Why paintball is NOT an "X-treme" sport

[UltimatePaintballer]

street luge, now that is freaking xtreme, especially in san fransico

[LudavicoSoldier]

Apparently being the only game (aside from airsoft) in which you shoot at your opponent isnt kewl enough for the kiddies nowadays. I mean, who wants to market anything aside from what all the n00bs want? Apparently very few companies (which is why AGD seems to have hard times) want to sell something to a knowledgeable player. Arent the dyed in the wool paintballs the backbone of the game though? I think there is an ENORMOUS misrepresentation of what/who paintballers are by the companies who whore hype driven product.

Anyhow, just my 2 cents. Now I go back to my beer.

[dinger]

pro skaters are on teams...

i think some snowboarders are too

lugers have 2man teams btw...

and when you're diving into a bunker.. you can be putting your knee's on the line! what if there's a rock in a thick patch of gras??

same with diving.. and slicing open your chest letting your sternum fly out

sure its slim chances but paintball is still america's #1 fastest growing extreme sport!

[Joni]

Originally posted by Sir_Brass
Look at alot of the regular 'extreme' sports. What is one common thing among them: the punk bada-- rebellious teenage stoner image. NOt that that image is necessarilly accurate for all participants, but it certainly seems to have a clear trend.

Paintball seems to like to hang onto this. Just look at the names of the guns and accessories for our guns, and at our apparel. We're definately promoting that punk stoner look.

I KNOW it's petty (the labeling of our sport as 'extreme' was petty as well), but it's also how we LOOK and behave. We should push a more respectful and conservative look. Go more for practicality than flash (work the flash into practicality). That will help as well. Basically, on the field we need to LOOK as respectable as possible (we'll always have that gun stigmata with us) and off the field look respectable and talk respectable.

Let's face it, people will judge us by how we talk and how we look. They won't care about who we really are, they'll just care about what we appear to be. We want to be mainstream then we need to appear to be mature and decent.

I agree that the reason paintball is seen upon as an extreme sport i largely because of the community. But I dont see where the fault in that is. Having a laid back attitude to the game, playing for fun I think is healthy. I have no urge to become over serious, I'm in it for the rush and the fun of it.

[speedyejl]

http://www.derderpaintball.com/derdertrailer.wmv

That video says a lot, while its just highlights of paintball, adreniline pumps, angers flare, and super human feats are acomplished.

Now to cornily say, Webster defines "extreme" in the context of sports

5 a : of, relating to, or being an outdoor activity or a form of a sport (as skiing) that involves an unusually high degree of physical risk

Paintball doesn't fit in there unless you count the minimal pain, paintballs induce as physical risk.

Webster also says

1 a : existing in a very high degree b : going to great or exaggerated lengths : RADICAL c : exceeding the ordinary, usual, or expected

and

3 : situated at the farthest possible point from a center



I will say that paintball lies on the extremes of normal team competive sports in many ways and technically does earn the title extreme. Not in the same context as most people precieve it as. Paintball is also an extreme sport in that is far away from main stream accepatance. Its going to be a good decade or to (if paintball lasts that long, if the PSP/NPPL (rumor is they are re-merging) was to go down for a year national competive paintball would be destroyed and take a serious setback) before people watch paintball on sunday nights with all their friends eating pork rhines and screaming at the tv.

[the_next_guy_]

I think that many people classify paintball as an extreme sport because paintball itself relies so heavily on technology. Most mainstream sports, such as basketball, soccer, football, can be played with pretty much a ball and some form of a goal. Shure, there is alot of technology that goes into making football pads and tennis rackets, but the game does not rely on it. Personally I would not like to see paintball be recognized as an extreme sport, but I will play no matter what

[Sir_Brass]

I mean, who wants to market anything aside from what all the n00bs want? Apparently very few companies (which is why AGD seems to have hard times) want to sell something to a knowledgeable player.

and why do they want those things? B/c the pro players use those things. If the pros promote the image we need to properly promote the sport, then it will happen, b/c the n00bs will do what the pros are doing. And if the pros are doing what needs to be done, then so will the n00bs.

[Yamz]

Like it or not its a lable and we got it... I didnt put it there. look at when all the other "extreme" sports got their lable for the most part it helped them bring a lot or new people into their sport as it will ours.

