We get a lot of questions on how to form your first paintball team. Skill levels aside, the process is actually quite simple.
How Do I Form A Paintball Team?
Go to www.pbleagues.com and create a profile. From there, you will then register your team and add the other members of your roster. After that, you are all set up! Only thing left is to sign your team up and pay the registration fee’s for your first tournament!
When simplified like this, there really isn’t much to the administrative side of creating a team. This over shadows the real work that goes into making a paintball team, which is the blood sweat time and tears spent over the countless weekends training. Often these goals seem out of reach to many, but when you breakdown the steps it becomes much more acheivable and in your reach.
Step 1: Getting the Crew Together
The question I get a lot is about how many people are needed to form the core group for your new team.
The answer to this is all dependent upon what type of team you are looking to form. No set group is needed to form a team, so don’t feel you need x-amount of people; otherwise, you can not start a team. Trust me when I say that should not be the case at all. I have seen some really good teams that were comprised of only two players.
All teams have to start somewhere, need it be two friends from school or a group of people from work. What is crucial is that you all get along and share the same mindset. The numbers will come.
Step 2: Defining the Team’s Ambitions, Roles, and Goals
Photo: Chicago Aftershock via PaintballX3.com
Its not to say that the team ambitions and goals will never change, but defining them are great for getting everyone on the same page. It can also help by then understanding the time commitment required to get to where you want to go.
When establishing your team, you should devise a checklist of sorts to keep your new team on the right track. A sample checklist would consist of setting bylaws, forming a chain of command, divvying out duties to everyone, and so on.
This is important because when you are including everyone in the team formation process, they tend to feel that they have more ownership in the team.
The chain of command on a paintball team is one of the most important things to get out of the way in the early stages of the team formation period.
In the beginning, you should only have 1 Team Captain and 1 XO or Co-Captain, as this cuts down on the confusion from newer members when looking for an answer to any questions they may have on different issues.
Step 3: Get Out on the Field and Put the Work In
With ambitions, roles, and goals out of the way, everyone can focus on putting the work in to get your team cohesion and playstyle together. Coordinating with fields for tournaments or even dedicated field time practice can get tedius, so it is important that everyone sticks to their duties and keeps up good communication.
As practice go, it is important to stay on track but also not turn the sport into only work. It can take all the fun out of the game and even burn your guys out.
Guys caneven be likely to leave if the team hits hard times down the road, which all teams will experience sooner or later as no team is perfect. How your team deals with drama and conflict will be the major factor when it comes to reaching the pinical of success.
Just remember… paintball is meant to be fun. You don’t need to have all new gear, or one of the best paintball guns. Keep the love for the sport alive by enjoying every minute you are out there playing with your friends.
