Training day 7...

Ola,

We're almost done with the camp, all our muscles and backs hurt like hell, and we're loving it. I had to wear weights in the tunnel last night, ME???, almost 4 kg. It did the job, and I felt really relaxed. I did see however the painfull faces of my teammates, they didn't wear weights, or at least nothing more. We were all complaining about the tunnel speed, however our coach said that he could see we were tired. We were asking to lower the tunnelspeed where we were already practically lying on the net.

In the tunnel we practised a lot of B-slots, very motivating (NOT). Although very difficult and not really comfortable the tunnel really pays off. Both our A and B slot block moves we are really understanding. This is a good basis for the next phase of our development, building up the speed.
Today we had another day of 12 jumps. We do back to backs, 20 minutes, and again back to backs. After the landing we really have to hurry back to make the briefing in time to avoid rushing through it. Today we did train B-slot blocks, 6 point jumps and jumps in which we did the first two points once to get us in to our B-slot and then proceeed with two blocks in B-slots.

Wessley and Paul did a new combination block 5 and 17 (this is really for the insiders). Sven and I (actually I did) invented a new block, a combination of 5 and P. Otherwise the jumps went great. We do have our coach on our backs stressing us not to brainlock. Anybody who knows me, knows that is really a challenge for me. Also keybusts are not allowed, that I appear not to have a problem with, others do though. For each brainlock or keybust we have to pay 50 dollarcents. How things are now going, we will get waisted tomorrownight.

In the morning I saw Luc cutting away his main, he had a twist (you know velocities). He was picked up from the desert, just in time to catch the back to back. That efficient they are here. Luckaly they found his main and freebag soon so in the afternoon he was jumping his own rig again.
Today we also did a 13 way with Airspeed, Fobia (an English team we know from the ESL finals), and our coach Thomas. We did a 7 point jump, see the photo's. I must be honest, I did not believe we would make so many points. The briefings from Craig Gerard are however so thorough, you actually start to believe you will make a good jump. Thats were Americans differ from Europeans, they believe you will make a good jump, and you will do just that. We Europeans seem to be having doubts earlier.

In the last back to back we did a random jump: H-N-M-E-B, we scored a 33 in time, with a wabble (???) in the exit. Our speed was modest, our coach doesn't allow us to speed up. He says that will be more effective for us and will pay off more in the and. Thats actually really hard, as we have speedy gonzales in our team wanting to speed things up. Also for the tunnel we will do in Roosendaal we will not be allowed to speed things up yet. Don't know how this will work out.

Tomorrow is our last day of the camp. We will jump a recent competition draw. I don't know which one, but we've walked the jumps already. Tonight we've eaten in the "Bent Prop" where also a weddingparty is taking place, we will probably join and get waisted (NOT).

As you see its again me writing for the blog. I'm hoping others will pickup their duties later on.

See ya,

Jacco