Except for those few short months at the beginning and end of the season, most major league, tournament paintball takes place during the warmer months of summer. Despite the PSP and the NPPL slowly moving towards permanent indoor events, the greater portion of tournaments that you will play in your lifetime will take place out doors. With that being said, risks of things such as de-hydration, heat exhaustion, and heat stroke are at elevated levels due to the combination of extreme sports, and extreme weather conditions. This is something that we can not currently avoid, and must face head on due to our commitment to the sport.

Playing in the summer requires some extra attention to the well being of the players. There are a great deal of options that are available, but for tournament play I would recommend keeping things as simple and effective as possible. Depending on the type of game you play, and the league you play in, there may be altercations and adjustments to your game plan in order to maximize your output on the field.

1. Stay Hydrated. All Day. Every Game. With Proper Fluids

The first defense that you must setup against the heat and humidity is proper hydration of yourself and your team mates. It pains me to see players come back to the pits after an XBall match, on a hot day, with no fluids whatsoever in sight. It’s a simple concept: your body uses fluids during games trying to cool itself off. In order to stay in fighting shape, you need to replenish those lost fluids

With that being said, the solution is to have a large cooler fully stocked with ice and beverages that are formulated to replenish lost fluids and chemicals. Now, as to what type of beverage to stock? As a general rule of thumb, I would highly recommend against carbonated beverages such as soda, and energy drinks. You should be drinking either water or beverages that are formulated to replenish lost fluids, such as Gatorade.

2. Don’t Overwork Yourself And Rest Adequately

If you play XBall events, and have a full roster, there is no need for you to be going round after round for the entire match if all of your players are in good condition. The same goes for seven, five, or any other league format. The point of having a full roster is to provide equal rotation for the entire team. Paintball can be an extremely demanding sport, and when added to a weekend of heat and humidity, back to back two or three minute rounds can be ridiculously straining.

After your match is complete, and you’ve made your way to the pits, I would advise taking a minute or so to rest your body and consume a cup of fluids. Despite being only a short period of time, this cool down can help fight exhaustion and burnout that is commonly associated with inexperienced players and teams.

3. Take What’s Necessary. Leave Everything Else Behind

I still chuckle to myself when players pad themselves up like they are brand new to the game. In the summer, extra shirts, shorts, socks, and other various items of clothing will only increase your chances of the above for-mentioned conditions. During a tournament, I wear only my jersey, my pants, a pair of boxers, ankle socks and my knee/elbow pads. The extra bruises I receive equal out my being able to play harder due to my lack of insulation.

A trick I use is to leave my headband / Sandana in the cooler before the match. Right before we start, I take it out and strap up. After the match it goes right back in the cooler. It’s minimal, but the extra few degrees can make the world of difference when I’m on the field worrying about getting shot, and not worrying about the sweat dripping into my eyes.

Gear management can almost be called a science, as overloading a player with equipment is going to hinder his movement abilities and range, and make it more of an effort to play. Paint is quite possibly the heaviest item that most players will carry, so correct distribution needs to be taken seriously. Two or three extra full pods of paint can mean the difference between getting shot on a move and getting in clear to the bunker. This means that the coach needs to take averages and statistics of each player, for each game, in each tournament, and find a happy medium for each player and his position.

These are only a few tips to help players output at 100% on the field. While they certainly aren’t the only options available, they are a good outline as to what kind of actions are needed to be performed in warmer climates.

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In our previous article regarding the ins and outs of sponsorship, we discussed a great deal about the preliminary planning and initial proposal of proper sponsorship packages. In continuance with our initial ideas, we will now discuss some of the proper methods of keeping your sponsors happy and writing checks to your team.

Despite what some may think, just winning events and reporting back your performance isn’t the whole enchilada. Sponsors aren’t paying you to win, although it does help, they are paying for brand visibility to the masses. They are paying you to be a walking and talking billboard for their name and products.

With that being said, let’s skip some of the brew ha ha and suppose that you receive a sponsorship. Where do you go from here? Obviously you now have some cash to support your teams tournament ambitions, so let’s discuss some important things your team should be doing for your sponsors.

