Shooting Skills
The first time I played I thought I would just watch to see where my first shot went and correct my aim,
sounded good at the time and it probably would have worked except for a couple of small problems…
People were shooting at me!
Thier first shots were on target, and I was their target.
Anybody can pull a trigger, but there are a few tricks to doing it right, learn them and you will be one dangerous dude or dudette!
Snap Shooting
The two most important things in paintball are getting kills and staying alive, snapping combines these two things into a move that is as fundamental to paintball as dribbling is to basketball.
If you’re smart you will avoid fire fights at first, best case only one guy walks away from a gun fight, lots of times both guys get hit. Don’t get me wrong a good gun fight is a hoot, but you may want to avoid them until you've gotten in a little trigger time. But there are times we have no choice but to go one on one, that’s when you need to know how to snap shoot! Simply put you want to stay behind cover until you have a chance to shoot, pop out and fire a couple of quick rounds, and pop back in.
Here's our new video on snap shooting.
Stance
You want to stand with your feet about shoulder wide and your body facing directly at your target, this is important because a proper stance will allow you to slide out of your bunker so that your marker and your aim point only move horizontally. This makes it easy to get off a quick and accurate shot or two. You slide at your knees and hips, you don't move your feet at all and don't bend at the waist. If you do it right your marker tip shouldn't move vertically (up and down) at all. Stand as close to the edge of your bunker as you safely can, watch out for your foot!
Aiming
We are going to aim like we talked about in the other articles, except we are going to aim at a target we can't actually see. Aim as close as you can to where you know the other guy is, even though you are aiming through your bunker. You want to aim just past the edge of his bunker, that's where he will appear first and where he will be longest. As you slide out you may have to make some small correction to you aim, but after the first time it should be pretty close to perfect. Maintain your stance, perfect your aim with each pop and keep your gun up until the fight is over!
Pop Out
Only slide far enough out of the bunker get off a shot or two, only your marker and one eye should be exposed to incoming paint. If you are shooting out the right side of your bunker, have your marker on your right shoulder, aim with your right eye. If your shooting out the left then it's left shoulder and left eye. You will need to shoot out the left side of your bunker nearly as often as the right side, so practice both.
Get Back Jack!
Soon as your last shot fires slide back into your bunker. Don't watch your shot to see if you hit the guy, get back to safety. Don't move your feet so that you will slide right back into perfect position for your next shot.
Do It Again...
Listen to the paint hitting around your bunker, when it stops pop out again. look for an opportunity to stay out and post on you opponents position, or just pound on it with paint to keep him down.
...Wheels Turnin Round and Round
Often you will be far enough away that you and your opponent can dodge the incoming shots, you will both be trying to get out and get posted on the other, but neither can! You pop in and out, dozens of times. Each missing the other by so little you can feel the wind as the paint barely misses your head, and the spray of paint breaking on your bunker covers your goggles, you have gotten yourself into a gunfight!
Keep Cool
Getting ready to do something stupid? Try not to, but it's going to be hard! This is a high pressure situation, you'll want to panic. You'll wonder how many times you can get lucky and not get hit, you may even be thinking he's better than you, you'll want to try to switch things up, try to get over on him, and then you'll want to do something stupid!
Think about it, is it going to win the battle for you, or just get things over with? Can you make your plan better? Enlist the help of a team-mate? Unless you answered no to all the above keep up the fight, your opponent is likely having the same thoughts as you are, "Man that guys good, I got to make a move!", and when he does, you got him!
Gotta Love It!
For me there is nothing like a good gunfight! Standing within fifteen feet of a worthy opponent, guns up, each trying to find some small advantage, popping in and out so fast your neck hurts, that's paintball!
Posting
Posting is aiming your marker at a spot you think an opponent will pop out of. There will be times in every game when you know where your opponent will be, maybe you and him have been shooting at each other for a while and he pops out from the same spot every time, this is where posting comes in. A simple concept but when you combine it with what we have discussed so far it becomes one of our most used shooting skills. Start by making sure you have good cover, and that you are behind it, all of you, including your marker barrel, a marker barrel is surprisingly easy to hit! Now we pick our aim point. You don’t want to aim a foot from his bunker; instead you want to place your shots within an inch of the edge of the bunker, that is where he will appear first and where he will be exposed for the longest time. Patience is half the game so just hold still and keep you gun on target, aim small miss small, and when he sticks his head out let the paint fly! Once you are posted on a player you have the upper hand, it is nearly impossible to get off a successful snap shot against a player who is posted on you. If you don’t hit him on your first try press your advantage, don’t pop back in after your shots and stay posted. If there was ever a time to watch for tunnel vision this is it, don’t get so focused on one guy that you lose track of the rest of the game.
Runnin n' Gunnin
Okay Rambo time to make that spectacular death defying sprint across field, you ready?? A big part of paintball is taking ground, there’s no way to do that without having to move from the safety of our bunkers out into a hail of paint, how will you survive? Luck, brains and skill! Luck, let’s face it you got it or you don’t. Brains well that’s about picking your time, your route and having cover, we will discuss those later. Running and Gunning is where the skill comes in! Yeah I know sounds simple, but so many new players do it wrong it’s worth a few lines, and it’s all about the basics!
Run with your gun up on your shoulder like we discussed before, you can’t hit squat hip shooting!
Don’t wait for other players to start shooting at you, shoot first, scare em back behind their bunkers. If they can’t get out from behind cover to shoot you’re safe, right? That’s what we ballers call “hiding behind the gun”.
Short Runs....Don’t try to sprint the entire field, move to the next safe spot, stop and figure out your next move. Know where you are going to go before you leave cover.
Communicate... Get your team mates to help provide you with cover fire.
Those are the basics, watch the experienced players at your field, and practice. Watch some YouTube videos, most are of speed ball but the basics are the same.