The first time playing paintball is something you never forget - the location, the people involved and often how the games were won or lost. You also remember how people acted and whether they were good sports or overly aggressive jerks. Odds are, if you're still playing, they were the former.

I've taken dozens and dozens (if not hundreds) of people paintballing for their first time in intimate, small-group settings, where I provided the equipment, explained the rules, oversaw the games and did all in my power to make sure they had a lot of fun. Of the many people who have gone a few have really taken to the sport, but all of them have a positive opinion of the game.

On other days, I've been to walk-on fields and professional fields where first-timers were left on their own, never really understood the game and were picked on by the more experienced players. Rather than encourage the new players or congratulate them on getting a kill, I've seen the experienced players walk off the field and swearing and complaining that something wasn't right or else the newbie never would have got the kill. I don't know if those new players ever played again, but if it had been my first time, I definitely wouldn't have been back.

The way to make sure that paintball continues to grow and progress as a sport is to encourage the life blood of the sport - the new players who will come, enjoy the sport and come back for more. Even if they don't adopt the sport, they will have had a positive experience and let other potential players know that. The best way to kill the sport is to destroy the first impression of new players. Most professional fields do a pretty good job of this but the real difference maker is the regulars at the field who actually play in the games.

The only way paintball will grow is if we encourage the next generation of paintballers to take up the sport. Giving them an ideal first impression is the first step in making it happen.

It Pays To Be a Sport originally appeared on About.com Paintball on Tuesday, August 31st, 2010 at 18:08:41.

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Anyone who has leaned into a bunker that has been shot at all day and ends up with half their body dripping in oil can relate to the complaint that oil-based paintballs can get too messy. Oily paint smears on goggles, sticks to clothes, permanently coats obstacles and makes AstroTurf feel like an ice-skating rink. The simple solution to this oily mess is to create a water-based paint. Unfortunately, the gelatin used to make the shells simply doesn't mix well with water-based paints.

Rumor has it, though, that a new company - HydroTec Paintball - is coming out with a water-based paintball.  The company plans on debuting the paint early this fall and claims its product will help to "reinvigorate the industry." I'm somewhat skeptical that any paintball improvement (other than free or nearly-free paintballs) will reinvigorate the industry, but I am interested in whether a water-based paintball will actually work better than the traditional oil-based variety.  The worst-case scenario is that the paintballs are awful and everyone keeps using the paint they currently shoot, but the best-case scenario means a cheaper, better paintball might be on the horizon. I'm excited to find out.

A Water Based Paintball? originally appeared on About.com Paintball on Tuesday, August 24th, 2010 at 22:34:02.

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Paintball fields can be very elusive - you may live a mile from one for years and never know it exists. While some paintball fields advertise their product, others rely on word of mouth which can is often less than reliable. If you search online for a field odds are you'll dig through dozens of pages without finding much useful information - just links to pages that list the same fields you are already familiar with.

The best way to find a new field is to find a compiled list of paintball fields. If you look through the phone book you may find a field that you didn't know existed, but chances are a field an hour or two away won't be in your phone book. That's where a new field search at PBNation.com comes in handy - you just load up the website and a Google map shows you where the fields are on the map. I found it to be very useful because many fields are in smaller cities that I'm unfamiliar with and I wouldn't have thought to search for a field in that town.

The service isn't perfect as many of the fields and stores listed are already out of business or the information is incomplete, but it is a good resource to start your search for the next field to try out.

Finding a New Paintball Field originally appeared on About.com Paintball on Tuesday, August 17th, 2010 at 23:57:31.

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When I first began playing paintball I wore a pair of air force combat boots that provided lots of ankle support and decent traction. They were perfect for marching through the woods, climbing hills and general purpose woodsball.  While I still have my boots, I soon learned that they weren't always the perfect attire for paintball as they were heavy, restricted movement and simply weren't very comfortable to crawl with. Since that time I've used just about every type of shoe to play from hiking boots to running shoes to slip-ons to cleats. While each type of footwear has its pros and cons, there are a few things to keep in mind when you choose what to wear.

As far as my general preference for paintball is to wear cleats. I've worn a number of varieties of cleats in my life and I currently prefer soccer cleats with a low ankle - they are comfortable, flexible and with their included molded plastic bottoms, there's no need to replace studs as is common with some other types of cleats. Plus, they are good for speedball fields, climbing hills and are almost a necessity if the ground is wet. If I'm going to be playing at a rocky field where cleats will slip I still pull out my old combat boots or just elect to go with running shoes. Whatever it is, though, I only play with shoes that are already broken in and comfortable - a blister and hurting feet can quickly ruin a day of paintball.

What do you use? Post a comment and share what types of shoes you prefer for paintball and why.

Paintball Shoes originally appeared on About.com Paintball on Tuesday, August 10th, 2010 at 13:20:05.

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I've heard of paintball fields closed down from mismanagement, zoning violations, divorces/break-ups, squatting, theft and other reasons, but this is a first.

