For some, woodsball is the ultimate simulation, while others see it as an unofficial game.  If your thinking about playing or even investing in woodsball paintball equipment, here are some things you should know about the game.  1) Woodsball takes guts.  It's not for the faint of heart. The forest isn’t full of woodland creatures that are going to aid you on your way; it’s full of dangers from bugs to snakes.  2) Don’t be afraid of dirt.

Disperse Your Group!

Disperse your team.  This is the human equivalent of the "herd instinct" you see African plains grazers display on nature documentaries.  Lions circle a herd of gazelle.  The gazelle clump together for protection. The lions pick off the weakest.  In paintball you shouldn't think with "prey" mentality.

Attack and defend games are quite popular in paintball.  There are many different variations of this game.  In one version, one team may be confined to an area they're to defend, the rest of the team may have a flag or treasure to capture for the opposing team and bring back to home base.  Either way, the basic point of the game is to defend your territory while breaking past the other team's defense.

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.

Padding & Protection

First of all, prepare to slide and shoot on your knees because in reality - it seems some bunkers are meant for midgets, so being tall doesn't really help you in paintball.

There was this one day I spent at Liberty Paintball-NY with two of my teammates, Paul Damiano and Brendan Smith.  During this one woodsball match in a game called “Crypt,” I was almost certain that I heard and saw a flashbang grenade go off on the opposite side of the field.  It made an extraordinarily shiny white flash, along with a loud bang sort of sound.  There was a staff member reffing the game who was standing a couple bunkers’ length away from me who immediately began freaking out and then ran through the crossfire of the two teams to get over to the other side of the field and find out if a flashbang actually just went off.

Practice Makes Perfect

You cannot win a game of paintball without regular shooting at your opponents and staying focused on avoiding getting shot yourself at the same time - it has to be one or the other (and both at the same time!).  Use a little discipline with your trigger finger and you'll not only save paintballs but you'll also keep your opponents guessing!  Remember not to always come out of the same bunker in the same spot; vary your positions to always keep them guessing on where you're at.

Wearing the right foot wear on the paintball field is very important.  Make sure you get what you need for what kind of game your playing.  If you're playing woodsball, I would recommend buying a good comfortable pair of light weight boots; if speedball is your game, I recommend wearing an old, or cheap pair of cleats.  They do make cleats just for speedball, but I would not recommend buying them unless you play so much that you would need them all the time.