to train or not to train

[Buddha 3]

youre right experience isnt necessarily about winning games as by losing it shows what youre doing wrong and what you need to work on when drilling.

True, this is also one of the main reasons why any real team needs a coach that doesn't play. You need somebody to look at the big picture, because I can guarantee you that a player will be able to tell you how he got shot and by whom, but he won't be able to tell you most of the time how the other guy got into a position where he could shoot his ass out. After all, your world becomes incredibly small on the field. As some war veterans I speak to always say: "Despite liberating half of Europe, my personal war was only as wide as the distance between the foxholes to the left and right of mine."

 

[jack_judge]

But without the guidance of someone who truly knows what he's talking, how can you be sure that you haven't gotten "better" at doing the wrong thing.


If you're "set in your ways" you'll never progress. It's only by learning, revising and changing our skillset that we evolve as the sport does and if you dont you'll be left behind.



It's through training that you make techniques just click, it's called muscle memory. If the wrong technique just clicks, it'll because you're body is used to those movements or positions from other activities.



Bluntly, yes. Paintball more so than any other activity I have participated it one of constant evolution. If you think back a few years you could compete at a decent level without being able to shoot left handed, now the idea is laughable.
The skillset required is constantly changing and evolving and it is the pros that are at the spearhead of this evolution. It is the pros that pioneer new techniques and it is the pros that teach these techniques and which then slowly trickle down the divisions.
Frankly you'd need to be pretty arrogant to use a different technique from the pros and consider it "right".

I agree with buddha a very good post

I do believe in using coaches and proffessionals i hope it didnt come across as saying that i dont believe in them what im trying to get at is that its not the only way to become good.How would the first ever proffesional paintballer be able to play at a high level if he didnt have a profesional to study sometimes your own ways can be the best way for you personally.

 

[Exile]

Work on your basics EVERY practice. Failure to do that is just going through the motions and gets you no real progress.

If I had a euro for every time you've said that, I'd be a rich man - shame that 99% of people still don't get it......

 

[Buddha 3]

I've patented that saying. Everytime somebody else says it, I get money...

 

[spangley_special]

Granted buddha you make a point about coaches not always needing to be an pro/ex-pro, however as you said it need to be some one that understands the not only dynamics of game fully but the techniques required too. Honestly I don't think there are many non-players out there that have this level of understanding.
In the instance of a non-player coach, having them run training through out the season and getting a pro down for a clinic pre season would be a decent alternative.



And Jack Judge, yes you can get good without the help of pro's (or spl/div1 players) however you are ignoring the greatest training resource out there and dont stand much chance of progressing at any real rate.

How would the first ever proffesional paintballer be able to play at a high level if he didnt have a profesional to study sometimes your own ways can be the best way for you personally.

As for this buddy. Yes many of the pros have pioneered new skills and techniques but the difference between them doing this and you or I doing this is simple.
They are the ones with the time and facilities to do so properly.
They are the ones that will get to a field first thing on a saturday and spend 4,5 or even 6 hours plus perfecting this new technique they've thought up.
They are the ones which will then put it into practise with 30, 40 or even 50 xball points on the Sunday.
They are the best playing against the best and only in this environment can you truely test new styles and techniques.

 

[jack_judge]

And Jack Judge, yes you can get good without the help of pro's (or spl/div1 players) however you are ignoring the greatest training resource out there and dont stand much chance of progressing at any real rate.

I do use this resource every time i train with the experience that some of the players on the team have and high level players that attend the same training session as me for example nemesis or snetterton or sq who regularily have a decent standard of players playing there.But like i said i dont believe its the ONLY way to become a good paintballer

I do respect the service though that these pros offer when they offer clinics and i highly agree with you that they are a valuable resource

 

[spangley_special]

I can only assume then that we have different definitions of "good".

 

[jack_judge]

i think your right there mate and the higher your expectation is of a good player the more it pushes you to be better i think we can both agree that training is essential to be a good paintballer though

 

[Exile]

Granted buddha you make a point about coaches not always needing to be an pro/ex-pro, however as you said it need to be some one that understands the not only dynamics of game fully but the techniques required too.

Anyone who has been trained/is a coach for any other sports who has played a handful of times would be suitable - in one of my old teams (at the old Nov/Am level), we had a guy who was the UK Youth rowing coach and he came up with a bunch of training schedules, drills and measurements that I still use today with good results (albeit with a few tweaks for new techniques that I've learned over the past few years).

As Jay and Robbo have (repeatedly) said - it's about reducing the game to it's core skills and movements, developing drills for those techniques then repeating those drills until they become muscle memory, something that all real sports do as a matter of course.

 

[Devrij]

other teams who train and have excellent technique can never get it together on field.

so suppose the question i should have asked was
train for technique or play for experiance.

my opinion. bit of both.

The UWE guys have this exact issue. We train with reballs in a small gym 8 hrs a week drilling personal skills (it's too small to play games of any real use), but when we get on field noone knows their role, noone has field awareness or a sense of when to make moves. In our situation, we need to use live paint training to play games. From there we can gain experience and field smarts, as well as picking up where our shortfalls are and drill those when we go back to reballing. It's no good being an amazing snapshot if you don't know how to back up your front or when to make a bump and when not to. Conversely, it's no good being really smart on field if you're getting shot out in gunfights. A balance of the two is important I think.