1. Learn anything and everything about your sponsor

This is actually one of the most important things to take into consideration. Being as now you are a walking and talking billboard, you need to know fully about all of the products and services that your sponsor offers. Among the list of things, you entire team should know:

• Company history
• Services or products offered
• Availability and pricing
• Location for purchase

In order to be professional, you have to realize that all of this is important. I’m actually surprised at the amount of individuals I’ve questioned that have no clue as to what their sponsors do. These people are giving you money. Your job is to give back by representing them. An inadequate amount of knowledge regarding the company could result in lost sales and business due to potential customers being turned away.

2. Represent your sponsors appropriately at an event

Now that your team is knowledgeable enough to represent your sponsor as if they were themselves answering questions, you need to make the effort in advertising the brands. When you receive a sponsorship package, make sure to request sufficient labeling for the entire team. Ask for t-shirts, stickers, hats, banners, business cards and whatever else they can offer you.

Brand labeling doesn’t stop at a logo on your team jersey, as that is only seen while on the field itself. In the staging areas, on the sidelines, hotel lobbies, nightclubs after the day’s games; all of these are more than viable places for your team to advertise for the individuals and companies who are the reason you are at the event in the first place.

All of this goes hand in hand with the first tip, as if you are stopped and questioned about a particular brand or product you are promoting, you can inform the potential customer with all of the information regarding the company and its services.

3. Log everything and provide reports to ALL of your sponsors

This ties everything above into a package that is presentable to your sponsors after your event is complete. While it is important to do well, it tends to be more important to your sponsor to see his brand being promoted to the public. At a minimum, I would put together a package that contained:

• Photos of the team at the event (with sponsor’s logo visible)
• Entry receipts
• Score sheets
• Thank you letter for sponsor’s support

I would highly recommend that this is put together for every event, and for every sponsor. Despite all of the work entailed, it will show that your team appreciates your sponsors contribution. It will also confirm that you are actually going and participating in competition and not just pocketing the money.

In general, keeping sponsors happy and updated to as what the team is doing takes up a great deal of time and effort on your teams part. However, it is a vitle necessity to the teams health, as it will keep a steady supply of income and support to keep your team alive and competing.

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While some may like to argue about the subject, tournament paintball is a relatively expensive sport to play when financing expenses by oneself. There are literally thousands of dollars to be spent on team gear, entry fees, plane tickets, hotels, rental cars, food and drink, paint, backup gear, visas, etc., etc., etc. Too many times have I seen individuals get together to form a national team, and fail shortly after due to lack of support and planning.

Sponsorship alleviates a great deal of the funding worries that plagues most teams, and allows teams to compete in events that were once un-obtainable due to lack of funds.  However, it seems today people have some misconception about the in and outs of sponsorships and the responsibility that comes along with it. Kids today have a superstar complex and somehow think that sponsors are the ones who should feel lucky to be supporting such an awesome baller. I find this appalling.

Sponsors generally want two things.

1. Visibility to a large number of people relative to their business and location
2. Successful investments

Giving them those things is the key to keeping them happy and signing off checks to your team. But we are putting the cart before the horse here. We first need to discuss some pre-requirements of your team before you even think about sponsorship.

1. Have a well thought out plan for the direction of the team

You have absolutely no idea how many teams fail due to lack of leadership and direction as a whole. Even before you begin recruiting players, your team needs to have a solid foundation for what tournaments it will play (this includes dates), practices, fund raising, number of players, etc. Everything needs to be thought out by the team leaders so that when the players are recruited, everyone knows the goals and direction the team will be taking. If you plan on playing local tournaments and recruit members looking to play national events, your are potentially setting yourself up to be in a jam if those people decide later that the team isn’t for them.

Having a well thought out and planned team mission will look better on your proposals also. This gives the sponsor and idea of which events you will be playing, where you will be playing, and how many people will see their brand.

