posted Mar 12th, 2008 - Fastrax founder and Knight Trax member John Hart continues with his series of 4-way tips. The April camp of the Mideast Skydiving League will include a full session of 4-way coaching by members of Team Fastrax. These 4-way tips can be very helpful for the beginners in the sport.

Two new Rookie Class teams for the Florida Skydiving League 2008 season have already signed up for the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2008 and will absorb all the information that will be available throughout the weekend.

Down With The Syndrome is one of these Rookie Class teams and consists of Tiffany Szumila (Outside Center), Dan Scaber (Point), James Scarpelli (Tail) and Anthony Formosa (Inside Center).

The team members are all students at the Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida, and members of its skydiving club. The team was formed in October 2007 and competed for the first time at the National Collegiates in December 2007. Dan Mattox replaced Dan Scaber recently, due to knee surgery.

The Embry Riddle team trains when the team members are not busy with engineering, flying, ROTC, or work. Team member Anthony Formosa expressed the team's new passion for 4-way when he signed up Down With The Syndrome for the upcoming meet in DeLand: "We are learning a lot from everyone around us about 4-way, and it has been a great experience so far."

4-way Tips - Grip Discipline & Key Plans

By John Hart, Team Fastrax

Part of walking the dive should be working out grip details. For instance, when taking star grips or open grips, in which jumpers take each other's arm, either or both teammates can take the grip. Determine who will do what. Failure to do so will result in fumbled grips, or "sword-fighting".

Usually, the ideal grip choices in these situations will be:

- Single star grip on Random Formation (Star): the jumper who is coming in takes the wrist of the jumper turning out or staying still. If both jumpers are turning in, pick one.

- Double star grip on Random Formation (Satellite): as each jumper turns, they present with the leading wrist and take the other's wrist with the trailing hand.

- Open grip on Random Formation (Open Accordion): one jumper takes the other's wrist. Work out who takes whom, depending on who has to take other grips and who is keying.

- Single star grip on Block (Canadian Tee - Canadian Tee): usually the same as a Random Formation. Sometimes a particular team will choose double high grips.

- Double star grip on Block (Zircon - Zircon): always take high grips. Most teams will take double grips, some will choose to take single grips.

- Open grip on Block (Photon - Photon): always take high grips. Work out who will go over and who will go under.

Work out the sequence in which each jumper will take each grip in each formation. That is not to say that one jumper must take a certain grip before another jumper takes a certain grip, but rather that if a jumper is taking two grips, work out which one to take first and stick to that plan.

Work out a key plan to ensure that each formation is completely built before it is keyed. To determine who keys a formation, figure out who can see and/or feel the entire formation. If nobody can see and/or feel everything, work out a plan where the person who can verify the other part does so, then makes eye contact with the person giving the key. For instance, when building a Unipod, the Inside Center ensures the grips are built at the back of the formation, then looks up to the point to establish eye contact verifying the front grips are built.

It is essential that everybody follows the key plan. If people who are not planned to key start "stealing" the keys, busts will occur, and the points you work so hard to score will be squandered on penalties.