Paintball drills:

Walky-Talky
This drill is run as a normal game, except one of your players doesn’t get a gun. It
can be any player, but the drill works best if the center doesn’t have a gun. Without
the ability to shoot or defend himself, your center can only communicate to help the
team win. This drill emphasizes the need for teams to communicate to win.
You can modify the drill to a 2-on-1 (the two sharing only one gun), 3-on-2, 5-on-3,
etc. Without a gun, your players are forced to communicate if they want to remain
effective on the field.
Players: 3+ Time limit: Until all players are eliminated (Add a time limit to
simulate real game scenarios.)
Proper Gun Positioning:
1. To hold your gun correctly, simply touch the back of your gun to your nose,
effectively centering the gun between your eyes.
2. If you fail to do this, you will lean out with your marker first, therefore,
your opponent will see you before you can see him, and give him the edge.

Accuracy Drill:
This drill will help you with your accuracy during any possible game
situation.

1. Set up an obstacle course around the field with objects of varying size.
 2. Set up first object about twenty yards away from you.
3. Assign field positions that need to be taken to make the shots on the
targets.
4. Some of the objects can be placed in locatiosn that require you to bunker
them out.
5. You must hit the object with one shot before moving on, the point of this
drill is accuracy, not volume, so paint consumption is minimal.
6. You can procede through the course at whatever pace you deem necessary.

Snap Shooting
Snap shooting is a key fundamental in tournament paintball. One of the points of
our previous snap shooting drills that has been frowned upon was the fact that it
A. took up a lot of paint. and B. you could shoot as much as you want. C.
therefore, many of the hits were based on luck, and not skill. With this drill
technique, precision accuracy is nurtured, as well as minimal paint consumption.

1. Too many players choose to kneel down, even when there is a choice where
they can effectively play on their feet.
2. The standing position gives you a better center of gravity for balance and
movement.
3. upper body is one solid piece, including his marker. Shoulders are square
with your opponent, and knees bent.
4. This is the proper stance, your legs are much stronger than your arms, so
let them do all the work.
5. Notice how his marker aim stays straight, do not lower your gun, or move
it from the proper gun holding position. You should never have to reposition
your marker. Use your legs to make all the adjustments.
6. Not only is this more effective in actual snap shooting, but it will allow you
to quickly take advantage of any possible window of oppurtunity that can
happen to make a move and gain a better position on the field. Remember,
speedball is in fact, fast, and if you have to take one extra second to get to
your feet because you were on your knees, your chance could be gone, or you
could end up with a paintball to the face.

Snap Shooting Individual Drill

This is to improve snap-shooting, as well as timing.
1. Take a target object, like a paint box or a cone, and place it beside a
bunker.
2. You should be behind a bunker 10-15 feet away from target object.
3. Shoot the target object using the one-ball check-in rule. This means you
must check yourself into the bunker every time you make a shot.

Snap Shooting Teamate Drill

1. You and your opponent take standing positions at similar bunkers
 about 10-15 feet away from each other.
2. You can ONLY use the one-ball check in rule.
3. However, you decide when to take the shot, you can remain outside of
your bunker for as long as you want, posting up on your opponent, but
once you take that one shot, you must check back into the bunker.
4. An element that can help this drill seem more like a real game situation
is to run to your bunkers first. This means that your hear will be
pounding, and that you will need to rely on the conditioning these drills
to provide, to take over.
5. When you eliminate your opponent, end the drill, and start again.
6. You can cycle in your entire team, winner stays on.
One thing to keep in mind is the shape of your bunker. You want to keep the
smallest profile possible, so work with the edge of the bunker as a guideline.
When playing behind an angled bunker, like a doritio or home plate, try to
keep your gun angled with the angle of the bunker. Stay in control of your
elbows, and your loader.
Running and Shooting
Running and gunning has become one of the most important skills a tournament
paintballer can possess in modern day speedball. It is an effective technique to know
for front, mid, and back players. One of the easiest ways to eliminate an opposing
front player, is to have your front player shooting at the other. This is known as
jousting.
Jousting Drill
1. One on One drill.
2. Each player must run to a designated 40 yard line bunker, the same one
for each jouster.
3. Each player will run with their marker up, and attempting to elimate
the other player before they can reach the designated bunker.
Four Corners Drill
 1. Split your team into 2 groups and take opposing corners across the
field.
2. One at a time, take a player to run down the full length of the field,
shooting at the opposing player. Do not slow down.
3. Keep a steady pace, and it doesnt matter how many times you get hit,
just keep running till you get the end.
4. Repeat with the rest of the team.

Posting Up & Wrapping

Posting up gives you the ability to control your opponents position. Posting usually
starts off with some form of snapping gun battle, where you gain the edge and are
out and in control of your opponent. You can either continue to blast away at your
opponent, containing him, or you can wait and try to bait him out, and blast him in
the face (a technique I personally enjoy using).
Continually being able to control your opponent by posting will give you another
key oppurtunity known as wrapping. By posting up on one opponent, you create an
opening from which you can wrap. Wrapping will often allow you to create new
angles on your opponents positions across the field. Wrapping is typically done on
the tape line positions, where you only need to worry about one opponent to control
while you look to wrap. This will also be effective in allowing you or another
teamate in moving up safetly.

