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Did You Know...

... that Joey Jones and Jack Jefferies did not always work together?

Jack Jefferies with Airspeed's current lineup
posted Jun 15th, 2022 - The recent updates from Belgium, first by NMP PCH HayaBusa member David Grauwels alone on June 4th, followed by NSL Live Talk with his whole team on June 9th, enjoyed once again great interest and attention by the NSL News audience.

Of course, this is not so surprising, as the conversations with the top competitors in the world usually provide a lot of highly valuable athletic information for all teams and competitors, as well.

The update from Belgium naturally sparked interest in the situation on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, where Arizona Airspeed have been working on their goal to dethrone the Belgian 4-way world champions of 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2020 at the FAI Outdoor World Meet 2022 in October.

This time, it was Airspeed's senior member Niklas Hemlin alone who took the time to discuss the current situation with the NSL News. He explained that Airspeed is at their usual half-way point of a competition season, after the completion of the traditional Arizona Challenge.

It is the time of the year when the competition team takes a short break to reload with energy before picking up the training pace and intensity for the countdown to national championships and major outdoor events.


Spaceland Pre-Nationals 2022: Expanded, Extended and Open for all Teams


NSL Live Talk with Niklas Hemlin - Arizona Airspeed in Round 6 at the FAI World Meet 2018
Arizona Airspeed in 1999
Arizona Airspeed spent one week of outdoor training with coach Joey Jones after winning the FAI Indoor World Cup 2022 in April and then took a month-long break after the transition from indoor to outdoor training and competition. Two weeks of outdoor training followed in May before the organizational work for the Arizona Challenge.

As David Grauwels and NMP PCH HayaBusa did earlier this month, Niklas Hemlin provided just as much valuable information and insights during the online conversation, and the 30 minutes of time were just enough to touch several interesting topics.

He said that his team met again with original Airspeed member Jack Jefferies last month, who has been consulting Airspeed lineups since he turned his career into professional team-coaching in the corporate business world. His advice and experiences help Airspeed to optimize their team dynamics and the organizational effectiveness of training and meet preparations.

Arizona Airspeed's current cooperation with Jack Jefferies and coach Joey Jones has created its own interesting dynamics, as both former 4-way world champions have known each other for a long time and since their own competition careers.


USPA Nationals 1999
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Total Avg
Rank 4-way Open J,K,19,G L,D,20,1 16,15,18 24,4,23 10,A,13 M,O,H,B,P 17,Q,2 F,E,7,21 12,9,8 C,3,22 Total Avg
1 Arizona Airspeed  US  25 25 17 13 19 39 24 23 15 19 219 21.9
2 Airspeed Purple  US  23 24 17 16 18 36 16 21 16 19 206 20.6
3 Space Center FX  US  22 24 14 17 17 37 20 21 17 14 203 20.3
G Sebastian XL  UK  23 21 14 16 16 35 20 19 17 14 195 19.5
4 Golden Knights Gold  US  23 22 14 16 16 33 18 19 18 12 191 19.1
5 DeLand Genesis  US  23 21 14 13 16 32 19 19 15 - 172 19.1
G DeLand Norgies  NO  21 22 14 13 14 34 19 21 - - 158 19.8
6 Golden Knights Black  US  21 20 13 15 16 34 15 20 - - 154 19.3
7 Ranch Air Traffic  US  17 16 11 12 13 27 17 14 - - 127 15.9
8 Cross Keys Cat 4  US  14 14 10 12 11 21 10 12 - - 104 13.0
9 Hedonism  US  10 5 9 8 8 14 - - - - 54 9.0

Space Center FX in 1999
Jack Jefferies and Joey Jones were not much in support of each other in their early days of 4-way competition. In fact, they were very fierce competitors and rivals on opposite sides. Arizona Airspeed had taken the 4-way top spot in the United States, after uniting east (Jack Jefferies, Kirk Verner) and west coast competitors (Dan BC, Mark Kirkby) successfully for their original lineup, and after moving to Eloy.

Joey Jones and Dawn English formed their own FX team project in Florida with the goal to take the 4-way top spot away from Airspeed. Space Center FX won the FAI World Cup in 1998 in the absence of Arizona Airspeed and ended up in 2nd place a few months later at the USPA Nationals.

The original Airspeed lineup with Jack Jefferies competed for the last time at the FAI World Meet 1999 and placed 2nd behind France, just a month after fending off Joey Jones' new FX challenge at the national championships. A new Airspeed lineup without Jack Jefferies outscored FX again at the USPA Nationals 2000 and then won FAI 4-way gold in 2001. Jack Jefferies was still in Airspeed's 8-way lineup in 2001 and won world meet silver. FX did not continue after 2000, and Joey Jones won his 4-way world championship title with DeLand Majik in 2004, when Jack Jefferies had already turned into a recreational 4-way and 8-way competitor.

Jack Jefferies and Joey Jones are now working together to bring the current Airspeed lineup back to the world's 4-way top spot. The first step was successfully completed with the 1st place at the indoor world cup. Chances are very promising to follow up with the most relevant title in 4-way competition, the FAI outdoor title.

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