DO you know the difference between a winning paintball team and a loosing one? The Winning team will always be talking to each other during a game. Its important to communicate during a game. Its easy to get bogged down in tunnel visions focusing on your direct opponent. Times that by 3, 5 or 7 other teammates and you all are playing in the dark not knowing what the other team as a whole is doing to beat you.

Before the big game, take your team out on the field. Number the bunkers or get your terminology down so is somone says, “Can #2 is hot” you all know what bunker can number #2 is. During Play, if an opponent moves, yell out what bunker he moved to, make sure your heard. Your teammate might realize he has a better angle on the new move and get your opponent out.

The same thing woks in woodsball paintball. Most of the time you know where your opponents are, and they know where you are.  Don’t be afraid to yellow their positions. If your team plays hard core woods ball, try getting walkie talkies and head sets so you can communicate with each other while being stealthy.

I just read on another paintball blog, a post on paintball pads and how important they are for protecting you during play, which is true, however there is another reason why you should wear pads. Paintballers both in Woodsball or Speedball (tournament) playing styles absolutely must wear padding, but its not for the obvious reason of personal safety. The fact of the matter is that paintball Padding keeps you in the game longer!

Most people don’t realize that the more padding you wear while playing paintball, the more bounces you get. Yes thats right, paintballs instead of breaking on you, will bounce off thus keeping you in the game longer. Tournament players know this, which is why some tournament paintball circuits have rules against wearing “excessive” padding. I personally know guys that wear 2 pairs of paintball elbow pads whenever they play.

Think about it, when your paintball gun is shouldered and your shooting, the bottom of your forearms are exposed, they are pointing right toward your opponent, your forearms basically yell “shoot me”. Elbow pads like the Eclipse and Empire pads shield this exposed area and bounce any paintballs that hit them. I don’t condone wearing 2 pairs of pads, that is excessive and to me crosses ethical lines, however with paintball chest protectors, Elbow pads + knee pads, slide shorts and slide pants available, there is no reason why you shouldn’t be decked out from head to toe. Its almost like wearing body armor but for paintballs. Even Paintball Jerseys have some light padding in them designed just to get bounces.
Of course their is the personal saftey aspect of it.

Paintball pads can help prevent you from breaking a bones during a dive and can save your knees. Chest Protectors can even help stop welts from forming, however most guys who play paintball enjoy the welts. I hope this post has opened a few eyes out there. Good Luck!

The tape like is the boundary line that  distinguishes  between in bounds and out of bounds during a game.  When you follow the tape line what you are doing is basically watching your own back by minimizing your opponents attack options and by maximizing your focus and concentration on a specific attack area.  If your walking the right tape line you know that no one will try to attack you from the right.  This leaves you to focus in front of you and to the left.

If your serious about paintball and basically want to wipe out the other team this tip is especially important if there is rough terrain by the tape line.  If their is a known flooded area where people loose their boots a lot, or a real rocky hard to travel patch this is where you want to be and pass through.  Most weekend warriors don’t go threw the trouble or going threw the hard tricky spots that need a lot of work to get pass threw, this position is often left unguarded.  If you follow the tape line quietly and navigate threw the rough spots you have a chance of your opposing team walking right by you or you circling around the other team.  Essentially leavening their backs to you. **Warning** The ref can give your position away by following you around.  If he’s close to you or watching you move tell him he’s giving away your position to the other team.  I always watch the refs in woods ball
If its a capture the flag game, I would forget the flag and see how many people you can take out before someone catches on.  I say forget about the flag station because most flag stations are left guarded in which case they will probably still have the jump on you.  If you get the flag you would have to fight your way back threw the enemy team anyway.

If the game is an elimination game see how many foes you can snipe quickly and carefully.  You want the one shot one kill and you want to aim each shot.  If their are 2 people together.  Don’t spray and pray because you will miss them both.  Aim for one, then once he’s hit aim for the other guy.  Keep yourself calm and collective.

One last tip.  Once the begging break in the start game is over you want to walk with your head up.  Running during paintball will cause you to loose about 80% of your vision and your awareness off whats going on around you.  The only time you should be running is if your sprinting with the flag through friendly ground.  Good Luck!

Yes i know your thinking that shooting lefty is hard and akward (unless your left Handed).  The point of this tip is to get you to start practicing shooting with your less donimant hand.  If your rightly you need to practice lefty.  if your lefty switch it up and shoot righty.  Once you have forced your self to start practicing in your non dominant your will feel more comfortable, less akward and more importantly your shots will count more. 

You also can’t be behind a bunker trying to dump paint on some guy on your left when your gun is in your right hand.  It leaves your whole body exposed behind your bunker.  lets face it.  you want to be good you need to practice shooting in both hands.