Return of the King

[Intheno]

The last time Duff was 'onto something' he had to have a bucket of cold water thrown over him. The other kids on the School trip didn't stop crying for days, and suffice to say he's now banned from the Zoo...

I still have nightmares.



ps. - Inthenoitall, like it Beaker, need some milk?

 

[duffistuta]

Originally posted by Intheno


I still have nightmares.

And you're still hanging round school trips...despite the restraining order.

 

[Chicago]

I'd like to point out that in the US, gun ownership is viewed as a basic right by a vocal minority, ambivilently by the majority, and vehimently opposed by another vocal minority.

But we have more red states, so the ownership rights minority wins.

 

[duffistuta]

Originally posted by Chicago
I'd like to point out that in the US, gun ownership is viewed as a basic right by a vocal minority, ambivilently by the majority, and vehimently opposed by another vocal minority.

Maybe so, but our majority is opposed if you believe the media and the polls, so either way the point stands. And while the US seems to be going more and more pro gun over time, we are going more and more anti...

 

[Paintball Paladin]

Originally posted by wildflower1975
So how did New Zealand manage to be at the top of International Rugby for years with a total population of only 3 million?

Very interesting point.

Lots has been said about america being better than europe etc etc.

This is obviously true where paintball is concerned. So why not Rugby then?

Obvious. How many young kids do you see playing rugby in the streets of america. Not many. Compare that to new zealand and nearly all those three million have probably played rugby at some point.

Its their sport, along with cricket its what the kids play in school.

The problem with paintball, especially in britain is that it is expensive to start out, so very few young kids play. There is no obvious path for youngsters to get involved and get the support they need to start in this great game.

Its all about the grass roots. its obvious that a pro who has been playing since he was ten is gonna be better than a pro who has only really been playing from his late teens. This happens on a much bigger scale in america than it does here, especially where I live on the isle of Man.

This is where the finance needs to be. Train our kids better and in the future we will be able to compete in the pro leagues. look at the England Rugby team. ten years ago rugby union in england was a part time job. The right plans were put into place, academies set up, full time roles for players introduced and a coach put in place with a long term plan to make England the best team in the world. At the time we were no where near the all blacks or wallabies but now (well ok theyre not doing great at the moment) they are the world champions and there is a veritable banquet of young talent coming through the ranks. The same thing applies to the French football team.

But alas, it still calls for more money to be poured into the game and I dont know where thats gonna come from. I have not been in this game for long enough to know all the celebrities involved but as Robbo says, sometimes all it takes is a little common sense and for people to be more giving and less selfish.

Up and down the country there are loads of ex pro footballers giving of their time coaching kids teams. Why cant paintballers do this?

Someone is probably gonna shoot me down in flames cause I'm a newbie and what do I know. That is the problem! pride and egos get in the way of a persons ability to listen cause they always know better.

My tuppence worth anyway

 

[Ryan(pb alexandria)]

YOU GUYS IN ENGLAND HAVE GOT IT LUCKY


Well as far as I can see, forget about american here for 2mins.

In Scotland we got as far as I know 2 sup air kits in the whole of Scotland. ....just two and none of them are set all all the time or even more than twice a month.

If we want to train we have to get the kit along, set it up, get our dive tanks filled and then look for people to try come and train with us, which is all fair and I enjoy it, but when you can only afford to do it once a month its no good and doesnt help to get skill set up.

In Scotland there is all but 2-3 teams and we live along way apart.

I travelled 400miles and more just to play a tournament or even to play with more than 10 other tourny players or just to experience what its like and I aint talking about the NPPL or something of that class I am talking about the pa or the uk masters. I know this mabye doesnt seem alot to some people but when your 19 and a poor student it sucks

Trying to get site owners up here to start up a sup air field with a walkon fee or even an indoor site to start up is soo hard to do because tourny play in Scotland is about 5% of the total paintball played if not less.

I would love to live in England to have 50-60 fields all within 300miles of eachother.

Or to start up my own indoor site with reball, but the overheads in an indoor site are alot compared to outdoor.

I live just outside of Glasgow, which is alot bigger than Edinburgh but all the tourny play and training goes on near Edinburgh. I have never understood why that is :S


/rant off

Sorry guys and girls but its the whole "its not fair" attitude

 

[Intheno]

you are right, it isn't fair, but someone has to live in the northern wastelands, so I would rather it be you.
If you want to go further into the 'its not fair' thing, you could bring up the standard of women up there!

At least you have the beautiful scenery though, and the booze culture, and the luxury of only having 2 realistic footie teams to support, and the ability to wear skirts without looking like trannies, while actually appearing MORE attractive to the opposite sex.
You ain't got it so bad mate, I think people that live in Liverpool are worse off than you.

Fxxxing Scousers!

 

[Ryan(pb alexandria)]

but on a paintball side of things lol

 

[Paintball Paladin]

I sympathise with you mate.

I live on the isle of man. I'm not too bad cause there are two teams here and we train together. However the boys before us, EPOCH had to buy their own sup air field.

the only site on the island your allowed to play paintball is a woodball site with no area big enough to play sup air. So we have to rely completely on a really sound guy who lets us set up a field on his land and play.

This can happen once a month, however in the winter months his land cant really be played on as we'd tear it up and as its grazing land for his horses we can't do that. so off season we dont get to train at all unless we wanna pay £60 each to get on a boat and travel for four hours just to be able to get to a training field. then we've got to pay to train as well.

All this so once a month we can spend nearly twelve hours on ferry, car and departure lounge so we can play a tourney.

This however is all beside the point, the guy that owns the woody field lets us train there for free. which is really sound of him. couldn't thank him enough. It means we can do snap shooting drills and other things once or twice a month.

yeah we've gotta marshall but we have a great laugh doing that so its not really a bind.

anyway all this gets off the point because we're discussing ways in which we as non americans can compete with the americans at this sport we love. I'm under no illusion that I'll be able to do this myself. I'm 27 and have only played in three tourneys. I play for fun. However as a fan of the game I would love to see british teams competing at the top level with a reallistic chance of sticking it to the americans. I also beleive a couple of the young players in my team have the potential and time to develop into very good players with a chance of competing at the top. They just need a chance.

The youth thing is key in my opinion. but it all needs a lot of work from people with a long term view of our game. I've just never met anyone in england who is like this in the game. So where do our kids train and become better players.

it falls back to the funding and in the right areas. companies of course are gonna take the deals that make them more money. hence the deals going to novice teams like mine who are prepared to spend the moola in their store. Its business.

However what if some of the big players in the UK like WDP just put an annual fund into a training academy. There would still be money coming back from that and any future teams spawned from the academy would obviously be using WDP gear. on top of this, imagine the PR potential for WDP. the unselfish act of investing into the long term future of our game here in the uk. They'd certainly go up in my estimation and it certainly wouldn't do their brand any harm

Anyway I've ranted enough. its a big what if but hey, I'm a dreamer. (imagine, John Lennon. LOL )