Paintball... a Sport?

[SaS]

I wrote this for another forum and i thought i should share it with with you all

For those of you who don't think paintball is a sport... would this analogy work for your stance? "saying paintball is a sport is the same as saying chess is a sport" ... or badmitten, pool, and ping-pong (remember the USAvsChina games... or how about Forest Gump?)

personally, i like comparing Paintball with Baseball...

You could be out on the field playing with you friends, coworkers, or anyone else walking along who asked if they could join... just a group of people out to have a good time... aahhh, memories. If everyone played that way, would we be calling baseball a sport? I think that's a pretty good question.

The Competitiveness, the competition found and that can be found is what makes Baseball the sport we know. I personally think that is enough to be applied to Paintball.
heh, I still remember some augments i got in way back... over whether or not Baseball was a sport or not (he stood by "soccer replaced baseball as the national pastime")
Remember, Baseball is the only sport were the defenders have the ball.

Another supporting, item for paintball not being a sport, was that after a year or two playing hard-core... you'll be playing like the pros

consider this comparison
Baseball... think of the swing of the bat, as the pull of the trigger
you learn how to swing, like you learn a trigger
and with practice and time, you'll be swinging faster and pulling the trigger faster

both sports involve running, positioning, and teamwork... so we won't do any comparisons with those

Communication... baseball involves more of pre-play communication and drills(double plays) for during play communication
The better comparison of the during play communication would be found with basketball or soccer(or hockey or...) direct communication and prearranged plays


Remember the debate over the classification of the paintball marker (i refuse to say gun)? Whether it is a toy or gun... if it's a gun then it needs to be licensed. If it's a toy, it needs a orange or red tip. I always considered it a piece of sports equipment... like a hockey stick or baseball bat. Sure you could use a bat to break windows or hurt someone, but it's still called a sports item because of it's true legitimate use and not of it's possibilities for a vandal. But then again, that's riding the line that archery does... and while we're at it, is Archery a sport? and how is it more of a sport then paintball? If you have a response to that... mine would be exactly the same as the baseball reference above.(backward strength, aim, stance, breathing control)

hey... if you want to call it a gun... the Olympic triathlon is a sport... skiing and shooting


final thoughts(hey, suddenly i'm jerry springer... inviting arguments and ending with the same line)

Like any of the other athletic activities that we call sports... they're many different levels of Paintball that people play.
Some people would consider are sports... and others people would just call a game... but in both, there'll always be a winner and a loser

[halB]

if curlings an olympic sport, i can guarantee you paintballs a sport

[SaS]

didn't paintball miss out at becoming a Olympic sport by like 1 vote? i think i heard something about that

[Kaiser Bob]

I think paintball can be better equated to golf, in that for the most part the equipment fitting the player is very important for serious play, and for recreational play, just about anyone can do it at least half decently with a little practice.

[halB]

Originally posted by Kaiser Bob
I think paintball can be better equated to golf, in that for the most part the equipment fitting the player is very important for serious play, and for recreational play, just about anyone can do it at least half decently with a little practice.

actually that is a good analogy, considering golf has limitations on how well the equipment can perform (drivers can only have so much bounce,etc.) and we have similar restrictions on our equipment, such as only semi auto, fps limit and bps limit in some tourneys

[aaron_mag]

It is hard to classify because in some ways it is like baseball/golf/soccer and in other ways it is like mountain biking, rafting, and trail running.

If it is tournament ball then of course it is a sport. In a big game scenario it is more like an adventure past time. I guess you could say you are out to win in a big game/scenario game but really you just want to get some thrills, have some excitement, and be able to tell some stories. In this manner it is like rafting down some rapids. It really isn't a competition against anyone but more a enjoy the moment sort of thing.

If I am playing a sport playing well/winning makes it much more fun. If I am in an adventure pastime mode then it is just participating that is fun. I go down the river and enjoy what it gives me. In a scenario game I sneak and crawl to try to flank and surprise everyone only to get shot after crawling through the dirt for half an hour and never getting a shot off. Am I disappointed? Nope. I'm there for the dirt crawling and the thrill anyway.

[LittMag]

My personal opinion is that a sport is a game or a competition taken to a higher level. Yes that means chess is a sport, but where do you draw the line?

