posted Feb 3rd, 2005 - The Formation Skydiving Committee of the International Parachuting Commission (IPC) finalized the set of rules, which will be applied for the Formation Skydiving competition 2005 season, at the IPC meeting in Poland last week. The NSL News posted the first part of the rules update yesterday and follows up with more information today.

The FS Committee currently consists of four members (Fiona McEachern, Australia - Chair, Anatoly Zhirov, Russia - Deputy Chair, Dr. Rainer Hoenle, Germany and Carl-Erik Tuv, Norway) and four advisors (Jérôme David - France, Klaus Wellens - Germany, Marc Hoornweg - Netherlands, Vana Gulliver - South Africa). The committee members collect feedback out in the field throughout the year, then process and discuss the information within the committee. The FS Committee finally presents potential rule changes to the annual IPC Meeting for approval.

Anatoly Zhirov is a former member of the Russian national 4-way teams and runs a skydiving store in Stupino, Russia, the home of the Malevsky Memorial Cup. Dr. Rainer "Exi" Hoenle is the founder and president of the "Deutsche Sky Liga", the German version of the NSL. Carl-Erik Tuv is the former Tail of the DeLand Norgies. Jerome David is a former member of the French national 4-way team and the current head coach of Formation Skydiving competition in France. Klaus Wellens is the FAI Chief Judge of Formation Skydiving at current international events. Marc Hoornweg is a former member of the Dutch national 8-way team. There is obviously a lot of expertise and experience in this committee.

The NSL News already reported the most significant changes of the dive pool yesterday. The whole set of the new and current 4-way dive pool for the 2005 season can be downloaded by clicking on the following links: Random Formations, Blocks 1 - 8, Blocks 9 - 16, Blocks 17 - 22.

One small change was not mentioned yesterday. The committe decided to remove the arrows and 180-degree of turn indication for Block 5 (Opal - Opal). The pieces are now allowed to rotate forward or backward, and they can choose the sheering or cogging technique.

Block 5 has already been a fast vertical technique for most teams, which reduced the actual rotation of the pieces far below 180 degrees. The new freedom of choices invites to apply the very efficient vertical technique even more. However, the committee members, judges and teams know very well by now that the centerpoints of both pieces can get very close to each other with the vertical technique. In fact, the committee also added to the definition of the centerpoint in the same meeting last week. The NSL News will get to these additional changes later.

The high alert level of the centerpoint issue guarantees that there will be enough awareness of the risk by sheering the pieces too much. Removing the arrows and indicated degree of turn for Block 5 does not mean at all that the teams will be able to execute the current block technique much faster. The pieces still have to stay away from each other's centerpoints, which forces them practically to rotate at least a little bit. The change has no relevant impact on the block's execution and simply avoids the previous arguments of a required rotation.

This completes the changes of the dive pool. All additional changes target other areas of the rule book. The whole set of the updated IPC rules can now be downloaded by clicking here. The NSL News will use the following days to point out the details of the changes and offer more background information.

The most significant change was already introduced yesterday and has been discussed intensely - the reduction of the penalty damage from two points to one point. The NSL News has begun collecting feedback from competition veterans and will follow up with reactions and thoughts.

The IPC FS Committee, Omniskore and the judges have worked toward one common goal for quite a while. Evaluation of the competition jumps was supposed to become easier for the judges and more understandable for competitors and the public. The score sheets and judging tools of the past had five different symbols for scores and infringements. The judges had to react very quickly and find the right button for the according call.

One Omniskore button indicated a correct formation with inter along with a scoring point. Four other symbols have been used to show infringements: an incorrect formation, a wrong inter, an omitted formation and non-judgeable formations or inters. It has been challenging for a judge to follow the action with full concentration and push the correct buttons at the same time.

The new rules for scoring and judging will make it easier for the judges to master the multi-function challenge. There will be only three different buttons and symbols in the near future, one for a correct scoring formation, one for any infringement, one for an omission. The non-judgeable formation or inter simply does not count as a scoring formation from here on and will be handled as any other infringement.

The button for the omission of a formation has never been pushed very often in the past. This will probably remain unchanged in the future since the committee even increased the deduction for an omitted formation or inter to three points. Thus, it will make it even easier for the judges if they have only two buttons to pay serious attention to. One button will count the correct scoring formations, the other button will be pushed for any incorrect or non-judgeable formation or inter.

This simplification of the judging procedure seems to make a lot of sense and gives the judges the chance to concentrate even more on the real action on the screen. However, the opinions of teams, competitors, coaches, judges and officials are different when it comes to the impact of this rule change.

The simplification comes along with less damage for an infringement. Some experts are afraid that teams might sacrifice accuracy and precision and switch to the fast lane by taking the risk of losing a point here or there and gain more at the end. Easier punishment for an infringement seems to invite for a faster pace and a lower level of accuracy. This would take away the advantage for the judges who would now have to work harder to detect possibly more infringements.

The same simplification for the judges would have been possible with the same or even stronger punishment for infringements. The same two buttons could be pushed for "good" and "bad" formations and inters, and the damage could be a two-point or even a three-point deduction. However, the committee decided that the one-point deduction for any infringement is enough damage. This year's events will show which results this dramatic rule change will bring.

Another simplification of the judging procedure could be the viewing in half speed. The committee has been discussing this option for a while, as well. However, the comments after the meeting and the rule changes do not mention this option in any way. It seems as if the committe decided to make one step first and then see if another step might be necessary at a later time. Join the discussion at the NSL Forum with your feedback.