Practice and coaching

[Anjin3515]

When you start most sports there is some coaching, some teaching of the skills of the game. With paintball however...your sort of handed a marker and mask and told to go shot em' up.

So...my questions are....
What are the skills to learn?
How do you practice them?
Is going out and playing the only way to practice...what can you do off field to get better?
What is paintballs equivalent to shooting playing catch,shooting some hoops, tossing the football around?
If you were a paintball coach what would you teach people?

[temps]

Here is a link to the nations Tactics/Strategy/Tip forum http://www.pbnation.com/forumdisplay.php?f=228

The two stickies at the top (Dynasty Dysected Drill Thread and **Ultimate Tactics/Strategy/Tip Forum Sticky** ) have a lot of good information on proper technique and off the field training.

[sandfreestyle]

This is a topic that can go on and on. Being a NPPL PRO Ref and a player andcoach on occasions, my best advice is to get what called muscle memory. At home, practice holding your gun in place and getting use to the feel of it. try putting your body in all sorts of position like standing, kneeling, crouching, laying down, etc. Next, do these moves in front of a full size mirror so you can see your whole body. Hold your pose and look at your entire body. Try to keep as little as you can in view. Remember, the less you have showing the less you can get hit. Also try tilting your hopper in so it's not so visable for others. I can't express how important that is. Once you have the least amount of body showing, do some snap shot pops outs. This is one of the most practiced thing out there, that and running and shooting.

[Eatem Alive]

Angles & lanes.

[punkncat]

Here ya go, this should be very helpful and informative at the same time.

http://www.pbreview.com/paintball-videos/playVideo.php?v=paintball-game-aim

[athomas]

LOL. "you got to like shoot a lot and then you start getting the feel where your paintballs are really going"

We use muscle memory training on our X-ball team. sandfreestyle explained it well. The beauty is that you can practice even when sitting in front of the TV. The mirror is a great tool. You have no idea how far you stick out until you see yourself in a mirror.

Do what I call "visualization training". This involves picturing a scenario in your mind. Know your next move. Practice it in your mind. Become so familiar with it that when a similar scenario presents itself in a game, you react rather than think about it. It could be as simple as shooting a player into a bunker and then advancing to the next bunker. Run the replay in your mind until it becomes second nature.

Snap shooting drills are probably the best single player shooting drill you can run.

As a team, walk different field layouts and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each bunker. Make a game plan and practice it. By sticking to a game plan, even in a practice situation, it provides a trust that each player will do his job as planned.

[SR_matt]

When you start most sports there is some coaching, some teaching of the skills of the game. With paintball however...your sort of handed a marker and mask and told to go shot em' up.

So...my questions are....
What are the skills to learn?
How gota do you practice them?
Is going out and playing the only way to practice...what can you do off field to get better?
What is paintballs equivalent to shooting playing catch,shooting some hoops, tossing the football around?
If you were a paintball coach what would you teach people?

ive seen people learn and become great players in a few different ways,

-direct coaching, works for tourney balling but not as great for scenario

-natural talent, well just love this one

-apprenticeship/padowan, a friend that plays scenario ball had a guy that was like his little brother that he would pay for his playing and lil' john would basically fetch his belongings, fetch his beer, do a lot of stuff for him that he just didnt want to get up and do (the guy also became one of his legal guardians since lil john was hanging out with him and traveling so much his parents gave this guy partial custody over him incase/ when john got hurt it was easier). this is one of the best ways, they work as a team and are 2 of the most bad arse players around (davi is one of the best known and probably best scenario players in the country if not the world)

-being friends with previously mentioned guy (or any very good player). after just playing along side of good players you get ragged on for not playing well/right, or for making stupid mistakes so you learn not to, they rag on you for not moving, for not being aggressive when you need to be,etc etc.

having a team that just works right together and can play together at least a decent amount are probably the biggest things though. i have a team that just works together, we played with davi and some bigger teams and after 2 years of being in the scenario world but only playing a few games a year we were well known due to the fact we were a small team, a young team, but we could kick butt and we have a funny name (santa's rejects).

but the biggest thing any team can do to play better... COMMUNICATE ON TEH FIELD


skills come down to what type of ball you are playing, i am assuming you are playing tourney ball.

snap shooting drills, (i will assume a 5 player team) 2 v 3 games, 4 v 5, 3v5, 2 v 5 games. etc etc. put your players in as much real world situations as you can and run it over and over and mix up what goes on. run and gun drills (set up bottles on poles behind bunkers and practice run throughs, start with gallon jugs, the go 2 liters, 1 liter, 20 oz, 12 oz cans if yall are doing good and if they are still doing good with that go to red bull cans or the tinny 8 os soda cans)

-matt