Baca's Mailbag: In Game Coaching

An interesting question was tossed over the transom this week. Here it is: I know all coaches have their different styles and some are more skilled than others but it would be great to hear your thoughts on how best to coach teams during games.

The short answer is--there is no best. The longer answer is we need to lay a foundation by defining what we mean by coaching to even begin talking about the coach's role. We also need to recognize that at this stage of competitive paintball's development coaching, like other aspects of the game, is still changing and becoming. So I'ma do what I do best and drag this out over two or three posts.
Today being a coach in paintball can mean anything and everything from yelling from the sideline to being the only guy on the team old enough to rent a car to filling a role close to what we think of when we look at other, established sports. For purposes of discussing coaching let's assume we mean someone who performs the traditional role of coach. So what does a coach do?
Job number 1 is teaching, developing talent & preparing the team to compete. Okay, that's actually three things, isn't it? The thing is all of those elements are essential to building a successful team and none of them occur during a match. So we'll save further discussion of those roles until next time--or maybe the time after.
So let's talk about the pit. Unfortunately there is no way to give our question a fair and reasonably complete response without including some things that have to happen outside the pit & prior to the actual in match time frame. The following isn't necessarily integral to being a coach but it does fall into the category of stuff somebody needs to be responsible for. The organization of the pit. Assigning duties to any pit staff you have. Checking the paint in a timely manner--make sure the team is shooting the best paint possible each and every match. Reminding the players to have working guns. Chrono those guns. Put batteries in everything that needs it. (Are you getting the idea?) Basically be responsible for the check list of items that are, or should be, part of the pre-game preparations.
More generally the first order of business is order. Followed closely by routine. It is important that extraneous stuff doesn't interfere with playing the game. Whatever can be controlled and/or prepared for needs to be handled and it needs to be done the same way every time as consistently as possible. Order and routine serve a number of functions. The process becomes habitual and as a team you're less likely to forget stuff or fail to be ready when it matters. The routine also becomes part of the pre-game ritual of preparing to compete. And whatever individual players do pre-match it's also important there are team routines pre-match as well. It can be as simple as when you pick up your paint, stretch or warm-up, fill pods, gear up or whatever. (In practice this doesn't require regimented perfection. Each team will be different. The important part is to set the stage for an orderly, organized, efficient and calm pit.) Control what you can control so that during matches everyone can focus on playing the game and doing their individual jobs whatever they may be without distraction. (Order & routine can be particularly effective for teams that are busy doing most of their own pit crewing along with playing as it tends to improve efficiency and moderate the emotional highs & lows that can influence the outcome.)

Finally, for whatever it's worth, here's how I like things done ... and how I do my job during a match. (Btw, I have the luxury of a team manager/sideline coach and a pit manager who handle a lot of the pre-match basics along with maintaining our pit routine which frees me up to focus on my primary in match duties.) I like our pit set up so that our players can go thru a prescribed routine of come off the field, get air, at the same time staff with a towel is cleaning the player up if needed. The player then moves to get paint, gets checked, can grab a drink or whatever. At which point they are ready to get back on the field--after I give them their next breakout. (We can also turn players around quickly for back-to-back points as needed, too.)
Most of my attention and efforts are focused on setting the lines point-to-point, calling our breakouts, making adjustments and supplying the players with any useful info I'm picking up as I watch the other team's breakouts and play.

Tomorrow I'll go deeper into the process of calling a match and preparing to call matches by scouting your opponents and game-planning.

The Iron Laws of Tournament Logistics, 2

Imagine you are the impresario--the Big Cheese, you know, the promoter-- of a major league paintball tournament; what do you want? As many teams as you get? The more the merrier? More teams, more money, more profit. Right? Hmm, not so fast.
What's the format? How many games or matches can be cycled through one field every hour? Or every day? How much does each field cost to transport, set-up and tear down? What about crew? And staff, including the refs? Worse, nearly every expense is a qualified one. What I mean by that is there tends to be a range associated with the cost which is, in some ways, dependent on the cost of some of the other factors.

Remember the first post? (If not the title above is the link.) Tourney logistics are the coordination of all the material components of operating an event plus the time it takes to organize in advance, tear down afterwards, complete the event and the scheduling of the event.
See, the thing is the major league tourney formula is kinda like the porridge Goldilocks was after at the three bears' place. Too cold--not enough teams (for the number of fields, etc.) and it's a losing proposition; too hot--the economies of scale have a ceiling (that means at some point bigger isn't better any longer); and just right--no more tourney structure than is needed and enough teams to maximize the schedule.

Here's one of the little secrets of tourney logistics. Somewhere in the calculations for the major league traveling circuses (or is that, circusii?) there is a limitation which then cascades through every other calculation made about running the event. It can be available space that limits the potential number of fields. (Remember, the cost of the venue, along with it's suitability, is a critical calculation.) It can be, and always is to one degree or another, the projected turnout which is open-ended with the leagues guesstimating likely participation based on past turnout weighed against current circumstances. (Oh, in case you weren't sure that circus thing was just a bad joke. Lame etymology humor. Where've you been?)
The end result is a known minimum cost can be calculated for a baseline projected cost but the income calculation is up in the air until almost the event date. (Which is one reason why season sponsorships are a high priority. That, and in the past, sponsor payments are (were) mostly gravy.)

The result is the Iron Laws of Tournament Logistics apply two ways; they limit in a variety of ways what is possible with the traveling circus model and they can predict how far off target a tournament might end up–but not in time to do anything about it.
If that just makes you dizzy and what you really want to know is how all this nonsense affects your tournament–you're in luck. Riddle me this: How do you make a field more cost effective? If available you play more hours in the day or you reduce the length of each game. Since more hours in the day would require the added cost of more staff, more refs and rented lights, etc. that option would also increase costs. Shorter games on the other hand ...
Hey, don't get pissy with me for repeating the flaming obvious. I'm the one who told you at the beginning of this that it wasn't rocket science–or even brain surgery so if you're wondering where the big revelation is, well, d'oh, there isn't one. Unless this qualifies ...

Ever feel, as a player, like the leagues are putting the burden of paintball's future on you? Prices gotta go up. We cut a corner here, a corner there to help make ends meet and, amazingly, those corners are always part of your paintball experience. Funny how that works. But, man, things are tough all over. Just look at the hard times PBIndustry is struggling through. (Reorg, takeover/sellout, Chapter 11, hiatus, dirt nap) Still, how many times have the ramifications of other people's decisions been dumped in your lap? At least rhetorically. Whatever else it is, that, my friends, is misdirection. Sleight-of-hand. Prestidigitation. To keep you focused on what you want–to play tournaments and have fun.
I'm not saying the major leagues are jacking you up–though it may seem to have turned out that way regardless of the explanations offered. What I am saying is the current major league tournament model–how they do business and how they expect it to pay off–may have (may have) been sufficient once upon a time but it has clearly been stretched to the breaking point (and maybe beyond) so regardless of what comes next as long as this model remains in place it will dictate (or try to dictate) what the future holds for big time tourney ball.

There are iron laws and then there are Iron Laws. Obey or fail. (Baca's Hard Truth of Life #2)