Seems like the fitness fad hit competitive paintball like a bomb a few years ago and its impact is radiating outward in an all-encompassing wave turning both male and female ballers into gym rats around the globe. Which is, in and of itself, mostly a positive thing. Done right it has value well beyond the realms of the Saturday afternoon grind. But it is not a panacea. Hours spent in the gym do not automatically improve on field performance. Oh sure, you may run a bit faster and have more stamina but neither of those translate into greater success on their own. Some sports are sufficiently demanding that a measure of fitness is required to even compete. Competitive paintball doesn't but at the highest levels every effort to improve may prove to be the difference between success and failure. Like any other sport that poses physical demands on the players fitness is a tool. Keep in mind though that the finest tools in the hands of the unskilled are wasted.
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
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9 comments:
I believe the gym fad started with performance in mind, however like you mentioned, the carry over is minimal. I think the gym rats your seeing nowadays are peddling and lifting, probably unconsciously, for "anti-aging" reasons.
If you really analyze the top pro teams...there aren't many "young" top players anymore....
Long gone are the days of 18yo Ollie Lang being regarded as the best player in the world. Jrab was probably the last largely publicized (and successful) pro player to start so young.
Stamina is not minimal when you play a race-to format.
If you want your best guys to play back to back points over and over again, to their maximum potential, physical fitness is a rather large factor.
But yes, in the first 2-3 points of a match it has very little impact.
Also, paintball is a funny sport, in the sense that you can get tired without doing much physically, because for the duration of a point, you are at constant full focus mentally, with most major muscles tight and ready for action.
Different people react differently to that, and some are genetically wired to get fatigued slower that others under that kind of constant impact.
I equate this cross-fit craze as the anti-fight club, where the first rule seems to be, "Do not STFU about cross-fit."
Core and lower body exercises help your explosiveness, speed, gun fighting, and minimizes your risk of getting hit on bad bumps. It really gives you an all-around extra edge, and helps legitimize players as athletes.
If you're lifting weights (fad from a couple years ago) it's just plain dumb. That being said, any training that helps your fast-twitch muscles growth is perfect for paintball, whether skilled or not.
Coach: one of the only times I'm actually 100% sure you're wrong. All the points listed above plus a handful more. Stamina, speed, agility, explosiveness...in a game measured by FPS, surely you would see how important moving those feet seconds quicker is in our game. Tisk, Tisk
Tsk Tsk NewPro
Reading comprehension my friend. I did not say there was no value in physical training.
I said that in sport the body is just another tool to be utilised but that it's more important to know how to use the tool than to have the finest tool available.
As to the relative value of moving quicker there isn't a player alive who can outrun a paintball.
You certainly highlight the positives of fitness but seem to hint at the fact that it's an exercise in futility. I can't understand how being physically fit can be seen in any sort of negative or irrelevant light as it relates to the game. I also can't understand how you claim the effects are marginal. If it doesn't translate to the field, it at least provides more confidence in ability. Struggling to see your point here.
Anon
Fitness and athleticism are two different things for starters. And I'm not poo-poohing fitness. But within the me too-ism of the fitness fad is a sort of thinking that is similar to the guy who buys the $1000 gun to improve his game. I would simply suggest he has his priorities and realities askew.
This is awesoome
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