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nchlswtsn

How to start a team?

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I am part of a group of jumpers and have been wondering if there are requirements or a general process to starting a skydiving team? I have yet to find any information about it really.



In my opinion, the best way to do it is to find someone with experience to explain the rules and jump with you and coach you as a group.

Oh.. and you'll probably get better advice if you ask this question in the RW or FF specific forums depending on what kind of team you guys want to form)
Owned by Remi #?

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You find friends that are compatible together, have the same goals, and level of motivation.

You all gather around a cauldron while brewing a very special potion (PM me for the recipe), then you put your right hands on your hearts and your left arms in the air and say:

I DECLARE US A TEAM!!

And then you find yourself a coach:)
And a winning lottery ticket

And you're setB|

"Better to have a short life that is full of what you like doing than a long life spent in a miserable way." -Alan Watts

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DcloudZ

You find friends that are compatible together, have the same goals, and level of motivation.



That makes it sound so easy (though at the heart of it, you've captured it well).

But the devil's in the details....

(All this assumes that you have already established that you want to compete in the same discipline)

-How many training jumps do you want to do? At what type of pace? (Are you a show up at 10 and get in 5 jumps a day then grab beers kind of team or do you want to be on load 1 and do back to backs for 16 jumps a day, or are you somewhere in between?)
-Where do you want to train? Are you all willing to jump at that DZ? Will your team need to travel to find the kind of dropzone/weather that can support your training pace/goals?
-Is this a weekends-only team or is there an expectation that the team will take some time off work to train as well? If so, does everyone on the team have the flexibility to do that?
-Does everyone have similar enough schedules that you can find enough times to train at your desired pace?
-If you want to compete, is there a local league for your discipline or will you have to travel for that?
-How much tunnel time (if any) do you want to do?
-How much coaching do you want to get? At what level? (by this I mean do you want to go to or bring in a "big name" coach that will probably come with a bigger price tag, or do you want to work with a local coach who may not have the "name" credentials but can offer a lot to a team at likely a lower cost)
-Whatcha gonna do about video? (Embedded in this is do you want a dedicated videographer for the whole season, or are you okay with picking up whoever's available? How much is the team willing to pay for the videographer's services? Slot only? Slot + pack job? Slot plus $X?)

All of the above questions drive towards the "budget" question, which is really critical to get out on the table early, because it will drive the type of team that you're going to be. There's no right or wrong, but it'd be super frustrating to be someone who wants to do lots of jumps, tunnel, coaching, etc., and has set aside the budget to do so ... to end up on a team with someone who says "Yeah, I can only afford 5 training jumps a month." There's probably a team for both of those people, but it's not likely to be with each other. :D

Then there's goals...
-What competition class do you want to compete in?
-What's your baseline (if you have people that have competed before)?
-Are you going for a tangible goal (medals, a certain point average, a certain point increase, etc.)? Or is it more intangible (jump with the same people all summer and improve skills)?
-Are you going for sponsorship?

Then there's compatibility... that's probably the hardest part to figure out, and there's no formula, of course. But sitting down and agreeing on all of the above stuff can help a team make sure that it has a base set of agreed upon principles to fall back on in times of disagreement.
"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

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Find people you like to jump with, get along with, and have a similar goal for the future. Check into one hotel room on Friday night and do not leave the room until Sunday at noon. If you haven't killed each other by then, you can be a team.

Get the money issues sorted first and collect money for jumping up front. People tend to show up if their money is jumping regardless of their being there.

I could write about twenty pages on this subject, but will spare you. Get through those two first!

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Jump more, post less!

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Check into one hotel room on Friday night and do not leave the room until Sunday at noon. If you haven't killed each other by then, you can be a team.



My ex used to say "before you make a relationship commitment to someone, assemble a piece of furniture with them and go on a vacation trip with them"

:D
Owned by Remi #?

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labrys

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Check into one hotel room on Friday night and do not leave the room until Sunday at noon. If you haven't killed each other by then, you can be a team.



My ex used to say "before you make a relationship commitment to someone, assemble a piece of furniture with them and go on a vacation trip with them"

:D


................................................................................

Dan B.C. has plenty of experience organizing and coaching young teams.
Maybe he should start teaching seminars on how to assemble furniture.
Hah!
Hah!

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labrys

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Check into one hotel room on Friday night and do not leave the room until Sunday at noon. If you haven't killed each other by then, you can be a team.



My ex used to say "before you make a relationship commitment to someone, assemble a piece of furniture with them and go on a vacation trip with them"

:D


................................................................................

That reminds me a second date. We went to IKEA and bought her a dresser. Then I took them back to her apartment and started assembling the dresser. We got most of it assembled the first evening.
Yes! We had a third date ... and a fourth date ... and a fifth date ...

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nchlswtsn

I am part of a group of jumpers and have been wondering if there are requirements or a general process to starting a skydiving team? I have yet to find any information about it really.



I would make it very clear from day 1 what the expectations are. So decide how many jumps a month, any tunnel time, coach costs, competitions etc and agree to that. People have very different goals and it isn't always clear, or they are very keen initially and then the enthusiasm wears off.

I would also make it clear under what conditions someone will get cut from the team. So miss 3 training dates in a row and you are cut for example.

Expect to see quite a high turnover of team members initially, but if you persist eventually it will come together.

Last point, appoint an organiser/leader/captain whatever you want to call it, but it helps to have responsibilities identified early on.
Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

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nchlswtsn

I am part of a group of jumpers and have been wondering if there are requirements or a general process to starting a skydiving team? I have yet to find any information about it really.



Where do you jump? There are leagues out there (NSL) that bring in coaches, judges, camera flyers, etc. Go to the NSL (National Skydiving League) website. B|
Birdshit & Fools Productions

"Son, only two things fall from the sky."

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