[Opinion] Sideline Coaching: Genie out of the Bottle?
Sideline Coaching: Genie out of the Bottle?
‘HIGHWAY!’. . . ‘SHOOT the BOX’, ‘WEASEL ONE!’ ‘MAGIC the S2!’ ‘HE‘s in the. . .’ Sound familiar? If you’ve ever witnessed a ‘Race To’ match you know that the quotes above are often not so distinguishable. In the chaos that was formerly known as x-ball, the sidelines can be shear madness.
The concept of having sideline coaching (in its various evolutions) was not part of the original formula in tournament paintball. Today, there are those who play and coach the game who would like to see it . . .eliminated. Conversely, there are players and coaches who see no reason to stop using it.
Side-Line Coaching and Crowd Participation
The two are inextricably linked. In other words, you either can have yelling, screaming, communicating, or you don’t. If you try to say no sideline coaching, who is going to monitor crowd directives? The PSP at one point had a specific area for sideline coaching and there was a safety issue affecting it.
The alternative is no coaching, talking, etc during a game / match. However, one only has to go back a couple seasons ago to an ugly incident(s) that was caught on tape. The one way to eliminate the possibility of cheating is allow everyone to be vocal during live action.
So when speaking of sideline coaching, really it is part of and includes crowd participation. Then on what basis do some want to see side-line coaching done away with?
Putting a Lid on it
The main argument for removing sideline coaching deals with players relying on communication from teammates and playing the game more instinctively. Player makes a great move and gets the payoff. With sideline coaching the opposing player(s) adjust and the move may be neutralized. So in the rhetoric of those opposed to coaching, coached players are mere robots. In effect, joy-sticking players down the field.
It appears those who favor no coaching originate from two camps. The first would be players who have been around long enough to remember 10-man days and the move to seven-man. The second being players who have never played the game in a Race-To format. The former view old school paintball as a more pure form of the game. The latter not having had a chance to play in it tend to be less fervent.
A good example of this would be the WCPPL. Last year it shifted from a seven-man format to the Race to format. Many west coast divisional players got their first taste of sideline coaching. Many enjoyed it, while acknowledging it takes time to adjust their thought process. So does coaching from outside the net really influence the outcome of games?
How Effective is it?
It is hoped that the game is bringing in and developing enough competent players to be able to function either way. But here is a reality. Most Pro players, especially snake players want minimal information. Primarily, “where are the opposing players and who is shooting at me?”
An effective sideline coach can absolutely affect the outcome of a game. Working in tandem with a good snake player, they set up shots and moves using their own lingo. A few years ago, I remember a snake coach whose code for his Pro snake player to go get someone was to curse a particular phrase at him. It worked time and again.
Another point sideline coaching advocates allude to is a players skill set. The ability to decipher, pick out, listen to or ignore information (often in highly charged directives to the point of screaming) is a skill unto itself. Certainly at some point, every experienced snake player has gotten shot listening to bad info. It’s tricky. Not every team has a quality guy on the sidelines that knows the lanes and shots to direct traffic. Even then, the player has to be able to trust them. So while sideline coaching is far from a panacea for the player, there can be benefits.
The Greater Benefit
Perhaps the greatest benefit is for those outside the field of play. Those in favor of coaching from the spectator side point to crowd involvement (as anyone is allowed to shout out whatever they please). Last week at the MAO, a Pro player had some friends attend the event. It was interesting to see their level of excitement and enthusiasm as they picked up the lingo amidst trying to understand how the game was played. There were smiles and looks of satisfaction. They felt like they had a small part in seeing and helping points won, yelling out positions for their friend. Being their first paintball tournament experience, both guys and girls talked about it all evening.
In other words, the coaching format is fan friendly. Spectators love to feel they have a part in the win or success of the team they pull for. It’s the same principle as fans screaming and yelling for their football team’s defense to get a stop on third down. Leaving the stadium hoarse and spent, they feel as though they had a part in it.
