posted Jun 24th, 2022 - The exit funnel of Block 17 (Danish T - Bipole) by Chimera at the June meet of the United Kingdom Skydiving League became the initiating event for a very interesting discussion, when Niklas Hemlin debriefed the five rounds during the NSL Live Talk on June 15th.

The new topic went far beyond the actual exit funnel, which cost Chimera almost ten seconds of working time, as the meet videos are showing. Chimera provided the footage and their own thoughts at the end of a training day during another NSL Live Talk conversation with the complete lineup from Skydive Langar, their home dropzone.

Niklas Hemlin, who has been working with the British national team in 4-way Open for years, pointed out that he was impressed with the Chimera performance after the disastrous start into Round 3 of the competition. It was the beginning of a discussion that looked deeper into the specific topic of teams reacting to similar situations.

The Chimera coach said that it surely was not the first time that he has observed the same phenomenon when teams seem to be more focused and highly energized after a poor start into a competition round.

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FAI Outdoor World Meet 2018			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		21,L,B,G		22,18,17		19,7,O		J,16,12		10,A,D,15		Q,M,F,C,N		H,20,P,13		6,14,11		E,2,5		4,1,3		Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	32		21		27	-2	24		22	-3	62	-2	22	-2	20	-1	27	-1	22		279	27.9
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	26	-5	21		27	-1	24		24	-1	60	-1	26		22		27		20		277	27.7

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Exit troubles: Chimera's Round 3 - Arizona Airspeed's Round 6

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The psychology behind such a situation is not new or surprising, and Niklas Hemlin had his own significant experiences in his long competition career. He was instantly reminded on the Arizona Airspeed experience in Round 6 of the FAI Outdoor World Meet 2018, where his own team had to deal with a similar situation.

He gave the Airspeed exit troubles the same definition of an "exit funnel", as it happened only in a different dimension. The loss of a few seconds had the same meaning and results as it had for the almost ten seconds that Chimera had to make up for.

Arizona Airspeed's exit trouble happened at the worst time, as Round 6 had the fastest sequence of the 10-round competition, with the Super Sequence of five random formations (Q,M,F,C,N). The recovery after the exit flaw and the performance throughout the remaining working time kept Airspeed within striking distance until Round 10.

Niklas Hemlin saw that Chimera reacted the same way and delivered 25 seconds of peak performance. His next thought was the question why teams are not always performing like they were in crisis mode. He will continue giving it more thoughts and look for ways how to create the same energy without experiencing a crisis situation.

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FAI Tanay Mondial 2020			1		2		3		4		5		6		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Women		O,19,Q,5		17,B,E,P		H,15,12		M,N,7,F		K,L,C,4		J,18,16		Total	Avg
1	Bubbles	RU	21	-1	33	-3	18	-1	33	-3	27		18	-2	150	25.0
2	Aerodyne Maubeuge	FR	24		27	-4	18		34		24	-2	21		148	24.7

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Bubbles (Russia) - Aerodyne Maubeuge (France) at the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020

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Reaching the peak performance level is the goal for a world champion competitor and professional coach, as it is for all athletes in sports. The crisis mode seems to initiate an energy naturally that is required for the peak performance level, and Niklas Hemlin has been thinking of how to bring teams to this state, not only after the Airspeed experience in Australia and Chimera at their UKSL meet on home turf.

The same NSL Live Talk continued with topics related to exits and the sub-terminal phase of skydiving. Niklas Hemlin confirmed feedback of NMP PCH HayaBusa experiences who said that indoor training serves only specific purposes, while there is no way around enough outdoor training from jump planes.

The Bow (Random Formation H) and other standard exits have become a tool for many teams who spend a lot of time in the flying chambers of wind tunnels. Niklas Hemlin knows from his own experiences and observations of the recent development in Formation Skydiving competition that indoor training in combination with standard exit formations bring great and quick results, while it leaves out the most important part of any outdoor competition round.

One most recent example was the situation in 4-way Women at the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020, where the French national team, with three of the best indoor competitors in the world (Sophia Pecout, Christine Malnis, Pamela Lissajoux), lost to the Russian team Bubbles mostly due to the exit and sub-terminal performance, due to the lack of enough outdoor training.