History of paintball

Not often do we get asked about the history of paintball, but today we had this query and I thought it would be an excellent way to write a series of post’s describing the history of paintball. I’ll be posting a chapter a day (apart from the weekend, of course ) over the next week or so highlight the history of paintball.

Enjoy.

The history of paintball is rather brief, but very interesting. Compared to other sports, paintball is relatively new. It’s origins only go back as far as 1980 when James Hale of Daisy Manufacturing invented and patented what would become the first paintball gun.

However, Hale did not invent the paintball gun with the idea of fun and games in mind. The original paintball gun was used for marking trees and livestock in the field. It was not long before the history of paintball took a more interesting turn.

The history of paintball as a recreational sport began only a year later. In 1981 the first game was played by twelve competitors in New Hampshire. This game was played with paintball pistols that were usually used by the foresting industry for marketing trees and was a game of  ”capture the flag.” This first game was the brainchild of Bob Gumsey, a sporting goods retailer, Hayes Noel,a stockbroker, and Charles Gaines, a writer. The winner of that first game was an initiate named Ritchie White who apparently captured all of the flags without firing a single shot!

The next big development in the history of paintball was the opening of the first outdoor paintball field in Rochester, New York by a developer named Caleb Strong. He later became the head of PMI Northeast along with Charles Gaines. This company now pretty owns the paintball industry in America.

Chapter two to follow..

Guide to paintball terms

Football has ‘offsides’, ‘man-on’ and ‘jockey’.

Cricket has ‘LBW’ and ‘Silly mid-on’.

Paintball has…

Well, thats what we want to talk about here. Currently the fastest growing sport in Europe, paintball, like any other sport, has it’s very own unique set of vocabulary for it’s specific equipment needed to play.

If someone isn’t familiar with paintball, they’re likely to get their ‘hopper’ and ‘marker’s’ mixed. Here’s a quick guide so some basic paintball terminology:

Paintballs

Paintballs are round capsules containing special non-toxic, biodegradable, water-soluble paint that are fired from paintball guns, or markers. To put it simply they are the ammunition for paintball markers.

Markers

Another term that is used to describe a paintball gun as the main objective in paintball is to ‘mark’ or ‘tag an opponent. Plus, paintball marker sounds a lot more pleasant than a paintball gun.

Hopper

A plastic container that is slotted on top of the marker, much like the magazine that slots into a rifle. Hoppers can usually container between 150 and 200 paintballs.

Battle Pack

Custom built, waist-mounted paintball carrier (much like Batmans utility belt). Can fit up to four ‘pods’, each can carry an extra 100 paintballs which allows the wearer to take upto 400 extra paintballs into the game.

Combat Suit

Combat suits are supplied to all our players, to ensure that they’re clothes stay clean and also provide a little more protection.

Pyrotechnics

An umbrella term that is used for the smoke grenades and smoke bombs which can be purchased on-site.

Gamezones

The game scenarios or fields in which the paintball is played, often decorated with natural or man-mad structures to add that extra depth to the game.

 

I hope that’s cleared up a few terms and words you’ll hear at Skirmish Paintball. If you have any other questions, then call us on 0870 22 55 639.

More tips on being a better player

After talking to the owner of our Paintball High Wycombe, we got into the subject of what makes a good player different to an excellent player and after reeling of a list of different aspects, he sent me this email:

1. Use cover as a diversion. Appear from behind a part of the cover, duck down, and move to another part. Your opponent will be focusing his attention on where you used to be – where he thinks you still are. Jump up and nail him, if he’s close enough, or jump up and run to better cover if he isn’t. Use the element of surprise.

2. Use teamwork to keep an opponent trapped behind cover. With a teammate providing cover fire aimed at the object your opponent is hiding behind, you can approach undetected and find a better angle to tag him while he’s still behind cover. If he realizes you are approaching and breaks cover to tag you, your teammate will tag him.

3. Learn total awareness. Don’t focus your attention on a single spot, even if you think an opponent may be hiding there – a different opponent may be flanking you. Or you may locate an opponent you wouldn’t otherwise have seen. Constantly survey your surroundings.

4. Move. Standing still will get you noticed. Moving will keep your opponent guessing about where you could pop up from. Moving will get you to better positions. Try shooting first, then moving while your opponents are behind cover, to give yourself the most time.

5. Move up field especially when your opponent doesn’t see you. You can either shoot blindly, probably from out of range, or you can take advantage of the moment to move up field to where you could be more useful. Don’t be afraid of moving up field – fear leads to hesitation, which could get you tagged.

7. When you get to a new position, pause. Don’t give yourself away immediately. Take a moment to survey the field from your new angle, determine if any opponents are within range, or if there’s a better position you can run to.

8. Keep it simple. Really cool looking moves will only make you look stupid if you get tagged while doing them.

9. Climb a tree. People rarely look up. You won’t have the freedom of movement, but you will have additional cover and concealment. This tactic is especially good for protecting a base or a flag.