Moving Forward
With five guns shooting twelve and a half paintballs travelling at three hundred feet a second, it’s hard to image any league flashing a placard that says “Quiet in the Gallery”. It’s not golf and it’s not tennis. Paintball is an intense, fast paced game. It lends itself to responding.
We see more athletic players now then at anytime in the game’s history. Just as slowing the game down to where players just sit in a bunker would be a step backwards; encouraging the ability for the crowd to interact is a move forward.
Whether sideline coaching should or shouldn’t be a part of the game, the Genie is already out of the Bottle. To take it away now would make for a lesser spectator experience.
We are in a time where we need all the energy and enthusiasm our sport can muster. Encouraging crowd involvement, coaching from the sidelines can raise the level of experience to one of spectator to one of participant.
This article was authored by Justin – who has written 872 paintball news and gear articles.
Justin was introduced to the game of paintball in ’96. Since then, he has been actively involved in promoting and playing in recreational and tournament paintball.
53 Comments
I think x ball with semi auto and no coaching would be the perfect game, however for the sake of our sport coaching is beneficial. It provides an atmosphere that includes the spectator, which is great for our sport and our long awaited break into the mainstream.
There is no semi-auto. The only two firing modes in use in today’s game are capped ramping and uncapped ramping with a few random penalties tossed at unlucky teams like Arsenal.
Coaching is the same as ramping. “no coaching” is not an option. The only decision is how much coaching. It can be as little as “Just the people who will ignore the no-coaching rule” to “Team-chosen coach on both sidelines right next to the players”. Right now NPPL is most restrictive but not surprisingly least fair with “Only cheaters get to coach”, and PSP is somewhere in the middle with a coach on the pit side and mass of spectators some distance from the players on the spectator sideline. On the Pro field the pit-side coach is stuck in the pits.
Personally, I don’t think coaching is the big deal some players make it out to be. It doesn’t eliminate great moves, it just makes a great move more challenging. “Happening to run down the sideline when the other team isn’t looking” is no longer a great move. Bunkering a guy out because he’s reloading or shooting cross-field and you can get there faster than he can figure out what is up is still a great move. Getting into a bunker when the other team doesn’t see you and then taking a bunch of time to actually shoot anyone is no longer a great move. Getting into a bunker and accurately shooting out the other players before they can figure out what’s going on is still a great move.
The real issue most players who don’t like coaching have is that they suck. If you’re slower, or can’t aim well, or play your bunker too loose, or don’t have good gun/reloading skills, or don’t have the discipline to hold the lane you’re supposed to, you will pay for that much more with coaching because you no longer have the luxury of getting away with those errors when nobody happens to be looking.
the nppl still uses semi auto…
NPPL may use semi auto, but NPPL teams use uncapped ramping.
Players that like coaching aren’t real paintball players. Real players user their senses, teammates, and paintball instincts to make plays. Players that use coaching are just mindless robots that do whatever others tell them to. Sure with coaching moves are harder to make but this way the slower player that can’t aim well with poor reloading skill won’t bunker you again while playing your bunker loose when you have no idea what’s going on in the game.
I’ve played all formats and done well in each and all I have to say is have a race to format with pure semi mode and no coaching.
RaceTo with Pure Semi Auto huh? How about each team gets a member of the X-Men too?
When you say “Pure Semi Auto” you might as well just come out and say “I have no idea what I’m talking about”. Nobody holding an electronic gun is shooting semi auto. If you put a real semi auto gun in the hand of most players today it would shoot so slow they would think it was broken.
Sadly here in New Zealand our firearm laws mean we can only have semi-auto. Hurts the sport a lot and pushes the cost of guns up as they need legal boards.
Solid article. Coaching and having a coaching staff only helps legitimize the game as a real sport.
we dont have alot of spectators, I see maybe 200 people at a finals game in both leagues if were lucky lol.I think the small crowd we got would like to see a big game breaking move rather than feel the energy of coaching a pro player that isn’t even listening to them lol . I feel we should get rid of the coaching.
