How to get new players in to the sport?

[Liam92]

Funny I was thinking of writing an article for the newbies section here, I'd planned to buy a few cheap bits like a bottle, marker capable of 10.4 and a loader just to see HOW cheap I could get it. What's the bare minimum you need to spend to get a fully functioning tourney ready package? I reckon for full shebang less than £200 will do it. Gun, bottle, loader, mask, pack, pods, trousers and top. Pads are a luxury, we played for years without them.

Completely agree dusty, it's more than possible to get everything you need to play for a very modest price. The only true essentials that a person needs to play are: marker, hopper, tank, goggles, barrel sock. After that the only item you could then describe as essential may be a pack and pods, with items such as tops, trousers etc. being the 'extras'.

Any new player should be able to at least get themselves out to a field with essential kit for around £150 in my books. going to play a tournament with full gear should only be a nominal £50-60 more.

 

[H]

If we (those currently into it) want to increase the number of players in the sport it needs to happen on a grass roots local level. Sites should encourage players to come back more frequently, with such things as membership deals, affordable walk-ons, novice tournaments. Currently there's a very clearly distinction between one-off punters and everyone else, how to make the jump to scenario or tournaments is very mysterious to many newbies. Many sites now are one trick ponies who only appeal to the punter crowd and avoid encouraging players to take things to the next level. When I first started around the turn of the century, being the nerd that I was I picked up a couple of issues of PGI before my first punter day and spent ages reading and researching everything I could find online. I played a few punter days and started hanging out at my local site, watching tournaments and then worked as a marshall before moving onwards and upwards.

 

[emisnug]

Well, here's how I deal with it all. I've got 2 full setups that I'll happily lend out - I'll even let people take it home for a while so they can understand the mechanics behind a marker. I do, however, make them sign a kind of waver that basically says "you break it, you bought it"

I find that making them sign something makes them aware of how much it costs but still gives them a fully functioning setup. Plus, I always make it clear that if they want to buy any of it, they can - I just give an averaged price from looking at the classifides on here.

As far as a full set of stuff goes for newbies - with a bit of harsh bargining and searching everywhere, I'd reckon you could get a 10bps compliant setup (along with pants, jersey etc) for around £160ish

 

[digitalman]

How about liasing with well known sites and arranging for a few walkon players to be captains of punterball teams. So rather than going along to fill up on war stories on how you singlehandedly took out a whole bunch of kids who had no idea what they were doing, you turn up to help organise their teams. do a lot of shouting and running round and show them the better side of paintball. Then if they like what they see they can have a contact who can help them.

I could see this being good for the site, punters and perhaps even ourselves as players

 

[H]

How about liasing with well known sites and arranging for a few walkon players to be captains of punterball teams. So rather than going along to fill up on war stories on how you singlehandedly took out a whole bunch of kids who had no idea what they were doing, you turn up to help organise their teams. do a lot of shouting and running round and show them the better side of paintball. Then if they like what they see they can have a contact who can help them.

I could see this being good for the site, punters and perhaps even ourselves as players

That's actually a pretty neat idea. If a site introduced a nominal membership fee thus would be a way of hooking those rental customers into a system where they can get into the sport. As part of this membership you could do walk-ons (with the aforementioned coaching/captains), discount paint, novice only tourneys etc. It would be great if more experienced players had the opportunity to get their hands dirty at their local site. Hell, I'd do it.

 

[digitalman]

I would have my name down to go along as a captain and help out. I know when I started (and i was 40 ish) there were a lot of guys who helped me at walkons and it's nice to give something back

 

[Care_Bears]

Why arn`t you guys in My Teams ???

 

[mingeking]

Total noob offering opinion based on three weeks of experience of trying to get game.

Paintball seems to be a bit like heroin, it doesn't take much to get hooked and once you are you've got to bust a gut and/or the bank to find another fix. Solution IMO, find a good dealer by going to walk on days... Simple? So it seems?
Now, I'm in my 30's and earn enough to buy my own gear. I'm not overly daft, know how to use the internet and have never been much of a shrinking violet. However, I cant find a local site that doesn't want me to shell out £££ to play with people who would probably rather their team day was at a spa.
After several hours over several days of internet searching, I found a working link to one of the local-ish teams and gave them a shout. Only once i'd done so, I discovered this site and where I might find a walk on by driving several hours on Sunday (hurrah).

My conclusion would be that either I'm dafter than I thought, or paintball suffers from severe lack of marketing outside of stag do's and team building.
What I would like to have seen was higher search priority for uk based woods/sup-air paintball, especially for where I might play, even this site fails to make this explicit (and the .com didn't help, sorry).
I like the idea of borrowing kit that shoots straight and doesn't make you look a pillock, but I like to know where I could play first.

 

[Care_Bears]

Good site at Hastings, East Grinstead, and at Botley ( inland from Southampton )
there were 4 x sites at Worthing some time ago along with 7 x sites in and around Crawley,
and 1 x at Haywards Heath
I recommend the first x 3.

 

[digitalman]

Why arn`t you guys in My Teams ???

Where are you based though Care Bear?