2. Become visible

Sadly enough, and this tends to turn new team players off, you will most likely have no luck obtaining sponsorship from companies as a new team with no wins, no experience, and no events played. Sponsors aren’t going to care much if you have players on your roster who have played D2 PSP, or D1 NPPL. They look at the bottom line potential:

• How many events you’ve played
• How many events you’ve won

Those two items are one of the largest factors in a sponsors decision to support a team. Without them, I would say that you are wasting your time and should be investing it into getting better as a team. As said previously, sponsors want their brand on a successful product that garners them high noticeability based upon location and business type. Based upon this, I would advise sacking it up and playing as a team for a minimum of one full season before you even start to think about applying for sponsorship.

Now, let’s say your team has been together for a while. You’ve been relatively successful in the tournaments you have played, and you want to think about picking up some sponsors to help alleviate the financial brick load that you’ve been carrying around. Where do you go from here?

The first thing to realize is that there are a lot of companies who are not in the paintball industry who would provide more help with sponsorship than the paintball companies themselves. One of the first mistakes I see teams, looking for sponsorship, do is run off to NXe, Planet Eclipse, Dye, Smart Parts, JT, etc. They usually get denied, the team gives up hope and dissolves. Despite what people may allude you to believe, these companies usually don’t need more advertising.

This is where you need to be smart in regards to the sponsors you make proposals to. Location and business type are one of the biggest factors that determine whether or not you land the deal. Taking these into consideration, you should apply the following strategies:

1. Search for sponsors that apply to the area you will be playing tournaments in

Joe’s Pizza Palace, a family owned business in Vermont, will most likely NOT sponsor you if you are playing CFOA. There are simply no perks whatsoever in sponsoring a team that will be competing in an area outside of his effective business range. Advertising about Joe’s great pepperoni pies to a group in North Carolina does absolutely nothing. However if your schedule included multiple local tournaments in Vermont, within an effective operating business area for Joe, he would certainly be more interested in your proposition.

The key here is to look for businesses that are large enough to sponsor you, and are receptable to the business awareness that you will spread in the locations you will compete in. If you plan on playing in a wider coverage area, then you need to look for sponsors that can apply to the package that you are proposing. Nobody said this was easy.

2. Be professional in your proposal. Make yourself stand out

Emails, or simple letters requesting sponsorship are usually a fast way to get your team brushed aside. The key is to make yourself stand out and easily remembered. Take time and assemble a professional portfolio which contains information on the team, the roster, the tournament schedule, locations, practice schedule, and event photographs. List and highlight the teams accomplishments and what locations they were in, in order to show the potential sponsor what his reward for sponsoring you would be.

In regard to the package itself, I would advise against just printing up something in Word. Choose a nice, and easy to read font for the layout. Think of the proposal as an application to a place of employment. Try to keep things short and sweet, while highlighting the positives of your teams career. Make sure to have enough detail to explain to the sponsor the teams information, and what he will be getting out of the experience, without rambling on.

In the form of appearence, print the proposal on good solid card stock and enclose all of your information in a binder that is well organized. Despite the cost, this will impress the sponsor a great deal more than a simple sheet of paper.

With that said, make sure to bookmark us and check back for Part 2.

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There have been many studies that show tournament paintball as the fastest growing sport worldwide. Airball fields are showing up from South America all the way to Australia. People around the world are realizing the thrill, excitement, and addiction that comes along with being on the airball field.

Young players today are the champions and professionals of tomorrow, and we as elders must guide them along the straight path; molding, shaping, and forming the future of paintball. This is a requirement of us, as while paintball is still a large ordeal it suffers from instability and can crumple easily.

They types of emails I tend to receive the most are:

• “What should I buy?”
• “Where should I buy from?”
• “What brands are good / bad?”
• “Where can I get more information on playing?”

And all come from new players to the sport. With 2008 ahead of us, and Christmas money in our pockets, it’s time to take a look at the best possible equipment to get a person out onto the airball field and slinging paint.

