I was gunfighting again ! I was being aggressive ! I was bumping up to the next bunker and using other bunkers as cover while I moved ! ( I was also wheezing for air , cursing my age and regretting a decade of quarter pounder cheeseburgers .) This was amazing ! It will go down as one of my greatest paintball memories of all time . I got to play paintball at World #% ^ #$% ^ Cup ! More importantly though … I was competitive again . Do not get me wrong . We as a team lost every game but * I * did not lose . I made my bunker . I bumped up . I got in gunfights and won a few . Paintball is a team sport and the team I was on was there to just play , have fun and spread the word of the Ally Remembered Foundation . What I learned though was that despite my size , age and stage , if I work on it … I can be very very dangerous on that field again . There is a place for this old gunfighter on that airball field . I want to go back . I NEED to go back . It is going to be like starting all over again . Those big bunkers , you can not see anything . People disappear . You must be aggressive . You must communicate . I feel like a kid with a brand new toy . I have no idea how I am going to get better at this game but mark my words … I am going to try . I ’ m not so delusional that I think I will ever go pro but I AM going to make a podium . So if there are any old timers out there like me that left because they did not feel like they had a place anymore , you might want to dust off your old gear and step out on that air ball field one more time . You are going to get rolled like toilet paper that first game or two but that is not the point . Look around . Despite how it looks in pictures , it is not that old field we walked away from . This is a whole new beast . It is fast , loud and angry but there is a place for us in it and this new crop of players have never learned our old tricks . Just do not wear those new “ skinny ” paintball joggers . With your spare tire , you will look like a chicken ball on chopsticks . Nobody wants to see that .
Play with passion . Steve www . paintball . media
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