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CHAPTER 3

RECREATIONAL PLAY

Paintball is a high-tech game of playing tag. The same philosophy applies: It is better to give than to receive. So, give all you’ve got.

Most of what you will read in magazines is about tournaments and airball fields and professionals. Now, 99 percent of us won’t ever play competitive, cash-prize paintball and don’t really care. Most of us just want to have fun. So, you can sum up all the tactics for playing recreational paintball in just ten words: you run, you shoot, you hide and you play fair. Nevertheless, here are some tips and essential playing skills for higher-level play.

TACTICAL TIPS

Use cover effectively. Whether you are hiding behind a big tree or a bunker, there are some specific practices that will help you keep an eye on the field without being hit every time you stick your head out.

First, remember those geometry classes you dozed through? Well, they could come in handy now. The closer you are to the bad guys, the less time you have to react and the tighter you want to lean into your cover. The farther you are away, the more time you will have to react and you can play a little fast and loose with the tree. It’s a matter of angles, reaction time and the general inaccuracy of shooting on a rec field. Of course, the same principles apply to pro play as well.

When you lean out from the tree, present the lowest possible profile to see and to be seen. Keep your marker tight against the side and in the same angle as your face. Beginners often exhibit what is known as “lazy hopper syndrome,” where they stick their marker and that big 200-count hopper out of cover … and get it blasted right away. You only need one eye to look for movement and targets.

Get a move on. Unlike that very first game of paintball back in ’81 where the winner never shot a single ball and only skulked from cover to cover in the woods, you’ve got to move if you’re going to win in today’s game. On the other hand, with the super high rates of fire most markers are capable of even on semi-auto mode (20+ balls per second), you do have to spend some time thinking about your moves before you jump out of cover. The important thing to keep in mind is that you can’t freeze in the open. Do that and you are dead. Like a deer in the headlights. Practice your quick moves. Practice sliding legs first and head first. Sure, you can get scraped up. So?

Use cover effectively. This right-hander is switching to the left side of the bunker and shooting left-handed. He may not be quite as accurate, but this is good shooting technique to keep the opposition off guard.

Now, if you know anything about the field you are playing on, you can anticipate where the paint is going to be concentrated. After all, most fields today are tight and certainly the narrow airball fields have shooting lanes.

In rec ball, you will often go out without a team. Everybody who is a walk-on is kind of grouped into the player mix. Don’t be shy. A good tactic is to recruit a buddy or, in a pick-up game, even somebody you don’t know and become a team: one moves and one covers. At the end of the day, you will both wear less paint.

Shoot and shoot some more. That’s what you are out there for. Face it. There are a lot of different styles of shooting your marker. You are going to find yourself in many different situations on the field whether it is rec play, a scenario game or a tournament, so why not practice for them? Practice being pinned down and needing to get off a quick shot (called snap shooting) by putting a pie plate on a string 15 to 20 yards away. Then, from behind a wall or tree, practice leaning out and taking two or three fast shots. The more you try this, the better your hand-eye coordination will become. It’s all about staying “alive.”

Get a move on if you are charging over the top! Marker up, crouch and fire as you go.

Try shooting with both hands. Say 85 percent of us are right-handed. This means when your opponent leans out from behind the bunker, the chances are that he or she will lean out on their right side – the left side as you are looking for them. You can plan your shooting for this. People tend to exit the bunker running on that side, too.

In tournament play, the term “sweetspotting” or lane shooting is a very big consideration. We carry a lot of balls and we have high-rate-of-fire markers. Balls are cheap and we know the opposition has to move across “that lane” to run for the flag. So, fill it with paint. The clock is running and they have to move. So do you!

Finally, try shooting blind and shooting on the run. You are preparing to make a move. Slide your marker around the corner, keeping it level to slightly elevated and squeeze off a couple dozen shots. ‘Course, if one of your guys has moved out in front you’re going to waste ‘em, but you can shoot accurately on the run can’t you? If not, get some cheap paint and practice. Run and gun !

Talk to me! This means you have to communicate to your teammates on any paintball field. In competition, your team will have practiced giving signals on the field … and responding to them, too. In NPPL and PSP play, you cannot have anyone on the sidelines coaching or calling out positions or information. In the NXL and some collegiate play, however, this is actually encouraged.

When you are shooting from behind cover, present the smallest silhouette you can to look and fire. Lean out only long enough to get off your shots and then duck back. The next time you lean out to fire, choose a different spot to prevent your opponents from remembering that a right-hander will almost always lean out the right side to fire.