1. Marker - Smart Parts Ion

The marker is an extension of one self on the field. It represents one’s personal attitude, style, and aggression based upon colors, modifications, and accessories. Without the marker, you are nothing. Obviously this is a very important piece of equipment for the player, and finding one that is affordable, reliable, and performance oriented can be somewhat difficult.

The Smart Parts Ion, despite what people on PbNation will tell you, is simply the best bang for the buck for an entry player. It’s light, electronic, efficient, reliable, comes with ramping, and is good for over fifteen balls per second. The marker’s service period isn’t as often as some of the other marker’s, and can be tedious to tear down due to its casing style construction. However, it is easily upgradeable with after-market parts (boards, regulators, barrels, etc…) in order to grow in performance related to the player.

Price today from PunishersPB.com: $164.95

Total cost of package: $164.95

2. Loader - Viewloader Vlocity Jr.

Moving to item two, the loader is what is required to feed your new marker with paint. There are many types available that suit different types of play. Gravity fed, agitated, force fed, etc. The type of marker and type of game you are playing will determine the appropriate loader for your setup.

While the Vlocity Jr. is somewhat expensive compared to earlier agitated models (Evolution2/3), the investment it a quality loader with features such as the Vlocity sports will help you in the long run in that you won’t be on the field with a broken or jammed loader. The Vlocity Jr. is a force feed designed with an eye force feed system, anti-jam logic, one hundred and eighty ball count capacity, and easy disassembly for cleaning and maintenance. It will suit your Ion perfectly.

Price today from PunishersPB.com: $97.00

Total cost of package: $261.95

3. Air Supply - Crossfire 4500psi Fixed High Pressure N2 Tank

 Now that I have set you up with your paint supply, it’s time to purchase your propulsion system. For years, the industry worked off of using C02 as the preferred method. It was cheap, and inexpensive. However, with Co2 you have problems. The liquid itself can filter into your marker’s internals and cause damage due to the extreme low temperatures, and the pressure output on a C02 tank can vary with weather / temperature. The industry realized this and got smart. They found a new cheap source for paintball propulsion, and that was compressed air.

There are other options available that are cheaper, but once again I’m setting you up with the best you can buy for five hundred dollars. That means a carbon fiber wrapped high pressure compressed air tank. Crossfire has been making tanks and regulators a long time and knows the quality and durability that tournament paintball players require. Their products are second to none, and priced for affordability. The only option for the player to pick is the size of the tank he wants, as all provide a different feel for each person. The forty five cubic inch is best suited for front players, while the sixty eight and seventy cubic inch are designed with the back and mid players in mind.

Price today from PunishersPB.com:  $159.95

Total cost of package: $421.90

4. Face Mask -  VForce Armour

The main safety item that you are required to have in paintball is a facial mask that provides protection for your eyes, mouth, and ears.  While there are a great deal of companies who provide great facial masks, I’ve always had good luck with VForce’s series of masks.

 

VForce’s Armour series of masks comes with the features a new player would generally want without all the fluff of those hundred dollar face masks. It has an anti-fog lens that is designed with a quick release system for easy cleaning. Also the mask sports plenty of room for those of us who wear glasses. It’s great design an price makes it a perfect starter mask for our package.

Price today from PunishersPB.com:  $19.95

Total cost of package: $441.85

5.  Harness - NXe RP Series

A harness is something that should be comfortable to wear, and ergonomically designed to allow for a player to access his paint exactly when he needs it. Depending on your position and your shooting skill, you will want a harness that has the capability to hold from three to six pods. Any more and you should work on your aim.

NXe is known and regarded highly in the paintball industry as a maker of fine soft goods. Their RP line of harness are designed to withstand even the toughest slides while not breaking your wallet. The harness is a bottom feed design that features a thick adjustable waste harness for comfortability, and an elastic ejection system for maximum speed of pod receival. The standard size for pods is three, which for an initial player should be plenty for a few games.

 Price today from PunishersPB.com: $29.95

Total cost of package: $471.80

6. Other Equipment

In reality, the only thing you need left are a few pods to hold your paint. These are usually inexpensive depending on the brand you buy. The best ones hold at least one hundred and forty paintballs and feature a spring loaded lid.

