The Basics of Speedball
This is an info post for those who are considering developing a speedball problem, but even if you're not many of these skills will work well in a scenario game. I'll run through a few of the major differences you'll find in the way that speedballers play, the gear they use, and what you need to be competitive. I'll assume that people are already familiar with the safety and gear aspects of paintball.
Me:
Trained weekly with team Wellington Hybrid for a year or so under the tutelage of Martin Dannefaerd. Captained the end result of the Hybrid secondary team - EQM - for a year. Coached Nelson team Nurv for an event. I've played four or so of the "big" New Zealand events and a whole pile of local 5man events, as well as the HB triples and coaching an xball lite event in Chch. I'm nothing special by nationwide standards, but I think it's enough to know the basics. This article is essentially a mish mash of standard techniques I've picked up from watching pros play, training DVDs and things I've been taught by better players when training. I've thrown a little of my own experience and observations in as well.
Why Speedball
It's hard to point to an exact event or date on which speedball started, but it's easy enough to figure out why. Paintball started very solidly in the woods and never really left, but as it grew a few key things changed. Organised teams started to form. These teams were highly competitive and started to draw crowds and sponsors. The crowds naturally wanted to see fast paced action and to be able to see the entire field, while competitive teams wanted effective and fair refereeing that got rid of cheaters. A big one was that teams wanted the fields to be fairly laid out - not giving an advantage to either team by virtue of the terrain. All this meant that tournaments quickly started to favour smaller, more open arenas where the action was fast paced, easy to follow, and easy to ref.
Over time the teams started to get even more competitive. Gone was the desire to simulate warfare and in its place was pure competition. Teams and players didn't care about camo or having a gun that looked real. They wanted paintball specific clothing and a gun that would shoot as much paint as possible - they wanted every advantage they could get. People quickly realised that paintball in this form could be made into a true sport and started pushing for TV coverage and recognition. Although it was obvious to players that the sport no longer had any military side, this wasn't so to the casual observer. So players stopped referring to paintball markers as guns, and in an effort to appear more like a "real" sport began preferring brightly coloured team uniforms complete with names and numbers. Fields became inflatable so that the layout could be precisely controlled and changed between events, while also allowing standardised bunker shapes and sizes.
Speedball today really has become a true sport in its own right. Professional players travel around the world to play international events with live internet and sometimes TV coverage. Events charge admission and draw crowds. Even so it is a young sport and has a long way to go. There are still multiple competing leagues and rules and the television side of things hasn't been all that was promised. For those wondering what this means for woodsball, it's actually a good thing. Speedball pushes paintball technology ahead at a great rate and this gradually filters down to the woodsball side of the game. It doesn't have far to go though since most speedball players still love a good game in the woods. There is something about a big scenario that will always be fun. In return for the technology, woodsball gives speedball a steady stream of new recruits and keeps the game grounded. If woodsball were to die, speedball would quickly follow. There has at times been some angst between speed and woods ballers, but we should do everything we can to remember that in the end we're all ballers and we all rely on each other to some extent. There's a lot to be gained from cooperation.
Speedball Gear
I'll keep this brief and just the minimum. To do well in speedball you need a nice light marker that will shoot as fast as you can double tap the *double* trigger. You'll need a hopper that feeds as fast as the gun shoots. You'll need a legal HPA air system as tournaments only supply HPA for tank filling, and shooting that fast with CO2 will get you in trouble.
For those stuck, a good starter setup:
Proto SLG 09 or PMR marker with NZ legal semi board Velocity Jr hopper 68ci HPA tank with reg
Individual Technique
This should all be drilled in your own time
Trigger walking. You need to be fast with your fingers. Speedball markers are capable of crazy speeds, but only if your fingers can keep up on the trigger. This is why they have double triggers, you use your first two fingers and alternate them quickly for speed. To practice this, tippity tap your fingers on everything you can. Your pen, your mouse, your knee, your wife. Both hands, more so with your off hand. As a general rule the more paint a team puts into the air, the less the other team will be able to move, the better.
Riding switch. Learn to shoot with either hand, and change hands quickly. When running to the left off the break and shooting to your right at the same time, trying to have your right hand on the trigger is a recipe for slowness and disaster. This goes hand in hand with reloading - learn to do this while shooting with either hand. You can't shoot out the left side of a bunker with your right fingers on the trigger and reload at the same time without your left elbow sticking miles out as you bring the pod up. Learning to shoot with your off hand only feels strange for a while and you'll be amazed how quickly it becomes natural.
Left: Looks retarded. Right: Pro showing good stance.
Stance. Position one eye either side of the feedneck and keep both eyes open. The effect is that you see two of your gun, and they both point like railroad tracks at the place the balls will go. I find this to be more accurate than using a sight believe it or not, and it's certainly the best way to go with a centre feed because it keeps your profile small. Make sure that you are in a power stance and ready to move, as though you're skiing. Make sure that the tank length is set so that this feels comfortable. Keep your elbows in, these are one of the most common places to get shot. Ideally your gun should never be lowered til the end of the game so prepare to get sore.