The problem with communication is adrenaline. It blocks your ability to hear, respond and react. It also blocks your ability to give directions. Everyone has seen the newbie hunkered in his bunker and just beyond there is an opponent approaching, intent on blasting him. The newbie’s buddy, who is only 20 yards away but equally pinned down, yells at him again and again, but the newbie doesn’t react. He has gone into a shell where nothing comes in and nothing goes out. It’s adrenaline in its extreme form.

If you are on a team, practice giving and responding to signals. If you are not on a team and are playing as a walk-on with a group of players you don’t know, you may want to pair off within the game for better attack and defense tactics and survivability.

TEAMWORK

Battle Drills or Immediate Action Drill

You can play paintball forever on recreational fields and in scenario games. At some time in your life you may get tennis elbow from doing chin-ups or maybe bust a tendon in your foot from running road races, but attacking and defending, dodging and shooting paintballs is practically a lifetime sport.

What takes your play to the next level, however, is putting together or joining a team. In a team, you can really move around the U.S. in tournaments and perhaps – if you are good enough – pick up some sponsors and make a little money, too. Or maybe make a lot of money.

Working together in a scenario game makes for good team practice. Most generals are only too willing to have a good team on their side. It gives everyone confidence that at least part of a big group of players will work together.

According to Jon Harris, a retired U.S. Army NCO and specialist in small unit tactics (www.tacticalmarkers.com), small unit routines can mean the difference in staying alive and getting splattered in paint. In the military or on a SWAT team, where they use live ammo and a hit is much more serious than a washable mark, such drills are a regular part of combat readiness and preparation. “I can tell you from experience,” Jon says, “these drills work. They are not hard, but coordination is the key. I remember practicing crossing the same road maybe 50 times in a day until I was satisfied that our squad had it right. Then, we did it again with everyone occupying a different position in the squad. Everyone had to know someone else’s job.”

Jon says an immediate action drill is used to rehearse reactions to contact with the opposition. Basically, they involve practicing your immediate reaction to a threat until it becomes an automatic response. In combat, you may only have seconds … if that.

Assume that the other team wants to catch you in an unfavorable tactical spot, an ambush, for instance. You will be tooling around with your buddies and suddenly, unless you are way out in the open, you will run into dozens of balls in the air heading right at you. You won’t have a big chance to shout “Incoming!” and hit the dirt shooting. In an ambush, contact will be sudden, violent, close and at short range. If you react slowly or in a disorganized manner, everyone will “die” and you and your whole team will be sitting out for a half hour. Drills help you react right – RIGHT NOW!

According to Jon, this kind of organized practice (let’s call it “practice,” not “drill”) is exactly the right answer to climbing the paintball ladder to top-level competitive play.

Here is one of Jon’s immediate action scenarios. Remember that these tactics are proven and are actually practiced by military units in the real world.

Large inflatable bunkers are the rule on the professional tournament circuit. When the competition has you pinned down by laying paint on a lane or “sweetspotting ,” you can lean into these bunkers several inches to avoid flying goo. Be careful not to get comfortable, though, because the moment you do, somebody is going to lay paint on your back.

The Patrol

Your team is moving slowly and quietly along the side of a trail in the direction of the opposition. The team is staggered or alternated left and right by the trail. You know where the other team members are because you can see them.

Suddenly, your point man makes contact. He has to figure out if you have been seen, because that will determine your response. Figure you have been seen, so your point man shouts, “Contact, front!” to give direction, dives for cover and begins laying down fire.

The rest of the team echoes the point man’s shout, “Contact, front!” and immediately moves forward into covering positions on either side. (Jon says it isn’t necessarily important that the front person hit anyone, just that he makes people duck and hide while his team members leapfrog forward.) Alternating moving and shooting and remembering not to be in anyone else’s line of fire, team members move gradually forward.

When they move, all team members shout, “Coming through!” to avoid being shot in the back. Paint is paint, but at short distance it can sting and how humiliating it is to be put out of the game by your own team member!

If a team member runs out of paint, he shouts, “Loading!” This alerts everyone as to why he is not shooting; he doesn’t want his teammates to think it’s because he is taking a potty break in the middle of the action. Finished loading, he yells, “Up!” or “Ready!” Reloading under combat conditions while you are moving or scrunched up on the ground is tough and takes practice.

The team continues its leapfrog technique until the team leader realizes it is going to be overwhelmed or can take its objective. If it appears that the team is facing a superior force or one with superior firepower and cover, use the same leapfrog movement for a tactical retreat.

