PaintballX3 Magazine July 2013 Issue | Page 10

editorial
From the Prez issue 56 07 / 2013
paintbal

editorial

From the Prez issue 56 07 / 2013

Welcome

Are We Chasing Away

Small fields and fast guns don ’ t always mix

For the past ten years or so I have been very active in week-long summer youth camps . The past few years several of the camps I volunteer at have incorporated paintball into their schedule . Paintball is not mixed into the camps , it ’ s the main activity of the camps ( there are other themed camps as well ). So it ’ s safe to say that between my day job as editor of a paintball magazine , my many relatives that play , the paintball camps I go to and as a former field owner , I have seen a lot of new players being introduced to the game of paintball . I have watched tens of thousands of people play their first game of paintball and the common reaction to the game has not been nearly as good in recent years as it was in the past .
In just the past two weeks I had a chance to play with and watch around 50 teenagers play , many of them for the first time . While many of the kids loved the game from the moment they pulled the trigger for the first time , many did not .
Some of the kids played until they got shot 4-5 times in a game , then didn ’ t play again . Some of them played in the woods but wouldn ’ t play airball . Some played every third game and some played only one or two days of the week . I heard some of the kids say they were “ tired of getting shot up ” and I heard many of them talk about getting shot “ from too close game after game .”
This isn ’ t breaking news . I did a 20,000 word blog series called “ What Have We Done To Our Game ” four years ago where I talked about how the tournament game has influenced the recreational game in a negative way . I talked about how field owners were emulating tournament fields , making their recreational fields smaller . I talked about rate of fire . And I talked about how the game , even at the recreational level came out of the woods too quickly and too often . ( You can find that series here : http :// john-amodea . blogspot . com / 2008 / 12 / what-havewe-done-to-our-game-pa one . html )
That fact that this isn ’ t breaking news , that we ’ been talking about this issue for at least four ye and nothing has change is not good news . Kids a still being shot 4-5 times in a single rec-ball game Some fields are still allo ing ramping guns in wa on games . Many ( more than 100 ) paintball field in the US still don ’ t have a single woodsball field Manufacturers are still making more tournamen gear than recreational gear . Writers , photogra phers and magazine are still covering tournamen games more than wood ball games , by a lot ( us included ). And really , th issues are just scratching the surface of why many of our young players do play more than once .
So what do we do ? Do we continue to let kids play once and walk aw from paintball ? Or are w going to actually addres this issue ? I ’ ll start . We are looking for writers a

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