That's true Robbo, but steps can be taken to create a more conducive environment for encouraging this type of attitude amongst new and developing teams.
Moving UK Paintball Forward
- Thread starter Baca Loco
- Start date
If the above was in relation to my post then i think you missed my point? If it's not, i don't understand where you're coming from? The two voting options that involve the Uk's top teams at the moment (A competitive presence at the highest levels of international competition AND More cooperation in training amongst the UK's leading teams) are the two with the least votes.
How many team captains are at this meeting?
(Yes, this is a leading question.)
Stan, it wasn't directed at anybody and if you read my post carefully, I am agreeing with you in that I don't think the fate of UK ball has much to do with the likes of Nexus and Co.Originally posted by Stan
If the above was in relation to my post then i think you missed my point? If it's not, i don't understand where you're coming from? The two voting options that involve the Uk's top teams at the moment (A competitive presence at the highest levels of international competition AND More cooperation in training amongst the UK's leading teams) are the two with the least votes.
How many team captains are at this meeting?
Does tihs make my position clearer?
Do you really think that this type of meeting is the correct place for involving team captains?Originally posted by Stan
How many team captains are at this meeting?
I'd like to think that I have a good idea of what my customers want and I expect that the other organisers do too. Personally, I liase with my team captains on a day to day basis and encourage players to voice their opinions as much as humanly possible. It then becomes my responsibility to take this knowledge to a closed meeting and do my best to represent the needs of my customer base.
I think it has more to do with having the facilities and culture that encourages more people to get involved in tourney ball, by making the transition from recball, and also allows those already involved to pursue it more easily. Robbo wrote a series of articles that led me to this conclusion. Click on the links to view them. part 1, part 2, part 3, & part 4.
Of the options available, i feel that to a certain extent option one is a bit of a cop out. Its effectively saying "i want someone else to choose how to further uk paintball for me". Although having said that i do think it would be a good thing, but only because they would hopefully try to do a few of the other things. In its self it would achieve nothing, only through what it does would there be any benefit. So a governing body without any of these ideas would be useless, so within the hyperthetical question of which one, the governing body would be useless. However in the real world hopefully a sufficiently resourced governing body would try and do at least some of the following, making it a very good option. If only the politics wouldn't get in the way.
I think for me the most important one would be the last.
Of the options available, i feel that to a certain extent option one is a bit of a cop out. Its effectively saying "i want someone else to choose how to further uk paintball for me". Although having said that i do think it would be a good thing, but only because they would hopefully try to do a few of the other things. In its self it would achieve nothing, only through what it does would there be any benefit. So a governing body without any of these ideas would be useless, so within the hyperthetical question of which one, the governing body would be useless. However in the real world hopefully a sufficiently resourced governing body would try and do at least some of the following, making it a very good option. If only the politics wouldn't get in the way.
I think for me the most important one would be the last.
bearing in mind that the average joe has domestic (boring and mundane) things to think about such as annual holiday leave, family commitments (kid/s and missus/s) etc. basically for the average pa or nspl player, if you were given the chance to go and play on a regular basis, not would you but could you go?
the problem revolves not around going abroad to gain experience but taking what we know and developing it further. how do you train a first time player who comes to practice? hand him a marker and say off you go? or do you take the time to show him what the more experienced lot are doing, why they are walking the field, how to hold his marker, how to run and gun, how to not fall on his arse?
of course we would like lower prices, but that applies to everything we enjoy. i would personally like to see some training centers or even seminars run more often, and more regularly. i would pay the flight to go to one (leave permitting) and probably more than one if it was worth doing.
the problem revolves not around going abroad to gain experience but taking what we know and developing it further. how do you train a first time player who comes to practice? hand him a marker and say off you go? or do you take the time to show him what the more experienced lot are doing, why they are walking the field, how to hold his marker, how to run and gun, how to not fall on his arse?
of course we would like lower prices, but that applies to everything we enjoy. i would personally like to see some training centers or even seminars run more often, and more regularly. i would pay the flight to go to one (leave permitting) and probably more than one if it was worth doing.
Let's put this into some kind of perspective here because we are bandying around words like 'facilities', 'resources' etc and I believe it's giving people a false sense of relevance here.
I will use Nexus as an example here because it is wholly relevant to what we are talking about and I am not indulging myself.
When we did that first year, all we had was a field (Nick's Skirmish site in Notts) markers and paint, most of all, I had some guys on that team who were burning with ambition and dedication and they went from zeroes to heroes in one season culminating in that 4th place at Campaign beating the Russians, Strange and so many more on the way.
By far the most important component to that was the desire in my team members and their willingness to dedicate themselves and listen.
Our frequency of training was something like once every 3 weeks, with some of the guys training midweek for fitness and drilling.
Now none of what I have just mentioned thus far is out of reach of most teams if they are dedicated enough.
Most have a field they can train at, most have markers, and then you need enough paint to train one weekend out of three...the hard part was finding the players to dedicate themselves and therein lies the very problem I am talking about.
I don't care if you do get Bob Long, Sergey or whoever sitting in a counsel overseeing our development, we need frikkin players who will commit, the facilities some people are mentioning as being restrictive aren’t really that much of a problem.
I will use Nexus as an example here because it is wholly relevant to what we are talking about and I am not indulging myself.
When we did that first year, all we had was a field (Nick's Skirmish site in Notts) markers and paint, most of all, I had some guys on that team who were burning with ambition and dedication and they went from zeroes to heroes in one season culminating in that 4th place at Campaign beating the Russians, Strange and so many more on the way.
By far the most important component to that was the desire in my team members and their willingness to dedicate themselves and listen.
Our frequency of training was something like once every 3 weeks, with some of the guys training midweek for fitness and drilling.
Now none of what I have just mentioned thus far is out of reach of most teams if they are dedicated enough.
Most have a field they can train at, most have markers, and then you need enough paint to train one weekend out of three...the hard part was finding the players to dedicate themselves and therein lies the very problem I am talking about.
I don't care if you do get Bob Long, Sergey or whoever sitting in a counsel overseeing our development, we need frikkin players who will commit, the facilities some people are mentioning as being restrictive aren’t really that much of a problem.
I know i'm fairly oblivious to this in depth talk, but, i feel from my view ( and some others) it's partly a cost thing, ie markers, paint at least twice a mnth and generally getting to fields/tourney's. like i said, i know jack about anything, but would be interested in everyone's thought's on this section about cost.
cheers
pid
cheers
pid
IMHO the poll is missing a very important factor - a more professional and dedicated attitude from the players. There have been improvements in this area over the last year or so but in general the large majority of players are hobbyists rather than sportsmen (& women).
If you think about it Liz, it may well considered to be the last option that includes what you are suggesting here which by the way is what I voted for