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Man, oh man, 2021 was one hell of a year for Paintball! We watched titans fall and witnessed the rise of a new generation of talent. The layouts were nothing short of spectacular in providing action-packed matches and to top it all off, the World Cup threatened relegation for a handful of teams as well.

Get Paintball fitness tips from a licensed personal trainer and NXL semi-pro Paintball player. Learn what exercises will help you become a better player on the Paintball field.

Not all Paintballs are created equal. But what makes a Paintball good or bad? In this blog we’ll break the grades of Paintballs down into 3 tiers, give you the Pros & Cons of each and even talk a little Paintball science. 

Learn from one of Paintball's top coaches, Aaron Ormrod of Seattle Uprising, how to best prepare for your Paintball tournament if the field layout isn't released in advance. Find out what to look for and what you should try to do in order to dominate your next paintball tournament.

Playing Tight In Any Bunker There is nothing worse than catching a pack hit from the opposite side of the field while you are trying to maintain dominance on your side of the field. Something that every player can always improve upon is being better at playing the bunker as tight as possible. Each bunker shape requires you to adapt, to become harder to...

With all the different ways there are to play Paintball, Streetball is one of the most fun. Streetball is a format where players of all skill levels are placed together on the same team. Every team will be a mix of higher & lower ranked players competing alongside one another. It is designed to be a more laid back format than what you’d expect...

A lot of times people will see a professional player shooting from the hip, and typically it is one-handed so people look at it and assume it’s pure laziness. Little do they know that players do this for several reasons, so I will list my top reasons for shooting from the hip at certain times.     Reason #1 moves the gun further from...

  One of the most overlooked pieces of equipment is the lens. However, this should be one of the most vital and overstocked products that every player should have. Considering we are often playing in lowlight and bright light situations, in the rain and late evenings, the more options to see better should be a top priority.  Every player should always at least have...

Non-verbal Communication Non-verbal communication is often overlooked by tournament paintball players. It’s a great way to communicate during certain circumstances. Whether you’re baiting an opposing player, trying to be stealthy, or even if you’re having trouble being heard. So much information could be completely lost if you choose to not use simple hand signals or body gestures when you're in a position that requires...

Record Yourself Playing One of the best things you can do to become better at paintball is to record yourself during drills, practice, and gameplay. It is great to be able to review yourself and critique yourself whether it is your form, your speed, your playing style and so much more.     One of the great things about recording yourself while playing paintball...

Cross-Body Snap-Shot The cross-body snap-shot is a very difficult shot and takes a lot of practice to be able to perform this shot with accuracy, speed, and without showing too much of yourself or your gun. The reason for the cross-body snap-shot is so that you can very quickly transition from the side you are shooting, to the other side and place an accurate...

Communication: Strong Keywords Communication is one of the most important skill sets in paintball and would require hours to break down the best ways to communicate. This video covers Strong Keywords to relay a full sentence of important information. The quicker the information can be relayed and processed, the faster you can react and win.     Common scenarios that can be put into...

Multiple Player Flow Drill Setup Drills are essential to becoming a better paintball player and team. However, one big issue with target drills is the standby time for players not actively engaged in the drill. By setting up a multiple player flow drill you can have more players drilling at the same time and reducing their downtime. This will help with endurance, and keeping...

Cross Field Snap Shooting + Running & Shooting Drill   This is a two phase drill with multiple objectives and consequences. The drill works on cross field snap shooting accuracy, moving and shooting with limited shots, consequences for misses which simulates being exhausted towards the end of the match, and straight forward snap shooting.  First, you need two targets and four bunkers. I prefer...

    ZONE CONTROL       A huge deciding factor on winning games easily is proper zone control. Far too often do I see teams eliminate players off the break from a side, then shoot the next widest guy, but they let a player fill over and they lose control of that side. If you ask any player, the scariest thing is when...

One of the oldest tricks to seeing your profile while snap shooting is by doing it in the mirror. That is great for working on your paintball game at home, but it doesn't give you that real deal feel!      When you head out to the field to do some snap shooting drills, try placing your camera on the edge of your bunker...

Snap-shooting over the top of the bunker is one of the trickiest snapshots of all. You are more exposed and it is much slower than snap-shooting from the side. However it is a crucial move and one of the most common mistakes is getting too close to the bunker.  If you are able to position yourself slightly back you can allow your barrel to...

  Snap-shooting is one of the most crucial skills to train in paintball. Not everyone on the field will get to lane on the break, or play the snake, or bunker someone in every single point, but almost everyone will find themselves in a snap shooting situation in every single point they play.    This drill is great for improving your muscle memory, your...

   This snap-shooting drill is called Low Mid High. You must shoot a single target from a low position, then a middle position, and then a high position. A miss resets the sequence. This drill works on gun fighting from different heights and will increase your success.    SHOP THE LOOK Gun: Virtue Paintball Black Fire ACE Luxe X Loader:  Virtue Paintball SPIRE IV Mask: Bunkerkings Black...

I follow three simple rules when I snap shoot.  1) I roll out and in, instead of using all of my body.  2) I aim small miss small. I never try to just shoot the whole target.  3) I imagine I have an invisible line or rope attached from my barrel to the target.  SHOP THE LOOK Gun: Virtue Paintball Black Fire ACE Luxe...

  Far too often I watch people slowly walk off the field and into their team pit. Then when they get into the pits they are busy sharing war stories and discussing nothing of importance. Then they are left rushing out last minute to the starting gate only to be pressured into making a last second choice and breaking out improperly.    Whether you're...

    With only a couple months left until our normal scheduled World Cup and no definite answer regarding whether the event is going to happen or not. We seem to get asked every day several times a day in fact if there is going to be a World Cup this year.      We have spoken to some of the higher ups in...

