posted Apr 27th, 2005 - The NSL News introduced Denmark's plans for the pursuit of medals at the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2006 on January 24, 2004, for the first time. Sportschef Flemming Nøddegaard and "Team Danmark", which is supported by the Danish government, had created a comprehensive 4-way project to enhance competition skydiving in Denmark. The NSL News posted updates a few times ever since the introduction.

The official Danish national team, the "Danez", was planning to compete at the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2005 but had to cancel due to illness of a team member shortly before the meet. One of the other Danish project teams for the 2005 season recently visited Florida for a training camp at Skydive DeLand and competed at the second FSL meet in Lake Wales on April 16.

The "Elements" is the third-level team of the Danish 4-way project and was already formed last season. All team members had tried out for a slot in the project in 2004 and did not make it. However, they decided to build their own team and continue. The Elements 2004 competed with three of the current members and the current team videographer (Line Duemke - Center Inside, Brian Gregersen - Tail, Thomas See - Point, John Petersen - Video) at the Danish Championship 2004 and finished with a 8.2 meet average.

The same Elements members applied once again for slots in the project of the 2005 season and were successful this time. The fourth 2004 member of the Elements joined a new team, which is not part of the project. Sportschef Flemming Nøddegaard and coach Pete Allum selected only three Elements members by then since there were only three slots available.

The three Elements members were selected according to their individual skills and experiences. However, it was beneficial for Duemke, Gregersen and See to present the previous team experiences at selection time. The current player coach, Kenneth Gajda, was already asked to take this position before the official selection of the project members. His set position reduced the remaining slots to three.

The project's third level team has always had a player coach in the past years and now continues with Kenneth Gojda. The second level team (currently team "Vitesse") does not have a player coach and works with DeLand Majik Solly Williams. Gojda was a member of Vitesse for two years before he accepted the player coach position for the third level team. He and another Vitesse 2004 member were replaced by new applicants during the selection for the project's 2005 season.

The two new Vitesse members and the team's videographer were "Air4s" members in 2004. Air4s was the third level team in 2004 and had also attended the FSL meet in Lake Wales. The Air4s members were later rewarded with an upgrade to the second level for their efforts in 2004.

The annual Danish evaluation and selection camp takes place right after the national championships in july. Applicants for slots provide the projects' management with individual information on questionnaires and jump with current project members. Danez member Mikael Toft is currently in charge for the structure of the project and the selection process. Solly Williams is the current project coach and provides feedback for the selection process.

Project members see and appreciate the advantages of being a part of the system. There are always enough replacements, and the project offers a systematic way to build a strong national team. The project can also offer financial support and additional resources. The third level team gets already some support from the Danish skydiving association, and this support goes up according the the performance level.

New project member and Elements Point, Thomas See, applied for the project a few years ago for the first time. He wants to become the best skydiver he can be and join with the same people with the same attitude. He explained his personal experience with the projcet:

"It's a great concept. It creates an elite level of skydiving in Denmark. There is now a chance for everybody to join, and the basis has become more interested in competition. The evaluation and structure helps, and if the vibes are good, that makes it even better and more successful. The official sanctioning by the government helps for the motivation. Even though the government stopped the financial support this year, our skydiving association still supports the project. The player coach concept has helped us a lot, as well."

The Danish government's Team Danmark stopped the support for skydiving after a decision to invest the limited financial resources into other sports. The officials apparently did not expect medals coming soon since the sport has currently been dominated by France, the U.S.A. and Russia.

The Elements had included the FSL meet in Lake Wales in their plans for the training camp in DeLand. The competition was the conclusion of the camp and was supposed to provide serious competition experience. It could not have been more successful for the Elements. The Danish team had set the 10.0 average as the goal for the meet and finished with a 12.8 average at the 6-round meet.

Player coach Kenneth Gajda commented that it was a great learning experience at the first competition for the new line-up. He and the team were both very happy with the results and the performance. The Elements will continue throughout the 2005 season. One more competition is on the agenda before the national championship, plus one more week of training. The Elements can currently be seen on NSL-TV.