Team Performance Series

Jesse “Tex” Leos is shifting the focus from solo performance to team dynamics with his new team performance series. Built for groups who want to fly better, connect deeper, and train with intention.

Tell us about your team performance series? 

The Team Performance Series is a program for teams and its members to learn more about their strengths as individual flyers, create collective goals and design clear training paths for expanding their flying. Deeper chemistry and creative possibilities what we are pursuing. Teams may be groups of friends who share the role of leading and following, groups with a single dedicated leader and even coach-student teams looking to grow more efficiently. A growth mindset and desire to better understand one another is the most important prerequisite.

The program consists of different phases of team development, flying skills training and accountability. The initial phase is 3 days in-person consisting of team building and training jumps exercises. The series continues into the next phase of training when goal setting, team roles and accountability processes have been committed to. My hope is that this series will help be a catalyst to make team oriented training the future of high-performers seeking more creative flying.

What inspired this offering? 

This concept came from a desire to coach skydiving teams within the movement flying community, a space where the idea of “teams” is rare, since there’s no formal competition structure. Most teams are coaching collectives (based around their coaching services), not performance-driven teams. But movement flying is inherently team-based. It’s creative, fluid, and collaborative. That’s exactly what makes it the most exciting style of flying, in my eyes.

I’ve coached incredibly skilled groups at high-level camps, and often it feels like we’re just scratching the surface before we pack up and say goodbye. It leaves me wondering what those same flyers could create if they actually trained together. Just as often, I’ve seen less individually skilled groups outperform the “Group 1” rockstars simply because they had more focus, better communication, and a team-first mindset. This is known as the “Group 2” phenomenon amongst coaches. Those less-skilled, but more open flyers, were willing to play roles, support each other and prioritize the vision of the jump over personal flair.

Its time to go beyond skills camps.

I love skills camps and what they do for our community, but I think we’re nearing the ceiling of what those formats can unlock. What we are seeing in movement flying is no longer limited by individual skill, it’s limited by creativity, trust and group chemistry. My vision isn’t about flying marginally tighter formations or cleaner lines year after year. It’s about unlocking new ways to express what’s possible in the sky, through shared intentions, team dynamics and prioritizing creativity.

A quarterback who practices by only throwing at targets and occasionally shows up to play with random teammates will never fully realize their potential. This is the current limitation of skills camps. We are looking for one event a year to hopefully have the right group of flyers, the right coaches, the right conditions, all come together and produce something “new” within 6 jumps. Skills and group experience obtained at camps absolutely matter and will remain valuable for developing prerequisite skills. This offering is for those ready to explore that next level of purpose and continuity in their training together.

Your style of coaching and your team flying performance series focus on building strong teams. What are some of the first things you look for when assessing a team’s strengths and weaknesses?

The first thing I pay attention to is how the group communicates. Are they open-minded and curious in how they talk about flying? Do they bring a playful energy and genuine interest in each other’s ideas? Does a skill difference within the group positively or negatively impact people’s ownership over the group? Do all members of the group hype one another up or do some use “humor” to passive-aggressively cut others down? Is the conversation shaped more by comparison, status, or a need to prove something?

These early cues reveal a lot about where a team is operating from-whether their motivation is rooted in collaboration or competition. We use simple group discussions and guided prompts to surface these dynamics. Patterns usually emerge quickly and they help us understand the team’s internal baseline-not just their technical baseline.

A lot of great teams have one thing in common—a clear sense of shared purpose. How do you help a group get aligned on a common goal, especially when they’re coming in with different backgrounds or skill levels?

A team’s strength is built more on shared purpose than equal skill. High-performing teams in any sport are not necessarily the most talented but they’re the most aligned. That resonance does not happen by chance. One of the first things I do is help the team articulate their collective “why.” When people are clear on what they’re building together and why it matters, individual differences become assets, not deficits.

You have a background in various sports. What are some of the universal techniques for improving team mentality that apply across different sports?

