All you need to do is have the skills and confidence to fly your slot on the formation and be safe. The key is discipline, discipline... and discipline.

On big-ways this is very important. There is no way I wanted 119 people pissed off because I was the only one out! Taking grips is not the end of the skydive, you need to remain level and maintain the shape required by the formation design.

In the red zone you should be on a radial to your slot and only have to fly forward, this minimises the risk of collisions

Base People
This looks like the easiest slot, we can all launch and fly a star can't we? But there is a lot more to it than that. The base people need to build quickly, on heading and fly very aggressively to keep the star perfectly round. A small distortion in the centre leads to massive errors further out and can make the outside slots too small or too large for the loops. You will be hugely pulled around - in 3 dimensions! You cannot let yourself be moved, so one of the requirements of a good base person is upper body strength. Individual body weight or wearing lead is important to keep a fast, consistent fall rate. Falling fast through arching is not enough as 120 people will pull you out of shape sometimes. The base must be fast to give the divers confidence to flare out later and be able to get back up should they end up low.

Most big-ways will have zippers docking on the centre star, these give the formation structure and rigidity. It is important that these people get there quickly, dock smoothly and maintain the fast fall rate, flying exactly level with the centre.

When it's time to dock, pause for a heartbeat and make sure you could carry on flying in your exact position even if you didn't take the grip. When you join a line, fly forward with your legs reasonably straight. The loops tend to want to get bigger, so you need to actively fly towards the centre to reduce their size and remove tension; this makes it less likely to break apart and it is easier to close a gap.

Anchors
The 'anchor' slot joining the end of the loop to the base is critical and requires a combination of loop and base skills. You need to be there quickly. You need to fly your position very accurately, maintain fall rate and use your strength and flying skills to keep tension off the person you're docked on. If you feel you are hanging off the grip, fly towards it. Take a high grip at the top of the thigh you are docking on to allow the jumper to fly freely and to keep the formation small.

It is vital to track flat, like the jumpers in the foreground, not downwards as some jumpers in the background are, they have the potential to end up underneath someone else when deploying

As you track off, centre yourself between the jumpers tracking on either side of you. Self-preservation skills should keep you looking at everyone in your field of vision so you identify potential proximity problems early and prevent them happening. You will build up speed which you have to wash off before you deploy. Take that extra second to have a really good look to make sure the sky above you is clear before you dump and be looking for other canopies even whilst yours is opening.

I went to Zephyrhills as part of the support team. I did not think I had the skills to build something as big as a 120-way but was hoping to learn more. Before I went, the Brit Chicks 50-way was my biggest formation. As I performed well on the support team, I was asked to join the 'warm-up' formations - these were 60 ways! I was a little worried, until Gareth Holder, my plane captain, said it was just three 20-ways. All I needed to think about was the lead plane with the base on it and my plane, the right trail. Anything happening on the other side of the formation had nothing to do with me. This laid my mental reservations to rest so I just did what I had been doing on the 20-ways and - hey presto - the next day I was on the first 120-way attempt! I continued to do what I was told, flew my slot and broke a world record on my 450th jump!