When it comes to paintball, I’m a rookie, a newbie, a neophyte, a greenhorn. Well, you get the picture. In 1986 I was 13 years old and I lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I found a fun looking advertisement inviting me to play paintball. However, with a conservative mother and no one else to sign my waiver I was out of luck. My first paintball experience didn’t come for 7 more years. As I write this, it’s May 2003 and I have only played about five times. However, I have noticed major improvements in my play. While I cannot recommend a gun (the only thing I’ve shot is the paintball field standard issue, a Tippmann 98 Custom) and I am still not exactly sure how to keep my rental mask from fogging or how to use a squeegee, I have learned three key lessons for the beginner. They are be patient, be aggressive, and for as long as possible, stick to the plan. One the hardest things to do in a fast moving game like paintball, is to wait. When the referee blows the whistle, one obviously wants to take as much ground and the best position as quickly as possible. The key is not taking too much ground too fast. While you may successfully make it up two-thirds of the field, you may also be all alone because your teammates are playing smarter or at least more conservatively. I learned the value of patience the last time I played; it was the field on Goodfellow Air Force Base in Texas. There were seven of us and I played “President*” for the first time. One other guy and I were the snipers, four the escorts and the last one, Mr. President. As a sniper, the only way to win the game is to shoot the president. My fellow sniper and I chose to hide on either side of the flagpole and wait for the president. However, my partner either thought he had a REALLY good shot or got a little eager and got into a three on four situation without a chance to hit the target. So, early in the game, he was eliminated. My hideout was about as close to the out of bounds as I could get, behind a dirt berm. I lay there for a few minutes before I heard the agents scouting ahead looking for a safe path to get the president through and me. As one literally stepped over me, I fought like crazy to not shoot him and his partner. But, even with my inexperience, I knew the best outcome I could hope for would be a president racing for the flagpole, two markers shooting at me, and me trying to splat the president while dodging paint. Not good. I let them go on. Finally, as I heard and saw the other two escorting their man to “Air Force One”, I sneaked to a better position and just as the president and one of his bodyguards saw me, I got two hits (chest and leg) about ten feet from the flag. The only reason I was successful was I waited for the right time and a good shot. Patience. The next lesson I’ve learned is to be aggressive. At first, this may seem to contradict the last thought on patience, but it doesn’t. Sometimes one can be too patient. While playing at Paintball Paradise in Rhome, Texas, with several others who were more experienced and aggressive, I tried the old “let them come to me” plan. This worked, but to the other teams advantage. As I sat behind my bunker waiting for the perfect shot (that never came), I allowed the opposing players time to position, move forward and (worst-of-all) bunker in better than I had. Before I knew it, I was cornered and shot from two different sides. The next game, I tried to learn from my errors and acted methodically. I waited for the right time to move, but when it was the right time, I took positions quickly. This time, I stayed in the game longer and even got a couple of kills on some more experienced players. This game is aggressive in nature. Don’t be afraid to play that way. Finally, before each game most teams (whether formal or informal) discuss some sort of plan. Often any plan is better than no plan at all. Even worse though is agreeing on a strategy and you being the one to mess it up by ditching your role in the plan. If your team comes up with a game plan, it’s your responsibility to stick with it as long as tactically possible. Be reliable. Reading this you may think sticking to the plan is a no-brainer, but think back on your paintball experiences and you’ll soon realize how many times the game plan fell apart before 20 shots were fired. When a player abandons the plan, he not only risks himself, he lets others down who are counting on him to provide cover fire, protect a certain area of the field or guard the flag. Read the patience paragraph again. My partner did not stick to our prearranged idea of focusing only on the president. He let himself down by getting eliminated quickly and me down by being unable to back me up. While my patience helped, I also got lucky. If you don’t like the plan, say so BEFORE the game starts. Once it starts, support the group’s decision. Trust me, you’ll be a better team. So, there they are my three philosophies of paintball. They are all separate: Patience, Aggressiveness, Reliability, but they all intertwine. Apply these techniques to paintball (or almost any team sport) and you’ll see positive results. Tomorrow, I’m playing with about 20 people. This will be the biggest group I’ve played with. I’ll let you know if I followed my own advice and how it worked. *President is a game where a couple of players are snipers with a goal of “shooting” the president. The other players, the Secret Service Agents’, mission is to escort the unarmed president across the field to Air Force One (usually the flagpole). If the snipers kill the president before he reaches the pole, they win. If the president gets to the pole safely, the good guys win. I encourage you to email me at marty_may@hotmail.com with your comments on this article, your questions about paintball, or ideas for my next article. (Put splatdogs in the subject line.) Until next time, happy paintballing! |
