According to available statistics from American Sports Date, Inc., less than 1 out of 4,000 people who play paintball will end up seeing a doctor for a paintball related injury. These injuries are not limited to just those involving a paintball marker though, they also include other injuries sustained during play such as sprained ankles, scratches from brush, etc. Contrast this with the 1 in 33 people who will visit a doctor for a football related injury and the level of safety surrounding paintball begins to become apparent.
The statistics on paintball safety are largely due to the implementation and enforcement of safety rules on commercial fields. Commercial fields are required to carry specialized insurance which often outlines what types of equipment are allowed to be used, what standards that equipment must meet, minimum player ages and other rigorous standards.
Unfortunately, not everyone chooses to play at a commercial field and instead play “outlaw” games in ones backyard or field. These outlaw games do not require trained staff nor do they necessarily require players to abide by ANY safety rules – playing at a commercial field is a MUCH safer environment than an outlaw game. These outlaw games do have a negative affect on the paintball safety statistics, with a large majority of the injuries reported occurring at outlaw games.
To make things a little easier, we have constructed a list of top ten safety tips for paintballers, which are part of the rules of our field. We require players to follow these rules to make sure that paintball is safe and fun for everyone. Just remember, only commercial fields have trained staff on hand to enforce these and other rules.
The single largest improvement to paintball safety came when players switched from using industrial safety glasses or ski goggles to paintball specific masks. These masks are designed and manufactured to withstand the rigors of paintball while protecting your eyes, face and ears. Occasionally they do “fog up” but you should NEVER take them off during a game. Despite the rigorous standards these masks must meet, they will not offer any protection whatsoever if you are not wearing them! Taking them off, even for a second, puts yourself in unneeded danger.
All players at The Edge are required to have “masks on” when walking to and from the fields from the staging area. We often have several groups playing on different fields at the same time and we don’t want anyone to be hit by a stray paintball. If you have problems with your mask fogging up during game play, we recommend stopping by National Pro Shop and talking to them about some anti-fog spray or even a mask with a fan built in to help with fogging. (top) (list)
Paintball markers are not toys. While paintball can be fun and enjoyable, always remember that your marker is designed to shoot a round ball at around 300 feet per second. Even after removing the hopper and air supply from a marker it is possible and likely that there is still a ball in the chamber and pressurized air left in the internal parts of the marker. NEVER point your marker at a target you do not wish to shoot.
The most painful shots occur when a player isn’t prepared for it and it comes from close range. The adrenaline rush you feel during a game does help to minimize the pain felt from a paintball hit. Accidentally shooting your friend in the back while your walking to or from the field will hurt much much worse than when you shot them on the field. (top) (list)
Occasionally accidents happen – people trip, drop their marker or their hand slips accidentally causing a marker to fire. As of this, you should ALWAYS keep a barrel plug or sock on your marker until you are ready to use it.
At The Edge, all players are required to keep their plug or socks on until they arrive at the field they are playing on and the game is about to begin. Even at National tournaments, professional players are only allowed to remove their barrel blocking device minutes before a game – this rule applies to EVERYONE.
Barrel plugs are designed to have a very tight fit into your barrel. If your plug is loose, you should immediately replace it with a tighter fitting one. Having a loose plug in your gun will only result in the plug and paintball being shot from your gun should an accident happen. Barrel socks are made of heavy cloth and equipped with a bungee cord with wraps around part of your marker. Make sure your sock is in good condition (no holes or tears) and that you have secured the elastic band around your marker. (top) (list)
Paintball safety equipment, markers and even the balls themselves are designed to operate at a certain speeds and no higher. Chronoeing your marker is a way to ensure that your equipment is operating within the speed limits of the equipment. In essence the chrono is a radar gun for paintball, telling you how fast your paintball is traveling in feet per second (FPS). This is very important as the faster a paintball is traveling, the more it is going to hurt when it hits something (force = mass x speed). Also important, paintball safety equipment is only able to withstand so much force. By firing “hot” (faster velocity than allowed) players risk causing severing bruising or worse, shattering paintball goggles.
