Thursday 2nd - Cribbs
Cribbs evening session, straight out of my nice work clothes and into a few rounds of 3v2/2v2/2v1/1v1 with some of the regular walk on players who fancy playing a bit more around the airball bunkers. Unfortunately the crowd on a Thursday night is never constant and it's a bunch of different players every week. Hopefully before the summers out we will see some more consistency with the players turning up as it is proving so useful to be able to go up and drill my core skills as well as just get that extra injection of gun-time into my week and I would hate to see it go.
I have been thinking about taking some newer players up to the next level and some of the guys I have been seeing at these Thursday evenings are proving to show the aggression and that they can enjoy the faster pace of the sup air field. I am looking to take them down to the Super5ives next round.
I have been thinking about taking some newer players up to the next level and some of the guys I have been seeing at these Thursday evenings are proving to show the aggression and that they can enjoy the faster pace of the sup air field. I am looking to take them down to the Super5ives next round.
Sunday 5th - Bricketwood & NTT
This Saturday was one of my scheduled half days at work, in the afternoon I went up to see what was going on with the academy 49 site that just opened up and was impressed at the flatness of the field and the work that had gone on to get the tall netting set up around the field.
On Sunday however I took the trip with Harry and Shayne, some guys that were playing with a team called Recoil and then joined Cynergy, back when I first started playing around 2005. I looked up to them and they helped me get into the game back then, so I was excited to play with these guys after so much time had passed. I was also curious to see how I faired since I have been playing so much recently after they have taken some time out of the game.
The training session was a get together of some of the cynergy/entity players that have played with those teams over the years, as well as myself, just because I will whore myself out to any form of training I can get.
On Sunday however I took the trip with Harry and Shayne, some guys that were playing with a team called Recoil and then joined Cynergy, back when I first started playing around 2005. I looked up to them and they helped me get into the game back then, so I was excited to play with these guys after so much time had passed. I was also curious to see how I faired since I have been playing so much recently after they have taken some time out of the game.
The training session was a get together of some of the cynergy/entity players that have played with those teams over the years, as well as myself, just because I will whore myself out to any form of training I can get.
Andy Burridge is looking to reform the team and although he's been out of the game due to injury he is not only a very strong leader, but a very dangerous player on the field, as well as a very curious character.
After warming up we powered on through drills, 3v3's and a few scrims. A major pet hate that I have, is when I go out to a field and spend 50% of the time chatting bollocks to other people or taking guns apart. When I turn up I turn up to train and I want to actually spend my time playing or working on my skills. Andy's high energy and enthusiasm meant that we kept going all day and didn't get complacent. However I couldn't say the same about some of the other players who turned up, namely those who played for a couple hours or so and just spent the rest of the day chatting or throwing tantrums. I don't think that in the long run I could work with a team who didn't share my enthusiasm to playing the game as it is just causes unneeded frustration.
After warming up we powered on through drills, 3v3's and a few scrims. A major pet hate that I have, is when I go out to a field and spend 50% of the time chatting bollocks to other people or taking guns apart. When I turn up I turn up to train and I want to actually spend my time playing or working on my skills. Andy's high energy and enthusiasm meant that we kept going all day and didn't get complacent. However I couldn't say the same about some of the other players who turned up, namely those who played for a couple hours or so and just spent the rest of the day chatting or throwing tantrums. I don't think that in the long run I could work with a team who didn't share my enthusiasm to playing the game as it is just causes unneeded frustration.
It was interesting to see how I compared to some of the other players. Andy was a very intimidating player, easily able to dominate me if I gave him an inch to work with. Some players were definitely more aggressive than me, however I think some were a bit too far down the spectrum. I've never been an overly aggressive player from the start; I choose my windows carefully. If I can change bunkers without getting spotted and get the drop on another player, I find it so much more effective than charging down the field and risking a trade out, not that trade outs don't have their place, I just don't take those risks as often as others.
Thursday 9th Cribbs
Again not a big crowd this week, but with who I had there we organized some good first-shot drills, from off the break sweet spotting or run&gunning to snapping. I definitely feel that I made the most out of the time I had as that first ball accuracy is something I definitely need to work on.
Saturday 11th - Bristol A49
The kids from A49284729 had their U19 trials on Sunday and so had set up shop to get that extra gun time. I headed up and Burridge and a couple guys from Bristol Effect also made the trip. After a bit of snapping at targets and the patented 'best paintballer in the world championships' (winner stays on snapshooting) we got some good half-field 3v3 scrims going, influencing gunskills and teamwork. The shame was that the laning was pretty pointless as the site paint was cheap and jamming the rotors and I hope it's something that's addressed before next week when I'm up again.
