It took less than 60 days.....

[punkncat]

I very much appreciate the comments, insight and another point of view on the whole situation.

I guess I really have to step out of my own shoes for a minute to look at it more objectively. I am a 36 year old dude. I have a kid the same age as two of our players. I suppose it would be foolish of me to even consider that at the age of my capt (mid 20's) that I wouldn't be the same way. Its hard to stay grounded and humble when you are young. Everything is balls to the wall, 110% forward all the time. Things are learned generally in hindsight.

The whole team is proud and even a little head swelled. Its easy to get caught up in the whole thing and try to make it grow too fast.

I am gonna chill by for a minute. What is meant to be will be. My skills and place on the team have showed so far, and I would like to think that a lack of them would show as well. I am not by far the fastest or best on the team. But experiance and a cool head go a long way....

[LegumeOfTerror]

what mout deal you talking about?

[Lohman446]

I very much appreciate the comments, insight and another point of view on the whole situation.

I guess I really have to step out of my own shoes for a minute to look at it more objectively. I am a 36 year old dude. I have a kid the same age as two of our players. I suppose it would be foolish of me to even consider that at the age of my capt (mid 20's) that I wouldn't be the same way. Its hard to stay grounded and humble when you are young. Everything is balls to the wall, 110% forward all the time. Things are learned generally in hindsight.

The whole team is proud and even a little head swelled. Its easy to get caught up in the whole thing and try to make it grow too fast.

I am gonna chill by for a minute. What is meant to be will be. My skills and place on the team have showed so far, and I would like to think that a lack of them would show as well. I am not by far the fastest or best on the team. But experiance and a cool head go a long way....

Everyone has there own ability, and it is hard for people to understand that. The teams I play on understand that I am poor at being part of the plan, I am not the greatest shot, and I am not by any means fast. By the way, I don't dump paint either. What I bring to the table more than anyone else we play around with is that I will make moves that can totally change a game, an awareness of the environment, time, etc, and financial independence.

The last team I helped form - one player and I were for the most part financially responsible. We had an agreement that in theory protected us, in that I had 3 votes, the same as the team captain did. When it became apparent that the team was going to be more "competetive" than I wanted to be I made the comment that when they replaced me I understood that and I was replaced. Frankly I was not going to be at practice every week plus the weekends. Incidentally the other financial backer also backed out with me.

Moral - if you finanically support yourself, and bring anything to the table, you can find a spot to play. Last tournament I played with the #1 team on the field. It was very satisfying to roll my old team with the small, quick, replacement players. Yeh, he might have beat me to the snake, but there is no score for taking a position first .

If a team no longer offered what I wanted (which it sounds like this does not) simply walk away. You're 38, theres a big advantage to not having to bow to anyone for sponsorship. I no longer even look for it, the field owner is a friend, and I am satisfied with the prices I get on everything.

[mclaggan123]

does the capt have to compete to keep his spot? i started a team a few years ago and after two years i turned over capt to a fellow teammate. we had more and more people bug us to join our team and it was decided to have tryouts with the active team members included in order to field the best team. the capt tried to pull im the capt card and i dont have to compete for a spot. i told him i formed the team and hold the rights to the logo, website, and the contracts to our sponsors. i told him how can you ask another member that has been here as long as he has to compete if he didnt. i then made it known that if there were to be any tryouts then all members would have to tryout myself and the capt included. the funny thing is that the capt didnt make the cut. myself and the excapt are now coaches and alts for tournaments. it sucks getting old but even the best slowdown and have to step aside for the youth. i mainly play scenario now so i still have the balling fun that i grew to love but i can do it at my pace and my schedual. my advice to you think about whats best for you and have a good long talk with the capt and other founding members and see whats best for you and the team. if nothing else you can train the younger players to take your place and have the honor and sportsmanship that you have. good luck and let us know what you decide.

[68magOwner]

You have what those faster/smaller than you cannot have yet - experience. And its something that does not show in practice and drills.

I mean, yes and no. I agree that the MAJORITY of the fast/small/young kids out there today are not going to be as experienced as the old guys but, I mean, really, there are going to be PLENTY of exceptions. I myself am 19, ~5'9'', ~130lb, less than 5% body fat, plenty small/young/fast, and have been playing paintball for over 8 years, I have plenty of experience. Heck, I know a 12 year old who cant be more than 5ft tall 100lbs, who has been playing 4 years. Todays kids are smaller, faster, more agile, and more talented than some of the old guys out there, you just have to face it.