“Remember,” Jon says, “you can never have too much firepower!”

TEN TIPS FOR BEGINNERS

Courtesy of Game Face

1. According to the folks at Game Face, communication is the key to all team sports. Use your teammates to find out exactly what your opposition is doing and where they are located on the field. This insures that everyone on your team is “on the same page.” In a super-fast game of airball or hyper-ball, this is extremely important because seconds are crucial to survival. And in a scenario game , unless your team’s general can communicate effectively with his troops, the game will rapidly degenerate into a free-for-all. In that circumstance, everyone has less fun.

It’s a team game, so talk to your teammates. “Here is how I’d do it,” explains one teammate to another before their team takes the field at a tournament.

2. Make use of all available cover. On a field or in the woods, you must use everything from tree trunks to prepared bunkers. On a speedball field, the situation is different because you know in advance where every prepared element is located, where the flag is hung and what the lines of fire will be.

3. Wait for the right shot. In the beginning, a newbie will fling paint for the sake of seeing it fly. Accuracy is less important than the thrill of pulling the trigger. This stage of becoming a real paintball player doesn’t last long though. After a few solid, stinging hits, even the dullest newbie learns pacing, spending as much time looking as shooting. Poorly thought-out shooting just gives away your position to more experienced players. When you find a target, take your time and wait for the good shot. Then fill the air with paint.

4. Listen for your opponent’s firing. While you are playing, your ears can often be your best friends. Whether you are hunkered down breathing dirt behind the giant X in the middle of a grueling NXL game or ghosting through the woods in a Ghillie suit on the way to save the world from aliens, you need to listen for the sound of markers around you. Listen for people shouting directions. When people are re-grouping or confused is often the very best time for you to make a move.

5. Try snap-shooting. The term snap-shooting refers to exposing yourself from behind cover for only a brief period of time while you take a couple of shots. You immediately return to safety. You have a chance to look around, albeit quickly, and make a decision about your next move.

6. Look at the field from different perspectives. What seems open while you are standing may be completely different if you are kneeling or crawling. In a scenario game , slight undulations of the ground can often achieve maximum concealment. In a tournament, you will have a chance to walk the field and even make a map of the placement of the blow-up modules. Before the game, take every chance you can to figure out what your opponent is going to do, how he will approach, where she will hide a sniper.

7. Come out from behind cover with your marker ready. Whether you’re on a recreational field or playing at the highest levels of international competition, expect the unexpected. When you leave cover, expect that you are going to be shot at and that you will find targets of opportunity to paint. Why miss a shot? Take it from the Boy Scouts and be prepared. If your gun is up and ready, you save several critical seconds.

8. Work with your teammates. It is much easier to move over the field if you coordinate and communicate with a squad or your team. You move; they cover you. They move; you cover. Or, in the real adrenaline rush, your whole team charges the enemy camp, firing and screaming at the top of your lungs.(This usually doesn’t work, but what a gas!)

Paintball players on patrol. “Are you covering my back?” Answer: “Yeah, are you scouting ahead or looking for nickels?”

9. Move around the field. It is much harder for your opponents to focus on you if you are continually changing positions. This also creates new angles on them while they are convinced that there are ten of you! Of course, in some situations, the more you move, the more you give away your position, direction and intent. So, be flexible and thoughtful.

10. Don’t keep coming out of your bunker in the same spot. This really applies to rec ball and scenario games , because in a tournament, each player starts with the tip of their marker touching the “dead box.” But only maybe five percent of all paintball is done in competition. The remainder is done for fun and to have the most fun you can possibly have, don’t let your opponents realize that you are coming out in the same area every time. If you do, sooner or later, they will be waiting for you with their gun up and balls in the air. By then, it’s too late to switch sides.

Bunkering. A strong, sandbagged position on a hill combines effective cover and an advantageous slope.

Whether you win or lose, the most important part of paintball is learning how to play the game fairly and well.

WOMEN IN PAINTBALL

Clare Benavides is spokes-model for Tom Kaye’s Airgun Designs .

For Paintball Digest, the author had an opportunity to interview some of the girls, too! Here’s what Blue’s Crew “Press Wench” Amy “The Girl” Chantry says about playing, competing and kicking butt!

Paintball Digest: Amy, you’re an avid paintball player and a member of a well-known amateur team with Michael “Blue” Hanse and EMR Paintball Park in Pennsylvania. I understand you’re the official “Press Wench,” so you must handle the publicity for Blue’s Crew. Is that right?

