Extreme Group Sports, Paint Ball

Paintall was the fasting growing extreme sport of the last decade, it is the only sport, where you can take your mates out for a good day, then shoot them and get away with it. Paintball is a war role playing game where you can play as a single person, or part of a larger army. The idea of any game is to win, and just like war, the idea of any paintball game is to win, even if it means shooting your best friend in the head.

Shoot to kill and stay alive.That is rule number 1. The rest are easier. Once you arrive at a Paintball site, you will be elected into a team, each team has a similar amount of players. Once you have been given a brief training on the paintball guns on how to use and reload them, your first priority is to shoot your friends, before the game starts, everyone does it, you need to get this out of your system. There are Marshall's patrolling the "war zone" and it is their job to get the wounded and the dead out of the playing field. If you have been shot at any time, with a paintball, and they see it, you will be classed as dead and asked to leave the combat field until the next game starts, so in effect, you would of become a battle statistic, even if you are only shot in the arm or by your own men, you will be classed as out.

If you are playing "get the flag", your paintball team has to try and locate the enemy HQ, and catch their flag, simple, without being shot or captured, and if you are captured, they will just shoot you anyway, but they are also trying to capture your flag, so there is a bit of attack and defence in this game. There are the all out attack paintball games, where two large armies literally go out to annihilate each other, this is fun as there are more people to shoot at, but then there are more people shooting at you, and sometimes the whole of the enemies army just comes charging at you like a scene from Braveheart. All good fun.

There are many different Paintball weapons available on the market. There are many professional paintballers who play every weekend, and they have automatic weapons firing a Paintball every quarter of a second, yours from the hire shop will fire one every 4 seconds, good luck if you come up against this guy. There are paint grenades, which is like throwing a water balloon at someone, only filled with paint, and there are flame throwers ( with paint, not real flames ) All the paintball weapons available are a sign that the Paint balling craze is not about to fade away. Some larger companies will use a Paintball experience as a team building exercise, and send their workers out for a free play day, it's a fantastic way to get back at your boss.

Don't be fooled into thinking paintball ball, does not hurt, it really hurts. When you have a small round plastic missile filled with paint, fired at you from a gas powered gun, believe me, it hurts. You will come home with lots of bruises, do not go to one of these sites in shorts and T-shirt, or you will have to be pushed home in a shopping cart, it really does hurt, go protected like the Michelin Man. You must wear goggles, do not take them off in the field of battle for any reason, if you need to take them off, see a Marshall and he will escort you off the field. If you are male, a word of warning, do not think you can just go for a pee behind a tree, everyone, no matter who, will aim straight for you, if you want to have any children, keep it zipped.

Paintball is a very hard game, in the fact that it is very exhausting, you will use muscles that you thought had shrivelled up and died years ago, drink plenty of fluids, and eat some kind of energy bars, it does help, other than that, shoot anything that moves, even the Marshall.

Whatever kind of terrain on this planet you can think of, there is a Paintball course to match it. The organisers of Paintball companies, have come up with some cruel ideas for the Paintballers ( the people who play paintball ) Some of the smaller sites are just a few rooms and a bit of outside space. But some of the main Paintball sites are acres and acres in size.

Marshland Sites

Soggy ground, sink holes, flooded trenches, even in the height of summer, these courses are soaked with tons of water just to make your day that little bit more aggravating, cover is sparse with tufts of long grass, the occasional copse of trees and lots of bamboo, perfect for paint-balling.

Woods

Literally, lots and lots of trees. Watch out for snipers in the tops of the trees, many people camouflage their faces to blend in, and hide under dead leaves and foliage, waiting for you to go past so they can shoot you.

Villages

Yes, Paintball companies have bough entire old villages for you to play with. House to house combat skills are required for this, as each window, door, attic or rooftop may be alive with the enemy. If you like adrenaline, then try paintball, love to shoot your best friends, try paintball, take the missus along to paintball, you can legally shoot her thousands of times, and get away with it.