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.

Team Practice

The first, most important thing that you have to do as a team is practice; so you can get to know each other's style and so you can trust your teammates.  Does this mean hours of boring drills?  Not at all!  Rocky Knuth, Captain of the Pro team Naughty Dogs, said that his team spends about 20% of their practice time on the field doing drills, and 80% of their time actually out scrimmaging, just playing paintball, against each other and against other teams.

Stock up on your Air Supplies - Wal Mart's not refilling anymore!

So I bring my son's CO2 tanks into Wal Mart to exchange them for filled ones the other day..... and the kid behind the counter proceeds in telling me how paintball is being 'phased out' and that airsoft is taking over!  Yeah right!  Let's face it.

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.

Flanking is one of hundreds of paintball tactics in which a player distracts the opposing team with an attack while another player sneaks around the side or back of the other team.  It is most successfully used on players who have tunnel vision or are so wrapped up in fighting off the players in front of them that they don't notice the attackers making their way around them to defend an attack from the side or back.

The Pinokio Hopper

Have you seen the new Pinokio Electronic Hopper? They're the balls!  They carry a lot of them too!  It's actually a 2 in 1 hopper.  The regular sized loader is for your speedball gun and holds 250 rounds.  You can add the 'Pinokio' addition for your tactical paintball gun and add a whopping 140 more paintballs!  You get the 140 round attachment with the loader - for the same amount of money; you don't have to pay anything extra for it.