In Wiltshire area , click on my picture ? but have everyone from around the South = from Brighton to Bristol, even a few at Birmingham, own site at Didcot A34
How to get new players in to the sport?
- Thread starter tiffyman
- Start date
Ok, I'll preface this comment by saying that I'm not a serious player, I've played on and off for about the last 5 years, so don't jump all over me here!
Firstly, I would want to see information being more accessible. A website set up which is very clear, displays all the information that somebody would need to learn more about the game and find ways to get into it. So on this site you would have info about woodsball and tourneys, a list of walkon sites around the country so people could easily find their nearest site, contact details (even if it's just an email address) for as many teams as possible, clear information about kit with recommendations for good starter kit. Just a way for people to find out everything they need to on one site.
Secondly, get paintball sites actively pushing people towards that website. Any punter who expresses an interest in playing more gets pointed towards the site, so that way instead of people just enjoying it and choosing to go a bit more frequently you might see more people who enjoy it learning more about the game and being converted into getting properly involved.
Thirdly, have people being more generous with their kit. Obviously most players wouldn't be happy letting newbies use nice kit, but how many of us have a cheap(ish) backup lying around that we never use? Would it be difficult to take any spare kit that you don't use along to walkons and let new players use it? Obviously you run the risk of them damaging it, but it might be possible for site owners to take a deposit from players who are borrowing kit, so if it does get damaged then they can't do a runner.
Fourthly, stop intimidating new players. Too often I've seen guys appear on here, looking to get more involved and asking what kit to buy, and they then get bombarded with information and arguments, and it just gets too intimidating. One person will recommend something like an Etek, cheap & cheerful, easy to use, easy to maintain, and a perfect starter marker, so somebody else jumps in and says they are too old and heavy so recommends an Ego7 (for double the price), and it just keeps going, so instead of the new guy having a clear idea in his head of what he can buy for £300, he gets a huge list of kit with prices ranging wildly, and gets put off by the fact that he's seen prices for "starter kit" several hundred pounds over his original budget. If you look at how many people post up saying they are new and asking for advice, and see how many of them actually buy kit, it's surprising poor.
Fifthly, make it easier for new guys to get a taste of tournament play. If a newbie gets in touch with your team asking about it, invite them along to a training session, pool together enough kit to enable them to play, and make it cheaper for them. Let's be honest, are they going to shoot more than a case of paint in a day? Not likely, so get your team to chuck in a pound each, even if there's only 10 of you it knocks the cost to the new guy down to £10. If they show an interest in tournaments then let them get a taste without charging them full whack. Let's be honest here, a brand new player is going to spend the vast, vast majority of their first tournament sat on the sidelines after being shot out early, so don't treat them like an experienced player. Take them along as an extra guy, let them play a few games, but don't charge them an equal fee for the day. Your team is already going to be paying the entry fee, and without the new guy you'd still have the same cost, so ask him for £20/30 towards the cost and then a contribution towards paint. It'll save your players a few quid and makes the day affordable for the new guy. My first tourney I paid well over £100 for the day and I don't think I lasted more than 2 minutes in any single match. If it wasn't for the fact I was only just 17 and still daft about money it could very easily have put me off permanently.
Let me just elaborate on point one here a little bit. The reason why I say there needs to be more information in one places is simple, it's incredibly difficult to find anything right now. Let's say I'm new, I've played at Delta Force a few times and want to play more, so somebody there tells me to do walkons. So, I get home, go on google and search for "Bristol paintball walkon", what do I find?
First result is for the Skirmish Bristol site, to a page which lists all of their walkon dates for the year, which is great. However, then you read the first line on the page and see " Here is our 2013 walk-on events calendar for experienced paintball players." Oh, so as a new player I'm not welcome there, looks like I'm not going, and just like that the paintball community has lost a new player. The first thing they read makes it perfectly clear that they are not welcome and so that's it, I'm out of here.
To me it seems like the biggest problem is not the price, obviously it will put off plenty of people but there is very little we can do about it. The biggest problem is lack of information, sure this site is great if you're already involved in the community, but to an outsider it all seems pretty impenetrable.
Now, after I've procrastinated from doing an essay for Uni that's due in 10 hours by writing an essay on here, I really should get back to my essay!
Firstly, I would want to see information being more accessible. A website set up which is very clear, displays all the information that somebody would need to learn more about the game and find ways to get into it. So on this site you would have info about woodsball and tourneys, a list of walkon sites around the country so people could easily find their nearest site, contact details (even if it's just an email address) for as many teams as possible, clear information about kit with recommendations for good starter kit. Just a way for people to find out everything they need to on one site.
