This is sad. How old do you think kids should start playing?

[Cyberpyr8]

This randomly came across my feed. I don't know these people or seem to have any connection to them. But it's sad that they probably won't play again. Looking at her profile she's a first grade teacher. These kids look small and younger and I'm not sure how they really are. I'm assuming it is 50 cal but either way it got me thinking about the minimal age to start a kid playing.

My daughter who is fostering 2 kids 6 and 4, wanted me to take the 6 year old paintballing. I refused and told her to wait until he's much older. I suggested gellyball for now and gave them some gellyball guns I had. I think for a 6 year old that's the better way to get him interested in paintballing eventually with me. I have seen some young kids like this playing 50 cal and even a few at 68. I have raised 6 kids. I have let them all play. What age do you think they should start? Personally I feel like my kids that played at 11-12 did better and stuck with it more than my kids I started at 10. I took my nephews that are 13 and 15 this year. They did great playing for the first time.

What do you think? I know some kids do well at 10 but I think most kids do better a little older. I think 12 is the right age for most kids.

[RPP]

One of my kids started very young, was almost 7 when he started .68. His temperament and "maturity" were the reasons he could/wanted to start that early. Obviously we took it very slow when he started playing. Still loves playing.

My youngest is 8 and I cant imagine taking them to the field for another 4 years or so. In my eyes its very depentant on the kid.

[Daltech]

11 years old for me and I was terrified. 7th grade. But I got over it quick and it quickly became an obsession. That first day, Camp Pendleton paintball, I saw my first Autococker, and said, whoa, what is that. The guy was super nice and let me hold it. I touched the front pneumatics and a hose popped off, the owner wasn’t even mad, I guess it was common occurrence. I put paintball from the ground in my hooper and got yelled at by staff, it was awesome. 8th grade, going to play paintball was my only priority. By freshmen year I was ready for tournament play in my mind, but didn’t play any tourneys until sophomore year, then I found jeeps with subwoofers and boobs. I’d say pay attention to the kids pain tolerance, do they BMX and fall? Or skateboard and fall? If they don’t fall or freak out when they do fall, maybe wait. Anything below the age of 11 and you’re pushing it into the traumatic experience category. At least with .68/290fps/15bps. Being honest that the bruises are temporary and do hurt at first but it’s not permanent and won’t/can’t really hurt you is a good start. For reference, young men used to go kill a deer and drink its blood, but that went out of style in certain parts. So we shoot paint filled gelatin balls at each other instead to prove our bravado. Have you tested out the level of safety comprehension with nerf battles yet? Just using glasses and nerf launchers you could get a sense for confidence and comprehension of safety, then move onto laser tag, just to gauge the interest and how motivated.

I’ll be totally honest, bringing a shorty ( young gun) into a typical rec ball play will most certainly end up with bad results and the kid not wanting anything to do with the cheating, ramping, overly aggressive, poor sport, unprofessional field owner, non family friendly environment that is paintball today.

In first grade, for reference, I was getting in trouble for trying to pee into the urinal from across the boys bathroom, my brain was not all there yet.

[Bert_bart_brett]

But did you make the shot?!

[Daltech]

From back wall to the urinal, but some kid came into the bathroom and snitched on me, I had to go to the vice principal’s office and she asked me if I did that at home, I didn’t blink and said “ my bathrooms not as big so I can’t get that far away”.

[trashcollector]

🤣

[Daltech]

Just though of a great idea, start with pumps and outlaw ball, just 1v1 or 2v2 with a crew you know and trust to play fair and fun.

Major props to your daughter for being a foster parent. That’s a big deal and not well enough appreciated imho.

[Cyberpyr8]

Thanks. Her and her older sister and younger brother were adopted by us 14 years ago, so she knows how important it is.

[Chappy]

Age depends on the kid and the group, 2 of my 3 daughters played starting about 11/12 I can’t remember exactly. Both were with CC/ Expandables crew so that made all the difference. I’ll never forget Netsurfwrduude yelling to Chloe to “keep your head up so I don’t shoot you in the top of the head” while putting shots on her bunker. That’s the kind of peeps you want little ones shooting and being shot at their first time or three.

