Liz,
Well it's all a bit confusing because the information is scant and some people have talked of the two in the same breath, if the PA cups not UKPL linked then apologies, just it's difficult to know who and what's going on this and next year. Teams who want to be seriously competitive need to think now for next year. Teams and players need much more information. I think any PA Cup would benefit if it attracted teams from all over the UK. I heard and read that it was a great success, but only a small amount of teams entered. If it is to gain credibility as a UK wide series, it must attract larger numbers.
However (back to), my original point still stands.
The UK must be competitive internationally in paintball terms, more UK teams should be thinking Millennium / International, not UK Domestic only. In retrospect, we (ML), should not have played or participated in 50% of the domestic tournaments we did, and should have concentrated on training for Millenniums. We paid at Campaign through lack of prep and only having one game style.
Being in a team is partly compromise, If I had my way, we'd play a handful of domestic tournaments 3 poss 4 Millenniums and a US event each year. The rest of the time spent on drilling, scrimmaging and having the whole team maintaining a high level of physical fitness. Playing tough competition and training is the only way to improve. This is how the UK game should be structured and developed. This also means teams have to attract players from a wide area, hence making a geographical association a bar to team skill development in (some not all cases).
Coaching, mentoring and Marshalling are the fundamentals that need to be in place before we start talking about whose UK no 1-100. A lot of ballers, are time and discipline short. A few nudges in the right direction can't help. The UK can and has produced quality Teams, Nexus, Tigers, Shock, Storm, what we need is to get some of these skills and knowledge into the general balling population. To date I've only seen Nexus doing this (this is not to say the others aren't willing, or have done before), but UK ballers need to know how to move, shoot and play the game at it's highest level. And whilst we can read all about it, we need tutoring.
It is my concern that we are in danger of losing site of the real game, and replacing it with the next best or easiest thing. Anyway what do I know, it's been emotional........
Well it's all a bit confusing because the information is scant and some people have talked of the two in the same breath, if the PA cups not UKPL linked then apologies, just it's difficult to know who and what's going on this and next year. Teams who want to be seriously competitive need to think now for next year. Teams and players need much more information. I think any PA Cup would benefit if it attracted teams from all over the UK. I heard and read that it was a great success, but only a small amount of teams entered. If it is to gain credibility as a UK wide series, it must attract larger numbers.
However (back to), my original point still stands.
The UK must be competitive internationally in paintball terms, more UK teams should be thinking Millennium / International, not UK Domestic only. In retrospect, we (ML), should not have played or participated in 50% of the domestic tournaments we did, and should have concentrated on training for Millenniums. We paid at Campaign through lack of prep and only having one game style.
Being in a team is partly compromise, If I had my way, we'd play a handful of domestic tournaments 3 poss 4 Millenniums and a US event each year. The rest of the time spent on drilling, scrimmaging and having the whole team maintaining a high level of physical fitness. Playing tough competition and training is the only way to improve. This is how the UK game should be structured and developed. This also means teams have to attract players from a wide area, hence making a geographical association a bar to team skill development in (some not all cases).
Coaching, mentoring and Marshalling are the fundamentals that need to be in place before we start talking about whose UK no 1-100. A lot of ballers, are time and discipline short. A few nudges in the right direction can't help. The UK can and has produced quality Teams, Nexus, Tigers, Shock, Storm, what we need is to get some of these skills and knowledge into the general balling population. To date I've only seen Nexus doing this (this is not to say the others aren't willing, or have done before), but UK ballers need to know how to move, shoot and play the game at it's highest level. And whilst we can read all about it, we need tutoring.
It is my concern that we are in danger of losing site of the real game, and replacing it with the next best or easiest thing. Anyway what do I know, it's been emotional........