“In the chaos that is what was formerly known as x-ball”
Learn to write.
Thanks, you caught what spell check and my proof reading didn’t. Appreciate the heads up!
Guy’s a jerk and you’re still civil… This sport needs more people like you
Yeah justin atta boy being the bigger man!!
Overall I’d say coaching is no problem and encourages crowd participation. One area where coaching sucks is when it gets down to a 1-on-1. It’s nice to see the players try to out-think each other without outside interference. With coaching, it just becomes a snap-shooting drill.
this!
In the end the best Gun Fighter wins? so it doesn’t matter
Mech guns
these days u might as well have a league with uncapped full auto and everyone just blast away. Ramping?? wtf happened to walking a trigger, now u can shoot 15 bps with one finger. what happened to real paintball ninja moves like BC in the snake in the huntington beach finals in 05 vs avalanche. now u can be the fastest sprinter on the planet and the other teams coach is gonna make sure that guy youre about to bunker the stuffing out of spins on u no matter. I thought one thing about being pro was that you can shoot fast and straight in semi auto and not have to mow a bunker to get someone out. How many times have u seen matty marshall double tap someone back in the day or rusty glaze one ball somebody. Bottom line you new generation of players ALL SUCK you are all whiny cry baby little brats who needed mommy or daddy to buy u a ramping chip for christmas from virtuePB <<(killed paintball) because every weekend at the field u got handled with your 1200 dollar gun why? cause u suck…..
so should side line coaching go? why bother? x-ball is already nothing but a freak show
Everything needs to go back to the woods to legitimize players in terms of being able to setup moves and communicate. Today, moves are made soley by an “oppurtunities as they occur” paradigm. Sure you setup plays to avoid loosing and exploit certain weak points of your opponent, but you rarely see a play that is completely different from the other team. Xball limits the creativity of how the game is played. In 10 man I feel there was more strategy more build up, climax and down fall. It was like you were watching a thematic movie. Now you have a very cookie cutter game. That gets boring to watch after 3 points. I hate 7 man and as I have gotten older I have begun to hate xball because it’s so repeative.
I totally agree. Xball has gotten boring, you watch the same thing over and over with teams doing the same moves. 10 man and even 7 man is the best format for our sport. Pure strategy and team work. These days paintball is boring and losing interest very fast because its the same thing over and over again.
DOWN WITH XBALL
BRING BACK 10 MAN!… where teams actually had to mesh and work together to acheive the greater goal.
Everyone has great points here. I agree that the game is more fun for the PLAYERS without coaching, but the crowd finds it boring. The Raceto format is way more fun to watch than 7 man though (not talking about coaching here) so that’s a huge improvement. I enjoy the ramping too because it evens the playing field universally in terms of rate of fire. You can say that being able to fire faster in semi is a hallmark of a good player but really, paintball should be about making moves, not dumping paint .8 bps faster than the other guy. In my opinion, we keep Xball the way it is without the DEDICATED coaching (let the crowd do what they want) and it would be perfect
bring back ten man! how many teams have a d2 and d3 team (A/B squad)? how many feilds sponsor over 3 teams? 10 man can exist. Hopefully the NPPL will bring it back.
Great article Justin.
The reason RaceTo is the better format is that its better suited to be considered a true sport. It’s easy for someone who has never seen paintball before to look at the score board and see which team is up by point, how much time is left, ect… 7-Man/10-Man is to hard to walk up mid game and know whats going on because it is ran off a point based ie number of players eliminated, players still in the game, flag hang. If I were to bring my mother to a NPPL event and walked right to the first field we seen and hadnt already told her how this version of paintball works her first words would be, “who is winning?” With RaceTo we could walk up to a field and she could see the score board and after a point is scored and the score is changed she would easily know who is winning the match. And being a former wrestler I know all about mothers who love to yell when there kids are competing. Find a parent who isnt and Ill show you a adopted child.