Amy: Yes, I help out with press for the team and I’m also the mother of two beautiful little girls and, as you might imagine, I’m very involved in their lives. I volunteer at their elementary school, work with the Parent and Teacher’s Association (PTA) and help out in the classroom, too. Plus, I cook and clean and play the big games when I can. I have a life, you know!

Paintball Digest: Anything involving children makes for one busy life. But don’t you think playing paintball is kind of extreme for women and certainly for the mom of two little girls?

Amy: Well, it’s like I told one of the paintball magazines a while ago, there ought to be a support group for us women paintball players, like Alcoholics Anonymous or Overeaters Anonymous, you know. “Hello, my name is Amy and I play paintball …” There aren’t that many of us yet, and people are only slowly realizing that we can play as well as and have just as much fun as the guys.

It’s when the other moms find out I play paintball that I hear, “Ah…. oh…really? Paintball ? Doesn’t that hurt?”

I remind them it’s childbirth that hurts and we’ve done that! What the heck is a little paintball going to do to you unless you have an accident? Some tiny welt if you catch a ball in a soft spot isn’t anything compared to the excitement of capturing a flag, or putting the opposing team’s general out of the game or defending a castle. Now that’s what I call fun. That or just sitting on the floor and playing with my little girls.

There’s a double standard at work in sports like paintball and we need to change it. Paintball is not just a sport for men. Neither is skateboarding or snowboarding.

I see more women playing every time I go out. I hope it will continue to rise. I truly believe that paintball is for everyone. So, I say, ladies, if you have a desire to try paintball, try it! Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. You might just have the best day of your life. Hope to see you on the field!

Paintball Digest: So, as a woman player, how are you treated by the guys? After all, men are 90-something percent of the players.

Amy: My saying that we women need a support group probably makes you think I’m complaining about the guys, some kind of macho attitudes on the field, but I’m really not. That couldn’t be further from the truth. When it comes to playing with the guys, I’ve never felt unwelcome on a field or felt like they were taking it easy on me because I was a girl. Actually, I’ve made some outstanding friends, maybe life-long friends, during the time I’ve been playing. I have always considered myself an equal on a playing field that’s mostly men. When the mask goes on, we’re all just players, and unless you know what your buddy is wearing, everyone is kind of anonymous.

Paintball Digest: So, being a woman on the field doesn’t slow you down and it shouldn’t be handicap for other women, either. Is that right? Attitudes are changing, and that’s good for everybody.

Amy: Women love playing paintball as much as men. We girls want to tell people about it, share stories about stuff that happens on the field and encourage other people to give it a try. Nevertheless, when you’re a girl, you sometimes get some odd reactions.

It starts right at home in your family. My mother, Patty Zewinski, was horrified by the thought that I was “taking up arms” and running around in the woods with a gun! She just couldn’t (maybe she didn’t want to) understand why I would put on camouflage and drive hundreds of miles to play “that stupid kid’s game.” I tried to explain to her that paintball is fun. It’s an exciting sport my husband and I can do together. I’m out there getting some aerobic exercise while I’m having fun, too. It’s not like playing bridge or even pedaling a stationery bicycle in front of the television. And I can compete on an equal footing with the men, even guys who have been in the army and marines.

JT USA’s promotional poster features their pin-up girl and spokesmodel Bon Bon.

The Airgun Designs spokes-model is more beautiful than her surroundings near the entrance to the Big Butler Fairgrounds north of Pittsburgh in July 2003.

Girls. Ladies. Gals. Women. Say what you will, women can play paintball as well as men. Before you take this tricked-out female paintball combatant for granted, you might want to check out her shooting iron, the sniper scope, the military camo, the sidearm and the gleam in her eye that says, “You slip up just once and you’re dead meat.” (Photo by Ted D’Ottavio .)

Still, mom kind of grouses about me playing paintball. Mind you, she never had a problem when my husband started playing. So, why the double standard? We’re working on that, but it ain’t done and gone yet. One day, maybe when my girls get to be my age, maybe.

Amy (again): Before we’re done, I also would like to comment on the use of sexy girls in ads to sell equipment and such, but I didn’t know if that would be mean spirited.

Paintball Digest: Hmm. Sort of a comment about the old advertising adage “sex sells,” eh? From what you said, it sounds like you’re against it, right? Well, fire away.

Amy: Now how did you know I would take the con side? Actually, I can see both sides, but here’s what I think.

