Paintball: a simulation used by the United States army to add a realistic component to combat training. Paintball: an exhilarating game used for team building and leadership. Paintball: a game that analyzes your patience, strategic ability, focus and physical fitness. It may be hard to believe one activity can be so versatile, so well-loved, and even yield numerous health benefits, but you better believe it! Because it’s so popular and challenging, we figured you might like to adopt some tips to turn you from zero to hero on the paintball field.
- To increase hand-eye coordination skills – Coordination is extremely important in this game. To aim and shoot is a skill that improves with practice and focus-based exercises. Playing tennis is a good way to help with hand-eye coordination while getting in some cardio exercise. Some other drills can be as simple as playing darts, catch, putting together puzzles, learning to juggle, and even a short round of video games.
- To increase endurance – Playing paintball requires sprints and lateral movements along the field. Participating in general cardio exercises will help increase stamina, improving your performance on the field. Depending on your current athletic ability, you can range from high-cardio plyometrics like HIIT for increased sprint times or you can do sustained cardio activities like jogging to increase endurance. For optimal training, you should implement cardio at least 2 to 3 times in your weekly routine.
- To improve reflex reaction – On the field, there’s little time to entertain detailed speculation, such as whether or not that branch moved from wind or if that coloring in the woods is genuinely nature or camouflaged clothes. Often, you have seconds to react, seconds to make a move that can lead to your team’s victory or loss. Keeping your fitness and mental health sharp is very important to improve your reflexes. Ways to tune your reflexes vary from playing catch with a friend (using various throw speeds to promote adjustment), playing dodgeball, and running in the woods.
- To increase visual perception – Paintball relies on your aim being precise and accurate. The best way to train them is to fuel them with the right nutrients. Eat foods like carrots, spinach and citrus fruits high in vitamin C to promote visual. Avoid doing activities that require constant strain on your eyes, such as sitting in front of a TV or computer screen for long periods of time, doing activities with the lights off and reading with the text close to your face. Also avoid being exposed to areas and lighting with high contrast, which will also increase eye strain.
- To boost focus and concentration – Paintball is commonly compared to a combat zone given how fast-paced and covert operations tend to be. Therefore it becomes critical that you remain focused on your actions and your teams actions. The best way to do this is practice drills designed to increase focus such as playing memory games and forcing yourself to commit to a single activity for a given amount of time such as reading or running. Another, though challenging activity, would be to purposely immerse yourself in areas where can easily become distracted. This way, you can actively tell yourself to focus on a single activity, enabling you to tune out distractions. Another activity you can take part in is meditation, which requires you to focus internally on your breaths, your posture, your calm.
- Boost brain power with diet – It’s often not enough to demand so much of your mind without feeding it the proper nutrients. Adopt a nutrition plan that has you eating whole-grain foods, blueberries, tomatoes, pumpkin seeds, broccoli, and any intake of fish oil to help keep your brain focused and sharp. Keep in mind that you won’t see a sudden change if you take any of theses foods just before the game for the first time. Try switching your diet a few weeks in advance.
- To promote quick thinking – While you and your team may have outlined a strategy to secure a victory, paintballers know that not everything goes according to plan. As much as paintball requires commitment and steadfastness, the game also requires a lot of thinking on your feet. Doing a few breathing exercises can improve your mental health in general. It helps give you a calm and focus which in turn will also help clear your mind which making it easier to think on your feet. Avoiding all types of sugary and high cholesterol food will help keep your mind sharp. Take part in activities that require a lot of strategy, such as chess, checkers, or certain card or board games.
- To build upper body strength – Paintball guns may not be incredibly heavy but after an extended period of time it is common for your arms to become tired and want to falter, leading to poor maneuvering skills and aim. To decrease the onset of fatigue, hit the gym and work out your triceps, biceps and forearms to increase upper body strength. Tricep dips and extensions, bicep curls, shoulder shrugs and presses, and squeezing forearm grips are all exercises you can do to build upper body resilience.
- Boost your energy boost – Players know most matches will lead to an automatic adrenaline boost while on the field; that is simply the nature of the game. However consuming whole-grain foods, salmon, bananas, fresh berries and nuts also provide a sustainable energy boost. Eating one or more of the above foods before the game will help with the adrenaline rush by allowing epinephrine (the neurochemical often known as adrenaline) to be released at a more controlled rate throughout your body, keeping you at peak energy levels.
- Promote the team dynamic – Teamwork is a major part of the game as well. Some ways to be a better leader and promote teamwork is to always maintain a positive attitude. Also appreciate good work when it’s done to earn respect from the rest of your team and avoid criticizing team members if the words aren’t constructive. Play to each individuals strengths, notice which team members work best together in cases of flank operations, and learn nonverbal cues and tells from your team to best get a read on a situation that requires minimal noise. Participate in off-the-field team building exercises as well, such as playing team sports like flag football or a pickup game of hoops. Form teams while playing board games that normally have 1 to 4 players to discuss strategy and tactics. Even going out to dinner or having a small get-together will inevitably bring the team closer together.
