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New Beginnings …….

Robbo

Owner of this website
Jul 5, 2001
13,114
2,157
448
London
www.p8ntballer.com
Part One …...

To help launch P8ntballer’s rebirth I think it’ll help if we run a series of articles concerning the basics of our game … in the early stages, these articles will focus on the techniques required, the preparation needed and a lot more besides.
I’m gonna try and prioritise what players need when trying to improve their game not just as a player but also as a team.
I’ve been told my articles are a bit long sometimes and so I’ll try and keep this as brief as I can without leaving too much out of it.
I’m assuming that a lot of people who’ll read these introductory posts/articles will want to develop as players but maybe they don’t really know what to do.

Our sport is inundated with people who think they know paintball when the reality is, they probably don’t.
The problem is, if someone starts spouting their home-spun philosophy concerning how to play, if you’re a new player/team then how can you prove or disprove it?
For the most part, it’s difficult for players to know who’s talking out their fat ass and who ain’t.
A pretty good yardstick is to look at results but these have to be put into context because if you are playing against one of the top teams around then if you lose, which is likely, you then need to disentangle the salient factors of your own game.
I hate hearing all that bollox on TalkSport when people being interviewed drown us in clichés but I’ll use one now and it’s ….. trying to take the positives out of a loss.
Well, we can utilise this in paintball but it has to be done carefully.

Let’s start at the beginning:-

Training …...

Far too many paintballers believe they can improve levels of play just by playing the game when training.

The danger here is an obvious one; yes, you can improve …. Of sorts !
But if you want to develop as a player, you’ll need more than just playing a game when training.

Someone once advised me:- ‘If I hear, I forget - If I see, I remember - if I do, I know !!
That expression might well seem somewhat glib but in this case, ‘less really is more’ ……

One of the most prolific philosophies used when attempting to develop any sport is, ‘reductionism’.

The vast majority of sports are a compilation of elements - each of which, need to be identified, isolated, trained and then reintegrated back into whatever game you’re training …. Reductionism is therefore a four-stage process.

You need to get all four elements right and it is the last factor that’s most important.
After all, when reintegrating the components of play, the correct emphasis needs to be finely tuned otherwise you might as well throw your money/time down the bog-hole.
We’ve got enough stresses and strains on our wallets these days without wasting it doing bullshiit training.
If you reduce our sport down a click or two, we’re really playing glorified Cowboys and Indians.


The common factor in Cowboys and Indians with paintball is obviously shooting people and getting shot.

Shoot, or be shot !!!
This may sound like an over- simplification, and to a point it is, but don’t let this simplicity fool you because it does host a true indicator of what to look for when trying to understand our sport’s most important dynamics.

The most basic consideration is, you can’t shoot anyone if you’re standing in the dead-box with your thumb up your ass.

Obvious, I know but acknowledging this indicates the MOST important skill in the game of paintball, and that is staying alive.
And so, how do we stay alive?
We have to play tight and minimise the risk of being shot out … easier said than done I know.

The irony is, even though staying alive is insultingly obvious, go and watch any game of paintball and you’ll see a whole slew of players abandoning any thoughts of playing tight [seemingly] - and this happens because the game of paintball sucks away your focus.
Circumstances end up dictating the flow of your game, and so it should but you have to try and maintain a level of concentration that has your best interests at heart which in this case is staying alive.
As soon as that ‘Game On’ is shouted across the field, you have to focus your attention on playing tight, and I mean really focus.
This is not just a word or a directive that you pay lip-service to when reading this article; you have to actually do it on the field of play if you are to improve, nothing comes easy folks !

I’ve always used boxing as a relevant and working metaphor that I can utilise when talking about paintball.
There’s a good reason for that.
If you go into a fight with some guy who’s got a heavy left-hook.
Your trainer will tell you to protect your chin with your right hand especially when throwing out your jab – if you forget, his left-hook will remind you.
And it’s the same in paintball, one ball can end your participation and what’s worse, that ball can hit you on your big toe or loader and you’re still gonna have your armband ripped off..
Try knocking someone out by clumping their big toe … paintball is a lot less forgiving than boxing, you get my point I hope.
I genuinely don’t want to appear over-simplistic here but I’ll have to risk it - if you think about this following consideration - 'the longer you manage to stay in the game by playing tight, the longer you have to eliminate an opponent'.

And so how do we apply this?
Playing ‘tight’ in the Paintball sense covers many areas; it describes your breakout, the way you snap shoot, the way you move from bunker to bunker, the way you bunker the opposition, the way you cover fire and so on. In fact, every aspect of play has to be governed by the prime directive in Paintball – ‘staying tight.’



If you run to your primary bunker on break-out, make sure it’s not too far…what’s the point in trying to make the fifty if you are only going to make it six times out of 10?
You could easily make the stop-off at the 40 and do the fifty bunker as a secondary move in your own time.
This is percentage Paintball here guys; you are weighing the percentages in your favour and not allowing some stupid idea of ‘making a fifty bunker off the bat’ to compromise your ability to stay alive.