Pointer :

Posting requires a degree of accuracy and patience. You are essentially tricking your
opponent into thinking you are looking elsewhere. When your opponent realizes
you have stopped shooting at him, he will eventually expose himself to attempt to
take back the advantage and posting back up on you. So be patient and wait for the
shot to present itself.

Team Skills:
Walking the field
How well a team can walk a field can often times determine who will be the victor in
a paintball match. Dynasty starts out with the "infamous" white board to draw up
the field. There are many factors into deciding how an effective team strategy can be
developed, so they have sectioned off everything into three main categories.

Field Positioning:
Once you have drawn up the field, you now need to place your back line. These are
usually obvious positions (the back center, and the two corners). The center player
also needs to be quick on his feet, because he is the player that fills in behind the
front players as they move up the field or are elminated. The two tape players act
more like anchors, not moving unless they have to. You never want to give up a tape
position for three reasons.

1. These players have the ability to control your opponents from using the tape line
against you.
2. They have the ability to effectively wrap, keeping your opponents off balance.
3. These players are in the best possible defensive position to zone up should
anything go wrong.

The front players are positioned in key locations that are often directly on the 50
yard line, or just behind it. Usually these spots offer the best zones to prevent your
opponent from making secondary moves. Not only do you have to place your front
players, but you have to worry about how they are going to get there, which will be
covered later.
It is also important to know where you will be placing your sweet-spotters (or
laners) to counter your opponents from placing their own front players. More than
likely, your opponent is going to place their players in similar positions that you are
trying to achieve. By picking out where a good front position is on the field, you can
effectively pick out a good laning position for your back players to hone into.

Identifying Zones:
To step your team's play up to the next level, you have to be able to identify the
zones. To see the zones that Dynasty is talking about, you are going to have to put
some serious hours into walking and becoming familiar with the fields. Spend a lot
of time looking at the bunkers you are going to go to. Based on your own game-plan,
you should be able to predict what your opponents are going to try to do. When
determining what zones to key in on, remember, it is a network of shooting lanes
designed to contain your opponents, as well as allow your teamates to move down
the field.

1. Start out by drawing up a layout of the field, marking where your primary starting
positions are.
2. You will need to identify which of your opponents positions are most important.
Use your own field positioning to help you determine this.
3. Map out individual shooting lanes. This will allow you to delegate who is
responsible for watching each side.

Pointer:
Remember, you can always move to achieve a better shooting lane to lock down a
specific part of the field. The game is always changes and you must allow your plan
to be flexible incase anything goes wrong. This means you will have to often times
change up your zones as the game progresses. You must pay attention to the way
your teamates are shooting, so you can play off them, by shooting a different zone.
The entire team must have an unselfish attitude. Trust is one of the most important
elements to success using this technique. Players must always know that they are
being watched over and taken care by their teamates

Plan of Action

Now that you have set player positions and identified key zones, it is time to make
up a plan of action to take home the win. Where Dynasty goes off the break is an
important factor to the sucess of their team. On a standard airball field, they look at
what they feel are the most important spots on the field, and we try to stop our
opponents from getting there. They usually start with 2-3 back players laning the
predetermined positions that opposing front players are most likely to get to. Next,
their field walk determines which side of the field is most important. The side that
usually has the most key 50 yard line bunker is the side that is an effort is put into
securing first. The best line for the front player to get there is determined next,
followed by where the mid players will be positioned. Mid players should be
positioned in areas that will allow them to protect the front positions, as well as be
able to fill easily as the front player moves up or is eliminated. All the moves from
the breakout to the midline bump should only take from about 30-45 seconds. The
more you move around, the more it confuses your opponent.

Holding Zones
The ability to hold predetermined zones can often times be the deciding factor to
winning a match. A team can determine the most important zones by thinking of the
most likely secondary positions that an opposing team might try to achieve. This is
where your posting and wrapping skills will come into play. Do not let your
opponent gain the angle on you, watch your zone and do your job.

Pointers:
Often times you will engage an opponent in a snap-shooting contest. If he
overpowers you, he will make his move. When this is happening, and you feel your
opponent is going to move, you should readjust your position, and post up on the
position that you feel he will move to. You need to keep a constant stream going in
front of the bunker. This technique can also be used into baiting your opponent into
moving through your zone.
Another issue when trying to hold your zones is paint consumption. At some point
you will need to reload, giving your opponent the chance to move. You have two
options. You can either slow your rate of fire and one ball your lane, whilst reloading
Or you can ask a teamate to watch your zone as you reload. Asking your teamate for
help is your best option. Continure to keep up the pressure and force your
opponents to change their game plan or make a mistake.
Communication
Individual skills can win games and points, but good overall communication can win
tournaments. Every player has a unique perspective of the game. Front players
generally have their noses in the dirt, and are stuck in smaller, tighter spots with a
limited field of view. On the contrary, back players are usually in nice, stand-up
bunkers, on their feet, with a clear view of everything that is happening on the field.
The job of the back player in communication is to not only relay what he sees, but to
ask the front player what he needs to do to get his job done effectively. Front players
need to be able to make split second decisions based on both what they see and
hear, so the more information you and your teamates recieve, the more productive
your decision making process will be.

