Serious Issue: Anger on the Field

[FatMan]

Summing it all up!

Shartley,

Rather than quote ALL of your post, I'll just say - yeah I agree with you. And yeah, I like to spark conversation, and yeah I like to give some of the lurking readers something to think about.

At *my* field we enforce exactly those rules. Sportsmanship is second only to safety. But I've been to plenty of fields where those rules aren't even stated, let alone enforced. I've seen plays pitch a fit and when it was reported to the field owner they shrug it off. They don't want to diss a paying customer. I don't play at those fields any more.

But not every kid who is getting into paintball has those options. And some of their parents are already reluctant to let them play - and this "demographic" is part of the reason why. And that bothers me. A lot.

I want to say "right on" (or some more current kind of phrase that means the same thing) about the responsibilities of the individual. THAT IS THE KEY. I see all around me people who do NOT take responsbility for themselves AND THE WORLD THEY LIVE IN. As a professor at a major university I see these issues day after day after day. I'm sure I'm not the only one, but I might see it a little more because the "demographic" that I deal with (please don't get me wrong, if I didn't LOVE working with college kids, I wouldn't be here).

So, what *I* would like to see is more paintballers taking up the mantle of sportsmanship - and pushing their local field owners or tourney producers to MAKE THOSE RULES and ENFORCE THEM. And I'd like to see fewer kids trying to explain away violence and anger in our sport. Look back over this thread. It's getting pretty long. There are quite a few posts back there that are trying to beg off the issue - and more that are just saying "what can i do?" as if that absolves us.

It IS a personal responsibility issue. *I* for one am doing the following:

- I am the faculty advisor of our paintball club, and I have made safety and sportsmanship the cornerstones of our club.

- I teach/coach younger players and in doing so I stress these issues.

- I am doing more reffing. I hope to join Bill Cookston's Professional Paintball Referee Organization.

- Finally, I set a good example whenever I play.

Oh, and I post to AO. It's not much, but it's what I can do - so I do it.

Play safe and have fun!

FatMan

[TheBigRaguPB4L]

ok, everyone seems to be on this kick that the way you stop people from doing things that show bad sportsmanship(cursing, fighting, yelling, ect.). i see a major problem with this. who are the ref's at most tourney's? teams. the bigger tourney's get reffed by the pro's. the smaller tourney's get reffed by amature's and so on. i know any sort of established team, goes on to ref some sort of event. some of these people are the cause of the problems. yet we're going to rely on them to stop them? am i not getting something? most of these players at one point or another, have been driven to any one of these childish behavior's that we've discussed. more than likely, they're not going to stop someone from doing the same thing.

another problem i see is that these same teams that ref the games carry grudges. say that team a gets beat by team b. then team a goes to ref another event that team b is playing in. they go about thinking, oh, well they beat us so we'll show them. they then let team c destroy team b just because they're ego's got hurt at that first event. this just leads to unprofessional behavior and unfair games. i realize that this is probably a rare occurance, but i'm sure it happens and you must see this as a possibility.

even at rec ball fields, who ref's most of the games? kids. i know my at my field, the majority consists of about 15-19 year olds. the guys that run the field do enforce the rules rather strictly, but when they're not around, little things like this run rampant.

if incidents such as this are going to be put at an end, i think better quality ref's are needed. not necessarily better quality, but unbiased. i realize they have ref's probably that don't even play on a team and some of these ref's are really good at what they do, but i know most of the established and sponsered teams that play around here go on to ref some tourney's.

overshooting is something that is always going to happen. intentional or not, it's never going to end. look at any situation. a tourney player that's just trying to hold you in a bunker. you get taken out and you go to walk off, he's shooting at you're bunker before you even get taken out. wehn you get up, there's going to be some paint flying at you and you're going to get hit with some of them. take a newbie playing his first game. he's excited and jumpy. he sees someone come out of a bunker, he's going to pop out and start shooting. really no matter how you look at it, it's just part of the game. it is annoying, but is it a big deal? you get shot a few more times, big deal. you're playing paintball, if you don't expect to get shot you shouldn't be playing. someone that keeps doing it repeatedly then should be penalized. and if someone does it intionally, how are you going to prove it? if he does it and it happened to be an accident, you're going to throw him off the field because of a mistake? that's harsh. there has to be some other way, far be it for me to know what that way would be.

