Female Paintball "Stars": The Ultimate Poser?

[Lisa]

ROFL!!! :rofl: That is too funny!

[Jakedubbleya]

Edit: Sry to interrupt the girl chat

-Mixed teams in stock play seem to do rather well, or at least they used to, havent been keeping crrent with that...-

Im a bit confused tho after Lisa cleared some things up. So your saying, your players are motivated, confident, and disciplined. Is this largely the case with all of the female teams, or is empress the exception?

If this really is the demeanor of empress, then why havent we seen results? Lack of talent (player specific not saying girls as a whole.. bla bla bla politically correct bla bla bla), Poor leadership? What?

When this post was started by Target Practice, the fact that women were indeed posing and not trying was an excuse of sorts for their poor performance. What youve done is merely get rid of that excuse.

Im just baffled why female teams dont do well, ive seen, as mentioned earlyer amazing things accomplished by women in stock play. And a couple of isolated incidences in speedball/Aball as well.

I am convinced (as are most), that women are as (or near enough to null the difference) physically capable of playing paintball as men. But the overall performance by women is unrelative to their capabilities.

This is one of those mysteries i think only time will reveal.

[SCpoloRicker]

tsc and Target Practice may not be typical, mainly because tsc can kick TP (and mine)'s arse in pball, and shooting...

I think that a lack of time in the sport at the tournament level is why teams like Empress and mayhaps Femmes etc. et all aren't winning. Even if some gals who form a competitive team have played recball for several years, they still have little to no experience at the higher level.

Plus, I think a lot of the core "tournament" players have been envolved in paintball since they were young, avg age being, say, 14-16. I don't think that women who get into the sport start at as young of an age.

I don't want to sound misogynist; and this is changing, but most of the times I've played with a woman, she had been "introduced" to the game by a dude.

Anyways, great discussion thus far.

[Lisa]

Well as I stated before, I can't speak for what the other girls teams do. As for Empress, these changes just happened toward the end of the year and over the "off season" so the results are yet to be seen. We have had what I consider to be moderate success on a local 5 man level. We moved up and placed 5th in all three events. Could have been worse. I also think it is harder to find a whole team of top talent players that are all girls. So in some cases you take the best you can get and you work with them over time to improve any areas that are lacking.

Most people don't realize that the vast majority of Empress had never even met prior to our first event, much less practiced together! And we were only able to have 2 complete team practices last year! How many wins would any team have with that little time together? So..all considered...we do the best we can and make the changes we can to try and improve it all. And we smile alot!

[Miscue]

Speaking of co-ed, anyone ever watch Ladybugs?

[Jakedubbleya]

Look what we found!

REAL reasons!

Q: should you even be competing if you can only get your team to practice 2x a year?

Almost a why bother amongst other things like poor sportsmanship, and you have-to wonder how much effort is really going into a team with such stats.

But, you said you are/have made changes, which is something you obviously need to do, so good luck with that.

(Its no surprise your sponsors arent paying for your playing, and you most assuredly should not expect them to.)

[Lisa]

Last I checked we never said we expected them to...everyone else did. And the 2 practices were the only ones where the entire team was together. There were plenty of regional practices just not the entire team.

As for whether we should play or not, I guess that is a decision we have to make for ourselves...but I am sure we will take everyone elses opinions on what we should do under great consideration before we make that decision in the future. I guess all those other teams out there that are all guys who don't have winning records should just quit also. But I guess that would be a topic for another thread...Could someone provide me with the link for the "Poser male teams that don't win enough and should quit paintball" thread? Thanks! So much for winning isn't everything and playing for the sake of playing the sport.

[Jakedubbleya]

Its not about winning records its about effort and development, especially in a sport that is not truly professional at the "professional" level.

Your comment about the sponsors...?
never said u did...

Im not here to critisize your team, was just letting out a little dissapointment from the fan/critic angle.

Good luck.

[Lisa]

My comment about the sponsors paying was in reference to all the comments that other people made about how we didn't deserve all that our sponsors pay for for us. And you have to admit that it would be alittle hard to be in our shoes and read all the judgemental posts about your team and not get just a tad bit defensive. I have really tried not to be and I am sorry if it has sounded like that.

