyer Inside, Dieter Schwarz - Center Outside, Markus Bastuck - Tail, Alexander Hau - Camera), recently visited Skydive DeLand for a spring training camp with coach Gary Smith. The NSL News asked the team for a new update, and German4way provided a complete overview of the team history and the situation at the beginning of the 2007 season.

The EADS veterans (Olaf Biedermann - Center Inside, Thomas Spielvogel - Point, Jens Gönnemann - Center Outside, Göran Meyer - Tail, Marc Ewert - Camera) have been dominating the 4-way competition in Germany for many years. German4way formed and developed the team from scratch over a period of seven years.

The team had only one personnel change in these seven years when Dieter Schwarz replaced Andi Nüsser in the Center Outside position. The 2006 season was supposed to bring the ultimate regime change in Germany. Unfortunately, Jörn Thiele needed a back surgery at the beginning of the season, which put the training plans on a hold for a while.

The youngsters finally caught up with the EADS veterans last year and won a regional competition over their former rivals. However, the EADS veterans fought back and won the most important German event of the 2006 season, the DFV-Cup. Both teams then decided to join forces and made plans for the described 8-way project. EADS retired from 4-way competition as the reigning national champion and only focuses on 8-way, while German4way continues to train and compete in 4-way, as well.

German4way speaker Max Thiele explained to the NSL News that the 8-way project gives the team an exciting perspective for the international top competition. However, it was difficult for his team to give 8-way the priority:

"EADS stepping back in 4-way and forwarding the slot as the German national 4-way team of the future to us added motivation and energy to all of us. It felt like finally getting to the top position that we have been working for so hard throughout the last seven years."

German4way entered the German 4-way world at a difficult time for any challengers. The EADS members were already seasoned and successful competitors with a lot of experience when they joined in the new line-up and made plans for the team's future, including a solid financial foundation with the help of a large corporation, the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS).

Max Thiele now knows that it was a good thing to still continue and never give up: "We trained hard and invested time and money. It was obviously worth it. Now we can train and compete as the national team in both events, and there are great perspectives for us."

German4way plans to complete 200 training jumps in 4-way. The spring camp in DeLand already covered half of the 4-way program after a very successful visit in April. Additional 200 jumps are planned in 8-way, and approx. eight hours of tunnel time round up the training plan for 2007.

The new German national 4-way team knows that 200 training jumps are not enough to win the next world championship. However, Max Thiele hopes that the 8-way training jumps will also be beneficial for the 4-way progression. The team goals are set realistically and according to the training efforts:

"We are ready to knock on the 20-average door in 4-way. Only six nations have passed this benchmark so far, and we want to be the next one. We will focus on the international events, primarily on this year's World Cup in Russia. We will surely not be cautious there and see how far we can go."

The US top teams will most likely not be present at the World Cup 2007 since they already travel to Russia for the earlier Malevsky Cup 2007. The World Cup 2007 is scheduled too close to the USPA Nationals 2007, which is the qualification event to next year's World Meet in France for the US teams.

German4way studied the scores of the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2007 at their recent visit in DeLand, and coach Gary Smith supervised the team when it jumped the competition draw during the training. Max Thiele reported that his team's scores were motivating:

"Sure, we only jumped the competition draw in training. However, we know now that we can keep up with the top speed, and that is very motivating. We can move on and focus on drilling the block techniques to avoid any mistakes. There is no doubt that we can score a 20-average if we can get through a meet without major mistakes."

German4way worked with coach Gary Smith this time. Max Thiele explained that his team did not switch from Solly Williams to the team's new coach at the last camp. The two 4-way world champions had coordinated the training plans together with the German team:

"Solly was not available for us this year due to other time commitments. Solly and Gary discussed the continuity for our team, and Gary had the time to work with us directly. Solly will continue as our head coach. Both provide equal coaching services of highest quality. However, Solly moved us up from a 16-average to the 19-average within 200 jumps and with a lot of energy and patience. We like Gary and Solly both, however, the long team history of hard work and success with Solly has created a unique connection."

Max Thiele explained that reigning 4-way world champion Gary Smith emphasized the value of a reliable continuity plan at the last camp: "He explained to us how important it is to deliver the block techniques all the time with quality. This brought to us a lot of Block 1 practice..."

He added that it was hard to go through the technical drills. However, the team now understands more of the EADS success in the past: "I think we know that EADS was so successful and consistent because of the flawless technical execution of the block techniques, for one reason."

Going back to the 8-way project, Max Thiele did not have specific news at the moment. The plans are still the same, and the actual training begins in May. Italian 4-way and 8-way competitor Marco Arrigo will be the head coach for the new German EADS 8-way team.