Secondly, get paintball sites actively pushing people towards that website. Any punter who expresses an interest in playing more gets pointed towards the site, so that way instead of people just enjoying it and choosing to go a bit more frequently you might see more people who enjoy it learning more about the game and being converted into getting properly involved.
Thirdly, have people being more generous with their kit. Obviously most players wouldn't be happy letting newbies use nice kit, but how many of us have a cheap(ish) backup lying around that we never use? Would it be difficult to take any spare kit that you don't use along to walkons and let new players use it? Obviously you run the risk of them damaging it, but it might be possible for site owners to take a deposit from players who are borrowing kit, so if it does get damaged then they can't do a runner.
Fourthly, stop intimidating new players. Too often I've seen guys appear on here, looking to get more involved and asking what kit to buy, and they then get bombarded with information and arguments, and it just gets too intimidating. One person will recommend something like an Etek, cheap & cheerful, easy to use, easy to maintain, and a perfect starter marker, so somebody else jumps in and says they are too old and heavy so recommends an Ego7 (for double the price), and it just keeps going, so instead of the new guy having a clear idea in his head of what he can buy for £300, he gets a huge list of kit with prices ranging wildly, and gets put off by the fact that he's seen prices for "starter kit" several hundred pounds over his original budget. If you look at how many people post up saying they are new and asking for advice, and see how many of them actually buy kit, it's surprising poor.
Fifthly, make it easier for new guys to get a taste of tournament play. If a newbie gets in touch with your team asking about it, invite them along to a training session, pool together enough kit to enable them to play, and make it cheaper for them. Let's be honest, are they going to shoot more than a case of paint in a day? Not likely, so get your team to chuck in a pound each, even if there's only 10 of you it knocks the cost to the new guy down to £10. If they show an interest in tournaments then let them get a taste without charging them full whack. Let's be honest here, a brand new player is going to spend the vast, vast majority of their first tournament sat on the sidelines after being shot out early, so don't treat them like an experienced player. Take them along as an extra guy, let them play a few games, but don't charge them an equal fee for the day. Your team is already going to be paying the entry fee, and without the new guy you'd still have the same cost, so ask him for £20/30 towards the cost and then a contribution towards paint. It'll save your players a few quid and makes the day affordable for the new guy. My first tourney I paid well over £100 for the day and I don't think I lasted more than 2 minutes in any single match. If it wasn't for the fact I was only just 17 and still daft about money it could very easily have put me off permanently.
Let me just elaborate on point one here a little bit. The reason why I say there needs to be more information in one places is simple, it's incredibly difficult to find anything right now. Let's say I'm new, I've played at Delta Force a few times and want to play more, so somebody there tells me to do walkons. So, I get home, go on google and search for "Bristol paintball walkon", what do I find?
First result is for the Skirmish Bristol site, to a page which lists all of their walkon dates for the year, which is great. However, then you read the first line on the page and see " Here is our 2013 walk-on events calendar for experienced paintball players." Oh, so as a new player I'm not welcome there, looks like I'm not going, and just like that the paintball community has lost a new player. The first thing they read makes it perfectly clear that they are not welcome and so that's it, I'm out of here.
To me it seems like the biggest problem is not the price, obviously it will put off plenty of people but there is very little we can do about it. The biggest problem is lack of information, sure this site is great if you're already involved in the community, but to an outsider it all seems pretty impenetrable.
Now, after I've procrastinated from doing an essay for Uni that's due in 10 hours by writing an essay on here, I really should get back to my essay!
Some great points there:-
Point1, I agree that one central information point for all paintball would be fantastic, if you could find someone to co-ordinate all the input from the different teams and sites and keep it up to date, then why not, maybe some unbiased facebook page?
Point2 Again would work, but only sites who could gain from people coming for walkons would push this, why would a punter only paintball operation send its customers away to go spend cash else where.
Point3, Lending kit to strangers is ok till it all goes wrong and something goes missing or seriously broken. I lend kit to friends all the time, but they know if its lost or trashed it comes out of their pocket, might be hard to get a stranger to stump up a load of cash if it all goes pear shaped.
Point4, There are always differing points of view what equipment is best and how much should I spend, but if the person comes along to a walkon, either woods or supair, there are lots of people there who would let a player try a marker on the range or in a game.
