Paintball Players = Psychopathic Killers ?

Hey everyone! I hope everyone had a good weekend! Well to kick off this week’s post I wanted to start off by thanking all the readers who have been asking questions and giving me feedback. It’s really helping me steer the course of this blog. Now recapping over last week’s post, I spoke about some personal dilemmas whenever I first began playing. I spoke about how much of a wuss I was to get shot and how the expenses of paintball kept me from playing for a few months as well! So if you want to get some more insight on that be sure to go check it out! Now in this week’s post I'll be going over an issue that has recently impacted the paintball community.

                Now we all know (unless you're just very clueless) about the recent shooting at the midnight premier of Batman in Colorado.  It was a very tragic event and my heart goes out to the families of the victims. One thing that infuriates me though is the media’s connection between paintball and the psychopathic freak that killed all these people. Apparently, James Holmes (the shooter), was also a paintball enthusiast like myself. I have attached a video that has the actual airing of the news broadcast that shows the connection between paintball and this freak. My question to you guys is do you think this could be a reason why he did this? From all the previous post that I've posted can you see paintball influencing and individual to cause such chaos?

                After watching the video I'd like to get a response from you stating your standpoint on this topic. Could he really of done this because he plays paintball? I know for a fact shooting REAL guns and paintball markers are two completely different things. To me it is stupid that the media would even air this! I don't see any logical connection between paintball and killing innocent people. But enough of what I think, let’s see what you guys think. Post your replies in the comments below!  

My personal issues with paintball

Welcome back everyone! Briefly reviewing what was covered last week we went over the main rules of almost any kind of tournament or recreational play of paintball. Then we covered some of the issues that has grown with the sport, and then discussed the current states of these issues today. In this week’s post we're going to take things to a little more of a personal level. I'll be explaining a few personal issues (or complications) that I've overcome since I first started playing.

                When I first began playing paintball I played mainly because my friends played. If my friends never played then typically you wouldn't see me out there. Why? It was simple, I was afraid to get shot! I was so scared that I would literally shoot myself in the foot to get out. This didn't last long though, after a while my friends began to notice that I was always getting out with the same hit.  This caused them to modify the rules slightly; the change was that only head and torso shots were considered elimination shots. After being shot over 30 plus times I naturally became use to the feeling.

                Another issue that kept me from playing for several months was the expenses to play paintball. Paintball is a rather expensive sport, at first you can easily be paying 50 dollars to practice at your local field , and then when it come to playing tournaments you can easily be paying over 100 dollars! This quickly became an issue for me because I was only 13 years-old whenever I first began playing tournaments. My parents could only support me to such a certain extent but things kept becoming more and more expensive. So what could I do to fix this dilemma? Well, I began to volunteer as a referee at my local field which gave me a discounted price to practice. After around logging over 300 hours of volunteer work I began to play for basically free.  This helped me to practice more and get my skills to a more competitive level. I was then able to try out for a local travel team that is based out of Macon, GA, and now I am able to play tournaments at a fraction of the cost due to the sponsors the team has contracted with.

                Well that about wraps up this week’s blog post! If you have any questions or comments please just leave it in the comments section below. I’ll be more than glad to answer them in next week’s post! Be easy everyone, and have a nice  day! 

Let's go over some rules & Issues

Welcome back everyone! Last post we briefly spoke about a few of the fundamentals of paintball. We spoke about how paintball is mix between speed and strategy, so if you have any catching up to do go have a look at that post.  Today I'll be going over the general rule for paintball then closing off with issues that have grown as the sport popularized, and the current state of those issues today.

                So what’s the main goal every paintball team has when they walk out onto the field? It’s simple, get as many players on the opposing team eliminated as possible, and score the flag on their starting station.  Now this does seem simple but there’s a twist, each game is given a total of 25 minutes of playing time. That being said, there is no certain amount of rounds per game. There could be as little as 3 rounds (which mean each round was fairly long). Heck I've seen some games have as many as 10 games! Like I said paintball is an extremely fast moving sport. This concept of speed is what keeps players and the audience in the stands on the edge of their game or seat. Now teams are given points for every opponent they eliminate (and yes, friendly fire is also accounted for) but this does not guarantee a win for that round. Hanging the flag on the opposing team’s base is what gives the most points and typically guarantees a win. Note I used the word “typically” this is because if your team has a penalty that deducts not only points but as well a player for a certain period of time depending on the severity of the penalty. Penalties can be from talking back to the referee, fighting, wiping paint after being hit (worse penalty by far), and any other general behavior that is not sportsmanlike  Now once all the playing time has been played, officials add all the points together and the team with the most points wins! Now I know this is a random place to put this but I have been getting many questions such as, “If you only get shot once are you out?” or  questions like, “Are there a certain amount of hits before you are called out?”.  To answer these questions, players are considered out once ONE paintball has successfully hit and broke anywhere of the player’s body, this does include the marker and hopper. This is why paintball is so intense! Think about it, two teams of 5 players each player having a marker that is capable of shooting 12 paintballs per second with each paintball travelling at 300 feet per second ( or roughly 204 miles per hour) and players are cannot even be hit once…..Crazy right?

                Now a major downfall for paintball is all the issues and misconceptions that many people have on the sport. For example many parents refuse to let their children play because many view the sport as a promotion for violence. Although the idea of having individuals shooting each other with paintball markers can easily be misunderstood for a violent standpoint  parents need to have a more open eye and view it from a different light. This dilemma really hindered the growth of the sport during the early 2000’s; heck I still remember how hard it was to get my mom to take me to the field whenever I first started playing. So exactly what did the community fight this misconception?  Well one easy way was the fix the name that many people use to call the markers back during the early 2000’s which was the term “Paintball gun”.  The word “gun” typically was what scared many people who was scared when it first came to playing. Then around 2006 some genius decided that entire industry of paintball should refer to paintball guns as paintball markers  This simple change in name caused the industry to boom, and in the end the sport keeps thriving til this very day. 

                So that about wraps it up for this week’s blog post, Next week I’ll be going over some personal experiences of mine whenever I first started playing. If you have any question please feel free to ask in the comments below, I'll  answering them next week.