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As more people get involved in Paintball, and
as the current tournament formats reward aggressive
and technical play, so practice becomes more important
for those teams looking for an advantage over
other teams. Even natural talent needs fine-tuning,
and practice day is the place to analyze strengths
and weaknesses without the emotional tension of
tournament day and to reinforce winning ways.
Practicing is a way of getting things right and
making them become second nature through repetition
and rehearsal.
 Arright,
so what are you going to do on practice day? I
don't think you should worry about fitness, it's
too difficult getting everyone together to practice
to waste time running around the block. Fitness
should be a player's personal responsibility,
just like keeping their equipment in good condition.
It should be every player's duty to arrive at
the field on practice or tourney day with his/her
mind, body and equipment ready to kick butt. Players
who sit tinkering with equipment while the rest
practice can upset the whole day, so be strict
on this (perhaps even introducing a fine for a
marker that doesn't arrive ready to roll).
Practice day should focus on the three Ts. These
are technique, teamwork and tactics. Any drill
or play that you use on practice day should concentrate
on one or more of these aspects and reinforce
the skills, timing, communication or moves which
are central to successful tourney teams. Always
ask yourself what it is you are trying to achieve
with a particular drill at practice day. Just
getting together, splitting up and playing may
be fun and may have its place occasionally, but
it won't raise your team's play to higher levels.
There are three levels to aim your practice at;
at the level of the individual (technique), at
the level of the team (team work) and then to
aim practice at getting the team to put into plan
moves and coordinated play that will give you
the ultimate edge (tactics).
All players should be constantly working on improving
their technique. So what is there to technique?
At level one there are only two aspects; shooting
and not getting shot. Taking it beyond level one
is to refine technique to perfection.
Refining technique isn't something that has to
wait for practice day, but on practice day you
will be able to benchmark your progress. Technique
is the sum of your individual playing skills.
Refining technique is about starting off big and
then fine-tuning. It takes many hours of practice
to learn to shoot with your odd hand. I learnt
how to shoot left-handed through more than just
sheer determination or by relying on 'the force'.
I spent hours at home with my marker, ghost shooting
with my left hand. Sit in front of your telly
while watching sport with your marker relaxed,
every time someone in the opposing team appears
who you have 'marked' for a marking, whip up your
marker in your wrong hand and pop him. While doing
this to David Beckham during a season of Premier
League I got my muscles to learn what it was like
to shoot left-handed. Muscle memory will then
ensure that you don't feel awkward with the marker
in the wrong hand. It takes hours of drilling
for muscle memory to kick in, so don't expect
to be able to leave this till practice day.
So let's start with shooting. It seems obvious,
we all can shoot and we all love to impress by
putting up a can and popping it so it hops around,
but that is only one level of practicing. Can
you shoot the can first time, can you shoot the
can within two seconds, can you shoot the can
when it is moving, can you shoot the can when
you are moving, can you shoot the can after popping
out from behind your cover, just what the hell
do you have against this poor can?
 Shooting
is something we almost take for granted, but shooting
is not shooting, is not shooting (or something).
There are many different types of shooting and
you need to concentrate on drills that will get
the kind of practice that will hone your team's
skills for all of them. If you just go out and
play on a practice day you may have players who
have never tried snap-shooting with their wrong
hand or have never tried shooting on the run.
As you practice and refine these skills you open
up new techniques and therefore new opportunities
for your players to eliminate the opposition when
it counts - on tourney day! So get everyone to
take to the field playing with their wrong hand
and see how it goes; after a few games of getting
drilled and not being able to hit the side of
a barn, players will realize where they need work.
When it comes to playing cover, it is pretty
much the same thing. You can learn how to stay
tight, learn how to come out, how to get your
body into different positions etc. Then you can
go all the way to specifics, for example, how
do you play a snake on a Sup'Air field? You need
to be able to crawl in it, you need to be able
to snap-shoot over it, you can learn how to sneak
to the front and peer under the snake snout or
tail, you can learn how to play it off your back,
your stomach and your knees. Practice jumping
in, practice jumping out for money shots, etc.
(For more on this read C. LaSoya's 89 ways to
do Snakes, Weasels and other animals, available
through Paintball Pervert's Press)
Practicing technique is about rehearsing skills
until they become second nature. It is also about
learning from watching others and refining what
you see.
Teamwork, like technique, is a cornerstone of
tournament ball. I think I have flogged Jean-Manuel's
famous quote, "One and one is equal to more
than one plus one" enough times, but it is
such a good line. Players working together are
worth more than the sum of their parts. A player
with superior technique will win nine out of 10
one-on-ones against someone with less skill. A
team that is deficient in skills or experience
but works well together will halve these odds.
A good team has high morale, the players get along
well with each other and when they hit the field
they know how to play with each other.
Especially on the concept fields of today, formulating
plays relies on teamwork; to pull off a bunkering
may require three players working together. Building
teamwork starts with respect. Players need to
respect each other. In addition, players need
to respect the role that other players fulfill
in the team. Front players need to respect the
fact that they can't pull blind moves if they
don't have the cover required to do it, they also
need to respect the fact that cover players can't
read their minds and that communicating their
take-down attempt may require fair warning for
team mates.
Practice day should focus on strengthening teamwork
and reinforce the importance of working together.
Front players will learn how to work with back
players if they only have 10 paintballs and 30
seconds to shoot a target while someone tries
to keep their head behind cover. Two players with
10 paintballs each will have to work together
to take out one player with a full hopper.
Ok, so tactics aren't as important as they may
have been in the 30-minute, 15-a-side woods games
that Robbo remembers from his middle-aged years
but they are still important. In fact the role
of plays (like bunkering) are probably more important
and more reliant on planning on concept fields.
Tactics are planned moves or plays that rely on
players working together. Just like technique
comes before teamwork, tactics are lost on a team
that can't work together.
 One
of the most important roles played by tactics
is quite subtle; tactics get your team to think.
Tactics rely on everyone knowing what their role
is in the team. Tactics start when you walk the
field. A tactical team will have an edge because
they have been through the mental gymnastics;
identifying angles, important bunkers, primary
moves, sweet spots, shooting alleys, blind shooting
spots, secondary moves, good and bad bunkers.
Even if you have a brain's trust, it is still
important to involve everyone in the formulation
of tactics. Everyone needs to know his or her
role and feel a part of the game plan.
Practice day should involve reinforcing the thinking
side of Paintball and how to out-smart another
team. Practicing plays will make it easier to
execute them on the day. It will also expose if
they are workable or not. So try a simultaneous
double tape move with a center bunker mugging
(apologies to Sun Tzu) and see if you can pull
it off. If it works, how can it be refined, what
will the code phrase be for it, what happens if
it doesn't work, etc?
 Organizing
a tournament team is no mean feat and practice
day should include an hour at the end to do some
planning. As part of your planning, make sure
that everything for the next tourney or practice
is prepared. Entry fees, paintballs, air, rules,
transport, etc. all have to be prepared beforehand.
There should also be an opportunity for players
to put any problems they have on the table so
they can get discussed openly.
Finally it is vital that you run practice day
like a tournament. Using a barrel plug, ensuring
goggles are on, chronographing within the required
velocity and other Paintball etiquette are all
things that should be second nature to players.
You can't get upset with someone who earns you
penalty points at a tournament when they have
never had to observe safety rules in their usual
Paintball environment. Your day should be run
professionally with safety in mind and fair play
rewarded.
The Three T's
: Oliver
Lang, World Cup 2000
: Ton
Ton Flingueurs, Maxs Masters 2000
: Bob
Long's Ironmen, Mardi Gras Open 2001
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Technique
Teamwork
