Airsoft Action 05 - Jan 2012 | Page 66

“Every team starts at the beginning; dedication will get you the rest of the way” When forming a team as a young player, whether with your friends or from scratch, you need to give it a lot of thought to show everyone that you’re serious about it. Get a badge done, make a forum on your local site’s forums – whatever it takes. It’s not an easy job – running a team is hard work and getting it established is even harder, especially as a young player or a young team. Why? Because as I’ve said before nobody takes you seriously. This is why my team didn’t make it: we didn’t get taken seriously as we were all teenagers (and still are). Through that dedication, though, look at where I am now: I’m writing for a magazine at 16! Anyway, through making my team I’ve learnt a lot about leadership – both as a leader and as a team member – and playing airsoft in a different perspective. As a leader you see the game a totally different way, and this is how you really learn things such as tactics. It totally changes how you play and think about airsoft, in a good way! 066 January 2012 By the way, don’t forget that having a team is meant to be fun. For example (and here’s a good one for those father/son players out there) when I had my team, my dad wanted to try his luck and test us out so we developed a little game called the ‘Enemy at the Gates’ scenario. My dad switched teams for a while and we made a deal: every time I took him out with my team he’d give me £1 and every time he took me out with or without my team I’d have to give him 50p. This obviously sent me into a paranoid state and I was anxious to find him every game and take him out, which I did about seven times in total while we did this. But he did manage to outwit us once… My own dad ambushed us, alone, with a grenade and pistol. He threw the grenade, taking out two of my friends, and jumped out the bush with his Luger pistol and shot me and my other friend! Now to get taken out like that, by your own dad, when money is involved just isn’t cool! Every team starts at the beginning; dedication will get you the rest of the way. Through my team I learnt a lot about leadership and some consider me a natural leader. My role at my local site is now 2IC (second in command) or PC (Platoon Commander), both are which are important roles for leading our team to victory. Personally I’d recommend younger players join an established team. If you’re accepted into the team and serious about it you can learn an awful lot about tactical gameplay and all sorts of tips and tricks. Plus you’ll learn about leadership whether you’re doing it or not. Listening to your leader and paying attention to how he does things, or just working together, gives you a real good idea how it all works. I’m currently going through the recruitment process for a team at my local site called Team 27. Playing with them even now I feel that I’m constantly improving when I play; the way the team works is amazing and to be part of a squad assigned special missions by our overall team leader (in charge of our whole side) is brilliant. You really do get a feel for how the SAS do it; being one of 12 guys setting out to get an objective or clear an area focuses you and can get you well-known quite easily! As a young player, you can learn a lot from teams like this and as I’ve demonstrated, actually get somewhere within the airsoft community. Working as a team is crucial in the airsoft world, espec ially at sites like mine – without teamwork there’s no doubting we will lose every game. ■