Is the secret ever going to get out?
Originally posted by Davo at work
Whilst I appreciate all the points posted about this area and also appreciate that most teams in the UK neither have the inclination or committment to do the necessary things to become a top team the questions still applies: What specifically do you suggest we all do Robbo? How do we change?
We all know that we need to shake the UK and Euro scene up to stay in touching distance with the Yanks but you still have not disclosed any specifics as how you propose this transition is achieved. We know you have picked Sergie's brains on several occaisions and that Nexus will embrace thses new techniques for next year and bloody good luck to you by the way! but not one article that you have writen about the inpending revolution has given people pointers as to how to facilitate this?
We know that the technical side and fitness side of the game is all important but how do we develop this to the stage the Ruskies are at?
Also are these alterations to our paintball lifestyle purely geared up for X Ball as the common man will not be playing this games for at least 2-3 years in my opinion, I know many of the improvements could/should be used to enhance our normal tourney ball but again WHAT SPECIFICALLY and HOW?
Surely as an ambassador to the sport as a whole your new team 'secret' training regime should be laid out for all to see for the long term greater good of UK ballin! BTW Robbo can you lend us some paint 
Dave, you raised some good points, I'll try to answer some of them. It's true, the majority of teams, and here I'm talking about Euro teams, have no real aspirations to get to the top. They may well go thru the motions of saying they do and do a bit of training here and there but as we all know, none of it ever comes to much.
There are however some serious teams out there.
Tournament Paintball is now undergoing an evolutionary phase catalysed in part, by the advent of X-Ball.
X-Ball has refocused attention onto the top teams and made people realise, or should have done, that to inhabit the upper levels of this game, changes, drastic changes have to be made to team development and organisation.
I have said this many times before, even before X-Ball.
But, even now we have so called top teams just going thru the motions.
No longer can any aspiring team play local tourneys, they are a waste if time and expense, it is an opportunity missed, an opportunity to train has just been thrown away.
Resources in Europe in terms of quality players and finances is at a premium, a premium that makes it imperative that every last opportunity is taken to train.
The Yanks are playing every week, the Russkies three or four times a week, the rest of us have to make do on what we can afford in terms of time and money.
Which all makes it so important we focus our attention on the training ground.
Now comes two problems, firstly, we have to get a team roster that will respond to the new regime of requirements and has depth in terms of talent resource; basically they have to be young, fit and very good players.
This is not an absolute because teams do need an element of experience.
Secondly, the team has to manage resources, i.e. finance and available training time.
Get this management wrong and u might as well go play ping-pong.
The teams who make this transition to the new era will have a strong youth base, a strong financial backing and a sophisticated training regime.
And now we come to what I think you were wanting; it's one thing having the resources, it's quite another using them properly.
If you want to aim for the top then you need to concentrate on the basic elements of the game, for many years (over 10 in fact) I have advocated in the magazine the reductionist approach to training.
Basically, you have to identify, separate and refine the elements of the game.
Training days should be filled with the refining of these elements with tournaments and some training days being used as an exercise in integration of these trained techniques.
Try to look at the game as a series of elements; sprinting, snap shooting, diving, shooting, sliding, staying tight and so on.
Each of these has to be refined and the only way you can attain this degree of concentration is to practice them time and time again in isolation.
Playing hick tourneys is just a waste of frikkin time and money, so forget it.
The distinction that has now fallen across tournament paintball may be a harsh one and it is this, no longer are the top guys playing because they like to play, the focus of attention is on continued and concerted improvement and if you enjoy it, great, if you don't then leave.
We are now talking about becoming professional both in our attitude and approach but without getting paid.
We have to assume the role of pros before the final piece of the professional jig saw falls into place and we start to get paid as pros.
I’m not sure if this answers all of your questions but I hope it answers some.
Robbo