Point5 I don't play sup air, but many years ago I did attend a supair training day, where we were all relative newbies to supair style play, which was great fun and didn't cost the earth, there must be cheap events like this going on round the UK. Tournaments may not be the best place for a newbie to play and £100 is a lot of cash to splash out and spend a lot of time being shot out first.
Point6 Not the best wording for a site that wants walkon players to come and play at. I was very lucky when I started paintball, PE in Manchester was only up the road so I drove over there, asked lots of questions and came along to the site they used to operate for my first walkon.
Point7, Get that essay finished or you will end up doing extra study over a weekend when you wanted to go paintballing.
Ok, I'll preface this comment by saying that I'm not a serious player, I've played on and off for about the last 5 years, so don't jump all over me here!
Firstly, I would want to see information being more accessible. A website set up which is very clear, displays all the information that somebody would need to learn more about the game and find ways to get into it. So on this site you would have info about woodsball and tourneys, a list of walkon sites around the country so people could easily find their nearest site, contact details (even if it's just an email address) for as many teams as possible, clear information about kit with recommendations for good starter kit. Just a way for people to find out everything they need to on one site.
Secondly, get paintball sites actively pushing people towards that website. Any punter who expresses an interest in playing more gets pointed towards the site, so that way instead of people just enjoying it and choosing to go a bit more frequently you might see more people who enjoy it learning more about the game and being converted into getting properly involved.
I think I can confidently say that this forum addresses the two points mentioned above. All forums are easily categorised, and the advanced search feature is very useful for finding out what people need. Not to mention the fact that even although there are existing threads on everything people want to know, we still answer any questions that people ask. Who doesn't want the information just coming to them without looking?
Thirdly, have people being more generous with their kit. Obviously most players wouldn't be happy letting newbies use nice kit, but how many of us have a cheap(ish) backup lying around that we never use? Would it be difficult to take any spare kit that you don't use along to walkons and let new players use it? Obviously you run the risk of them damaging it, but it might be possible for site owners to take a deposit from players who are borrowing kit, so if it does get damaged then they can't do a runner.
It is absolutely impossible to consider loaning out private gear for free, because just like the gear which sites provide as part of packages for players, they are subject to wear and tear and need to be maintained or replaced. Either people need to pay to rent rugged kit like tippmann 98's, or invest in gear which they can look after themselves. Even if there were some players willing to donate kit to be loaned out, it then just creates an imbalance between people who get the slightly better kit, and those that get the normal rental gear. The point was brought up earlier somewhere that just giving people kit for free to use does not create any respect for the gear or the person loaning it out.
Fourthly, stop intimidating new players. Too often I've seen guys appear on here, looking to get more involved and asking what kit to buy, and they then get bombarded with information and arguments, and it just gets too intimidating. One person will recommend something like an Etek, cheap & cheerful, easy to use, easy to maintain, and a perfect starter marker, so somebody else jumps in and says they are too old and heavy so recommends an Ego7 (for double the price), and it just keeps going, so instead of the new guy having a clear idea in his head of what he can buy for £300, he gets a huge list of kit with prices ranging wildly, and gets put off by the fact that he's seen prices for "starter kit" several hundred pounds over his original budget. If you look at how many people post up saying they are new and asking for advice, and see how many of them actually buy kit, it's surprising poor.
I'd have to disagree with this. In all the time I've been using this forum I can't say that any genuine new player has got a hard time for wanting to get in to the sport and asking questions? I'd be interested if you can provide some example threads of this case so that it can be rectified.
Fifthly, make it easier for new guys to get a taste of tournament play. If a newbie gets in touch with your team asking about it, invite them along to a training session, pool together enough kit to enable them to play, and make it cheaper for them. Let's be honest, are they going to shoot more than a case of paint in a day? Not likely, so get your team to chuck in a pound each, even if there's only 10 of you it knocks the cost to the new guy down to £10. If they show an interest in tournaments then let them get a taste without charging them full whack. Let's be honest here, a brand new player is going to spend the vast, vast majority of their first tournament sat on the sidelines after being shot out early, so don't treat them like an experienced player. Take them along as an extra guy, let them play a few games, but don't charge them an equal fee for the day. Your team is already going to be paying the entry fee, and without the new guy you'd still have the same cost, so ask him for £20/30 towards the cost and then a contribution towards paint. It'll save your players a few quid and makes the day affordable for the new guy. My first tourney I paid well over £100 for the day and I don't think I lasted more than 2 minutes in any single match. If it wasn't for the fact I was only just 17 and still daft about money it could very easily have put me off permanently.
