posted May 15th, 2016 - The recent rule change for the FAI/IPC events that removed the cuts after Round 8 and Round 9 from the format of world meets/world cups was covered by the Sun Path Products NSL News on May 13th. Most other events don't apply any cuts, and the rule change has little impact on the majority of 4-way and 8-way teams.

However, the same IPC meeting in Germany generated and finalized other rule changes, and at least one of them has an effect on all teams.

The "Definition of Symbols" in the FAI/IPC rule book has always given the side body position special attention in the past: “7.1.5 Any side-body link-up requires an arm grip and a leg grip on the same person.”

It was not too long ago when this special attention created some waves. The Sun Path Products NSL News brought a questionable judging call to the attention of the audience on December 5th, 2013, during the coverage of the 4th Dubai International Parachuting Championship 2013. Side body grips on 8-way Satellites had caused trouble in the form of point deductions for some of the teams.

It was not the first time that the special definition of the "side-body link-up" caused trouble for teams. The Russian national 4-way team at the World Meet 1993 in Eloy built their Sidebody (Random Formation P) in a creative and different way, with a similar concept as for the Danish T in Block 17. Russia was on the way to 4-way bronze medals before the sequence with a Sidebody came up.

The judges did not like the Russian Sidebody, and several penalties with additional point deductions threw the team far back to the 7th place after ten rounds.

The special definition of the "side-body link-up" did not make a lot of sense since the law-makers and judges accepted "creative engineering" in other cases.

It is very much normal procedure that 4-way teams build their Danish T of Block 17 with grips on more than only one person, and the same counts for the Zircon of Block 18.

It also happens on a regular basis that the Inside Center has one "side-body link-up" grip on the Outside Center's leg and the other one on the Point's hand.

However, none of the above situations has caused much trouble in the past and was accepted by the judges. It was only logical that the special definition of the "side-body link-up" would eventually be removed, and the Formation Skydiving experts in the respective FAI/IPC committee did so at this year's meeting.

Neither the Russian 4-way experts nor any of the 8-way teams have to worry about their creative Sidebody or Satellite any longer, as they will now be accepted by the judges as positively as the Danish T or the Zircon.

Similar situations may appear in other 4-way situations, as well. Several Random Formations (K, L, N, O) allow different ways how to build them with different grip connections. Even some of the 4-way blocks (20, 21, 22) were under grip scrutiny in the past.

There are no reasons any longer to worry about "creative engineering", as the side-body definition has been completely removed from the rules. It still does not mean that any grips are allowed anywhere. The rules still define clearly the limits for grips on arms and legs...