Team Practice

The first, most important thing that you have to do as a team is practice; so you can get to know each other's style and so you can trust your teammates.  Does this mean hours of boring drills?  Not at all!  Rocky Knuth, Captain of the Pro team Naughty Dogs, said that his team spends about 20% of their practice time on the field doing drills, and 80% of their time actually out scrimmaging, just playing paintball, against each other and against other teams.  As a new team, you can go to your local field and at least begin practicing and playing together by going to open play.  This play together will help you become familiar with each other and it can be a good first step.  Next, you might try to find another local team and setting up a scrimmage with them.  Don't be intimidated the first time you play another team, it's very possible that you won't win the first time you play, but your team will improve, and that's what really matters.  The first time I set up a scrimmage with another team, my teammates were so intimidated by the other teams matching jerseys and paintball guns that they were joking about shooting me off the break.  It's a difficult beginning step to take, but if you put forth the effort and actually scrimmage with another team before you go to a tournament you won't have a reason to be intimidated at the tournament and most importantly, you'll play better.  Get to know your team by practicing and playing paintball together!