Fed Update Press Release.

[shoaibaktar]

thanks for your thoughts ,I think anyone who sits down with the good of any sport in mind will always come to similar conclusions . As a football manger I have phoned teams put up taken down too many nets and the rest to know all any player wants to do is play .....and grumble afterwards . the forming of bigger clubs would hopefully hone down the multitude of wishlists. I fully take your point the player has changed and his needs and funding. Again larger clubs hopefully would lessen the ability of individual whims blowing your efforts off course. The acid test of my proposal would be when I,d propose a smalll sub per tourney for the club. couple of quid say ie tenner a team that could provide that secondary financing for albeit small initiatives at first. Yes even I cant dodge the inevitable money moment . Hopefully though players would see it was their schemes from their Fed .I do wish you the best of luck . even the longest journey starts with a step

 

[Robbo]

I'm all for listening to outside perspectives and suggestions merely because I think some of us have been in the sport too long and it's hard to extricate ourselves so's we can get a more objective angle on things.

There's a school of thought that promotes outside perspectives, especially in research programs [[in the US] whereby 'outsiders' are brought in to give their unfettered view on the direction a particular line of research may be going.
Whilst these people may lack subject matter, they are bright individuals and can maybe see things through the trees whereas the present researchers are still looking in the woods.

I think you make some good points and I hope they keep coming because we need fresh ideas to keep stoking the embers of recovery.

 

[essx]

Ive been a part of probably the 2 largest teams to have been in the UK...and the same problem occurred with both...and the guru twizz Will tell you the same thing....people turn up wanting to join...get kit deals etc and train once only to never surface or commit again once they have their stuff, they tried to run tigers as a club but it is massively difficult to find willing competent people to administrate and run to organise things and the teams within a club!
managers in paintball would be fantastic...but most people wanna play not sit on sidelines!

as for subs...when training costs you £30-50 a session...and a tourney £100+ subs on top is a cost most people would wanna avoid!
a football team pays subs as its a low cost sport in general

 

[shoaibaktar]

thats dissapointing to hear ,not suprising tho.Twizz ,alegend in your sport tho is proof that a long time acknowledged coach is a major draw to players and is the cornerstone of a big club set up. Tigers seem to have survived these players whims had a 2nds at Campaign and are to my mind proof that the big club multi team set up is the future .Just imagine if another smaller club joined .4 teams ,economies of scale Millenium benefits could be passed down the club. If your sport has been running for 25 years ,there should be an older generation who might look for a challenge beyond playing.This brings me back to the reason for juior /novice section .With the players come parents with a skill set the sport could use . Trust me the major sports junior sections are often better run and funded than the adult.

 

[essx]

i think when it comes to parents, most never get involved as they dont understand it, I have asked mine to come watch me play repeatadly! They have been, but found it very difficult to follow, especially in the days of 5 man as 1 game is over so fast, xball it a bit more to watch at least!

as you say the only people who undestand are the older ones who have played, but few are held in high enough esteem to be followed as a team coach! And to be fair, there are very few who could actually improve younger players skill levels! maybe at a novice level, but they soon become redundant in many ways once the team surpasses the coaches level!

i honestly think the big club mentality is too difficult to maintain, organise, and control effectively.

 

[Robbo]

In our sport, coaches have to focus on techniques and training the players to follow certain methods of play ... if anybody were to come on here and tries to tell us tactical play needs to be taught, all that says to me is, he doesn't understand what he's talking about.
The tactical side of our game is so limited and so basic as to render it almost negligible for anybody who possesses a modicum of commonsense.

 

[shoaibaktar]

noooooooo!! the skill sets I was referring to are strictly in the off field department !! my football days were cursed with 11 other coaches every frickin week!!

 

[Spike]

whilst the theory regarding big club multi team approaches would work there is, for some reason in paintball, a big reluctance from players to see the bigger picture. now this isn't a dig at players - some in the industry are the same.

I am a FED board member and we have been looking at regionalised clubs for a while - AND that's about as far as its got so far. However I know we have the DPC (Devon Paintball Club) and also one that Jim from Warped set up in the Birmingham area. So this has been recognised as important by the FED.

