What is Paintball and How to Play it?

Some newbies may ask What is Paintball and how to play it? Paintball is a sport in which, the players outmaneuver their opponents and eliminate them with paintballs. These paintballs are shot using paintball markers (or guns). The paintballs used in paintball games are biodegradable and can easily wash off from clothes.

Rules of paintball vary from game to game,  it generally, capture the flag, elimination or defends, or pushes a certain point of the field. Depending on the game being played, it may last from minutes, hours or even days of the “scenario” is being played.

Paintball is a diverse game that does not discriminate between men and women. Both can play the game equally as strength doesn’t decide victory, but strategy and quick thinking do. Children can play alongside adults and still end up on the winning side. Paintball is a character-developing sport, it teaches sportsmanship, teamwork and builds self-confidence.

Paintball Acessories & Attachments

The equipment essential for a game of paintball is described as follows. It includes paintballs, paintball markers, a mask, and sometimes, a full-body cover. These protect you from the stinging of the paintball.

1. Paintball Markers

Paintball markers are the guns that are used to shoot the paintballs and eliminate your opponents. They are fueled with co2 gas or compressed air. Although they were originally invented for farmers to mark their cattle or trees. But, they now serve a much more entertaining purpose.

2. Paintballs

Paintballs are biodegradable vitamin shells that contain paint. These shells explode where they hit and splash the paint. If a paintball lands on a player, he or she is eliminated from the game. The paint can then easily be washed off with water. Paintballs hurt when they hit your flesh. Therefore, it’s always recommended to wear protective gear every time you walk into the field.

3. Goggles and Masks

Although the game can be played without these pieces of equipment. However, paintballs hurt a lot so it’s almost a must to wear protective gear. Besides, no field will allow you to play the game without some sort of protective gear. As it contains a lot of health risks, so it essentially is a requirement for playing paintball.

Paintball Attire

It is recommended to wear baggy clothes to paintball, as they absorb the impact of the paintball pallets, Wearing skin-tight clothes makes you more vulnerable to the stinging pain of the paintball pallets.

For the upper half of your body, which includes your torso and arms, wearing a full-sleeved hoodie would be recommended, as it not only protects your body and your arms from harm, but you can put on the hoodie to protect the back of your head for the paintball pallets.

As for your legs, wearing cargo trousers or simple jeans is recommended as they provide enough mobility for the player to move about in the field while protecting their legs from any harm.

Lastly, wearing proper running shoes is important, as paintball will require a lot of running, jumping and diving etc, so wearing shoes or cleats that keep you comfortable all with allowing you ample mobility is very important for winning a game of paintball.

All in all, what you wear doesn’t really matter but to protect yourself from harm, you should prefer what is recommended to you. But make sure you bring extra clothes along with you like the ones you wear to paintball will get dirty.

How to play Paintball

There are many different modes of paintball that you can play. The most popular of which are speedball, woodsball, or scenario.

Speedball usually takes place indoors and includes a few man-made obstacles to take cover to protect yourself from elimination, it is fast-paced, with games usually going on from a few seconds to a few minutes. It is usually played for leisure and is the most popular form of paintball, as it is both, safe and quick.

Thus most people prefer this over a much slower-paced woodsball, which takes place on natural terrain. However, most professional and official paintball games are played as woodsball on the natural fields, where players use trees, trenches, or rocks as cover. This game is tactical and a proper strategy has to be made to win, this form of paintball takes several hours

There is another form of paintball that has grown in popularity over the years, it’s like woodsball, which means it is based on natural terrain, but it recreates scenarios of historic events, movie scenes, or famous video game battles. Scenario paintball is a slow-paced game and it takes hours, or even days to complete scenario paintball, depending on the situation. Scenario occasionally also makes use of tanks.

Age for Paintball

The minimum age for paintball depends on the country you live in, generally, if you’re over 12 you are good to go, however, if you’re under 12 you have to bring your parents or guardian along. If you’re under 18, you need your parents to sign a waiver.

Paintball is a game of teamwork and strategy, so being over 12 is recommended as people over 12 generally understand instructions thus it is best suited for people over 12, however, some alternative paintball-related games are available for under 12 individuals, equally as thrilling, but relatively safer.

Final Words

Paintball is a fun game. It has great expansion potential. You may choose it as a leisure activity on weekends with your family and friends. Once, you fall in love with it, you can adopt it as a permanent hobby. You can become a member of a good paintball team, you can build new bonds and friendships, you can play at bigger levels and venues. Let’s just say that Sky is the limit for this beautiful game, you can fly as high as you want.

So, my last words, stop thinking, get up and into the Paintball field right now.