As a female player, it offends me to see manufacturers using sexy girls in their ads. That sends two messages. First, they are not considering me, the female player, as a consumer and are obviously targeting only the male demographic and that’s wrong! Second, how good is their product really if they have to resort to sexy advertising? Got to get a hot babe to sell your marker? Your product probably can’t hold up in quality!

Everybody knows that Tippmann , for instance, is a good quality marker and they have never (to my knowledge) used a cute, sexy girl or even a cartoon girl in a bikini to sell their product! (I gotta admit their spokes model is cute though.) And third, why can’t manufacturers at least use girls who actually play paintball in those ads? You take one look at a lot of these girls and you know they have never been on a playing field!

I have male players tell me that they aren’t influenced to buy by the girls in the ads. Most paintball players want to know all the ins and outs of their equipment and could care less who is holding it in the picture. If it’s good quality, they will buy it.

So I don’t feel that my position on this subject is completely because I am a girl. I’m against using sexy models to sell equipment because I am a serious player and want to be treated like one. Don’t give me fluff. Tell me about your product!

The pro side of the kind of advertising we’re talking about is that manufacturers are targeting that all-important 18-to-24-year-old male demographic and, let’s face it, we always need new blood in the sport! Get them interested, and based on my experience, they’ll get hooked!

There is a new paintball show on Fox Sports World called “Splatter Factor.” The host is some bimbo with huge boobs who preens and pouts for the camera. At the end of one segment she said, and I quote, “When we come back [following a commercial] more of me dancing!”

What does that have to do with paintball? Nevertheless, the show is really good! They really give you the ins and outs of the game, the industry and the gear. So, I guess it’s a trade-off. Hook the young guys who want to drool at the girl and maybe they will get interested in paintball in the process.

I hope that when paintball becomes a more mainstream sport they won’t have to resort to tactics like this and we can start getting serious! Get rid of the bimbo dancing and show us more paintball!

Paintball Digest: Well, no one could accuse you of pulling your punches.

Amy: Thanks, but there is one more thing I want to comment on. When you [Paintball Digest] asked if men pee in the bushes while I’m around, well believe it or not, that actually has happened to me! I was out patrolling once with the general for our side in a big game. We were sweeping the field and such when he asked if I would look out for a second while he peed! I couldn’t believe it! It was so weird, but on the other hand, some part of me doesn’t view it as negative, but rather that he was treating me like an equal. I mean, he definitely would have asked a male player to watch out for him, so why not me, right? That told me he considered me just a player and not a girl on the field.

Paintball Digest: With almost eight million people playing paintball in the U.S. and Canada and the vast majority being men – maybe more than 90 percent – do you feel that this kind of thing keeps the women away from playing? Do you feel that a lot more women would get involved in paintball if using sexy girls to sell equipment were moderated?

Amy: That’s right. Let’s say there are 7-1/2 million men playing and half a million women. Doesn’t it seem like there’s a lot more room to grow the sport among women?

Paintball Digest: Since you specifically mentioned Tippmann, I ought to ask if Tippmann is one of your sponsors. Are they?

Amy: No, Tippmann is not one of my sponsors, but I have a special affinity for them because my first marker was a Tippmann Pro Am. It served me well those first years! I had to retire it when it became harder and harder to find replacement parts for the ‘ole girl. It was a much older model (made of cast iron!) and I was swayed by the lightness of newer models. Being a member of (Michael Hanse’s) Blue’s Crew team, we mostly all play with the Generation E Matrix—electric blue ones of course!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Another female player, Nancy Durham-Glynn is a member of the seven-woman, Tippmann -sponsored PaintGirls paintball team, all of whom are from Maine. “There are quite a few women who play paintball,” she said, “and some of them are as good or better than most men who are playing, so it’s just about equal once you are out there on the field. I’m a member of an all-woman team and we’re proud of our play and teamwork.”

Don’t even imagine that girls can’t play paintball, too!

Nancy, who is in the unusual position of being a mother and a grandmother (although she looks about 25!), also owns the 202 Paintball pro shop and playing field in Manchester, Maine. She says there seems to be a difference in how women on the playing fields are treated depending on the age of the men playing. “Young men in their early 20s seem to pack a little attitude toward women,” Nancy says. “They seem a little cocky at that age. Most other men on the field are a little protective, even the referees.”

One thing that does concern Nancy is the use of young women, many of them teenagers, as sex objects in posters and in advertising, “It doesn’t bother me so much personally or as a player. As a mom, though, I’m concerned about the message it sends to my 12-year-old daughter.”