ChoicePaintballGuns

A paintball strategy usually includes all of the player’s or team’s pre-planned tactics that they will use to complete the objective or win the game. The best advice for a team is to select a painball strategy based on the teammates they have near them, the alignment of the opposition, and the format of the game being played.  Strategies must often be different when playing on flat surfaces and airball bunkers as opposed to rough natural terrains with a lot of steep inclines.  You should also have different strategies when playing 3 on 3 tournament games as opposed to 10 on 10 matches.  A player’s environment and the level of competition they’re facing as well as many other factors may affect the strategy needed to win the game.  Do yourself a favor and have several strategies ready, so you can switch to something else at the last minute if you have to.  Most of the paintball teams that are effective in competition have a planned and studied a paintball strategy they will use for that particular game.  Many of the strategies and tactics used in paintball are often rooted in military tactics.  Many of the most important strategies involve how to move and play as a team and which players will go between bunkers or out in the open.  Don’t be afraid to frequently move between bunkers to get better shooting angles on your opponents.

We are excited about the upcoming release of the X7 Phenom, a next-generation .68 caliber paintball marker that’s truly in a class of its own. This gun will be released for sale on ChoicePaintballGuns.com by mid-November. The unmatched benefits of this new electro pneumatic marker include improved air efficiency, superior accuracy, manual or electronic firing and the flexibility to use either CO2 or compressed air. The heart of the Phenom is Tippmann’s patented FlexValve™ Technology, a brand new technology that is not available on any other paintball marker. The FlexValve operates below 300 PSI for improved air efficiency, giving players more than 1,400 shots from a single 68 cubic-inch, 4500 PSI tank. Also, with its Spool Valve Design, recoil is virtually eliminated for significantly-enhanced accuracy. The design of the Phenom also incorporates fewer wear parts, making maintenance easier than ever and breakdown rare. Even though the Phenom is three inches shorter than the standard X7, it will still accept more than 20 current X7 mods and upgrades, including the popular Flatline Barrel. 

Other features of the X7 Phenom include:
·         New compact and lightweight aluminum body
·         Streamlined design with internal gasline and no cocking handle
·         Pushpin construction for easy field stripping
·         All-metal trigger for enhanced stability
·         Magnetically activated hall effect electronics
·         Redesigned Cyclone Feed System paddles that feed up to 20 balls-per-      second without batteries
·         Picatinny top rail to easily add new sights and handles
·         Air-thru stock compatibility
·         Internal regulator with new external-velocity adjustment
·         9.5” high performance stone-honed barrel
·         Removable rear and front sights
·         2-Year Warranty
·         Made in the U.S.A.

A paintball attack is when a team makes their move towards the enemy side of the field, make a surge to the opposing team’s flag, or makes a move towards the defending team’s players.  There are hundreds of different paintball games and your method of attack may be different for each, depending on the objective of the game or other variables, like whether or not there are bunkers to hide behind.  For example, in Capture The Flag, a player’s attack strategy may involve taking a path where the enemy isn’t.  In games of total elimination, the objective is for one player (or one team) to be the only one standing at the end of the game.  In the game Alamo, an attacking team must break through an enemy line of defense within a certain period of time.  In the game street fighter, players fight out in the open, with no bunkers, forts, or holes to hide in.  No matter what the game is, enforce your attack through a combination of strategy, player’s preparation, and luck and you will most likely emerge victorious.

To mount a proper attack, players must develop a keen field of vision to see the field around them, and know where the enemies are.  A player’s experience is the best means of developing the art of field of vision.  Players with this skill are successful at using their peripheral vision to see not only what is in front of them, but also what is to the left and right of them.  During an attack, make sure you’re running and shooting at the same time.  Players that only run across the field without taking aggressive maneuvers towards the enemy are putting themselves in a vulnerable position; you’re likely to get shot.  If the opposing players have the opportunity to take multiple shots at the enemy without seeing return fire headed that way, then they have a distinct advantage.  When a player executes running and shooting correctly, they shoot at the enemy while on the run, enabling their chances of staying in the game longer.

