how to get more people into paintball?

[lettucecheesecake]

this is just an idea but i think it could work at the smaller tourneys.

All players with your back up markers or with markers for sale why not rent whole kits out to first time ballers?!

The organiser could charge £40 and you get £10 (better than collecting dust in your bag) as im sure its the cost that puts people off when you start talking about the money involved,then they could see if they like it using top of the range gear,and try different markers too!

Also companys could rent out markers so people could try before you buy not just a few balls at the crono but for a whole tourny! i dont see why this wouldnt work if you had the ''bend it, mend it'' rule applied
i know this would mean alot of trust but they would have been invited by team so no strangers could rob your kit, im sure you would see a lot of new ballers poping up or at least just try it once.

if anyone thinks this is a good idea or im just nutz post back!

 

[JoseDominguez]

Planned for next season.........starting an invite only noob team.......... not charging them for kit though. I loaned El Mariachi a shocktech e blade, eclipse shocker and eclipse cocker for stb......... I've got a squad of 14 for the PA, all but three are novices or rec-ballers.
easy to do mate, anyone else interested?
rental may be an idea

 

[Shaggy]

I know of a site that are doing this with there club members if you need a gun for a tournament they will loan you one The guns are Dark Angels, New Shockers, X Mag.
Same rule you break it you fix it. Oh and this is not just for there tournament its for any in the uk.

 

[John_Wilson]

I like this

but (sorry) I have two issues, 1, people don't know what a tournament is, they assume paint will be the same price as a rec-ball field which it isn't they also may not be able to get there.

2 As for the rental thing, good idea, but one thing that would put me off is the break it fix it bit, how about, damage it through being an arse pay for it to be fixed? as I remember at elsham ( jan) a back guy with a nice looking cocker was getting pink soup out of his barrell and stripping it down on the field ( well near enough), as this was a high divison I'll assume that he knew what he was doing, so it wasn't negligence (sp) now if he purposefully broke it then fair enough charge him.....

How many posts have we seen by people saying I want a cocker but people say they are hard to fix? I wouldn't like to think if a marker broke and it wasn't my fault I'd get charged.

Sorry that went on a bit long!

I like it otherwise maybe a few amendments and i'd be tempted to help out.

 

[camsmith]

Just a thought...

It would also help if we had a set of standard rules. Having a published rule book would enable beginners to get an understanding of what goes on in a tournament (as opposed to site games) before they even get there.

Who knows... if there was a published set of rules, there may even be a "Paintball for Dummies" or other simplified spinoff versions.

I mean, we all assume we know the rulebook, but if there isn't one, how can we? Following on from this, is it possible that beginners are getting fifty-five different opinions of what tourney-ball is about, getting confused and then not wanting to spend any money at all on it?

 

[camsmith]

another quick thought..

As this Nexus training camp has seemed to go down so well (when is the follow up happening?), are there teams out there who would be confident enough to run something similar for COMPLETE newbies?

Perhaps they could even include a rental scheme to allow people to try different markers through the weekend.

Just make sure you charge enough to give me some commission for the idea. !

-- This leads to a definite need for coaching accreditation (for insurance purposes and all), and I'm yet to see the sport being ready for this.

 

[JoseDominguez]

I like this

Originally posted by John_Wilson
but (sorry) I have two issues, 1, people don't know what a tournament is, they assume paint will be the same price as a rec-ball field which it isn't they also may not be able to get there.

2 As for the rental thing, good idea, but one thing that would put me off is the break it fix it bit, how about, damage it through being an arse pay for it to be fixed? as I remember at elsham ( jan) a back guy with a nice looking cocker was getting pink soup out of his barrell and stripping it down on the field ( well near enough), as this was a high divison I'll assume that he knew what he was doing, so it wasn't negligence (sp) now if he purposefully broke it then fair enough charge him.....

How many posts have we seen by people saying I want a cocker but people say they are hard to fix? I wouldn't like to think if a marker broke and it wasn't my fault I'd get charged.

Sorry that went on a bit long!

I like it otherwise maybe a few amendments and i'd be tempted to help out.

Why? do you have a lot of spare high-end kit?

You know me, how many players have I brought into tourney? El Mariachi hadn't seen air ball before Ancaster.
It won't work unless you know the players, or have some form of insurance, but without our support paintball will stay a bit elitist.
Never had a problem with anything I've loaned out.

as for your first point........how will they know until they try? I recced twice, then started tourney............ your own sponsor made that possible....... and you're not far from a noob yourself. Tourney is not a big step from rec......... maybe a low div with a marker limit would be a better way to start....... piranha, inferno etc... only.

 

[John_Wilson]

first point was not well made by myself, I admit I've played about 5 tourneys this year ( 6 in total) my point was that until alec told me about tourney ball I didn't know it existed, it was alec that pointed me in the direction of 6e, been chatting to staff at work and they have no idea what tourney ball is, ( prob why gillie/hatts are trying for media att for the PA cup)

Re. second point, nope very little. I realise that 99.9999% of all kit loaned will be absolutely fine ( inter-uni tournament to my knowledge no probs.) but if you are handed kit and told if it breaks you fix it, then I'd be quite unnerved.
Perhaps somebody like WDP who has a tech guy there if they have any spare (lcd/leds) they could at the larger events "loan" them and the tech guy ( nice fellow) is there as a security blanket?

as for pihranas/infernos not a bad idea, maybe asking the site owners if they would rent them out ( fiver for a set of kit?) bit of extra money for them?

I'm not sure as to be honest I have no idea what it takes to run a site, or what the laws/HSE side of hiring kit is.

maybe even the ukpsf can do this?

Dunno I'll pass the buck now!

Didn't mean to sound as harsh as I did Sorry.

 

[Tiny man]

another quick thought..

Originally posted by camsmith
As this Nexus training camp has seemed to go down so well (when is the follow up happening?), are there teams out there who would be confident enough to run something similar for COMPLETE newbies?
-- This leads to a definite need for coaching accreditation (for insurance purposes and all), and I'm yet to see the sport being ready for this.

Why does it have to be teams??? Couldn't sites give training days as well, not just a normal days ballin, a day of ballin with drills and stuff as well????

 

[Baca Loco]

How bout some highly publicised special event days that fields around the country all participate in? Stuff like Bambi shoots (hunt down naked women), mow down Osama (hunt down guy wearing towel on his head), re-enact Agincourt day (hunt down guys runing around in woods shouting, Frommage.")