Snap shooting. This is the core of gunfighting and there is a lot to it, but the basic idea is that you're aiming at the target you're intending to hit even before coming out from behind cover. Imagine that the cover you're behind is see through and you can aim at the target through it. Then it's just a matter of rotating your torso out of cover and you're already aimed and ready to go. Many speedballers have started shooting even before they've quite finished leaning out, which leaves a few marks on the bunker! This way you can pop out and in very, very fast and let off a few decent shots without having to aim. It works great when you're under fire and would otherwise be pinned. Snap shooting is the biggest reason why centre feeds are used in speedball; a side mounted hopper will create a bigger target on one side than the other. With the sheer quantities of paint flying around in speedball, every centimetre could count.
Team Technique
Practice this with your team
Comms. This is a big one, and the hardest for new teams to get at first. Every enemy position should be called out and repeated, for example "dorito 3" would refer to the third triangle shaped bunker away from our side. Every elimination should be called and repeated, for example "G3" means we've shot three of them out, while "Ball 2" can mean that they've shot two of us out. The more information that is shared around the better, don't worry about what the other team do and don't know that you know. There are many other things that should be communicated too (we used to yell "poodle" to mean "gun down" or "banana" to cue our special attack move) but what I've put there are the essentials.
Tactics and fieldwalking. Find the good positions and counter positions on a field and think about how to use them, and how they'll be used against you. Think about where people should be positioned to back each other up. Think about how many guns should be laning (basically laying down massive amounts of paint in one spot) off the break and where (don't shoot at the enemy, shoot at a spot where they will be as they run to their first bunker). You may want three lanes inbetween the enemy and a certain bunker to make sure nobody gets there, for example. After this comes the hard part. In five man, a standard play is to position two [b]back[/b] players in the corners who are shooting up the tapes (sides) to cover the two [b]front[/b] players moving up the sides, who are shooting cross field and thus trying to pinch enemy players out. The back players need to let the front players know when they are clear to move. The fifth player sits in the middle somewhere (called a [b]mid[/b] or insert player) and does what they can until Ball 1, at which stage they fill whichever spot was lost. There are many variations on this of course, but that is a good one to start with.
Key tactical point: Crossing Lanes. If two players are left on our side, and they both shoot down the sides, someone can move up inbetween them and shoot them both in the backs. If they both shoot across field they can stop this happening as well as stopping the other team from running behind the other. If both shoot to the right, someone can move up the left and nail them both (a classic mistake I've punished more than once). Vice versa if they both shoot left. By crossing lanes they can watch each others backs and make sure there are no dead zones in the field where the opposition can move freely. This is something to bear in mind at all times in the game right from the start: - make sure there are no spots left unwatched.
Well, that's the absolute basics. Whoever said there are no tactics in speedball can shove that in their pipe and smoke it :)
Me:
Trained weekly with team Wellington Hybrid for a year or so under the tutelage of Martin Dannefaerd. Captained the end result of the Hybrid secondary team - EQM - for a year. Coached Nelson team Nurv for an event. I've played four or so of the "big" New Zealand events and a whole pile of local 5man events, as well as the HB triples and coaching an xball lite event in Chch. I'm nothing special by nationwide standards, but I think it's enough to know the basics. This article is essentially a mish mash of standard techniques I've picked up from watching pros play, training DVDs and things I've been taught by better players when training. I've thrown a little of my own experience and observations in as well.
Why Speedball
It's hard to point to an exact event or date on which speedball started, but it's easy enough to figure out why. Paintball started very solidly in the woods and never really left, but as it grew a few key things changed. Organised teams started to form. These teams were highly competitive and started to draw crowds and sponsors. The crowds naturally wanted to see fast paced action and to be able to see the entire field, while competitive teams wanted effective and fair refereeing that got rid of cheaters. A big one was that teams wanted the fields to be fairly laid out - not giving an advantage to either team by virtue of the terrain. All this meant that tournaments quickly started to favour smaller, more open arenas where the action was fast paced, easy to follow, and easy to ref.
Over time the teams started to get even more competitive. Gone was the desire to simulate warfare and in its place was pure competition. Teams and players didn't care about camo or having a gun that looked real. They wanted paintball specific clothing and a gun that would shoot as much paint as possible - they wanted every advantage they could get. People quickly realised that paintball in this form could be made into a true sport and started pushing for TV coverage and recognition. Although it was obvious to players that the sport no longer had any military side, this wasn't so to the casual observer. So players stopped referring to paintball markers as guns, and in an effort to appear more like a "real" sport began preferring brightly coloured team uniforms complete with names and numbers. Fields became inflatable so that the layout could be precisely controlled and changed between events, while also allowing standardised bunker shapes and sizes.
Speedball today really has become a true sport in its own right. Professional players travel around the world to play international events with live internet and sometimes TV coverage. Events charge admission and draw crowds. Even so it is a young sport and has a long way to go. There are still multiple competing leagues and rules and the television side of things hasn't been all that was promised. For those wondering what this means for woodsball, it's actually a good thing. Speedball pushes paintball technology ahead at a great rate and this gradually filters down to the woodsball side of the game. It doesn't have far to go though since most speedball players still love a good game in the woods. There is something about a big scenario that will always be fun. In return for the technology, woodsball gives speedball a steady stream of new recruits and keeps the game grounded. If woodsball were to die, speedball would quickly follow. There has at times been some angst between speed and woods ballers, but we should do everything we can to remember that in the end we're all ballers and we all rely on each other to some extent. There's a lot to be gained from cooperation.