[Sir_Brass]

the people we bring into this sport who will be good contributors to it will want to play it not because it's 'extreme', but b/c it interests them.


oh, and when I was talking about being more serious, I know we like to take it easy, but look at the pros: no matter what you say they'll always be over-serious, so why not just accept that and have them at least LOOK respectable and talk respectable on and off the field. People respect a guy who's a good athelete but who also is NOT a punk. To bad "punk" is label which seems to fit ALOT of the pro players that are idolized.

[Tyger]

Let me add this

Ok, let me add this to the fray :

The idea of an Extreme sport was born, basically, in "Extreme Skiing". One of the poineers coined the term "You Fall, You Die" One of the old guard almost did, and a lot of extreme skiers / snowboarders fall, and die. If you talk to someoen who's done it more thn 5 years, they more than likely know someone who died in their boots.

Point is that the other "Extreme Sports" hae major injury as a part of the package. You try a method air, you can break a wrist. You can go over the wall of the pipe, or out of hte halfpipe, and massivly hurt yourelf.

Ok, you can hurt yourself playing paintball too. But it's not a part of the sport. It's an accient. The nature of flying 20 feet up means you hurt yourslef it you land wring. The nature of falling on youself from no elevation means you can hurt yourslef, but odds are not as severely.

For what it's worth, if injury is an indicator, your odds are pretty bad for doing home repair yourself, so that's pretty extreme, huh?

The derider video shows the action, but it also shows the immaturity of players and the irresponsibility of the industry. One of the team guys in the "haymeker punch" incident posted on p8ntballer.com that his teams sponsors "Had a good laugh" at the fight. Fighting isn't extreme. It's just immature.

Is paintball just aother sport? No. It's a sport, not an extreme one, but not another sport. Instead fo focusing on how "x-TREME" we are, we can actually focus ourselves on our strengths of team building, and show what we can do, and shuck the bndwagon. We don't need to be "X-Treme" to get attention. For what it's worth, paintball will be seen as stronger if we don't need to ride the coat-tails of the "Extreme" sport movement to make our own place in the world.

-Tyger

[athomas]

A lot of people view the sport of paintball as extreme because they don't understand it. There is a misconception of danger. We are shooting high velocity projectiles at each other and running around in brightly colored jerseys with brightly colored guns. As long as people see the sport of paintball as something different than a regular sport, then it will be classified as extreme. Once it becomes more recognized, it may move into the mainstream and change classification to just another team sport.

[Jeffy-CanCon]

I mostly agree with you, Tyger. Paintball certainly does not fit in with the general run of extreme sports. But it is on the edge of public perception and exception, and can eb considered extreme from that viewpoint.

[Jon S]

I'm in agreement with the majority of the posts here against the extreme label. I think a better word to use is "underground sport", for the most part people know what you mean when you say the word "paintball" but their knowledge of what it means tends to be very limited and misconceived. I think calling it extreme is equally misconceived...we look extreme and are seen to be extreme (through the media) but we all really know that if we keep our masks on, the risk of injury is slight.

Something that also gives us an "underground" persona, in my view, is our segregation from society. You can skateboard, inline and BMX pretty much wherever, or carry the accessories around as a symbol of your x-tremeness, if that's your thing. We, however, cannot. We can't carry markers around the mall or street, and we sure as heck can't use them there either! The paintball fields where we can do this are out in the middle of nowhere, I don't know about in the States but almost every paintball place I've been to in the UK has had some tiny tiny sign outside a farm or wood track to indicate its existence.

Another point is that paintball is much more fun to play than to watch. I dont skate, but I can sit down and enjoy seeing skating on TV, you can appreciate the single focus on the skater, and his/her skills are very apparent. Take a paintball field, you can't really make out what's going on unless you have a deep understanding of the game. Also, half the field is usually obstructed by the bunkers and you cant even see the balls flying. Yawn.

So, we cant really hurt ourselves, and we can only do our safer-than-bowling activity in a secluded area where we play in teams in a format that you cant really appriciate unless you're playing. Extreme? Pah!

[JoyInTheMadness]

nice post mate, I agree

[-=Squid=-]

I agree, but to me the overall image of the sport is what sets it aside from the others.