Paintball is not an extreme sport.
People don't like it when I say that. We have this idea in our heads that paintball belongs in the same realm as skate, bmx, freeclimbing and snowboarding in the Xgames. We love to say that paintball is "the only team extreme sport".
It isn't, because it's not extreme. Now before you get all uppity let me explain myself. Paintball is definitely a sport, there is no question about that. It rewards physical endurance especially in the Raceto style formats, requires quick reflexes, communication, teamwork and speed. Better teams will normally win, just like any other true sport. But it's not extreme. In fact, treating paintball as an extreme sport will do more harm than good.
First up, the pain factor. Rugby is not considered to be an extreme sport, but almost everything in rugby hurts more than getting shot with a paintball or even many paintballs. Simply being in the scrum hurts more than paintball. If you tackle someone wrong, you can snap your neck. It's not uncommon for legs to be thrown out of joint or broken or for more than one person to get a concussion during a game. Rugby unquestionably demands a higher level of physical hardness than paintball even at the lowest levels.
So why isn't rugby an extreme sport? There are several reasons, the first of which is that rugby has been around since long before the term "extreme sport" was coined. The biggest reason however is that it's not as dangerous as what we'd normally think of as extreme sports. That's one defining factor of an extreme sport: danger, or at least perceived danger. There are almost no extreme sports where there isn't a decent risk of serious bodily harm or death. Paintball on the other hand has a better safety record than golf, and golf isn't even close to extreme. It's about as extreme as chess.
The thing people normally bring up here is that paintball generates a much bigger adrenalin rush than traditional sports. While this is true to an extent (though quite debatable), it's not really the point. I agree that extreme sports are generally extreme, or dangerous, because the people doing them want a big adrenalin rush. The rush is caused by the perceived danger. But adrenalin is a bad measure of extremeness as it's entirely subjective. It's better to define it by the excitement it causes in the audience, or if you want an objective way to define it: injury statistics. Paintball is not dangerous unless you do something stupid, but the same can be said of any sport. Extreme sports are dangerous even when you're doing them right.
This brings me to perhaps the most important point: spectator appeal. Paintball is not right for an x sport because it doesn't LOOK extreme. People go to the Xgames to see death defying, instantly exciting sports. You don't have to know anything about bmx to be excited by what is going on and the danger involved. Also as a general rule Xgames are easier to understand than traditional sports like rugby. While it's easy for a spectator to see that in paintball one team needs to shoot the other, it gets very boring very quickly to watch. I know this because we tried putting on a paintball event in New Zealand, in the capital, and advertised the crap out of it as an extreme sport. We gave away free tickets. The standard audience response? "Boring". I'm sorry, but boring and extreme don't mix.
People thought it was boring because they assumed that we'll be doing matrix style flips and wall runs and amazing paint dodging. They thought this because they were thinking “extreme”. They were wrong. We don't do matrix moves, so the people were disappointed. Disappointing people is always a dumb idea from a marketing (and any other) perspective. Instead we need to advertise paintball for what it is - tactics, teamwork, communication, precision. Not mislead people with this idea that it's somehow extreme, which will actually harm the sport as it did here. Now I'm not saying paintball can't be a good spectator sport. Those of us who know the game love watching it because we appreciate the tactics and skill involved. It's also true that proper commentated coverage can be quite watchable for the uninitiated and I've always championed that. But no extreme sport to date requires a knowledge of the game or commentary to be truly enjoyable to the average person. In this way as in all other ways paintball has much more in common with a traditional sport.
So there you have it. Our sport is great, it requires skill, it is definitely a sport, and it definitely rocks. But it's not extreme and therefore shouldn't have the title. Giving it a title that doesn't suit it misleads the public and makes them think it's something it's not, which is marketing suicide. Paintball belongs in the World Games and eventually perhaps other major traditional events, not the Xgames, so let's stop deluding ourselves and others and promote it for what it is.
People don't like it when I say that. We have this idea in our heads that paintball belongs in the same realm as skate, bmx, freeclimbing and snowboarding in the Xgames. We love to say that paintball is "the only team extreme sport".
It isn't, because it's not extreme. Now before you get all uppity let me explain myself. Paintball is definitely a sport, there is no question about that. It rewards physical endurance especially in the Raceto style formats, requires quick reflexes, communication, teamwork and speed. Better teams will normally win, just like any other true sport. But it's not extreme. In fact, treating paintball as an extreme sport will do more harm than good.
First up, the pain factor. Rugby is not considered to be an extreme sport, but almost everything in rugby hurts more than getting shot with a paintball or even many paintballs. Simply being in the scrum hurts more than paintball. If you tackle someone wrong, you can snap your neck. It's not uncommon for legs to be thrown out of joint or broken or for more than one person to get a concussion during a game. Rugby unquestionably demands a higher level of physical hardness than paintball even at the lowest levels.
So why isn't rugby an extreme sport? There are several reasons, the first of which is that rugby has been around since long before the term "extreme sport" was coined. The biggest reason however is that it's not as dangerous as what we'd normally think of as extreme sports. That's one defining factor of an extreme sport: danger, or at least perceived danger. There are almost no extreme sports where there isn't a decent risk of serious bodily harm or death. Paintball on the other hand has a better safety record than golf, and golf isn't even close to extreme. It's about as extreme as chess.
The thing people normally bring up here is that paintball generates a much bigger adrenalin rush than traditional sports. While this is true to an extent (though quite debatable), it's not really the point. I agree that extreme sports are generally extreme, or dangerous, because the people doing them want a big adrenalin rush. The rush is caused by the perceived danger. But adrenalin is a bad measure of extremeness as it's entirely subjective. It's better to define it by the excitement it causes in the audience, or if you want an objective way to define it: injury statistics. Paintball is not dangerous unless you do something stupid, but the same can be said of any sport. Extreme sports are dangerous even when you're doing them right.
This brings me to perhaps the most important point: spectator appeal. Paintball is not right for an x sport because it doesn't LOOK extreme. People go to the Xgames to see death defying, instantly exciting sports. You don't have to know anything about bmx to be excited by what is going on and the danger involved. Also as a general rule Xgames are easier to understand than traditional sports like rugby. While it's easy for a spectator to see that in paintball one team needs to shoot the other, it gets very boring very quickly to watch. I know this because we tried putting on a paintball event in New Zealand, in the capital, and advertised the crap out of it as an extreme sport. We gave away free tickets. The standard audience response? "Boring". I'm sorry, but boring and extreme don't mix.
People thought it was boring because they assumed that we'll be doing matrix style flips and wall runs and amazing paint dodging. They thought this because they were thinking “extreme”. They were wrong. We don't do matrix moves, so the people were disappointed. Disappointing people is always a dumb idea from a marketing (and any other) perspective. Instead we need to advertise paintball for what it is - tactics, teamwork, communication, precision. Not mislead people with this idea that it's somehow extreme, which will actually harm the sport as it did here. Now I'm not saying paintball can't be a good spectator sport. Those of us who know the game love watching it because we appreciate the tactics and skill involved. It's also true that proper commentated coverage can be quite watchable for the uninitiated and I've always championed that. But no extreme sport to date requires a knowledge of the game or commentary to be truly enjoyable to the average person. In this way as in all other ways paintball has much more in common with a traditional sport.
So there you have it. Our sport is great, it requires skill, it is definitely a sport, and it definitely rocks. But it's not extreme and therefore shouldn't have the title. Giving it a title that doesn't suit it misleads the public and makes them think it's something it's not, which is marketing suicide. Paintball belongs in the World Games and eventually perhaps other major traditional events, not the Xgames, so let's stop deluding ourselves and others and promote it for what it is.
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