When training with poor quality paint (90% of training sessions) it is important to count your bouncers as hits, as in a tournament scenario, the chances are the other team will be using much better paint and it's going to splat on you 80% of the time (note: 84% of all statistics are made up, I have nothing to back that up apart from common knowledge). It was very frustrating to see some of the younger players just playing on through bouncers, but at the end of the day it's only themselves they are cheating.
We came first in all our matches - which I felt was fairly hollow due to the fact that one of our games was a by as Angry Jon's didn't turn up. To make up our games, the lovely Kitch got us to play off against Bristol Effect. It's usually a 2 horse race between us when we're both down at the 5ives and this weekend they really had our number. The field was ridiculously open near the start gates and they pulled off leaving 4 guns in the back center off the break and just smashed us before the games had a chance to develop. We got 1 point but they got 3 on us making it a bad loss. After that though they didn't seem to have a good day, I think they changed their plan, where we carried on to not lose a point to any other team all day.
The field layout really forced my hand into playing aggressive, I was getting into the 50 M within 30 seconds of most games and locking off the dorito side of the field and usually getting a chance to feast on their back line as the game progressed.
One moment I wont forget too quickly was when I was trying to clear out the last player in the snake corner, I made a run for their back center with my gun up hoping to tag him on the move, however he just turned on me and I had to make a dive into their back center bunker to stay alive. Ellis not believing that we had cleared up already chucked a few balls and managed to paint my chin green.
In all fairness he must have realized what team he was playing with, it's just not Snatch if we don't shoot each other at some point during the day! Either way we got first place on the scoreboard and we couldn't have done it without Ellis' help. He's going to keep me in the loop when Tigers train at Bricketwood as I was talking to him about looking to train as much as I can and step my game up. He's also thinking of coming down to the A49 site in Bristol while he's at Uni in Cardiff so I imagine I will be seeing a bit more of him in the future.
Later this month I am going to be hitting up UKSM as well as A49 Bristol and Cribbs some more.
Thursday 9th Cribbs
Again not a big crowd this week, but with who I had there we organized some good first-shot drills, from off the break sweet spotting or run&gunning to snapping. I definitely feel that I made the most out of the time I had as that first ball accuracy is something I definitely need to work on.
Saturday 11th - Bristol A49
The kids from A49284729 had their U19 trials on Sunday and so had set up shop to get that extra gun time. I headed up and Burridge and a couple guys from Bristol Effect also made the trip. After a bit of snapping at targets and the patented 'best paintballer in the world championships' (winner stays on snapshooting) we got some good half-field 3v3 scrims going, influencing gunskills and teamwork. The shame was that the laning was pretty pointless as the site paint was cheap and jamming the rotors and I hope it's something that's addressed before next week when I'm up again.
When training with poor quality paint (90% of training sessions) it is important to count your bouncers as hits, as in a tournament scenario, the chances are the other team will be using much better paint and it's going to splat on you 80% of the time (note: 84% of all statistics are made up, I have nothing to back that up apart from common knowledge). It was very frustrating to see some of the younger players just playing on through bouncers, but at the end of the day it's only themselves they are cheating.
Sunday 12th - Super5ives - Snatch
We were stuck for a player and for paint for this event. Luckily the guys at Skirmish Bristol really came through for us and got us 10 cases of paint for the event. To solve the player problem Jon Ellis from Tigers helped us out as he was after a game.
We came first in all our matches - which I felt was fairly hollow due to the fact that one of our games was a by as Angry Jon's didn't turn up. To make up our games, the lovely Kitch got us to play off against Bristol Effect. It's usually a 2 horse race between us when we're both down at the 5ives and this weekend they really had our number. The field was ridiculously open near the start gates and they pulled off leaving 4 guns in the back center off the break and just smashed us before the games had a chance to develop. We got 1 point but they got 3 on us making it a bad loss. After that though they didn't seem to have a good day, I think they changed their plan, where we carried on to not lose a point to any other team all day.
The field layout really forced my hand into playing aggressive, I was getting into the 50 M within 30 seconds of most games and locking off the dorito side of the field and usually getting a chance to feast on their back line as the game progressed.
One moment I wont forget too quickly was when I was trying to clear out the last player in the snake corner, I made a run for their back center with my gun up hoping to tag him on the move, however he just turned on me and I had to make a dive into their back center bunker to stay alive. Ellis not believing that we had cleared up already chucked a few balls and managed to paint my chin green.
In all fairness he must have realized what team he was playing with, it's just not Snatch if we don't shoot each other at some point during the day! Either way we got first place on the scoreboard and we couldn't have done it without Ellis' help. He's going to keep me in the loop when Tigers train at Bricketwood as I was talking to him about looking to train as much as I can and step my game up. He's also thinking of coming down to the A49 site in Bristol while he's at Uni in Cardiff so I imagine I will be seeing a bit more of him in the future.
Later this month I am going to be hitting up UKSM as well as A49 Bristol and Cribbs some more.