MW – until the referees actually CONTROL the game, no format of paintball is a “true” sport.
Officials can not control a game until they can stop play and stop the clock and there is an effective way to “re-set” the field following penalty assessment.
Steve, if being able to stop and start a game is what it takes to make a sport then paintball will never reach that title. Paintball is not suited for that type of play. If everytime a player wasent tagged up on the start box when the buzzer sound and the refs would stop the point to acces the penilty then re-start the point or when a player plays on then matches would take twice as long and would cost more to have. It is hard to stop a point mid game mainly do to the sounds of the markers. Next time your at a field, and there is a player hurt or some reason a point needs to stop, see how long it takes. there is noramlly atleast 5 to 6 seconds of shooting that happens or more when the refs wave off a point. The penalty system we have now works just fine. I do miss the boxes in the lower divisions but with the shorter matches the new format works well.
So you like RaceTo then? Clock stops after every play, just like football.
Refs can control the game just fine, so long as they know what they are doing and have the sack to do it. Letting them pause the game isn’t going to change either of those two problems; it’ll just make it take longer.
“Sideline coaching” was originally introduced at several televised tournaments in the early 90s as a way to involve the crowd (and to ramp up the television audience). It was formalized at the USPL’s PaintFest tournament in 2000 when the new format (now known as x-ball/race-to) was originally introduced.
Experience proved that spectators get more “into” the game when they are allowed to participate in a manner similar to what goes on at other professional sports games.
Teams were reluctant to embrace it at first, feeling that their opponents might be able to stack the crowd (truthfully, a large, stadium-sized crowd yelling passes NOTHING usable onto the field); allowing each team to have a talking coach on the sideline got them past their reluctance.
It influences the game far less than anyone realizes, but perception is reality – especially when it comes to paintball.
Coaching does make the sport seem more legitimate to people who are not as involved as we are. I brought my girlfriend to one of my “race to” events. That was her first time ever being around paintball and she was able to figure out what was happening, who was winning and all that good stuff relatively quick. If it were a format that did not have coaching I probably would have to spend my whole day explaining to her how they score 7man or 5man or whatever. Do I think coaching ruins some great moves? Of course, I’ve gotten blasted numerous times going to stab someone who wouldn’t have shot me if there wasn’t a coach, but honestly I like the coaching because it helps alot, especially when you are one of the last people alive on the field. Its helped me pull off a bunch of 3 on 1s and situations like that. One other thing people have is that you basically become a robot because you do everything the coach says and in a way that is true but the coach mostly talks to the front player who has to keep his head down and can’t see what is going on down field so its nice for them to have a set of eyes. Just my 2 cents.
I’ve never liked coaching, whether it be playing, on the sideline its self, or just spectating; it’s not my cup of coffee. My view is similar to my father’s, as he has taken me to the Chicago PSP for the past 3 years. Basically, from a spectating stand point, coaching can get incredibly annoying. Personally I don’t mind the team’s official coach, but when it come’s to the fan boy that I’m stuck next too, I can’t stand it. Also, I’m not a huge fan when my voice goes horse or the gaging from excessive yelling (from a day’s worth of coaching my own team).
In the end the only real benefit I see is the point given in the article. It’s not cheating if you allow it. If you can meld that with the fact that fan coaching is next redundant, then maybe it will neutralize it’s self out. The said benefits of “Fan participation” are just not plausible enough for me. Almost like an illusion because I know that if I decided to coach Infamous or Aftershock out of impulse, it wouldn’t have that much of an effect.
the fan coaching really isn’t meant to help people out in the pro division. its just so they can be like fans at lets say a football or baseball game. its so the fans have a good time.
for lower division teams, sideline coaching from fans can be helpful
psp should keep coaching, have the guns capped at 13.3 on semi-auto. Also get rid of the flag, and put buzzers like in europe, but still keep the penalty boxes.