A paintball field in Montana recently closed down for the most unlikely of causes - bears. Apparently the black bears were drawn by to the vegetable oil used in the paintballs the owners chose to use and became so comfortable eating the paint that the owners worried for the safety of their players. Hopefully they find a paintball that doesn't suit the bears taste (maybe a chili-pepper filled ball would do the trick) and they open again soon.

Paintball Field Closed Because of Bears originally appeared on About.com Paintball on Wednesday, August 4th, 2010 at 17:32:17.

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Smart Parts has long been one of the leading paintball companies and it surprised many when it originally started with "corporate restructuring" earlier this year. Now, though, it appears they have filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. For those of you unfamiliar with bankruptcy, Chapter 11 is when a company tries to refinance and modify their debts and Chapter 7 is when a company is going to liquidate all of its assets. With this announcement, all of Smart Parts tools, equipment, patents and property will be auctioned or sold off.

This means we will never see the old Smart Parts again. That doesn't mean, though, we won't see a similar Smart Parts-type company in the future. Another company could buy the assets of Smart Parts and use its patents and intellectual property to make the same or similar equipment.  Or, the founders of Smart Parts could form a different paintball company and create new equipment. We'll just have to wait and see.

Smart Parts Is Not Coming Back originally appeared on About.com Paintball on Wednesday, July 28th, 2010 at 22:14:00.

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When I first started playing paintball in the late '90s, I was introduced to a group of players who literally taught me the game. Their paintball knowledge in turn came from other players at local fields, store owners and random players they'd met while playing the sport. Getting a valuable tidbit of paintball knowledge usually required listening to more experienced players for seemingly hours on end.  There was no central hub for paintball and it was common to receive contradictory information literally from one day to the next.

With the advent of the internet, paintball finally found a centralized location to share information. Rather than having these stories shared only between a handful of players in the staging area of a local field, these same conversations have now been immortalized on the internet in printed form. Now a curious player has literally millions of threads to read about literally every aspect of the sport. Whether its rumors, debates about guns, questions on tinkering or simply sharing stories of games played, paintball forums make it so beginning players can immerse themselves in the world of paintball without leaving their own home.

There are dozens of paintball-centric forums around the web that cover the whole sport or even focus on smaller aspects of it such as one brand of paintball gun. The largest include PBNation.com and mcareterbrown.com while one of my personal personal favorites is automags.org. These forums are a great resource to ask questions and learn from more experienced players, but the archived threads are a treasure of information. The information still must be gleaned as you read through countless inane comments, but useful information is almost always there to find.

Trolling the Forums originally appeared on About.com Paintball on Wednesday, July 21st, 2010 at 23:26:47.

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Most regular paintball player has seen a healthy dose of different fields - from outlaw fields in the neighbors backyard to professional woodsball fields to indoor arenas. While each field has its pros and cons, it seems that most players always can think of something to make a field better. Such thoughts inevitably lead to the thought, "Hey, maybe I should start my own field." When you lay down $50 for an entrance fee and 1000 paintballs, it feels like field owners must be making a killing - maybe a paintball field is the way to riches and carefree paintball enjoyment.

Read more on how to start a paintball field.

So You Want to Start a Paintball Field originally appeared on About.com Paintball on Wednesday, July 14th, 2010 at 11:14:18.

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The Paintball Operator's Association (POA) is a newly formed group of paintball field owners that is striving to assist member fields "in bringing the fun and excitement of the game to new and existing players."  You can read about it here.

The idea behind a field owners association is good - get paintball fields to bond together to further the growth of the sport. I hope it works and helps paintball grow. That said, the field owners I know generally are pretty concerned with just getting everything done for their field that they really don't have massive amounts of free time to focus on macro-scale issues in paintball today. Sure, it's fun to talk about the sport in general, but when you get down to it, the daily grind of running a field often predominates most field owner's energies.

I'll be interested to see what the association does, and as they proclaim, "creating the association was the natural next step in moving [..] discussion into action." Maybe if enough field owners join and actually agree to work together to make a concerted effort in educating the public about the sport as well as encouraging new players to try it out we'll see some positive results. In the meantime, I'm very interested to see what "action" the POA will take.

New Assocation of Paintball Fields originally appeared on About.com Paintball on Thursday, July 8th, 2010 at 13:56:32.

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Many of you have seen the black and white Paintball News that many stores and fields carried over the years and probably leafed through it whenever you got a chance. With the decline of free print media and the rise of free digital media, Paintball News is now available online as a monthly magazine.

The past few years have seen the rise and fall of a number of online paintball magazines, so hopefully this new one will succeed for longer than the other ones. Since the magazine is not designed as a corporate venture but as a way to share insights via a "for players by players" format, hopefully the digital format will have the longevity of the free print version.

If nothing else, it's one more resource to check out when you have a free minute.

Another Free Online Paintball Magazine originally appeared on About.com Paintball on Thursday, July 1st, 2010 at 22:58:38.

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