If your paintball marker chops your paintballs, stop what you are doing right away and clean it out.  Clean your gun thoroughly where the ball broke.  Clean the bolt, bolt face and the marker barrel.  Make sure to clean out all of the paint as well as the film, shell bits, and any other debris that does not belong there.  If you continue to chop paintballs, take the gun apart and check for damage.  Completely disassemble the marker, and check out the bolt face for burs, nicks, chips, and other damage.  If you have found any damage to the bolt face or o-rings, then you should replace the damaged components.  If you weren’t able to fix the problem while at the field, when you get home take your paintball gun apart and inspect all of its components for scratches, fraying, or other damage.  Check out each individual part.  As soon as the paintball gun starts to fail or act funny, try checking the sear and hammer first.  For your marker to operate flawlessly, the hammer and sear must be sharp, with cleaning edges that are not worn down or worn out.  If your bolt, sear, and hammer do not show any obvious signs of wear and tear, have an airsmith inspect the entire machine. An airsmith is to a paintball gun what a blacksmith is to machine tools.

As you get more addicted to paintball, sometimes it becomes tough trying fit it all in.  Keeping your grades up while playing paintball is a hard thing to do.  Especially if you’re playing other sports (along with paintball), you need to find time to get your school work done and still be able to play.  You’ll have to manage your time wisely while playing paintball during the school year.  School has to stay the main priority, so if your grades start dropping the parents start saying ‘no’ to paintball until your grades are up.  Knowing this, I like to try and stay after school some everyday to try and study and get my homework done; save some time for yourself to be able to study at school.  The last thing you want is not being able to play because you failed your last math test.  You have to try your best to do good in both school and paintball.  Getting a good job in the future is very important (more important than paintball), so dont blow off studying for an exam to go play with your friends.  I’m not saying give up on paintball or anything like that; just keep your grades up during the season and try to make time for both school work and paintball.
Mike Morton, Team Trinity

Have you ever heard the saying, “How do you get to Carnagie Hall? … Practice, practice, practice.”  If you want to get better at something (like paintball), you have to practice.  So like anything else, if you want to get good at paintball, you have to practice; but where?  My team (Team Trinity) has found a small, but very nice piece of woods close to where we all live to play in.  We have a designated playing field with a multitude of cover, and obstacles.  We’ve also set up a target field with three targets strategically placed by trees to simulate an opposing player taking cover.  This helps us practice aiming, rolling maneuvers and different moves we come up with.  There are many drills one could do to practice, but you just need a place to do it.  If you don’t have access to woods or someone’s property, you can also practice at a commercial field but this could get very expensive depending on how often you want to practice.  Just remember… the more you practice, the better you’ll get!  Your best bet though is if you can find a nice piece of woods or a field nearby and use it to practice with your team. 
Matt Kresch, Team Trinity

Keeping the game fun is the most important thing to do while playing paintball.  Paintball is, and should always be about kids (and adults) having fun.  Sometimes people will try to cheat, by wiping paint, ramping over the limit, increasing the velocity of their paintball gun higher than the ‘legal limit’ or using illegal paintballs.  These things not only take away fun, but can even make it dangerous to other players.  Some people complain about the rules or try to get one over on the refs and that just makes the game stressful.  Remember that there are other people playing and that you have to be respectful of other players by being a good sport; it’s fun to win, but it’s also fun just to play (and someone else win).  Every paintballer knows how ugly a game can get if it’s not played by the rules.  So remember…. play by the rules, be safe, relax, and just have fun.
Matt Kresch, Team Trinity

Paintball is easy to get addicted to; in fact I know a lot of guys who can be considered ‘over-addicted’.  Getting over addicted to paintball is both good and bad for a player.  It is good because it shows that you love to play the sport and you’ll play it enough to get good; but then the bad thing happens. You start putting money into it that you don’t need too; you start overspending every last dollar you’ve got.  Every paintball player at one time or another has spent money they didn’t need to; I know….  I was overly addicted to the game, and I still am.  Once you get sucked into the world of paintball it is very hard to get out of it.  I may need to join some kind of 12-step program to help with my paintball addiction!  The money comes in from the constant supply of paintballs you need, jerseys and everyone always wants the latest and greatest markers, and equipment; I sure do.  But now I try to control myself a little bit by saying to myself, “Hey the paintball marker I have is very good and still works fine; why buy a new one when I don’t really need it right now?”  I’ll tell you why you eventually give in and buy the new marker…. because they’re awesome!  Try not to get to overly excited with paintball, because it can clean you out quickly.  Two pieces of advice that I can give you is that if your going to play paintball alot… Get a job!  The other piece of advice is shop at www.choicepaintballguns.com - they’ve got great deals.