At the Edge, we limit all players to a maximum of 285 FPS and cap the number of balls which can be fired at a time by limiting markers to semi-automatic mode only with a maximum rate of fire of 12 balls per second. This helps to ensure that the safety equipment is able to withstand and protect the player during the games and helps eliminate “overshooting” another player. We check our rental equipment and walk-on players before the equipment enters the field and sporadically throughout the day. Our referees are experienced paintball players and have seen countless paintballs fired – they are fairly adept at picking out when a player is shooting “hot” and WILL spot check players they suspect of doing such. (top) (list)
It’s hard to ensure your playing safely if you can’t see where you gun is pointed. Paintball is a fast paced sport with several players moving about. You endanger others when you shoot your marker over a wall or around a bunker without looking down the sights (blind-firing). Doing such could result in you shooting someone at extremely close range causing a good bit of pain or worse. When you can’t see where your marker is pointed, you don’t know if the shot is safe to take or not.
When a player knowingly blind-fires they are saying that they are not concerned about the safety of others. At The Edge, our referees will warn players caught blind-firing and repeated infractions will result in the player being expelled from the game. (top) (list)
The shorter the distance a paintball travels before hitting someone, the more pain that person will feel from the shot. When you are within 15 feet of an opposing player, it is customary to give them the opportunity to surrender, calling themselves out of the game without enduring the pain of the shot.
At The Edge, we give players 3 seconds to respond before they are considered fair game. Players who are asked to walk or die don’t have to call themselves out and can try to get the draw on the other player (and it does happen) but we ask that you give the person the opportunity to call themselves out. (top) (list)
For cases where one player is able to walk within arms distance of another player it doesn't seem very fair to give the other player a chance to shoot the sneaky player. In cases where you're close enough to touch another player, rather than shooting them players can GENTLY tag the other player with the barrel of their marker and call a "barrel tag."
Barrel tags allow sneaky players to continue tagging other players without giving away their position by firing, save both players from painful shots while rewarding the sneaky player by not giving the unsuspecting player the option of turning and shooting at their attacker. (top) (list)
SAVE THE PAIN – DON’T OVERSHOOT
General rules of paintball state that a player is "out" once they have been marked with a paintball that leaves at least a quarter sized paint mark on their body. Depending on the game being played, the person may need to be marked in a specific part of their body (i.e., head shots only, "vitals" torso shots only, etc.). Once the player has been eliminated they are either out for the remainder of the game or may be asked to go wait at a central location before being "re-spawned" back into the game. In all cases, once the player is eliminated, they are out! There is NO need to mark the person multiple times, and excessive tagging ("bonus-balling") can cause injury.
On our fields we generally use a three shot rule, if a player is marked more than 3 times, it was either a flagrant disregard for our rules regarding overshooting or a player was not paying attention to what they were shooting. In either case they represent a safety hazard and will be removed from the game. Paintball is about having fun, and intentionally or not, causing someone excessive paint just doesn't create a fun environment. (top) (list)
Bad paint can be anything from cheaply made paint with bad fills to old paint that you’ve had lying around in your garage for the last two years. Paintballs tend to be very fragile, exposure to high humidity; aging of the outer shell and exposure to extreme temperatures can all affect the size, shape and “hardness” of a paintball. These changes can jam up markers internally, affect the paintballs trajectory when fired resulting in difficulties aiming and can cause injury to other players.
At The Edge, we require all players to use paint purchased from our field or pro shop to ensure that it is of high enough quality and fresh enough so as not to cause damage to equipment or other players. (top) (list)
Use of common sense will ensure that you and everyone else playing will have a safe and enjoyable time with paintball. Remember, we have staff on hand for a reason, if you are having trouble with anything, see something out of place or just have questions, bring them to our attention.
Our staff is made up of experienced paintball players who are interested in seeing the sport grow – there is no such thing as a dumb question and most of the staff is more than happy to offer a few friendly tips to improve your game. (top) (list)