As for tournaments kicking back down the chain - that is very unlikely to happen as they all operate on a loss or zero. Asside allogations of book cooking etc to get to the zero profit line, these series are there with one aim in mind - make money. Yes promoting the sport would feature highly on their list as more teams = more money.

As a team owner I have also tried the subs route thinking that it would make people feel more committed. Unfortunately in todays society it just doesn't work. People just don't think about a team or the bigger picture. My teams subs is set at just £20 a month. This pays for the second teams entry fees at the events that we enter two teams. the reality is that despite standing orders set up etc and entry fees for millenniums covered some players push the boundaries and end up owing £200 in subs & paint bills over the space of time. The old I don't have enough money this month problem creeps in a lot, but you let them off and run up a debt because you need the players. And this is from a team that has one of the best packages available to it in the UK.

I mentioned our second team. That's pretty much non-existent now even though they are entered for paris (anyone need a game?). Some players (not all) have this thought notion that they can make the rules up themselves in respect of attending training sessions with other teams and dare i even mention guesting for other teams when our own team should have been entered but we didn't have enough players. Some just feel that they are better than the rest and don't know the true meaning of the word team.

as for funding a mobile arena. What about holding events inside other events. i.e music festivals or extreme sprots events. We've donbe some of them in the past. We've also not done ones where we should have due to other logistic reasons. It's the "bigger picture' thought process again.

I personally have tried a number of your suggestions to no veal. maybe i didn't enforce the rules at the right time in some cases but i have tried them.
all of your points are valid however and I would gladly spend time with you discussing them if you wish to.



spike

 

[SimonGiles]

I help run a club, based in west Kent. We have had maybe 40 members come through in the past 2 years, and have maybe 25 members currently.

The club has been moderately successful in keeping people playing, and providing new players with a base and range of club events and training days where they can, "Just play paintball" - as cheaply as possible, in a friendly, 'ego free' environment.

We don't charge subs, as it is hard enough for people to play as it is, and we don't want to jeopardise our credibility by appearing to be benefitting financially from the club.

The positives are that people really do enjoy playing the game. The only thing that has ever spoilt one of our days in 2 years has been the weather ! And it is a rare thing when somebody has had a bad impression at the end of the day.

The negatives are struggling to keep a range of players happy, from guys who are now attempting to play at a higher level (higher divs of Southern Masters and NSPL), alongside completely new players coming along with their Tippmans. Currently, I am not sure this is going to be possible and something within the club may have to give, ... As an example, we have so far limited the club to semi only, 280fps (which is easier on the bruises when shooting cheap, hard paint).

Also, Supair fields are a pain in the arse, with the required travel, storage, cleaning and putting up / taking down. Supair fields setup in the open are also a lot more succeptible to the weather, which is something else that may of been over looked. When we used to play in the woods, you could have light wind and rain and not really know it - it certainly did not effect the day. These days, anything other than the slightest breeze can be a bloody disaster, and likewise with the rain. These are also (maybe minor) factors that may prevent people from continuing with the sport.

I love Supair and I am quite happy playing ramping. But I think both of these advancements have killed the growth in our sport. Everybody loves the spectacle of it - all the players that quit still love the idea of it - they just don't want to stand out in the wind and rain all day, for under 10mins game time, at £80 per tourny. And at the moment we are not being shown anything else.

 

[shoaibaktar]

Big Hi to both Spike ,who i look forward to seeing on the 10th and Simon who i hope to pop into your next CPC event . Both of you are the converted big picture people this sport needs.Ironic that the man who introduced my son as a total newbie and the GB coach who is helping him improve should reply. But you are both living proof that without both of your efforts my son and all the U19,s/CPCteams would not exist /be where they are today. All across this sport there is a lot of frustrated people who want to move their sport forward. Understandably so when you have this commercial slant to everything in paintball. I still think that if you keep putting ideas /improvements up eventuallysome will stick CPC is the perfect umberella for new teams to start and Entity are still a top SPL team so something is clearly working. Also its the grass roots you both represent who need a voice in the Fed . (sounds like volounteering Spike for more work ) .So that any Fed initiatives will get a friendly hearing. Bear in mind all the major sports can dictate to their members because they are long established. Take that away and they would all be in a right bunfight to get anything done.