Joel Strickland is one member of British freefly team Varial and has just come back from the World Championships in the Czech Republic. Here he discusses what it was like at the competition and what it takes to commit to high level competing.
1. How did you find your World Championships experience and how did it compare to other events such as the World Cup?
The World Championships was a good experience for us. When we originally formed as a team a few years ago, one of our main goals was to represent the UK at the highest level in skydiving. Our first experience of this was in Bosnia last year for the World Cup, which despite being a smaller competition gave us some idea of the routine. Prostejov have held the official world meet a couple of times before so we were expecting a slicker affair, which was true to a certain extent.
Some tortuous bus-related awfulness in Banja Luka meant this time we didn’t take any chances and arranged our own transport. This turned out to be a pretty good idea as the hotel was miles way and the bus was crappy and kept catching fire!
2. How much training did you do this year?
We managed about 150 jumps over two camps at Empuriabrava. This year we qualified for funding from the BPA which helped a lot and went some of the distance toward us being able to afford to do it all over again.
3. You were competing against teams which are full time and heavily sponsored. Does this demotivate you in any way due to the challenge of mounting an effective training plan?
Sometimes it is difficult not to get frustrated. To win a medal at world level requires hundreds of training jumps, which cost a lot of money. Ultimately you can only do your very best within the means available. It is important to remember that there other teams who receive no support at all who would love to be in our position.
4. What does it really take if you want to get to your level in terms of sacrifice and money?
To operate at the highest level you have to be either independently wealthy or be involved in skydiving at a professional level. There is no way to half-ass it. If you want to be good, it takes years of jumps and hundreds of tunnel hours to develop the skills. Real financial support is pretty scarce so you have to accept that you are going to be poor after paying for everything.
5. Is it a bit of an anti-climax coming to the UK Nationals?
The national championships are important to us. At the worlds we knew that we might get a place in the top ten, at the Nationals we want a gold medal. A part of doing competitions is to raise our profile as a team as we all make a living from skydiving and most of our work is in this country. The scale is smaller, but there is no absence of pressure when it comes to the competition itself. It is equally important to us.
1. How did you find your World Championships experience and how did it compare to other events such as the World Cup?
The World Championships was a good experience for us. When we originally formed as a team a few years ago, one of our main goals was to represent the UK at the highest level in skydiving. Our first experience of this was in Bosnia last year for the World Cup, which despite being a smaller competition gave us some idea of the routine. Prostejov have held the official world meet a couple of times before so we were expecting a slicker affair, which was true to a certain extent.
Some tortuous bus-related awfulness in Banja Luka meant this time we didn’t take any chances and arranged our own transport. This turned out to be a pretty good idea as the hotel was miles way and the bus was crappy and kept catching fire!
2. How much training did you do this year?
We managed about 150 jumps over two camps at Empuriabrava. This year we qualified for funding from the BPA which helped a lot and went some of the distance toward us being able to afford to do it all over again.
3. You were competing against teams which are full time and heavily sponsored. Does this demotivate you in any way due to the challenge of mounting an effective training plan?
Sometimes it is difficult not to get frustrated. To win a medal at world level requires hundreds of training jumps, which cost a lot of money. Ultimately you can only do your very best within the means available. It is important to remember that there other teams who receive no support at all who would love to be in our position.
4. What does it really take if you want to get to your level in terms of sacrifice and money?
To operate at the highest level you have to be either independently wealthy or be involved in skydiving at a professional level. There is no way to half-ass it. If you want to be good, it takes years of jumps and hundreds of tunnel hours to develop the skills. Real financial support is pretty scarce so you have to accept that you are going to be poor after paying for everything.
5. Is it a bit of an anti-climax coming to the UK Nationals?
The national championships are important to us. At the worlds we knew that we might get a place in the top ten, at the Nationals we want a gold medal. A part of doing competitions is to raise our profile as a team as we all make a living from skydiving and most of our work is in this country. The scale is smaller, but there is no absence of pressure when it comes to the competition itself. It is equally important to us.
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