With that said, putting the most talented 5 kids on the field is NOT always going to get you the most wins. My team personally, have had pros guest with us who are arguably more talented than our "regulars" but, the fact that I have been playing with the core group of teammates for over 4 years means that we know exactly what to count on for each other, and each of us knows what the other wants to do before it happens. This leads to us being able to work together great with minimal communication so we can get things going faster than guys who really have to talk thigns out during games. I would rather play with guys who I am comfortable with than guys I thought may be marginally more talented.

I think the best thing for you to do would to keep drilling your fundamentals. Make sure you can play with your right and left hand with equal comfort and ease. Your snap shooting, running/gunning, and laning need to be on point. You dont need to be able to do rediculious superman dives, but, beign able to properly knee slide or maybe hip slide into a bunker would be a good thing. Focus on making SMART moves, not necessarly super fast moves. Keep your marker up ALL the time, no down time for running or reloading. I know guys in the CFOA like Matt Sossman (played for circus runaways last season, plays with gridlock now) who rarley if ever make big moves, yet, the guy shoots like 3 people every game. And George who recently (between last season and this season) had one of his legs amputated from the knee down and is still an amazing player. He played all last season barley being able to move faster than a hobble, and he was still a SOLID player who could do his job well because he has all of his fundamentals down. With his new prosthetic leg, he is more mobile and more lethal than ever.

I honestly feel that once you have your fundamentals down really well, paintball jsut becomes a real mental game. As long as you are in the right mindset to go out there and get what you need to get done, its going to happen.

[skife]

just saying man, you helped get the thing off the ground, you deserve your peice of the pie, correct?


just think of where all these kids we're when you were trying to get a team together.




Lohman, i feel the same way about being sponsored, i know one of the field owners around here and he usually gives me good prices on things.

[Lohman446]

I honestly feel that once you have your fundamentals down really well, paintball jsut becomes a real mental game. As long as you are in the right mindset to go out there and get what you need to get done, its going to happen.

I understand the exceptions that you consider. The last team I played on had myself (28), another player (35) who frankly is probably in better physical shape than 95% of paintball players, and one of the field owners sons (18) who fits the small, quick, agile definition. The 18 year old has more experience than either of us and we both have a lot. His dad has been playing / participating in the game forever and I have heard stories that the first times the kids played he had to carry the marker around for them because it was getting too heavy.

That being said, age tends to bring about a mental edge that is more than just experience (yeh, I worded it as just experience earlier). Not to say this always overcomes the advantages of physical fitness. I think I'm going to quit calling these the advantages of youth. Even though its harder for us older people we can still be small / fast / agile. I know these go away with age but we are not talking pro athlete level here. Even if we were, one of the great players on the Red Wings team is 45 years old. Before anyone gets upset, I don't consider pro paintball players to generally be in the same physical condition as the majority of major pro athletes.

Paintball, and other sports / games, are about testing skillsets. And you mentioned something often overlooked. Team chemistry. With the understanding that it takes professional athletes a long time with near constant practice to build chemistry it has to be understood that most paintball teams will not achieve good chemistry without at least months of playing together. A team leader on field can help overcome this, but how many teams have more than one or two guys on field that have the ability to lead effectively. Most don't have any who can do it in the spur of the moment to a degree to overcome lack of chemistry.

The funny thing with my old team is, although I may "gripe" about it we parted on my terms. I saw it coming and volunteered to go when they felt it was right. I was offered to head the "B" team if I wanted to and declined it. Technically I trademarked the logo for protection of the team and that is in my name (actually its one of the few assetts my paintball company owns). But there was no bitterness in the split, the fact of the matter is I still count every person who I played with on that team as a friend. We started a team as friends and when I was no longer on that team we were still friends - there was a week of being annoyed by it, but I got over it. You know this I'm sure. In the end, friendships are far more important than any aspect of this game.

[phizz]

Just my quick comment.

I think its a low blow to you. Also if your team is doing well now, why would your Captain try to change it? Doesn't seem like a very good Captains decision to me. I also 100% agree with Lohman446, team chemistry isn't something to be taken lightly.

I call foul on your Captains decision.

I would like to think that as a 31 year old who has played paintball since the days of the early pgp I still have something to offer over 18 year olds. A good sense of the game, use of angles, snap shooting, etc., all get better with practice.