While I’m sure to  receive some emails or comments pestering me about other items I left out (jersey’s, pants, gloves, etc), most of those items aren’t important to a new player who is looking to break into tournament paintball. What is required is the core items that I have listed. As an individual continues to pursue the sport of paintball, he will find that other items are required to complement his style of playing.

Until then, the important thing is that new players get out onto the field, down behind bunkers, and start slinging paint across the fifty.

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While gun skills, and physical condition are great portions of what makes up a successful paintball team, one of the most important skills that I see most amateur teams fall short upon is communication under pressure.

Communication under pressure is the concept of maintaining a constant flow of IMPORTANT information to your team members while under pressure from the opposing team.

Information itself should be broken up into categories. These categories can range depending on the type of team you are (aggressive, defensive, etc.). For the most part, there are four main pieces of information that the team needs to relay.

1. Location
2. Direction
3. Kills
4. Status

Now that we have the type of information we want to relay across the field, we can work on the delivery method.

1. Designate a chief communicator

All too often I see an entire team yelling pointless information through the entire match. The fronts are yelling to the mids and backs, and across the field to the other fronts while the backs are yelling to both fronts, mid, and vice versa. This does absolutely nothing and to the trained observer will boast your level of amateur-ness.

The chief communicator will most likely be a back person. This is easiest, as it allows for a smooth flow of information. You want the chief to be the person that all information flows through. He is the receiver and distributor of information. While the front player’s job is to be the assassin, and use gun skills for good play, the back communicator uses logic and quick wit.

2. Distribute “job” zones

When a person is designated to play a position, his zone of information will be based out of the area where he is most effective and vulnerable. These zones are setup before any game even starts and are distributed when walking the field. Zones of information are determined directly to your field position.

Inputting this into play, as a chief communicator, your job will be to relay the information that ONLY directly affects “x” player. Any other information is unnecessary and only adds unneeded tension and load on an individual. X player on the right side of the field, doesn’t need to know the information on the left side of the field AS LONG AS it doesn’t affect him. If he cannot get a shot off, or is not vulnerable to fire…then his job is to worry about his zone of information on his side of the field.

Applying this concept will make your game run smoother and with less confusion.

3. Input a chain of information flow

The chain of information flow is the correct path for information flow smoothly and uninhibited. This will allow for fast and simple communication that reaches its destined target.

For a front player, your job is to use your mid players to relay information back and forth. Most of the time, the front has his nose in the dirt and can’t make accurate decisions without the eyes of his team mate. Upon entering your bunker, your first task is to acquire where your opponents are. This is done by requesting information from your mid player, who upon request should relay short and reliable information.

Don’t bypass your mid and go directly to the back, as the back is the receiver from the information from the mid. If you break the chain, confusion will happen.

4. Compile a structure for communication

“John, he ran from back center x to the 30 pillows and is laying down reloading right now. Shoot off the left side and try to nail his hopper!”

That stream of information is extremely long and filled with information that is unneeded. Referencing back to the beginning of the article, there are four main types of information that are key to good communication:

1. Location
2. Direction
3. Kills
4. Status

Location is used for enemy position. Direction is which way the enemy is alert to. Kills is the amount of bodies that has been racked up, and status is the current state of any individual being referenced to.

“John, 30 Dorito Right!”

“Tim, Snake 3 Left!”

These commands are much shorter and what I like call “local” commands as they refer directly to a certain individual and no-one else. John being the players name, 30 Dorito being location of the opponent, and Right being the status of that opponent.

World commands are general updates to the entire team. These aren’t started with a team members name, but with the information that is important such as kills or deaths.

“G2 Left.”

“G3 Right. Right Clear!”

“G1 Center. Two Left, Two Right!”

“K2 John!”

G3 being three kills, and Right Clear being the status of the right side of the field.

These are only a few types of improvements that can be made to improve one’s on field communication skills. They are important because logic and intelligence plays a large part in being a successful paintball team. Being able to think clearly and communicate under pressure allows for a team to act as one individual without boundaries.

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