Visualize Success & Take Action   Everyone has their own ways of mentally and physically preparing for matches. For me, I like to visualize the match or point actually being played. I run through so many scenarios in my head, and try to find ways to solve them before I ever step onto the field. Considering the vast amount of variables in a single...

    No one likes to see their teammate get shot out, but the difference in a skilled player and a non-skilled player is the way they use the information provided by their eliminated teammate. Now we all know that dead players are not allowed to talk, but you can easily use gathered information from that player without even conversing or breaking any of...

    TO CHRONO, OR NOT TO CHRONO, THAT IS THE QUESTION     CTRL Loader Graphite Grey 

    The 10 man event that started all of the mechanical hype and made all of the nostalgic feelings come alive is declared to be on schedule for this year!    *** Let's get ready to RUMBLE!! *** The city of Pittsburgh will officially be cleared for opening by the governor this Friday, which means that everything is now on track for another...

It appears that paintball fields all across the country are slowly being permitted to open back up. This is great news for the paintball industry considering the recent article on NXL Regional Conference Events being hosted at actual fields and not large venues.  Every state, city, and county has its own rules and regulations so you can expect that all of the fields will...

On May 12th, 2020 the National Xball League announced that the professional divisions will be broken up into 3 regional conferences, while the lower divisions will be able to choose. With this announcement, they also stated that the upcoming NXL Chicago event is now canceled due to the Covid19 situation. We can expect that there will be regional events now with the professional teams...

 GUN UP LOADING  A very crucial skill to learn in tournament paintball is how to load with your gun up. Loading gun up is not always done in the form of defense, but also in aggression and maintaining control. I've noticed in my years of helping divisional players that a huge common flaw that most of them have is losing control of a situation....

NXL Richmond Virginia 2020 Canceled Tom Cole President of the National Xball League participated in a live Q&A video to discuss the current paintball situation and the upcoming events. During the video, he informed the paintball community that the NXL Richmond Virginia event will be canceled. He also spoke about a few different options that they are exploring to get some paintball tournaments actively...

Bunker Stacking The importance of knowing how to properly stack in a bunker is so crucial. The more players sharing a single bunker when shooting off the break can either look like a work of art or a catastrophe. It all takes proper communication, knowing the field, and timing to do it perfectly.  You'll notice teams normally stack two players in the back center...

Aim Small Miss Small When it comes to sweet spotting, gun-fighting, snap shooting, camping on a player, or even stepping out to edge out a hunkered down player I always l believe in "Aim small miss small". What I mean by that is when I am snap shooting and I come out of my bunker to shoot someone, I don't just aim at the...

Aggressive & Effective Game Closure  Closing a game may look simple while watching the professionals but it is honestly one of the hardest parts of the game. So many factors come into play in a matter of seconds. Whether you’re the team trying to hold off the aggressors and kill the time, or you’re the aggressors trying to dig out the anchors, there are so...

GET TO KNOW PROFESSIONAL TEAM STOCKHOLM JOY DIVISION ATHLETE QUESTIONS Team name: Joy Name: Edoardo Navone Location: Torino, Italy Age: 27 Jersey #: 18 Favorite paintball memory: Scorpions Milano promoted to CPL Favorite BK product: CMD. Comfort and breathability second to none 2 season’s goals: Top 3 at every event of NXL EU. Winning the Italian Championship. Advice/tip for a newbie: cooperate with your...

Get to Know Bunkerkings Sponsored Professional Team Tampa Bay Damage  Athlete Questions   1. Team Name: Tampa Bay Damage 2. Name: Jason "FK" Edwards 3. Location: Tampa, Florida 4. Age: 33 5. Jersey #: 13 6. Favorite Paintball Memory: Winning World Cup with Damage, and playing alongside my younger brother and Keith Brown. Both kids I helped bring up the ranks and train in...

*** Teammates vs Friends ***I see divisional players jump from team to team and while doing so friendships end. There is a huge difference between being teammates and being friends. A true friend wishes the best for one another and never holds it against them for trying to better themselves. Teammates become friends and friends become family.

PRACTICE VS. TOURNAMENT GEAR This is a topic I feel is severely overlooked by almost all tournament paintball players. If you’ve ever played other organized sports I am sure you are familiar with practice uniforms and game uniforms. Paintball is one of the few sports that players commonly use their entire tournament outfit and gear in every practice, the only common item not worn...

HOW TO GET A SPONSORSHIP A lot of people ask me about sponsorships and how to obtain them or why they are being turned down. Take for instance any professional athlete in other sports, when you see the best of the best players endorsed by the most expensive product, it’s because they themselves are worth a higher value and are able to create a return...

ICPL Florida 10man Event  The hype is real. After we played the Iron City Classic the whole Virtue & Bunkerkings crew was itching to get out there and play some more 10-man paintball. This time though we did something a little bit different. We invited our dealers to come on out and get into the action with us. Jacob Edwards, Chris Williams, and I...

Breakout Practice-Without Breaking the Bank As we all know the “Breakout” of a point is usually a key factor in the outcome of the point. The team that gets the most eliminations while surviving the breakout normally wins the match. Now I am sure you have all watched a professional match and said to yourself “Wow, look how smooth they breakout and cover each...

Making Unnatural Feel Natural I have never believed in the saying “Weak Hand”. I call it Non-dominant or Unnatural. The reason being is paintball guns are easy to shoot with both hands, they are electronic activated trigger pulls, they are held stable with both arms, and they are no longer heavy metal bricks!

Break Out Shooting, Finding The Right Spot When looking for a good lane to shoot off of the break, you need to look at all of the possible angles. The typical player looks from the back center, at a normal height, and just shoots paint from there. However, that is not always the best way to get the eliminations off of the break.