So… 5man?
Having coaches just puts up this facade of legitimacy. Gone are the things that made an argument for real legitimacy; actually playing in the public eye and legitimate venues. Those things were a forward moving testament to legitimacy, not a coach.
I think you could keep spectator involvement but do it in a way that it’s detrimental to the game. I think you could also make something like 10 man into a scoreboard based game, best score of three matches. Make the goal just to just shoot the other 10 guys each game. 1 point for each person no BS points for hanging a flag, first pull. Those points are what makes a traditional game hard to watch because you have to know the rules and the non-uniform point system. Simplify the things that a person needs to know, in this case a score board just displays how many people each team has shot in that game and then display the total score. This is even simpler than xball. You don’t have to explain a concede of a point, you don’t have to explain why a person should sit and run down the clock, etc. The focal point is on the action that everyone thinks of when they think of paintball even if they don’t play… getting hit.
you sir have got it figured out, 10 man div, no flags, how many guys can u shoot out before the clock ends. i would still say not in the woods though, i still wanna play on level, even ground and not have to worry about dislocating or tearing something. and keep the airball bunkers so we have something soft to slide into.Basically bring back the most recent form of ten man and change the scoring system. also lower the entry fee and just let us play.
This man has the right idea! 10 man, simple points system best out of 3… this is the way to go
Thanks. If only I played still. I stopped playing in 2008 because it just got stupid. I was fortune enough to play pro during probably the highest point in paintball history 2004 – 2007, but the game became boring to me. The Ten man format, I think broaden the complexity of the game.
Just trying to provide solutions, instead of complaining with no solution.
Elimating coaching & counter coaching would be a good thing
Great Article
why stop at 10? Lets do 12 man, hell, make it a Baker’s dozen with 13. Even better would be to take the area that all the fields would normally take up and make one big field at the events. Then, figure out out a safe, competitive, entertaining number of players like 20 on 20 or 25 on 25.
Who came up with this seven and ridiculous five man stuff anyway? What this sport needs is to get back to its roots. To become legitimate again. We need grown ass men playing this game.
If paintball is ever going to become mainstream, the leagues are going to have to realize there is only ONE direction. In the real world, there are no inflatable bunkers. There are trees however and earthen mounds. Doesn’t it make sense to keep it real?
Im not saying do away with x-ball or y-ball or whatever. It could be useful as a diversion from the real focus. After a long day of woods ball practice, jump on the inflatable field for some silly fun. Just clear the head sorta thing.
So its pretty simple really. Let’s get the sport back where it belongs in America. Thank you and come again.
That’s ridiculous. There are a TON of players who want nothing to do with the woods when they paintball and your claims that inflatable bunkers are “silly fun” just point to the fact that you don’t compete in tournaments. The reason for the switch to bunkers and symmetrical layouts, is that BOTH teams are even in terms of starting side advantage (in theory). You can’t have a sport where the starting location of your team is unbalanced because it removes any semblance of fairness in competition. And how long would a tournament take if every team had 25 players? I don’t hate on woodsball (I started ther and still enjoy it) but don’t try to say that it’s the “real focus” when there are plenty of teams out the putting in the time and effort to improve themselves in the tournament scene.
I want ten back too but you I’m sorry to say asking for an everyday woodsball game, we’re talking about 10 on 10 on a large AIRBALL FIELD, you’re talking about an ordinary day at SC Village walk-on rec ball. Point is we’re talking about trying to bring something back, you’re talking about something you already have, and even if you mean something more serious than walk on rec-ball you have the big scenario games.
10 man? Like spectators don’t already have enough problems following 10 different players, lets make it 20? Please. Moneyball was right with one thing, paintball struggles with outside media because there is no central point of focus following the flow of the game – i.e. the basketball, the baseball, the puck, the football, etc.