The acquisition of real-estate on the paintball field is fine, as long as you don’t get yer ass lit up in the process.
OK, so apologies to anyone that feels this article/post is obvious but sometimes in life, things can be right in front of your nose and you still don’t see them.

The next article will deal with training itself and how you develop a program for improvement and then how you maintain it.

Stay tight, shoot straight !!

Robbo
 
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Tom

Tom
Nov 27, 2006
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Salisbury
www.TaskForceDelta.co.uk
It may seem obvious to some readers ..... but the obvious basics are rarely obvious and often forgotten.

Your example shows the tournament / sup air situation where the slightest opportunity counts.
But it doesn’t just belong on the speedball field, every player can benefit no matter what their preferred style is
I joined in on many of Ampeds Saturday training sessions as they progressed in the CPPS. They did play against other practicing teams testing out the angles etc, but they concentrated more time on repeating the essential skills - making sure they could hit the target first time and not get shot whilst doing so.
This ironed out many of the bad habits that I had let slip through years in the woods. I also relearned how to swap hands and hit a barn door left handed rather than just lean a bit more and expose myself around a tree etc and by taking the rest of TFD out for the odd day with our tournament players taking the lead on training to put the skills into a scenario / woods context
 

Tom

Tom
Nov 27, 2006
4,076
1,210
198
Salisbury
www.TaskForceDelta.co.uk
Tom, you are more than welcome to author an article/post and put it up here.
If you fancy it, send me your bio and a pic.
Damn you and your gauntlet throwing .....

I don’t have such an illustrious Paintball career as others, but I’m in my 15th year and have had many experiences that I never expected to come out from one days punter ball back in 2004.
I did get asked to put together a presentation last year to fill a short time slot, on the subject of ‘passions’. That was hard work on many edits to fit into the limited time (which I overran)

I’ll write up a bio to show why someone may be interested in how I’ve somehow blundered my way around UKs Paintball
 
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Robbo

Owner of this website
Jul 5, 2001
13,114
2,157
448
London
www.p8ntballer.com
Tom, whether you think so or not, you're perfect to write up an article mate.
Try not to be too self-conscious when you write and I'm pretty sure you'll be pleased with the outcome and the response.
I look forward to reading it .....

Pete
 
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Robbo

Owner of this website
Jul 5, 2001
13,114
2,157
448
London
www.p8ntballer.com
Tom, just to qualify something here, you’re right about the basics escaping a lot of people.
I wanted to try and document the teaching of our sport from a quasi-scientific position.
I wanted to start from bottom up and hopefully develop the understanding of our sport along the way.
Some people might think it’s over-simplified and perhaps it is but nobody can level the accusation I’m missing something out.
 
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ant290

BOOOOM!
May 15, 2007
605
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ant290.wixsite.com
Just a thought, whilst new beginnings makes existing readers want to go back and check out content... SEO is not going to be great for a thread like this... if you are hoping for people searching things like "get better at paintball" or "paintball pro tips" then maybe these tutorial / understanding threads could take on titles which draw people who are actively looking for that content in?

In relation to the actual thread, we are seeing longer, slower, safer plays being made across the board in pro, with points going down to the wire, as shorter or safer breakouts are the higher percentage plays.
 

Robbo

Owner of this website
Jul 5, 2001
13,114
2,157
448
London
www.p8ntballer.com
Ant, I don't think there's gonna be a single approach to attracting site visitors - our sport is closely knit and word gets round soon enough if there's anything worth seeing but I do take your point.
I'll continue to write this series of articles that cover the playing of paintball from the bottom up and hope they generate their own interest which in turn feeds visitors through to whatever else we might have on offer.
Host good/relevant content and they will come ….. that has to be our mission statement if indeed we need one.
 
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ant290

BOOOOM!
May 15, 2007
605
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Southampton
ant290.wixsite.com
Ant, I don't think there's gonna be a single approach to attracting site visitors - our sport is closely knit and word gets round soon enough if there's anything worth seeing but I do take your point.
Absolutely not saying the content isn't relevant, simply the title to the thread isn't necessarily obvious to it's content.

Good advice, like good drills, can be taken again and again to internalise and become good habits
 

dyldor

Getting back into the game
Jul 17, 2019
24
1
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Guildford
Ant, I don't think there's gonna be a single approach to attracting site visitors - our sport is closely knit and word gets round soon enough if there's anything worth seeing but I do take your point.
I'll continue to write this series of articles that cover the playing of paintball from the bottom up and hope they generate their own interest which in turn feeds visitors through to whatever else we might have on offer.
Host good/relevant content and they will come ….. that has to be our mission statement if indeed we need one.
I know i’m completely new here (just getting back in to paintball) but I do a lot of digital marketing work, and if you happen to be having any open discussions on how to attract new site members i’d love to get involved!

Not for any other reason than wanting to get involved, at the very least I can use some of my company’s existing tools to find what people are searching on google for example?