It is typical to think that back players are responsible for all communication on the
field. This is not correct. Back players are responsible for answering all the
questions that the front or mid players might pose on them. In turn, to be an
effective front of mid player, it is important to tell the back players specifically what
you need to know, or what you need them to do in order to help you get your job
done.

Every team should have a system of codes to relay information across the field. This
should be a standard coding system, that everyone on the team is familiar with.
Codes are not necessarily used to be secretive, rather, but to convey as much
information in a shorter amount of time.

Movement
Movement opens up new angles in which you can eliminate your opponents. There
are numerous ways to make moves.

1. You can make a spur of the moment move off instinct.

2. You can make a self-forced move, where you use your own gun to lay supressing
fire. It is easy enough to keep track of, and contain opponents in your immediate
field of view. However, it is the opponents you can't see that represent the real
threat. If you are going to move on your own, you need to contain the opponents
that you can see, and pull your gun across the field to contain your new opponent
before making your move. Accuracy and awareness play a big part in these types of
movements.

3. You can make a coordinated move, where 2 or more members of your team are
involved. The idea is to have one or more of your teamates suppress and contain the
opponents that represent an immediate threat to you and your move. You can ask
your teamate to firefight with your opponent until the zone that you want to move
through is dropped.

2 on 2 Movement Drill
1. Using one side of the field, place a flag on a 50 yard line bunker.
2. The object of this drill is to get to that flag and simply touch it to win the
 game.
3. Start at your 20 yard line, and move foward using coordinated support,
and self forced moves, to get to the flag before the other team.
2 on 1 Movement Drill
1. Set up in your bunkers across the field. The point of this drill is for the
team of two to obtain a key 50 yard position, such as a snake or dorito.
2. The one defensive player must zone up on this 50 yard line bunker, and
not allow his opponents to get into it.
3. The team of two must coordinate a move that both suppresses and
contains the defensive player just long enough for one of the players to reach
the bunker.
4. The teamate playing cover not only has the job to create the opening, but
to communicate when it is safe to move to his teamate.
5. This is a fast drill, that can be made more complex by adding more bunkers
and players.
Closing the Game
Closing a game really comes down to field awareness. All fields are different,
but most fields allow two back guys the ability to cross it up and hold down
their zones.
2. Closing the game Drill

1. 3 on 2 drill.
2. 2 defensive players must hold their zones off from the attacking 3 players.
 3. Time limit of 2 minutes.
4. Rule is, you had better not be alive on the attacking side when the 2
minutes are up, or its a draw. In other words, win, or die trying.
5. On the attacking side, two of your teamates need to work together on one
of the opposing teams back players. It is important for the third attacking
player to preoccupy the other defensive player, do not allow him to wrap or
distrupt the other two attacking players, since it will usually take a pretty
ballsy move to close up the game.
6. You will be tempted to put your back players in the defensive positions for
this drill. Switch it up with an equal rotation, since more often than not, your
back guys will be the ones finishing the game off and breaking down the
zones.
7. The more you run these types of drills, the more you will understand your
teamates and your own abilities.

Player Specific:
Back Player Breakout
There are several things to do when coordinating a back player breakout. The
first is to designate field position. The second is to identify sweet spotting lanes.
The third is to decide when and if it is possible to delay to the back player's
primary bunker. The fourth is vision (the ability to concentrate on laning,
watching where your opponents are going, and trying not to get hit, all at the
same time).

Quote of the day:

"Anything can happen in paintball, anyone can get shot out. You know, a ball can
bounce off the net, bounce off a squirrel, and hit you in the goggles."

-Oliver Lang

Front Player Breakout

For a front player, the first 15-30 seconds of the game are possibly the most
important. The players that do the most damage in the beginning of the game,
are usually the ones that help their team secure victory. It is important to pick
out the key front bunkers on the field, then get their as quick as possible, either
by going their immediately, or by delaying shortly at a primary, then bumping
your secondary. You do not want to be caught up at your primary for long, and
should look for the first oppurtunity to bump the snake or 50 dorito. The
mindset you need to be in is to think of what your opponent would do to counter
your own plan. This will help you take advantage of the situation, as well as open
you up to potential flaws in your gameplan.
When running towards your front bunker, it is always important to run with
your head up, and sometimes your gun up, watching the streams of paint coming
at you and even shooting back.