The majority of people supporting 10 man are either scrubs who excuse the fact they can’t keep up by blaming the format, or the rare legitimate old player who never wanted to keep up.
media?!?!?!?!?!
spectators?!?!?!?!?!
keep riding the hype kid, you missed the point, we THE PLAYERS, YEA REMEMBER US? the people that put more money into this industry than anyone, yea we’re still here and we want ten man, you wanna be the next ollie lang kid good for you, you wanna be mr. paintball tv star one day? HA go on ahead and keep dreaming, paintball isnt just you tweens. remember that, and if you even think a majority of the money all these companys make is from speedball, you are sadly mistaken
I can almost guarantee I have more knowledge about this industry than you do,
If ‘the players’ wanted 10 man then there would still be 10 men
Sorry, I thought we were talking about a sport not a hobby. Oh, and by the way, I love the fact that woodsballers pay $100+ per 2000 rounds so I can pay $25-$35
betweem 2006-2008, or the time before the “recession” Tournament paintball had hopes of legitimacy as a sport. With ESPN and FSN exposure, many people and companies were trying to show the world how a lot of us Tournament ballers see it. We’re not trying to be Ollie Lang that isn’t even the discussion here. The key factor is the growth and development of paintball which should be every players vision. If people have aspirations of becoming a pro or high level tourney baller… What’s wrong with that? We’re still contributing to paintball. The honest truth I’ve spent more money on tournament ball than playing rec/woodsball. Again that isn’t the issue.
With 7man and xball it was all about fitting the spectator and player’s needs. I like both formats but I lean towards the 7man chess style compared to the xball checkers style. That’s why the world was great when the NPPL was strong and running before. Nowadays it’s hard to find a 7man field here in So Cal.
Removing coaching from xball destroys the whole concept of the format. That’s why you see all that intense “chaos”, quick moves, and exciting action. Coaching to xball is like throwing gas in a well enjoyed fire. If you don’t understand then you definitely don’t play enough xball.
Please read my post above. I at least mention solutions instead of running my mouth.
Lots of good discussion here. I’m sorry I missed this one. As a race 2 player I can say for myself and some of my teammates there have been some gripes about the predictability of the PSP’s layouts. Since somebody mentioned Moneyball already, I will say I think paintball lacks a certain 3-act dramatic structure found in popular sports like football, and a lack of a focal point (a ball). I don’t think any format can be popular until the leagues focus on the spectators- paintball does not favor the spectator because of the nets and the players hiding behind bunkers- they can’t see the whole game. But since the spectators are few and mostly consisted of players anyway, why not just focus on serving the players, who seem to pine for a brain game, chess match as it used to be.
When will we all learn that we are the spectators? Nobody tcares about this sport if they don’t play it themselves! Its a hobby, not a sport. Always was and always will be, except it. It wasn’t made for tv
Honestly, you’re all being robbed! You pay twice as much to play a fraction of time we played in 10man. Today you play on average as a player, maybe 10 actual minutes all day when we played 30min games in 10man. I can remember every 10man game I played in, all the xball games I’ve played run together.
Me personally, i think sideline coaching in an xball game is core to xball. if you havent noticed, 7man is a slow paste boring format to watch, but with xball, the way they format the field and the X makes it add momentum to the game by creating faster more exciting games. With Coaching, it adds more drama to the game creating the element of “Anything could happen” in a sense that a player could win a 1v5 with equal chances of losing a 1v5 with the right coach. Yet, the NPPL format of no coaching allows the game to come down to pure skill, which is what alot of players are lacking these days in a way that the coach just has to tell you what to do in order to win. BUT in the harsh times that we are experiencing these days, allowing more drama and excitment i believe is better for the sport as a whole which makes the game alot more of an experience.
Me personally, i think that coaching should stick the Xball format. Some might think differently than me, but like everyone elses comment on this article, it’s just an opinion
I like coaching
lol, i’m partially deaf.
i can barely hear the coaching as it is and i do fine.