posted Mar 12th, 2011 - The NSL News mentioned yesterday that the "Coach's Corner" of NSL Talk would be launched this morning. The plan worked out well, even though the logistics were not easy at all. The five 4-way experts and professional coaches (Joey Jones, Marin Ferre, Solly Williams, Gary Smith, Shannon Pilcher) had to coordinate their work schedule with each other, and only Shannon Pilcher missed the first few minutes of the conversation.

Joey Jones is in charge of NMP-PCH Hayabusa. Marin Ferre is coaching the two French national 4-way lineups, Aerodyne Aerokart Maubeuge and Deep Blue Defenders. Solly Williams is in charge of the national teams from Denmark, Bodyflight Voluntas and Bodyflight Atlas. Gary Smith is working with Whooops, ISB Air and SonicNutz. Shannon Pilcher has the Irish team Fast Air under his supervision.

The NSL News left the opening of the first Coach's Corner session to Joey Jones. He knows what he is doing, as he was the anchor of last year's Shamrock Showdown TV show, which was aired several times on a sports network in Florida.

The group of very experienced coaches and competitors had a fun and lively conversation. Each participant was at least once a 4-way world champion. Joey Jones, Solly Williams, Gary Smith and Shannon Pilcher were team mates with DeLand Majik, world champion of 2004 and first team that posted only 20-pointers or higher in a 10-round meet.

Gary Smith and Shannon Pilcher won another gold medal with DeLand Fire in 2006. Marin Ferre won his own 4-way gold medals in 1999 and 2003 and added more gold medals as the French national 4-way coach in 2010.

The full time coaches of so many teams first discussed their recent jobs in DeLand before they turned to the situation before the Shamrock Showdown 2011. The NSL Poll of the upcoming competition has been opened up again for all voters, as the input of the first Coach's Corner discussion may change expectations.

NMP-PCH Hayabusa is currently the leader, while the reigning world champions from France are trailing quite far behind. The French scores at the Valentine's Meet 2011 may have discouraged some voters. Arizona Airspeed seems to have a slight advantage in the coaches' eyes. However, they eventually all agreed that the Shamrock Showdown seems to be everybody's game.

The discussion also turned to the relevance of the judging and scoring process at the big meets. The five world class coaches and competitors all agreed that it is important for them and for the team members to know their own scores and the scores of the closest competitors after each round before they take off for the next round. The Shamrock Showdown management has made it the main goal to post the scores most correctly and timely.

The coaches went back to their working environment after the Coach's Corner discussion, and the NSL News camera followed each of them a few minutes later. Nobody did exactly the same, each agenda was different. Gary Smith had a few minutes of spare time to check e-mail, while Marin Ferre was helping Fred "Toshiba" Leroux with packing...

Shamrock Showdown 2011
Who is winning this year?	France Aerodyne Aerokart Arizona Airspeed NMP-PCH Hayabusa Paraclete XP4 Others
	Current Results