Something that @Buddha 3 said recently about the guesting of pros being indicative of why paintball cannot be viewed as professional reminded me of something I read maybe a decade ago in PGI - I think in a column by @Robbo, though I apologise if I'm misquoting, in which he said something along the lines of 'most paintballers like to think of themselves as professional sportsmen, but it's not even a sport - it's a customer service industry masquerading as a sport'.
I've been doing a lot of cycling in the last few years, and even your average club cyclist takes care of their body, watches what they eat, and knows their body fat percentage. I genuinely wouldn't know how this is in the upper-echelons of paintball - all I've ever done is bimble around the arse-end of domestic leagues, but what level (if any) do you get to in paintball before people treat their role as 'professional athletes' - that is, eat a specific diet for the purposes of paintball/go to the gym for the purposes of paintball/etc?
This level of commitment isn't evident in every sport, I accept. I don't think many snooker players. I think you never used to have it in golf, though at the top level, you do now. Rugby probably is an interesting halfway-house.
Anyway. Just wondering...
I've been doing a lot of cycling in the last few years, and even your average club cyclist takes care of their body, watches what they eat, and knows their body fat percentage. I genuinely wouldn't know how this is in the upper-echelons of paintball - all I've ever done is bimble around the arse-end of domestic leagues, but what level (if any) do you get to in paintball before people treat their role as 'professional athletes' - that is, eat a specific diet for the purposes of paintball/go to the gym for the purposes of paintball/etc?
This level of commitment isn't evident in every sport, I accept. I don't think many snooker players. I think you never used to have it in golf, though at the top level, you do now. Rugby probably is an interesting halfway-house.
Anyway. Just wondering...