posted Jun 17th, 2026 - The A Class category was introduced by the National Skydiving League in 2000 and was first used at meets within the NSL 4-Way Network that same year. The league's first regional organizations—Southwest, Florida, New England, and Texas—used the A Class to introduce new participants to 4-way competition. Shortly thereafter, the Rookie Class (RRR) was added, and the AA/Intermediate Class was streamlined by removing the slot-switching blocks.

At the time, USPA's Intermediate Class consisted of a shortened version of the AAA Class dive pool. In 2002, the AAA/Open/Advanced and AA/Intermediate categories of both USPA and National Skydiving League were synchronized, making them identical. The A Class and Rookie Class, however, remained exclusive to regional NSL 4-Way Network meets, the Shamrock Showdown, and the NSL Championship.

The A Class dive pool has undergone adjustments over the years, reflecting changes to the FAI/ISC dive pool used in AAA/Open Class competition at World Championships and World Cups. Updates to the FAI/ISC dive pool are typically adopted by both USPA and NSL. The eight blocks currently used in the A Class have remained unchanged since 2005. In 2021, USPA officially adopted the A Class as its 4-way Beginner Class for the first time at the USPA Nationals 2021.

USPA Nationals 2025		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Beginner	2,K	21,P	J,B,D	C,6	H,N,G	8,7	19,L	O,A,4	M,Q,F	E,9	Total	Avg
1	Aircognito	8	6	13	8	10	6	5	9	20	10	95	9.5
2	Door BlockerZ	5	8	12	9	8	7	6	10	13	7	85	8.5
3	Threecox Pairadocs	5	7	5	4	8	3	4	7	16	7	66	6.6
4	JumpFlorida Pop's Tards	8	5	7	3	7	6	6	6	7	7	62	6.2
5	Carolina Reapers	7	4	10	3	5	3	4	7	11	7	61	6.1
6	Toxic Honey Badgers	4	5	7	2	6	4	3	6	11	4	52	5.2
7	Whose slot is it anyway?	6	5	2	5	3	4	3	5	6	5	44	4.4
8	Snatch Force Orange	2	4	6	2	5	2	3	3	7	3	37	3.7
9	Team LB	4	4	5	3	4	1	2	3	6	2	34	3.4
9	Bad Karma	2	3	5	4	4	3	2	4	4	3	34	3.4
11	Dust Devils	1	2	0	0	1	0	1	0	1	0	6	0.6

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Aircognito - ZHills Door BlockerZ - Threecox Pairadocs in the A/Beginner Class of the USPA Nationals 2025

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The A/Beginner Class has remained a regular part of the USPA Nationals ever since, and its dive pool remained unchanged during its first five years. At the USPA Board of Directors Winter Meeting in February 2026, however, the Competition Committee approved changes to the A Class dive pool for the upcoming season.

The committee decided to replace two of the eight A/Beginner Class blocks with newer formations that were recently added to the FAI/ISC dive pool. Block 8 (Canadian T – Canadian T) and Block 19 (Ritz – Icepick) were removed and replaced by Block 1 (Molar – Molar) and Block 13 (Mixed Accordions – Mixed Accordions). As a result, the eight blocks in the 2026 A/Beginner Class dive pool are now: 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 13, and 21. The updated dive pool will already be in use for the 4-way A/Beginner Class at this year's USPA Nationals.

Earlier meets of the NSL 4-Way Network were conducted using the previous version of the A Class dive pool. The NSL has now updated its A Class dive pool to remain synchronized with the latest USPA version. It is not yet known whether other leagues participating in the international NSL 4-Way Network will also adopt the revised dive pool. The United Kingdom Skydiving League completed its first two meets of the 2026 season using the previous version of the A Class dive pool and has decided not to adopt the USPA changes at this time. This decision also applies to the British Nationals 2026.

British Outdoor Nationals 2025		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Total	Avg
Rank	A Class	2,9	19,H	J,D,N	P,L,O	21,F	E,8	G,C,A	K,6	Total	Avg
1	Fall Fast Finish Last	10	12	19	13	13	11	13	11	102	12.8
2	Tachyon	6	8	8	16	10	7	15	9	79	9.9
3	Bootie Call	8	10	10	11	8	8	12	7	74	9.3
4	Frequency	8	6	8	6	6	5	6	5	50	6.3
5	What's better than a 3 way?	3	1	4	8	7	6	6	6	41	5.1
6	Stranger Danger	5	5	6	5	6	3	4	6	40	5.0

The combined leaderboard of the NSL 4-Way Network on any given weekend of the regular season has long been one of the most attractive features of the competition format. With synchronized and identical competition draws across all participating events and all four categories, teams from around the world have been able to compare their performances directly and connect with one another through a shared leaderboard. This unique feature has only been possible because all participating competitions used the same draws.

At the most recent meet weekend, German and Czech 4-way teams shared a combined leaderboard. British teams would have been part of the same ranking as well if the recent dive pool changes had not been introduced. The British Nationals traditionally attract strong participation in the A Class, and changing the dive pool in the middle of the season would make preparation for the country's most important competition of the year more difficult for many teams.

U.S. teams competing in the A/Beginner Class who may not have been aware of the recent changes now have approximately three months to prepare for the updated dive pool, including the two new blocks, as the information was not previously available through the NSL News. As a result, the national championships in the United States and Great Britain will use different A Class sequences this year. Hopefully, synchronization of competition draws and combined leaderboards across the international NSL 4-Way Network can soon be restored in all competition categories.