Let me first explain why I am asking.
Paintball does and is attracting new players at a good rate but the players base is slowly decreasing, why?
I believe we are playing to much, new players come into the game and perhaps the second gun they buy is a top line marker at or near full price cost, they then also purchase all the other stuff team players need.
So gun bag, playing top, goggles, gloves, pants, pants, hoppers, spare batteries and all the other stuff you need to have a good (or bad) day and to look like the rest of your team.
You then commit to play an event with your team mates and possibly think this is something you will do forever.
So you have spent you first student loan on kit and your first few tournaments - time for phase two.
The team then agree to playing a full series and the new player is encouraged to commit with them and he eagerly agrees.
Then the realism of tournament paintball begins to take hold every month you are paying out all your spare cash and then some to keep playing with your mates, gone are the weekends out with your friends and you start spending your free time at paintball shops where you buy other over priced stuff you don't need and can not afford to enhance the look (but not the performance) of your kit.
You spend most of your time working to finance your paintball fix (I know a student who feeds himself quite well on a fiver a week just so he can put money aside for paintball) and spend evenings holding your gun annoying your partners and family with the incessant clicking of the trigger while they are watching Coronation st.
Every month you go to the tournament and spend all the money you have saved on the entry fee and paint.
At the end of the event you tell each other it was great because you do not want to admit to yourself you have just wasted your money.
Your non paintball mates stop calling you and your computer has shortcuts to this and other paintball sites on the desktop and they are the first thing you click when you turn it on.
This continues till you come to your senses, and realise there is more to life than paintball, girls, holidays, ect ect, you still want to play paintball but can not afford it and pride tells you to retire instead of taking some time off.
So we get a player, exploit them for a few years, they then sell all their kit off cheap to recoup some cash to pay their debts and we lose them, and we lost them because we are greedy and not looking at the bigger picture.
We must stop culling our future and let these new players develop within there own financial means.
How.
We have to stop getting teams to commit to more they can afford per year, the players who can afford it can find a game if they wish but the players who struggle to finance their game are given a chance to save.
I will never ask a team to commit to more than six events a year and I am sure the players will benefit.
It is not just playing the events it is the training that is beneficial to you that is not done because you are committed to playing and paying somthing else.
If we all work together and not be individually greedy everyone will benefit.
Think about it, players instead of staying in the game a couple of years may stay customers for many more and that in itself can only be good for paintball.
Russ
Paintball does and is attracting new players at a good rate but the players base is slowly decreasing, why?
I believe we are playing to much, new players come into the game and perhaps the second gun they buy is a top line marker at or near full price cost, they then also purchase all the other stuff team players need.
So gun bag, playing top, goggles, gloves, pants, pants, hoppers, spare batteries and all the other stuff you need to have a good (or bad) day and to look like the rest of your team.
You then commit to play an event with your team mates and possibly think this is something you will do forever.
So you have spent you first student loan on kit and your first few tournaments - time for phase two.
The team then agree to playing a full series and the new player is encouraged to commit with them and he eagerly agrees.
Then the realism of tournament paintball begins to take hold every month you are paying out all your spare cash and then some to keep playing with your mates, gone are the weekends out with your friends and you start spending your free time at paintball shops where you buy other over priced stuff you don't need and can not afford to enhance the look (but not the performance) of your kit.
You spend most of your time working to finance your paintball fix (I know a student who feeds himself quite well on a fiver a week just so he can put money aside for paintball) and spend evenings holding your gun annoying your partners and family with the incessant clicking of the trigger while they are watching Coronation st.
Every month you go to the tournament and spend all the money you have saved on the entry fee and paint.
At the end of the event you tell each other it was great because you do not want to admit to yourself you have just wasted your money.
Your non paintball mates stop calling you and your computer has shortcuts to this and other paintball sites on the desktop and they are the first thing you click when you turn it on.
This continues till you come to your senses, and realise there is more to life than paintball, girls, holidays, ect ect, you still want to play paintball but can not afford it and pride tells you to retire instead of taking some time off.
So we get a player, exploit them for a few years, they then sell all their kit off cheap to recoup some cash to pay their debts and we lose them, and we lost them because we are greedy and not looking at the bigger picture.
We must stop culling our future and let these new players develop within there own financial means.
How.
We have to stop getting teams to commit to more they can afford per year, the players who can afford it can find a game if they wish but the players who struggle to finance their game are given a chance to save.
I will never ask a team to commit to more than six events a year and I am sure the players will benefit.
It is not just playing the events it is the training that is beneficial to you that is not done because you are committed to playing and paying somthing else.
If we all work together and not be individually greedy everyone will benefit.
Think about it, players instead of staying in the game a couple of years may stay customers for many more and that in itself can only be good for paintball.
Russ
) . as you say, maybe the emphasis needs to move from best kit, go play tournies. to start small and train, then build up once you know you want to and are able to play regularly enough to commit to tournies.