[scottieb]

I began playing the sport when I was 14. I've now been playing for 32 years. I've seen a lot of children playing for the first time. Double digits is where I'd start. and I've told my kids that. Once they are 10 or older I will take them to play and I stay with them through a day of play.

[Ecapnation]

Bring back 18 to play unless at least one parent is on the field with you.

[RPP]

Bring back 18 to play unless at least one parent is on the field with you.

This is a solid take, but i can think of several friends(including myself) who would not have been captured at a young age if that were the rule still.

[Reflex0283]

I definitely wouldn't be in the sport if that were the case

[Siress]

Me either, but I stand by it. Just because I took a shine to whiskey at a young age doesn't mean it's a good idea. I'd still have found it a few years later.

[Bert_bart_brett]

Having two of my own I think it depends on the kids. Mine are both bruisers at 3.5 years and 7 months but if your kid is soft(er) I could see it going very badly

[hunter47]

At the cost of sounding like a curmudgeon (I'm not even 30 yet chill) I think kids are too soft nowadays because of their parents.

I think the mom(?) in that post is projecting - she doesn't want her kids to go do it again. Kids are smarter than most people think and would pick up that mom doesn't want them to go play paintball, and they're still at the age at which the want to do right by mom/dad and they haven't yet developed a voice to advocate for themselves.

Ok boomer rant over, at what age should kids start playing 68 cal? I think 6 is way too young even for 50 cal. Target demographic for 50 cal, from what I've observed, is for first timers across all ages and are afraid of getting hurt. Gelsoft would be a good start since the target demographic for that is a much tighter range, and a much younger range.
I started playing ~13-14 years old. Like most 10-13 year olds in the early 2010s I wanted to play Call of Duty IRL (airs*ft), but my stepdad knew paintball so he took me to play paintball and the rest is history. So I guess 10 years old at a minimum.

[Jonnydread]

Agreed. I think a lot of parents these days spend so much time trying to protect their kids from discomfort that they end up making them scared of everything. You can't avoid scabby knees and getting some shit in your mouth and still be a strong, well-rounded person.

[RPP]

Jonnydread people seem to forget that the struggles they had to go through as a kid is what shaped them into the hard working adult they are today. What is going to happen to society when a whole generation of kids has been "padded" from most discomfort let alone left to struggle ?

[vijil]

RPP I'd argue it's already been happening for a while. People who can't tolerate discomfort are much less likely to hold a marriage together, for one thing.

[Daltech]

[The Hobbit]

This is a solid take, but i can think of several friends(including myself) who would not have been captured at a young age if that were the rule still.

Agree with both takes but if the 18 or with parent was the norm, I would never have gotten to experience commercial fields or higher levels of play. With that said, when my kids start, I’ll be with them on the field.

[Jonnydread]

Like others have implied I think it's incredibly case-by-case. I know some 8 year old who could handle it no problem, I know some 14 year olds who have no business being anywhere near a paintball marker. I feel like 12 with a parent and 16 solo would be good for most folks.

[The Jayster]

From what I've seen through the years, a fair amount of adults have no business being anywhere near a paintball marker.

[RPP]

The Jayster aint that the truth...

[Junglepeanut]

My rule with my kids or family kids that have never played is i get to shoot them before a real game so they know what its like. I just didn't want them to freak out and pull the mask off on the field. If they are brave enough to stand and get shot a few times and still want to play its a good start to knowing they are ready.

[Cyberpyr8]

My younger boys had to be shot in the back yard before I would let them go. I didn't want the first shot to be in the middle of a game and them pull the mask off. And yeah they knew what it was going to be like before they got out on a real field. My oldest son and I went together and I didn't own any gear ahead of time to do that. He did fine though.

[Cdn_Cuda]

Brought my nephew out who is 13 to a private rental. He had never played but was very, very nervous about getting shot for the first time. Once he played and got hit was was completely fine, but almost major anxiety over worrying about it. It’s a good idea to have them experience it first in a safe spot and would have had helped him with his anxiety over it. He did have an absolute blast and wanted to play again.

[vijil]

The field I ran, 12 was the minimum age. Partly because masks don't stay on safely otherwise. We didn't have kid size masks.

I started at about age 23 (now 42) so I was straight into uncapped semi ("I can actually shoot 30bps ref it's not bounce I swear") tournaments. Everything since then feels soft haha