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Urban

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Oct 31, 2001
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Urban

Originally posted by TJ Lambini
I'll use my old favorite...mountain biking.


Now tha vast majority of MTBers are trail riders/free-riders - they go out and ride at weekends. Think of em as rec-ballers.

Tha next biggest segment is X-country and enduro racers - they race competitively around tha world and their sport is even in the Olympics. Think of them as tourney players.

Tha smallest is downhillers - they race down extremely short, extremely technical, extremely watchable courses. Think of them as X-Ballers.

Now who do you think gets on TV?

Seeing any parallels?
Not being a MBer, none of them that I've seen.....

Now draw a parallel from that... X-Ball will only be watched by ballers?

Urban
 

Baca Loco

Ex-Fun Police
Re: Terribly sorry, Urb, old boy

Originally posted by Urban

1--"will become whatever it seems to be to the majority"... hmmm... guess we're all back in the woods wearing camo then coz recball is
paintball to the majority of Joe Public and nothing short of constant exposure to X-Ball TV is gonna change that.

2--Backwards?? Small, petite, maybe, but backwards?? :(

3--Let's talk again in, say, two years? ;)

Urban [/B]

1--you're missing the forest for the trees :D
2--see your own comment above. Your Joe Public ain't the Joe Public.
3--anytime. Don't be a stranger.

Paul--the demands of the field alone create a different type of player. So concept rec-ball players develop differently, are exposed to different facets of the game and have a different mindset to what is p-ball and how it should be played. You have no idea what the explosion of 15-16 year olds is like who have serious skills in only a few months of playing because they have bypassed altogether the first you play woods mentality. Frightening really.
 

Collier

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Jan 2, 2002
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Re: Re: Terribly sorry, Urb, old boy

Originally posted by Baca Loco

1--you're missing the forest for the trees :D
2--see your own comment above. Your Joe Public ain't the Joe Public.
3--anytime. Don't be a stranger.

Paul--the demands of the field alone create a different type of player. So concept rec-ball players develop differently, are exposed to different facets of the game and have a different mindset to what is p-ball and how it should be played. You have no idea what the explosion of 15-16 year olds is like who have serious skills in only a few months of playing because they have bypassed altogether the first you play woods mentality. Frightening really.
ok my next point was basically going to be the point you made (number 2) I took a guess that concept rec is more poular.

Paul.
 

Baca Loco

Ex-Fun Police
Originally posted by Paul_collier
I took a guess that concept rec is more popular.
It's certainly becoming more popular and there is probably a geographical component involved. Also, whereever you find more active tourney teams you will find the majority of the new, not just younger, players gearing their interests toward tourney style p-ball. And tourney teams over here are exploding at all levels of play.
 
R

raehl

Guest
Puhliease...

The televised version of the sport is RARELY like the "usually played" version of the sport. Soccer (or football for those of you across the pond) is the exception, not the rule exception.

Most football is played in people's back yards without goal posts, field lines, or padding. You know how wep layed baseball when we were kids? 4 wooden bases thrown down in the front yard. Even soccer got played with two pine trees as goal posts.

Hell, in the states, even Football has two televised versions: The superbowl variety, and the Arena football variety (5 on 5 or 6 on 6 or something) during the off season. Played on a hockey rink type field very similar to xball actually. Pretty widely watched too.

Then there's this thing called "Slamball" on TNN out here - basketball with trampolines around the baskets. NOBODY plays that.


Do you think people learnto skate and play hockey the first time ina rink? No, there's lakes for that. Rollerblading or skateboarding or biking or snow boarding on half-pipes? Hell no.

You learn a sport in an easy-access, inexpensive environment. You telivise it in an expensive, souped up environment where the very best can better show off their skills and the audience can better see the display.


X-Ball isn't any more expensive than any other paintball - you just have to adjust how you play. You can have a very nice X-Ball season that will cost you the same as a regular ol' 5-man centerflag season - you just play one team per day instead of all the teams round robin per day. There's nothing about X-Ball that mandates a scoreboard or stands or special staging area or evenan airball field - just like you don't need manicured grass in the middle of a 70,000 seat stadium to play baseball - those are all just things that make it look especially sweet and are therefore used at the top (and hopefully televised) level.


- Chris
 
R

raehl

Guest
One more comment on the "first you play woods" comment..

Woods has nothing to do with it. It's all about communication. The reasons these kids are good is when you go out to play recball with the walkons on Saturday, there isn't a whole lot of talkig to the guys next and behind you. When you hop into tournament team practice, there is a LOT of making sure you're insync with the rest of the tea, and a lot of people standing on the sidelines telling you what you're doing wrong. It's practice, not the environment.

Just so happens that the vast majority of practice nowadays happens on airball fields. It isn't about the woods, its about getting instruction.

College clubs get players who have been playing rec for years all the time who stink, but end up being decent after a couple months and pretty good after a year simply because they practice twice a week with people who know what they're doing telling them what to do.

- Chris