Speedball Gear
I'll keep this brief and just the minimum. To do well in speedball you need a nice light marker that will shoot as fast as you can double tap the *double* trigger. You'll need a hopper that feeds as fast as the gun shoots. You'll need a legal HPA air system as tournaments only supply HPA for tank filling, and shooting that fast with CO2 will get you in trouble.
For those stuck, a good starter setup:
Proto SLG 09 or PMR marker with NZ legal semi board Velocity Jr hopper 68ci HPA tank with reg
Individual Technique
This should all be drilled in your own time
Trigger walking. You need to be fast with your fingers. Speedball markers are capable of crazy speeds, but only if your fingers can keep up on the trigger. This is why they have double triggers, you use your first two fingers and alternate them quickly for speed. To practice this, tippity tap your fingers on everything you can. Your pen, your mouse, your knee, your wife. Both hands, more so with your off hand. As a general rule the more paint a team puts into the air, the less the other team will be able to move, the better.
Riding switch. Learn to shoot with either hand, and change hands quickly. When running to the left off the break and shooting to your right at the same time, trying to have your right hand on the trigger is a recipe for slowness and disaster. This goes hand in hand with reloading - learn to do this while shooting with either hand. You can't shoot out the left side of a bunker with your right fingers on the trigger and reload at the same time without your left elbow sticking miles out as you bring the pod up. Learning to shoot with your off hand only feels strange for a while and you'll be amazed how quickly it becomes natural.
Left: Looks retarded. Right: Pro showing good stance.
Stance. Position one eye either side of the feedneck and keep both eyes open. The effect is that you see two of your gun, and they both point like railroad tracks at the place the balls will go. I find this to be more accurate than using a sight believe it or not, and it's certainly the best way to go with a centre feed because it keeps your profile small. Make sure that you are in a power stance and ready to move, as though you're skiing. Make sure that the tank length is set so that this feels comfortable. Keep your elbows in, these are one of the most common places to get shot. Ideally your gun should never be lowered til the end of the game so prepare to get sore.
Snap shooting. This is the core of gunfighting and there is a lot to it, but the basic idea is that you're aiming at the target you're intending to hit even before coming out from behind cover. Imagine that the cover you're behind is see through and you can aim at the target through it. Then it's just a matter of rotating your torso out of cover and you're already aimed and ready to go. Many speedballers have started shooting even before they've quite finished leaning out, which leaves a few marks on the bunker! This way you can pop out and in very, very fast and let off a few decent shots without having to aim. It works great when you're under fire and would otherwise be pinned. Snap shooting is the biggest reason why centre feeds are used in speedball; a side mounted hopper will create a bigger target on one side than the other. With the sheer quantities of paint flying around in speedball, every centimetre could count.
Team Technique
Practice this with your team
Comms. This is a big one, and the hardest for new teams to get at first. Every enemy position should be called out and repeated, for example "dorito 3" would refer to the third triangle shaped bunker away from our side. Every elimination should be called and repeated, for example "G3" means we've shot three of them out, while "Ball 2" can mean that they've shot two of us out. The more information that is shared around the better, don't worry about what the other team do and don't know that you know. There are many other things that should be communicated too (we used to yell "poodle" to mean "gun down" or "banana" to cue our special attack move) but what I've put there are the essentials.
Tactics and fieldwalking. Find the good positions and counter positions on a field and think about how to use them, and how they'll be used against you. Think about where people should be positioned to back each other up. Think about how many guns should be laning (basically laying down massive amounts of paint in one spot) off the break and where (don't shoot at the enemy, shoot at a spot where they will be as they run to their first bunker). You may want three lanes inbetween the enemy and a certain bunker to make sure nobody gets there, for example. After this comes the hard part. In five man, a standard play is to position two [b]back[/b] players in the corners who are shooting up the tapes (sides) to cover the two [b]front[/b] players moving up the sides, who are shooting cross field and thus trying to pinch enemy players out. The back players need to let the front players know when they are clear to move. The fifth player sits in the middle somewhere (called a [b]mid[/b] or insert player) and does what they can until Ball 1, at which stage they fill whichever spot was lost. There are many variations on this of course, but that is a good one to start with.
Key tactical point: Crossing Lanes. If two players are left on our side, and they both shoot down the sides, someone can move up inbetween them and shoot them both in the backs. If they both shoot across field they can stop this happening as well as stopping the other team from running behind the other. If both shoot to the right, someone can move up the left and nail them both (a classic mistake I've punished more than once). Vice versa if they both shoot left. By crossing lanes they can watch each others backs and make sure there are no dead zones in the field where the opposition can move freely. This is something to bear in mind at all times in the game right from the start: - make sure there are no spots left unwatched.
Well, that's the absolute basics. Whoever said there are no tactics in speedball can shove that in their pipe and smoke it :)
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