[FatMan]

Well Ragu, you're right. That is a problem. I think that's why there is a push to establish an independent ref organization for tourney. That's why I'm interested in getting involved in that. But for local fields that isn't going to help.

I think the issue is personal responsibility first. Each person has to make it a priority. After that, the field owners will have to deal with customers who insist on better refs. Most of the fields I've been to, the ref sits on the sideline after the safety speach and starts and stops games and doesn't really ref at all.

That's why I don't play those fields much any more.

Play safe and have fun,
FatMan

[TheBigRaguPB4L]

Originally posted by FatMan


That's why I don't play those fields much any more.

easy for you to say. what about the 15 year old newbie that's just starting off. not trying to offend anyone, but these are the people that really don't have a choice. they have to go wherever their parents take them. most people won't drive more than half an hour(give or take) to take their kids to play a game they probably don't approve of anyways. i know i have a total of 3 choices of fields. 2 indoor and an outdoor field. the 2 indoor field are at least a 30 minute drive, if i speed(which i don't like doing). even if i could, i really don't have to many options as to what field i can go to.

i know it's been said, but all of the bad behavior really all boils down to is all the newbs that start off at any given field. i'm talking the 10-15 year olds that go there with there M98's and spyders. they go there and see all the other pro's and starting off amatuers acting like total idiots cursing and yelling cause they got shot, they go into the game thinking it's ok. eventually when they becaume an average speedball player and jump on a rookie team, they go about doing the same things that they saw when they started off and show some other little kid all the immature little tantrums that they throw, that shows the outside world the illusion that paintball is a dangerous/bad sport.

there really is no cure for this. IMO, there will always be the overzealous hothead that has outbursts over losing a game. it's really human nature to be pissed off over inane things. there is to much aggression in paintball to control all these incidents. does it mean we shouldn't try? i don't think so. even if we don't stop all of it, we can cut out some or most of it. it's a shame we can't just ban people from paintball for these things. guess there wouldn't be any money it that though.

[FatMan]

Originally posted by TheBigRaguPB4L


easy for you to say. what about the 15 year old newbie that's just starting off. not trying to offend anyone, but these are the people that really don't have a choice. they have to go wherever their parents take them.

If you read my post BEFORE the last post I pointed out that was a luxury *I* have but most don't.

i know it's been said, but all of the bad behavior really all boils down to is all the newbs that start off at any given field. i'm talking the 10-15 year olds that go there with there M98's and spyders. they go there and see all the other pro's and starting off amatuers acting like total idiots cursing and yelling cause they got shot, they go into the game thinking it's ok.

I don't agree with this entirely. I think most of the 15 year olds already know how to cuss and act like the spoiled brats they are before they come out to the paintball field. Paintball doesn't have a monopoly on bad sportsmanship. Check back two of my posts and you'll see an example. This problem goes beyond Paintball, but that doesn't mean Paintball has to just live with it.

there really is no cure for this. IMO, there will always be the overzealous hothead that has outbursts over losing a game. it's really human nature to be pissed off over inane things. there is to much aggression in paintball to control all these incidents. does it mean we shouldn't try? i don't think so. even if we don't stop all of it, we can cut out some or most of it. it's a shame we can't just ban people from paintball for these things. guess there wouldn't be any money it that though.

There is a cure - but not a vaccine. We will always get players who do this, but we can certainly put a stop to it. And we don't have to ban them from paintball. We simply make it known that we won't put up with that. If they don't want to deal with that THEN they can get out.

Again, I know its harder for the kid who plays a commercial field, but if enough of those kids make it known that THEY don't want to see that kind of thing, and let the field owners and refs know, and help spread the word - it WILL make a difference.

There are plenty of tennis clubs and country clubs that don't put up with tantrums (and they get just as many as we do). They set their rules and the membership won't settle for poor enforcement. Can't paintball do the same thing - if we want to?

I think we can. I'm not sure WE want to.

Play safe and have fun,
FatMan

[cphilip]

I think it's all that British guys fault...what's his name? Hmmmmm...oh yea...Man-like? Or sumpin like dat.



Just a bit of humor injected. Wanted or not.

[manike]

Yeah those damn Brits with their manners and sportsmanship... who DO they think they are?

It's not Cricket you know...

manike

[cphilip]

We fish with crickets...

[FatMan]

Originally posted by cphilip
We fish with crickets...

I feed 'em to my lizard!

FatMan