Jasper said:
I will agree on the staying for the season part as you commited at the start but not the rest.
I left a team last season to join the one im with now not because it was cheaper to play cos its not its about the same price if anything it costs more as we play more, i did it to play in a higher division as the team i played for before just couldnt quite get there.
So what your saying is i should have been loyal an not tried to improve myself! By saying that you sum up why the UK scene is way way behind the Americans. (be loyal don't improve or just improve slowly)
I think your missing the point mate.
The U.K scene needs quality TEAMS - it is full of quality individuals. Success in paintball equals success as a team and winning tournaments.
What people and myself are saying is that there are alot of committed AM teams, with good sponsorship and good organisation who want to take the long road to success not just in the U.K but then on to Europe and even further afield.
Yes I agree with you on the fact that there are also a hell of alot of teams out there that want to just turn up at weekends have a bit of fun at a tournament and then go home. Now if you are an ambitious player who is training hard and wants to play at a better level, but find yourself in one of these teams then yes it is natural to look elsewhere and no one would begrudge that.
When I set Lincoln up we had the ideal to be a Professional Sports Team and run it with Managers, Captains etc. We were well organised and worked hard to attract top sponsors such as Planet Eclipse who backed us for three of the four years we were in existence - not for our results but for our approach and where we wanted to take the team. But in that time, despite being organised, training and well backed - we still struggled to keep players loyal.
This is the problem and the mentality change which needs to occur over here - in the U.S players play for 6 / 7 yrs with teams - every weekend - that is why even the Am / Rookie US teams would kill most U.K Div 1 teams.
I would never stop a player leaving but always question why when they do and frankly the reasons I hear are pathetic at times - most are from competition in the team and new players coming in - players either respond positively to competition for their place or panic and threaten to leave - this is part of building a squad. You need the players with character who see there place as sacred and work harder to keep it.
Sorry - a long winded answer but at the end of the day I go back to what I said at the start think TEAM and not ME and you will see the problem !
Rich