While I would always want to try and get new people in to the sport, it is completely unreasonable to expect teams who are already pouring their own hard earned cash in to the sport to then pick up the extra cost of letting a new player come along and see what they think in the hope that this person will then make a full commitment later. Following your argument, I can't understand why it would be fair that you shouldn't contribute financially as much just because you are likely to get shot out early?
Let me just elaborate on point one here a little bit. The reason why I say there needs to be more information in one places is simple, it's incredibly difficult to find anything right now. Let's say I'm new, I've played at Delta Force a few times and want to play more, so somebody there tells me to do walkons. So, I get home, go on google and search for "Bristol paintball walkon", what do I find?
First result is for the Skirmish Bristol site, to a page which lists all of their walkon dates for the year, which is great. However, then you read the first line on the page and see " Here is our 2013 walk-on events calendar for experienced paintball players." Oh, so as a new player I'm not welcome there, looks like I'm not going, and just like that the paintball community has lost a new player. The first thing they read makes it perfectly clear that they are not welcome and so that's it, I'm out of here.
If I'm quite honest I think you know that this is being taken out of context. 'experienced' in this sense means compared to a normal punter coming out to play for his birthday party. Furthermore you are targeting one individual website and not an overarching problem with this type of paintball so it would be more useful to actually do some research in to this. If you were interested in paintball in the first place then I hardly think that you would stop at this first tiny hurdle.
To me it seems like the biggest problem is not the price, obviously it will put off plenty of people but there is very little we can do about it. The biggest problem is lack of information, sure this site is great if you're already involved in the community, but to an outsider it all seems pretty impenetrable.
Any member of this site has the ability to view every thread (excluding plat members forums) so there is nothing to stop anybody doing their homework to find out whatever they want to know. Again, I have never seen anybody actually excluding a new member and if they did I am certain there would be repercussions. After all I am taking a lot of time out here to respond to all of your queries in an effort to help guide you in the right direction
Now, after I've procrastinated from doing an essay for Uni that's due in 10 hours by writing an essay on here, I really should get back to my essay!
Good luck! My exams are looming ever closer and I feel your pain
Firstly, I would want to see information being more accessible. A website set up which is very clear, displays all the information that somebody would need to learn more about the game and find ways to get into it. So on this site you would have info about woodsball and tourneys, a list of walkon sites around the country so people could easily find their nearest site, contact details (even if it's just an email address) for as many teams as possible, clear information about kit with recommendations for good starter kit. Just a way for people to find out everything they need to on one site.
Secondly, get paintball sites actively pushing people towards that website. Any punter who expresses an interest in playing more gets pointed towards the site, so that way instead of people just enjoying it and choosing to go a bit more frequently you might see more people who enjoy it learning more about the game and being converted into getting properly involved.
I think I can confidently say that this forum addresses the two points mentioned above. All forums are easily categorised, and the advanced search feature is very useful for finding out what people need. Not to mention the fact that even although there are existing threads on everything people want to know, we still answer any questions that people ask. Who doesn't want the information just coming to them without looking?
Thirdly, have people being more generous with their kit. Obviously most players wouldn't be happy letting newbies use nice kit, but how many of us have a cheap(ish) backup lying around that we never use? Would it be difficult to take any spare kit that you don't use along to walkons and let new players use it? Obviously you run the risk of them damaging it, but it might be possible for site owners to take a deposit from players who are borrowing kit, so if it does get damaged then they can't do a runner.
It is absolutely impossible to consider loaning out private gear for free, because just like the gear which sites provide as part of packages for players, they are subject to wear and tear and need to be maintained or replaced. Either people need to pay to rent rugged kit like tippmann 98's, or invest in gear which they can look after themselves. Even if there were some players willing to donate kit to be loaned out, it then just creates an imbalance between people who get the slightly better kit, and those that get the normal rental gear. The point was brought up earlier somewhere that just giving people kit for free to use does not create any respect for the gear or the person loaning it out.