Teams must be deliberate in creating the culture they envision. A team-first mindset is always at the forefront of the identity of successful teams. This mentality is the foundation of success in all team sports that this program seeks to bring into focus for movement flying. The strength of flyers with a background in team sports is rooted in their experience with teamwork and collaboration as necessary towards success. In addition, I have found through coaching many flyers that those with team sport backgrounds generally handle difficult conversations or coaching critiques more productively. This allows them to somewhat bypass their emotional filters easier and see what information is useful for improving their flying. Training moments vs mistakes.

In addition, these athletes are familiar with using goal-setting and creating performance metrics. They are familiar with coach-player, leader-follower roles and are more comfortable seeking out the expertise of others to assist them in their progression. They tend to know that deferring to expertise actually accelerates their learning and is not a threat to their sense of self-worth or value within the team.

How do you cultivate an environment where team members feel comfortable expressing issues or concerns?

We begin each Team Performance Series with a personality assessment as a foundation for understanding how each person communicates, processes pressure and builds emotional trust. It helps teammates build a shared language for giving and receiving feedback. When people understand themselves and each other better, they’re more likely to speak up, listen and respond without defensiveness.Throughout the program, we prioritize the safety for everyone in the group to communicate: structured debriefs, prompts and creative outlets to discuss. It’s the process itself, not something we hope just happens.

The emphasis of understanding ourselves is put into our strengths, rather than weaknesses. By allowing flyers to focus on doing more of what they do well, they bring more to the team and can operate from a stronger confidence level.

What role does trust play in a team’s success, and how do you build that trust among team members?

Trust allows creativity, flow, and high performance to emerge.We start by redefining roles-including the idea of being a “follower.” Good leaders still need good followers, good followers need good leaders. In high-performing teams, great followers are proactive, self-aware and take ownership in the jump’s overall outcome. Trust allows us to make every jump and debrief into a collaborative effort.

People talk a lot about having a growth mindset. How do you actually help a team lean into that, especially in the harder moments of learning?

In our program, we proactively begin practicing how we handle difficult moments of performance. The goal isn’t perfection-it’s progress via process. So when that mindset takes hold, frustrating moments or progression plateaus become identifiers that we are actually right where we want to be. We reframe them as information, not our identity.

We use structured post-jump debriefs to practice this mindset. What happened? Why? What can we try differently next time? Especially for jump leaders – How can I fly differently for the success of the group? When you train this kind of reflection consistently, the team learns to detach their ego from the result and stay committed to the process. Growth as a jump leader means understanding that the moment is not about you. It is about flying in a way that brings out the best in the entire group.

How do you train teams to manage and resolve conflicts in a way that strengthens the group dynamic?

We normalize uncomfortable conversations early. Disagreement does not have to be a sign of dysfunction, rather it’s a sign that people care. How we handle conflict makes the difference between growth and resentment.

“What’s the story you’re telling yourself right now?” is a question we use a lot when someone begins to fall out of resonance with the team. It gives teammates a way to check assumptions before things escalate and make sure they are speaking to their inner-self like they would a friend.

What are some team dynamic challenges you’ve seen, and how has your coaching approach helped navigate or shift those situations?

I have worked with plenty of extremely talented groups that struggled with cohesion. On paper, some should be producing world-class jumps regularly. However, jumps were chaotic because everyone wanted to flex their individual abilities. Dirt dives and debriefs had too many voices, no clear direction and a ton of frustration. Too many chefs in the kitchen.

Over time, I’ve seen some group’s energy shift. Instead of competing with each other, they became more interested in how to help one another. Their attention was spent gassing each other up instead of finding a little flaw in others to make a “joke” about. They finished the jumping season with some of the most creative, technically clean jumps I’ve seen from a developing team despite its varied skill level. More importantly, they were having fun.

If someone is interested in taking their team or group of friends who enjoy jumping together to a different level, how should they approach this?

The major prerequisite to beginning the Team Performance Series is at least one member must have attended a Leading Workshop or similar structured training on the fundamentals of safely leading movement jumps. Beyond that, groups should can be as small as 2 in size and larger. A commitment to working together for at least one full jumping season.

Where can people learn more about what you offer?

More of my coaching services and contact info can be found via my website.

Sponsors: Performance Designs, UPT, SSK, LB, Skydive Spaceland, Tonfly