Helping Novice Players Have a Good First Day: A Mental Exercise

[Riot]

Just let them know that it’s okay to cry out there. The balls can be scary and they hurt, don’t be afraid to get emotional during the game. It’s only human.

[glaman5266]

Play your bunkers effectively. Use the sides & not the top, tuck in your elbows & knees, use your core muscles to lean out, use quick motions & don’t hang outside your bunker for too long. You’ll be much more difficult for your opponents to hit, preventing yourself from getting shot out early & getting frustrated with that.

[Chuck E Ducky]

Don’t use the sights look down the barrel shoot and adjust from there.

Always Keep the marker in your outside hand.

Try not to come over the top of a bunker it’s slower.

Shoot where they are going vs directly at them if they are moving. Lead your target. Farther away they are the more you need to lead.

[nak81783]

I’m probably breaking the intent of the thread, but:

1. If there are 6 or more regulars, spend 5 minutes trying to convince regulars to play separately from the newbies/rentals or the refs to make the regulars play separately.

2. If #1 unsuccessful, spend 5 minutes trying to get regulars to use pumps, pistols, mag-fed, or limited paint. If not, ensure they’re on semi only, 10.2bps (preferably less), and 280 fps or less. This lets them know people will be watching, and there will likely be consequences from those of us watching out for the newbies/rentals, if they don’t behave.

3. Regardless of success with #’s 1 and 2, spend last 5 minutes recapping with newbies:
A. Mask on before entering net. Stays on until outside of net.
B. Barrel sleeve on until inside net. Barrel sleeve back on before leaving net.
C. Have fun.

If they accomplish the above, expand on skills/strategy later in the day. In my experience, newbies/rentals simply have more fun without regulars or with regulars that intentionally handicap themselves, so it’s worth the effort to make this happen, even if it makes some of the regulars unhappy. I also find the newbies/rentals receive the safety info better from an experienced player than the general safety briefing.

[Drcemento]

keep moving is the thing I try to get through the most to my kids and their buddies. try hard not to bunch up, and communicate!

even in bigger games if someone isn't already i always try to stand up and get a general plan together - we got a group going right? whos going up the center - and always try to make the newbs a part of that. - half of you follow those guys! stay behind them and keep them supported! if they have a direction to head and a vague Idea of what they are needed for I find they really appreciate that and ultimately have allot more fun.

[jokers]

I think the communication thing is important and moving, I would add to keep your mask on at all times. If it fogs to much let someone know and they will help you off the field. Another thing to add is if something happens to your marker to talk to anyone and they will help.

[Cdn_Cuda]

First, I think just talking to them and making them feel welcomed is a big thing. We're there all decked out with crazy looking markers we are very intimidating. Asking how they're enjoying them game, let them shoot you marker in the test range, all good ways to make people feel included.

[iamthelazerviking]

I love this. And I definitely need to do it more vs sitting around chatting with the people I already know.

"Assume the kids are paying attention and are interested in hearing what you have to say, so long as you don't go off into some tangent about arcane paintball lore"

Gather around you little shits! It's 1981 in New Hampshire....

[scottieb]

HAVE FUN.

Communicate.

Move more. Don't sit. Get closer.

Err on the side of moving more aggressively, not less. Push past your comfort level/fear.

Don't overshoot.

[Jonnydread]

1 - Be enthusiastic, the game is supposed to be FUN.

2 - Communicate, over-communicate. Even if you just keep yelling "THEY'RE RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME" that is useful to the team and keeps people aware.

3 - Don't be scared to make a move. The worst case scenario is you get shot and have to respawn. The best case scenario you pull off a great move and win the game for your team.

4 - Look around, try not to get pulled into the trap of tunnel vision.

I think those are a handful of good shorter notes that could be useful to new players.

[MrBarraclough]

[Yes, I posted this to Reddit also this morning. Most of you don't appear to be on Reddit so I thought I'd post it here as well.]

Here's a little mental exercise/thought experiment for everyone who sometimes finds themselves shepherding rentals on open play days.

The Setup: It's a brand new day of paintball at your local woodsball field, with the typical mix of self-equipped regulars and clusters of rentals, a majority of the players being the latter. The field mixes everyone together (but does a decent job balancing teams). The games are on the longish side (say 15-20 minutes) and therefore usually have some kind of respawn mechanic that varies from game to game. Your team includes a birthday party of about a dozen or so kids around 11-13 years old, none of whom have played before. Everyone has gone through the safety brief and chronograph station, and now you've got about 15 minutes of downtime in the staging area before the first game kicks off. Your rentals are excited to play and eager to learn the secrets of paintball from the "pros," who they take to be anyone wearing a pod pack.

The Question: What can you feasibly teach these kids in that 15 minutes that will help them play better and thereby have a better time?
Remember the parameters:

• You're in the staging area, so no shooting practice, but you can pick up your marker (with your barrel cover firmly in place) and use it as a visual aid. They can also practice holding, shouldering, and aiming their rental Tippmanns.
• Assume the kids are paying attention and are interested in hearing what you have to say, so long as you don't go off into some tangent about arcane paintball lore.
• Your audience has no prior knowledge of paintball outside of what they just learned in the safety briefing. You may presume that you don't need to cover basic safety and gameplay instructions.
• Emphasis on feasibly. Simply dumping as much information as you can cram into 15 minutes will guarantee that they retain precisely none of it. The crux of this excercise is to identify what information would be most useful that the rentals have a decent chance of retaining and actually applying on the field after only 15 minutes or less of instruction.

Good luck!