Drills?

[AzYaTTic- OuTkaSt]

What Kind of Drills x-factor be running? Anyone know any good ones in general? I would love to get some for my team.

[BMJoker]

I heard they do the "gauntlet".

[AzYaTTic- OuTkaSt]

what is that? I'll look it up.

[twinings]

Make sure you go to the next X-factor clinic if you can. They taught some drills that showed to me why they have become such a successfull team, and one of the few to take down the RL.

[twinings]

Here's some stuff I remember from the X-factor clinic earlier this year. Apologies to X-factor if I get these drills wrong. Remember, I am in no way associated with X-factor, I'm just a local rec-baller who jumped at the chance to learn the sport from professionals. They ran a great clinical and are good coaches for all skill levels, so I recommend you agglets out there attend one if you get a chance.

1) Warm-up before practice/playing - jogging around the field with or without packs and group stretching. Always warm-up and stretch before your day of playing begins.

2) Snap shooting drill: Two players behind bunkers about 20+ feet apart. One player starts out posted up on the other. The player who starts up behind the bunker tries to gain the advantage over the opponent by snap-shooting. Really, it's a snap-shooting drill.

The progression of this drill is to have the player who starts out behind the bunker try to move to an adjacent bunker. The player who starts in the post position is trying to keep the other player from moving to the bunker.

In this drill, you should continue if either player is hit. Moreover, you should remember to use both sides of the bunker, different heights, vary the frequency and number of shots, etc. "Work the bunker."

3) Break out drill (I don't know what they call this)

You learn in this drill to shoot at a player (target) who is running laterally from the back-center ("God") to a back-corner bunker. At the GoGoGo, the target runs to the coner. The shooter is at his or her back-center and starts with barrel touching the back-center, body squared up toward the other end of the field. At GoGoGo, the shooter tried to mark the target. However, the shooter does not shoot at the target. Instead, the shooter puts lanes of paint at two points where the target will run through:

- The first point should be in front of a bunker between the back-center and the corner that the target will run behind. Once the target has run past this point, the shooter switches to the next point (the target should keep running even if hit).

- The second point should be right in front of the corner bunker and low to the ground where the target will be sliding into the bunker. The drill ends when the target is behind the bunker.

4. Four-on-Four Drill

Four players on each side will be trying to eliminate each other. All four start at their respective back centers with their markers touching the bunker. At GoGoGo, two players move to a bunker in front of the back center. The other two players run to the left and right corners respectively.

So, both teams of four have two players staying in center and two players running to the corners. While the players are running to their bunkers, they should also be trying to eliminate the opposing team. The two centers should be shooting at the two runners on the opposing team. The two runners should be shooting the two cetners on the opposing team. Ideally, every player should be hit and eliminated every time, if all players are doing their jobs perfectly. The drill ends when the runners are behind their bunkers.


The rest of the clinic was lecture about how to walk and play a field, how to communicate with teammates, how front and back players should cooperate to prevent the front from getting bunkered/eliminated.

Some other tips that I picked up: Use your left hand when running left or shooting out of the left side of a bunker (and vice versa when shooting/running right). Angle your maker so it is centered on your head and the loader is behind your bunker. Tuck in!

The following is my opinion, not x-factor's: This technique seems to make shooting easier because you will shoot directly at the point you are looking at rather than traditional aiming using your dominant eye. This technique also makes aiming with your opposite hand easier because you don't have to shoot with your left hand and aim with your right eye (just for example). You just look where you want to shoot and pull the trigger. Because competitive paintball is accuracy by volume (by the nature of the projectile itself), and because shooting with your opposite hand is an absolutely essential skill, traditional markmanship techniques seem less effective.


P.S. They told us at one point during the clinic that wearing a long T-shirt under your jersey is in right now.

[AzYaTTic- OuTkaSt]

cool, thanks bro. Very much appreciated.