The Coolest Thing about Paintball:

The coolest thing about paintball is not the challenge of out foxing your opponent.  It's not grabbing the flag or scoring the most eliminations.  It's not being the player at the field with the coolest gear.  It's not being the captain of the winningest team.  Truth is, the coolest thing about the sport is not something that happens on the field that much.

Paintball's coolest aspect is an element that seperates it from nearly all other sports.   Something that many of us take for granted.  Not me.  Almost daily I'm blown away by it.  I find myself saying 'Man, this sport rocks.'  What is it?  Have I kept you in suspense long enough?  Well, I've run out of fluff.  If I could stretch it another couple of paragraphs I would just so I could get my jollies.  But as it is, I might just as well come out and tell you.  Paintball out-rocks all other sports because the 'legends' and pro's of the sport are approachable.

All sports have their heros.  But very few of them are people you can just call up and shoot the breeze with.  A bush league baseball player can't just pick up the phone and chit-chat with the likes of Mark McGwire.  Much less play a couple of innings with him.  Not so with paintball.  Unless you are playing in some back-woods field and don't travel much, odds are someday that you will take the field with one of paintball's big names.  Not only that but if you are willing to put out the time, effort, and unfortunately the expense, you can become a 'Pro' player.   Can't say that about too many other sports.  To go 'Pro' in Baseball or Football requires just about as much luck as it does skill.  Even in smaller sports like Mountain Biking, unless you have a of things going for you, you can forget attaining 'Pro' status.

Personally I think its just fantastic that I can phone or e-mail many of the people who made our sport what it is and actually expect to get a response.  I've chit-chatted with a lot of famous paintball personalities in person, on the phone, or via e-mail.  In each case I've discovered that they were just regular people like me.  Oh sure, the sport has it's prima-donna's.  But that's because some people just naturally are that way.  They didn't get to be that way 'because' of paintball.

Some of you are probably thinking, 'big whoop'.  But look at it this way.  Our sport is one where a regular player has a chance not only of becoming one of the big names, but also of having some influence on the growth of the sport.  If you have the right ideas, if you have vision for the sport, you can find the right audience for your vision.  Say you have an idea for some new peice of gear but you don't have the cash or the clout yourself to get it into production.  Take your idea to the right person and you can really get the ball rolling.  Or maybe you have a totally new concept for the game, a new play format or a better way of handling a troublesome situation.  The right ears are open to you.  You can have a say.

Try this in any other sport and you'll probably find that you are wasting your time and energy.  In other sports you have to 'be someone' to approach the people who control the show.  Well, I've got it out of my system.  I've said what I feel.   Catch you in the field. scarecrow

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