10. Communicate with your teammates, especially on offensive maneuvers. You’ll have more success as a team than as an individual. And even if the opponent you are trying to tag hears you, if you have a good plan he won’t be able to do anything with the knowledge anyway. Paintball is a team sport.

I don’t think he’s far off with these, and if you keep these in mind then you’ll not go far wrong!

Top 10 tips to play better paintball

Following our post about how to be successful during a paintball game, we have come up with a list of 10 fantastic tips that will help you play more efficiently during a paintball battle.

Written by a paintball marshal over at Skirmish Brighouse and Wakefield, these are his top ten most important tips to improve your game:

1. Move

The key to paintball is movement and there’s no better paintball tip than to to learn how to move. You should learn when to move, learn how to move and move all the time.

2. Get a Good Paint To Barrel Match

You have to buy paintballs to play the game, so you might as well get some paint that fits.If your paint is round and fits snugly in your barrel your accuracy will improve dramatically.

3. Walk the Field

One trip around the field can pay off huge dividends as you learn the angles and know the locations of the best cover.

4. Get in Shape

A day of paintball is much more fun and you can actually focus on your game if you aren’t constantly gasping for air. Get yourself into good enough shape that your primary concern is not if your body can handle the next game.

5. Know what You and Your Equipment are Capable of Doing

If you know you can’t shoot worth anything when you run, save it for practice and don’t try it in a game. If you know you can’t win a high speed shootout, don’t try. If you know your gun isn’t accurate beyond sixty feet, save your paint. When you know what your limitations are you won’t get yourself into trouble nearly as often. You should always work to get better, but a big game is not the right time.

6. Don’t Be The Hero

Paintball players have a tendency to want to be the star of the show and that often gets them into trouble. If you want occasional individual glory, feel free to try every game to win on your own. If, though, you actually want to win regularly, focus on teamwork and strategy.

7. Plan, Plan, Plan

A good team strategy will almost always win against superior fire power and superior numbers. Make sure you all work together and then move in conjunction with each other and you will be able to crush the competition.

8. Practice on Your Own

Improve your game on your own time so that you are able to step on the field and perform. If you excel playing defense, practice offense so that when your team needs you in a game you’re ready to help.

9. Communicate

The more you communicate the better you will do. Good communication will help you keep track of where on the field the opposing players are and it will help you coordinate attacks. Whether you shout or use radios, good team communication will greatly improve your game.

10. Aim Before You Fire

A trap that many paintball players fall into is to fire first and aim later. While it’s easy to fire lots of paint and walk your shot into your target, after the first shot your opponent knows to move and you have a much smaller chance at getting a kill.

Top tips on being successful whilst paintballing

We’ve been asked on numerous occasion’s by newcomers about how best to win a paintball game. Now, this comes with practice, but we’ve compiled a little ‘cheat sheet’ which provides good reading before you come paintballing with us!

Written up by a marshals at our Nottingham Paintball venue, here is a run down on things to remember…

The key to squad sports is that they need teamwork, skill, and preparation. These aspects of team sports are very often seen in games like basketball, football and baseball thereby creating a worthwhile paintball squad is no exception. To make a winning team, every participant ought to be a good squad as well as individual player and it all begins during the training sessions where players learn how to play on the offense as well as on the defense side.

War games are the replica of the real-life conditions and after every game players must critically analyze their performances. This is how players can review and rectify the faults they made so that in future they play more efficiently as a squad. After some practice with the home squad, it is always fruitful to invite another team to join the practice session, since the players can know some other techniques and better their own skill sets.

There are several ways to play a paintball game: You can end the match by capturing the other squad’s flag or a time limit can be set so that whoever has the most players left wins. The match can also be played till such times that all the squad members of a particular team are ousted. Setting a time limit to the game is good for the practice sessions, since this makes every participant put in his best efforts to score goals for the team. One strategy to play paintball is to create a defense team who act as protectors of the fort while the balance players go on playing on the offensive.

Developing sharp-shooting skills is an important part of training and players ought to efficiently hit mobile as well as frozen targets. With ammo being restricted, it is important that players shoot targets, which are clearly visible rather than shooting any random target, which only results in wastage of ammo.

Sneakiness is a great property to have for winning a paintball game so when a team creeps in opposition soil unnoticed they can launch a sudden attack before the other squad can gather their counterattack. So the skill to move stealthily can increase your chances of winning the match. Using hand signs, or sounds are a great way to communicate during a paintball match as this would never allow the opposing squad to ever know what your team is preparation to do next, and this could be a path leading to winning. The other team will not be able to expose your plans so by using all of these drills and scenarios in each time the team practices, they will be ready to challenge anyone in the league. In reality it is very easy to win in paintball, provided the team members have practiced sufficiently and know just what is expected of them during the match.

So here you have it, taken straight from the horses mouth!