Advice from a legend!

Western Australian champion FS skydiver, Peter ‘Wally’ Waller has shared some notes on getting the most out of your skydiving. Wally has competed in skydiving throughout the world and represented Australia on multiple occasions, so he knows his stuff when it comes to 4-way FS competition skydiving.

4 Way Formation Skydiving… The basics

Don’t rush
Keep it calm
The keys for each point / block should not be fast
Fly and setup from your opposite
Don’t chase your grips, fly to them
Use your peripheral vision to see what’s going on
Always work and move toward the centre of the formation
Drop your grips and then do your move
Learn as the jump move along. Be sure to learn something each time you do the move and apply that knowledge in the future to do it better
If things go a bit pear shaped then look back into the centre and the setup you are creating
If the jump is half way through and things are going nicely, you can speed up the keys a little
The formation consists of two “centre” flyers and two “outside” flyers

The “Centres” role in 4-way FS

The centres jump is to lead the jump
They are to set the fall rate, angles, pace, and emotion of the jump
They are to be deliberate with their moves which makes it easy for the other team members to recognise what is going on
The two centre flyers should primarily be focusing on each other, and then the two outside flyers

The “Outside” flyers role in 4-way FS

To follow the centre flyers
Match the fall rate, angles, and pace of the centre flyers
Be patient and let the centres lead
Your primary focus in the formation should be the centre point and the setup the centres are presenting
Most of the time you will have good visuals but sometimes you won’t. In this case just focus on the centre and don’t chase the grip. The grip will come
If you stop looking down the centre line of the formation, instead focusing on the up coming grips then you will begin flying where the grips are instead of where the grips will be in the finished formation.
Two shifts of focus: If you can’t see each other then make sure you focus down the centre line of the formation. Once you vacate the centre and you can see each other then you focus on each other again.