Paintball first and foremost is a game. Take it to a higher level and it becomes a sport.

[FeelTheRT]

Originally posted by SaS
didn't paintball miss out at becoming a Olympic sport by like 1 vote? i think i heard something about that
I think that was just made up. I doubt paintball was even concidered.

[SirOssis]

Originally posted by SaS
didn't paintball miss out at becoming a Olympic sport by like 1 vote? i think i heard something about that


ya it missed the last summer games by 1 vote. Its expected to be voted in for the next summer games. Last I heard they were still deciding on 7 or 10-man but I think they were leaning towards 7

[Pile & A Half]

I guess I don't really care what people think about paintball. I think its a sport no matter what. True it's not on ESPN as much as football, basketball, etc... But if you compare things to football or basketball or any sport they are almost equal. You have to be Smart in paintball. Where to go, Got to get to places. Compared to football its the same thing. You need to find your hole made by the lineman, you got to score a touchdown or get to a first down. But all in all if paintball wasn't a sport what would it fall under?

[OldSchoolMag]

I personally believe that paintball is a sport, although I have heard that ESPN refuses to admit it as such.

Also, I wouldn't believe that paintball would be voted on as an Olympic Sport, personally. I mean, it has no definite season as far as I can tell, not much general acceptance, as well as a HUGE amount of rumor, speculation and hearsay relating to it (training kids for war, blah blah blah) and so I doubt how a bunch of conservative people who congratulate themselves on the progress bobsledding has made in the last 20 years (though I did love the movie Cool Runnings) would attempt to approve paintball for the Olympic games when as it is some places don't even recognize it as a SPORT!

In due time, we will gain exposure and acceptance, but don't count on it so soon. We're 21 years old, after all, consider the age of most of the sports in the Olympics when you want paintball to be among those.

OSM

[Miscue]

Interesting that you mentioned chess and table tennis... which I have played at the competitive level.

Here's how me and my roommate (International Master) trained for the All America Cup Nat. Tournament in which he took 1st and I placed 20th as a national finalist.

Think we studied chess? Nope. We exercised. Woke up early, ate well, ran 5 miles, lifted weights. We made sure we slept very well and ate very well for several days.

In 3 days, we played over 20 hours worth of tourny chess approximately. That is very taxing on your body, for your brain to be cranking full blast for hours on end.

I discovered on my own, after training for high school wrestling... that when my body was exercising, my brain worked better. The chess school in former USSR province that my partner went to had them run and exercise for a few hours every day before they did anything.

Chess is a low-impact sport as far as I'm concerned. :)

As for table tennis... I do this at the competitive level as well. Anyone who does not think this is a sport has no idea of what this game is about. The amount of effort put into striking a ping-pong ball is about the same as trying to throw a brick over a 10 foot wall... 2 times a second. I kid you not... of course this only applies to people who know what they are doing.

Forrest Gump is actually a horrible example. He's just moving around hitting some fake computer generated ball.

Here's a better example:

http://tabletennis.about.com/library/media/video/FenZhevsYooNamKoo95.rm

My point is... if these games are sports... then paintball sure as heck is. :)

[Pand0ra]

I've tried to check if there's something real about the paintball becoming an Olympic sport.

This is a link to the latest report about the sports reviewed (for the Olympic games of 2008). There's no mention of paintball :(.
http://multimedia.olympic.org/pdf/en_report_527.pdf

If you look at the requirements to become an Olympic sport, you'll see we're far from it. In 10 years maybe it'll be possible, but not now.

@++

[xmetal2001]

Badminton along with PingPong and Chess?

Have you ever seen a real badminton game, or just the "backyard style". Thats sorta like comparing outlaw paintball in your backyard to Aftershock vs. SC Ironmen(random team names:confused:)

[joeyjoe367]

I don't know about you, but when I'm done with a GOOD game of paintball, I'm usually breathless. THat's NEVER happened to me playing baseball.

yes, I'm a wuss, and don't run much, but 'still. you get the idea.

If you call baseball a sport, you GOTTA call paintball a sport. IMO, Baseball is a game, but Paintball isn't.