Fourthly, stop intimidating new players. Too often I've seen guys appear on here, looking to get more involved and asking what kit to buy, and they then get bombarded with information and arguments, and it just gets too intimidating. One person will recommend something like an Etek, cheap & cheerful, easy to use, easy to maintain, and a perfect starter marker, so somebody else jumps in and says they are too old and heavy so recommends an Ego7 (for double the price), and it just keeps going, so instead of the new guy having a clear idea in his head of what he can buy for £300, he gets a huge list of kit with prices ranging wildly, and gets put off by the fact that he's seen prices for "starter kit" several hundred pounds over his original budget. If you look at how many people post up saying they are new and asking for advice, and see how many of them actually buy kit, it's surprising poor.
I'd have to disagree with this. In all the time I've been using this forum I can't say that any genuine new player has got a hard time for wanting to get in to the sport and asking questions? I'd be interested if you can provide some example threads of this case so that it can be rectified.
Fifthly, make it easier for new guys to get a taste of tournament play. If a newbie gets in touch with your team asking about it, invite them along to a training session, pool together enough kit to enable them to play, and make it cheaper for them. Let's be honest, are they going to shoot more than a case of paint in a day? Not likely, so get your team to chuck in a pound each, even if there's only 10 of you it knocks the cost to the new guy down to £10. If they show an interest in tournaments then let them get a taste without charging them full whack. Let's be honest here, a brand new player is going to spend the vast, vast majority of their first tournament sat on the sidelines after being shot out early, so don't treat them like an experienced player. Take them along as an extra guy, let them play a few games, but don't charge them an equal fee for the day. Your team is already going to be paying the entry fee, and without the new guy you'd still have the same cost, so ask him for £20/30 towards the cost and then a contribution towards paint. It'll save your players a few quid and makes the day affordable for the new guy. My first tourney I paid well over £100 for the day and I don't think I lasted more than 2 minutes in any single match. If it wasn't for the fact I was only just 17 and still daft about money it could very easily have put me off permanently.
While I would always want to try and get new people in to the sport, it is completely unreasonable to expect teams who are already pouring their own hard earned cash in to the sport to then pick up the extra cost of letting a new player come along and see what they think in the hope that this person will then make a full commitment later. Following your argument, I can't understand why it would be fair that you shouldn't contribute financially as much just because you are likely to get shot out early?
Let me just elaborate on point one here a little bit. The reason why I say there needs to be more information in one places is simple, it's incredibly difficult to find anything right now. Let's say I'm new, I've played at Delta Force a few times and want to play more, so somebody there tells me to do walkons. So, I get home, go on google and search for "Bristol paintball walkon", what do I find?
First result is for the Skirmish Bristol site, to a page which lists all of their walkon dates for the year, which is great. However, then you read the first line on the page and see " Here is our 2013 walk-on events calendar for experienced paintball players." Oh, so as a new player I'm not welcome there, looks like I'm not going, and just like that the paintball community has lost a new player. The first thing they read makes it perfectly clear that they are not welcome and so that's it, I'm out of here.
If I'm quite honest I think you know that this is being taken out of context. 'experienced' in this sense means compared to a normal punter coming out to play for his birthday party. Furthermore you are targeting one individual website and not an overarching problem with this type of paintball so it would be more useful to actually do some research in to this. If you were interested in paintball in the first place then I hardly think that you would stop at this first tiny hurdle.
To me it seems like the biggest problem is not the price, obviously it will put off plenty of people but there is very little we can do about it. The biggest problem is lack of information, sure this site is great if you're already involved in the community, but to an outsider it all seems pretty impenetrable.
Any member of this site has the ability to view every thread (excluding plat members forums) so there is nothing to stop anybody doing their homework to find out whatever they want to know. Again, I have never seen anybody actually excluding a new member and if they did I am certain there would be repercussions. After all I am taking a lot of time out here to respond to all of your queries in an effort to help guide you in the right direction
Now, after I've procrastinated from doing an essay for Uni that's due in 10 hours by writing an essay on here, I really should get back to my essay!
Good luck! My exams are looming ever closer and I feel your pain
Last edited:
Just another quick thought, if the UKPSF hosted a website with all the team info, player contacts and site details etc, but access to the information was only available to full members might this not boost their membership as well?
I think we have all had ideas about how the UKSPF could improve their web presence and give back to the members more... however I don't think they can afford the time or man power into such projects. Steve does a lot for the £15 pp he gets from us already. So maybe if a few of us with a bit of tech savvy donated our time to set up such projects for / with the UKPSF we could achieve the same outcome.
Tiffyman, I'm with you on this. I have done it a couple of times before.
If you want any kit to give away, give me a shout.
The only point I would make is that gratitude is sometimes lacking from the recipients of free gear.
