Chicks Rock (June)

Chicks Rock

June 2001

Putting a 4-way Team Together When you’ve just got your Cat 10, it can be difficult to get on a load. You don’t like to ask some people. It’s very off-putting if you haven’t made a jump by lunchtime. You can feel like the only person there that no-one wants to jump with. Its easy to end up not getting in the plane at all. Just remember that every skydiver – no matter how cool – has been there!
Putting a 4-way team together can get you over the hurdle of that first jump of the day. It motivates you to be at the DZ and start jumping, then you’ll be in the groove... It’s easy to feel, at Cat 10, that you’ve reached the top of a ladder and now are at a bit of a loss. It can feel like an anticlimax. But the learning doesn’t stop, this is only just the beginning. 4-way is a fun and challenging way of improving your skills.
Jumping in a team can be as fun or as serious as you want it to be. Doing 4-way can be as simple as people just wanting to jump with the same group at weekends in order to gain some kind of consistency. Or you might want to do a training camp. You don’t have to spend loads of money on matching jumpsuits and the latest gear. It’s all about improving your flying skills and having fun at the same time. It doesn’t matter how many jumps you do as a team, still enter the competitions. It’s a great way to meet new friends and future team mates. Where do I find my team? Whether you are looking at just doing casual 4-way or something a bit more serious, you need to find three like-minded people who want to achieve similar goals. It’s no good if one person has a dream of being World Champion if the other three are quite happy to party all night, roll out of bed at lunchtime to do just a couple of skydives. There are a number of ways in which to meet these skydivers: 1. Coaching weekends Check the diary for the dates of the Coaching Roadshow weekends at various DZ’s around the UK. You can get FREE coaching and jump with members of the National teams. Also, many DZ’s now run their own weekends where experienced jumpers organise and jump with groups of people who want to improve. 2. Scrambles competitions These provide great opportunities for you to do some 4-way with people you haven’t necessarily jumped with before, in a fun and relaxed environment. It enables jumpers relatively new to 4-way to learn some valuable skills from their more experienced team mates. And it really doesn’t matter if you mess up! Videos of funnelled exits and wipe-outs provide entertaining viewing in the bar. 3. Skills camps Top teams such as Arizona Airspeed and Sebastian XL are always running skills camps. They last one or two weeks and normally take place abroad where the weather is more guaranteed. You’ll improve your FS skills and meet other people with similar goals. 4. BPA Grand Prix and UK Nationals Even if you don’t have a team, still go along. Nine times out of ten there will be a group of people looking to put a scratch team together. And if that doesn’t happen you can still enjoy the party, get your face known and make new friends – who may be future team mates! It doesn’t matter how many jumps you do together as a team, the Nationals is a must. Get a real taste for competition and watch how the top teams do things. It is often the place where new teams evolve in preparation for the following year. You don’t want to miss the boat!
What should I look for in a team mate? 1. Availability Time and money will no doubt spark the most debate! Depending on how serious you want to get, you will need to decide whether you are just going to jump at weekends or whether you are also going to commit to one or possibly more training camps. Will you train in the UK or abroad? Also how long do you want to plan ahead?
You will always have someone who has more money or time to give to training. You need to come to a mutual agreement on the amount of time and money you can put into the team in the beginning. Everyone needs to feel happy and comfortable with the decision so as to avoid any frustration further down the road. You need to be realistic as to what you can give to the team. See the VMax article by Sacha originally printed in the August 2001 issue about making your training plan. 2. Attitude Everyone is an individual and will no doubt bring different things to the team. It might be that you are the budding T-shirt designer whilst someone else is the born organiser. Recognise that it doesn’t matter about strengths or weaknesses, as long as everyone is trying their best to make the team work, then you can’t really ask for any more. Different personalities lead to balanced teams. Understanding and tolerating each other is important. Training camps can be hard work especially if you are not used to making large numbers of jumps in a day. Plus there is a lot of information to remember and then execute in the air. When people are running to the plane for the twelfth time, things don’t always run smoothly. Jumps can become ragged, debriefs become a chore and people can get grumpy! Choose people who won’t take this personally and will recognise that it’s just time for a day off! Skydiving is a very subjective sport. When you debrief, you all need to be able to emphasise the positives of the dive and learn from the improvement points. Team members need to be receptive to input and criticism in order to improve, both individually and as a team. 3. Ability The level of team (junior, intermediate or senior) will influence the number of jumps your prospective team mates might have. Jump numbers are not directly relevant to ability. A skydiver’s performance at any time is related both to their innate ability and the skills they have learned through experience, ie, jumps. Someone with low experience may not have many skills but may possess great natural ability in which case they will learn fast. What’s more important is the desire to learn. A coach will reinforce ability and self belief. In summary So, what are you waiting for? Don’t expect the perfect team will come knocking on your door. You’ll have to make the effort to get into a team and it won’t necessarily be the right one straight away. You might do a few teams before you finally find what you are looking for.
And finally Remember, it doesn’t matter how serious the team is, make sure you are always having fun. Competitive skydiving can eat up a lot of time and money and it is very easy to get bogged down with improvements and how you are going to fare at the next competition. Winning medals is all very nice, but one of the most important things is to be able to track away from skydives feeling like you have done your best and have turned those points like you have never done before! You can’t really ask for any more. Have fun!
Photos: Brian Vacher Article by: Claire Scott claire.scott@friskies.nestle.com www.vmax.org.uk People Profile on Claire Scott Go to next VMax article Back to Jun 2001 Contents