The way speedball is right now, IMO is a bit lame. Just a bit. It seem like just BREAK-> Sit in bunker and spray -> Move around a bit -> get flag -> hang.

now, that's just from what I see in PB Video's. Of course, it's really hard to tell what's going on, just because of the way paintball is right now.

[LittMag]

Hey, they're considering cutting Baseball from the Olympics!

Back on track. Badminton was not an olypic sport until 1992, it first became a demonstration sport at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany, and an exhibition sport in 1988 in Seoul, South Korea. At the Games in Barcelona, Spain, in 1992. Badminton's worldwide popularity was proven during the 1992 Olympics, when an estimated 1.1. billion viewers around the globe watched the eight-day inaugural badminton competition on television.

Paintball was not even around when Badminton became a demonstration sport in the olympics. It isn't close to being an established sport in most of the world.

To all those knocking badminton as a sport, go and find a video clip on Kazaa or something of an olympic match or an international competition. Comparing tennis's 1985 Wimbledon title match with the 1985 World Badminton Championship (The tennis match went four sets, 6-3, 6-7, 7-6, 6-4. The badminton went three games, 14-18, 15-10, 15-8)
Tennis Badminton
Time 3:45 1:16
Ball/shuttle in play 18 minutes 37 minutes
Rallies 299 146
Shots 1004 1972
Shots per rally 3.4 13.5
Distance covered 3 kilometres 6 kilometres

That's twice the distance covered in 1/3 of the time.

[aaron_mag]

Did you guys check out that video that Miscue put up? Holy cow! Talk about diving, and moving. How in the heck could they hit the ball back accurately after diving like that????? Amazing.

[845]

The guy looked funny when he won.

[j.t.]

Rule 52.4.2 of the Olympic Charter states that in relation to the Olympic Programme
“Sports, disciplines or events in which performance depends essentially on mechanical
propulsion are not accepted”.

[Miscue]

If I remember correctly, badminton has faster rallies than table tennis.

How he can hit it back:

Basically, the only shot he has that will have a chance in hell of hitting the table is a lob shot.

The attacker is putting a TON of topspin on the ball (as well as side spin), so basically all the defender has to do is some aiming to compensate for attacker's spin... and touch the ball with an open angled racquet... and the spin will make the ball jump vertically... and lob. Of course he has to get lucky as heck too... which if you noticed he barely made it on the table a couple times. Great skill = lucky more often. :) Except for the diving part... those kind of shots they have practiced 10,000+ times.

I wish that video was better... it's pretty good but it's hard to see the sheer power that they put into the ball.

-AO's resident table tennis freak. :)

More good ones:
http://tabletennis.about.com/library/media/video/LeszekKucharskivsChenXinhua87.rm
http://tabletennis.about.com/library/media/video/YooNamKyuvsJanOveWaldner89.rm
http://tabletennis.about.com/library/media/video/LiBunHuivsQiaoHong91.rm
http://tabletennis.about.com/library/media/video/WangLiqinvsJorgenPersson97.rm
http://tabletennis.about.com/library/media/video/MikaelAppelgrenvsSeijiOno85.rm
http://tabletennis.about.com/library/media/video/CookePreanAppelgrenWaldner92.rm

Badminton Movie:
http://realsmash.tripod.com/Badminton-AllEnglandMDHigh.mpg

Chess Movie (animated GIF):
<IMG SRC="http://chess.sourceforge.net/judit/modules/Photo_Album/gallery/JuditPolgar/polgar10.jpg">
Look close... it's really animated. :)

[SaS]

i actually didn't know Badminton was an olympic sport...

I didn't really say one way or another(sport or not) for any of the sports i mentioned... or at least i tried not to

I wasn't trying to badmouth any sport either...

my personal opinion(that i tried not to express in the writing) is that paintball is a sport at some levels(tournament play... hyperball, x-ball, and so on) and thus, is everything(or near to it... game, hobby, etc) at various other levels of play... which just happens to be the same way with other sports (there's Badminton, Olympic play as well as playing in a friends backyard)
...know what, i guess i did say my oppinion in the first writing

I used forest gump as an example for a commen visual aspect... not that tom hanks was physically hitting anything...

but hey, the triatholon(is it called that? suddenly i'm not too sure) uses rifles... different grain combinations with the ammunition, scope set-ups, etc...