[Miscue]

My comment about the sponsors paying was in reference to all the comments that other people made about how we didn't deserve all that our sponsors pay for for us. And you have to admit that it would be alittle hard to be in our shoes and read all the judgemental posts about your team and not get just a tad bit defensive. I have really tried not to be and I am sorry if it has sounded like that.

As far as I can tell, it seems that most who have posted are supportive of the female teams - but even so, are calling it like they see it - and I think that's fair. Some things might be off, but as a fan/spectator that's to be expected, and to me this is excusable to a point. Well anyway, I think that all this stuff can be used constructively... and maybe something can be learned from all this. I find this to be an interesting/fresh topic, and not one that's been beaten to death already.

[Miscue]

"Poser male teams that don't win enough and should quit paintball" thread? Thanks! So much for winning isn't everything and playing for the sake of playing the sport.

After rereading the original post, and several others... I don't think "winning" was brought up as an important performance measurement... and "winning isn't everything and playing for the sake of playing the sport," was implied... and was kind of the point being made.

[waterchimera]

[waterchimera]

I don't want to sound misogynist; and this is changing, but most of the times I've played with a woman, she had been "introduced" to the game by a dude.

Just a quick logic question: Does it matter if a girl has been introduced by a guy? I mean most guys who play have been introduced to the game. More guys play than girls, thus it is only logical that a guy will introduce a girl to the sport. I have introduced at least 20 guys to the sport. Does that make them any less of a player?

[Rooster]

Facinating discussion. I think Women's teams have a long way to go and alot of rethinking to do before they ever become competitive. Aggression can be an asset in paintball, it can also be a liability. Its just like chess, some players can attack and win, others can defend and win.

I think the thought that sums up the discussion is: where are all the ugly girls at? Every high level women's sports team has some real beasts on it. Which, when you consider the logic, right after your intial knee-jerk reaction to what I just said, makes pefect sense. If women's teams wanted to be competitive they would be getting the best players, not the best players that are good looking.

If the stated goal of any "professional" women's team to be to get more girls into the sport, they are kidding themselves. Little girls aren't watching you play. Teenage boys are watching you play. You are getting exactly what you asked for, to be a schill for someone's product line, and its not little girls buying the product.

This thread proves a more behavioral point, and that is in a sport, or in anything, that requires field leadership (as opposed to having a heirarcy with a designated manager) women have a very high probablity of getting catty with each other. Men usually will gravitate to one alpha male and follow his lead. If there is more than one alpha, there will usually be a fight of some type were one will emerge as the leader. I have seen this dynamic over and over again. It happens between friends, it happens at work, and it happens when people play games or sports. I have never seen it happen with a group of women. As a manager of both men and women, I try never to build a group solely out of women for this reason. I don't really think they have an instictive desire to find the most able and follow that person. This can be paralyzing when it comes to making decisions. I think a women's sports team has been able to do well because you have an outside person giving the orders. You don't really have that with a paintball team. Decisions have to be made on the fly, and everyone has to be 100% committed to accomplishing that task. I honestly think it comes down to instinct. Men will follow men, women will follow men, but no woman wants to follow another woman that is her peer. Even if consciously women try to ignore that urge and tries to be the "good soldier" by following another woman's orders, that she regards as a peer, there is still an instinct that is saying "what is her's could be yours."

Honestly, I have no idea if any of that is true. I just know what I've seen and experienced working with alot of women and men in team/group type environments as both an employee and a manager.

[jdev]

You know, I'd be interested in knowing her motives. Perhaps you could ask her? You have to tell her to be PERFECTLY honest. If she said she wanted to go to spend time with you, or take part in something that you take part in, that's fine. If she's doing it to get attention from you or anyone else, then you can't say that she wanted to play for the sport of it.

that is actually the exact reason that my girlfriend started to become interested in paintball. she sees me toss my time and money into the sport, and she thought it would be fun to try out. she hasn't as of yet stepped on the field to play, but, her intentions to play were to do so because she wanted to be a part of something that I enjoy doing.