It began as a way to kill time for American farmers. Few decades later, and it is one of the most popular sports of this planet, with many different game types, professional leagues and even television broadcasts.
The country of origin, USA, has a special TV broadcast just for paintball and its most important tournaments. But nearly nobody knows that paintball have been invented in 60's on local farms and ranches, where they used pneumatic markers for comfortable marking of their wood and cattle.
Today's paintball have a strong position in adrenaline activities throughout the whole world. Millions and millions of devoted players (There are 12 000 000 registered players) and it is estimated, that it is the 3rd most popular adrenaline sport of this planet (right behind skateboarding and inline skating). The first official tournament has been held in 1981.
There are two main parties: military paintball and sport (speed) paintball. Military paintball tries to imitate real war atmosphere which underlines the adrenaline experience. Sport paintball is mainly about speed and fire precision. Usually, it is played in a field full of inflatable obstacles.
There are many game types, especially in military paintball. One of the most known types are:
Capture the flag - The goal is to get opponents flag (there is either only one flag, or both teams have a flag), and there are many ways how this game can be played.
Team deathmatch - The goal is to eliminate all enemy players.
Commander elimination - The goal is to shoot opponents commander.
We have dozens of well-established scenarios. We also like to make new scenarios for special occasions, and we are opened to ideas from our customers.
Paintball uses so called "markers", which work on expansion of pressured medium principle. We use pressured air in an air tank as the medium on our fields.
Colorful paintballs leave the barrel at approximate speed of 300 FPS (324 km/h), which is from safety reason our allowed maximum. At this speed, the paintball travels approximately 45 meters (148 feet) depending on weather conditions and many other factors.
There are many types of guns. We use semi-autos, so semi-automatic markers, which are used the most. They work on one-trigger-press-one-shot principle, which is ideal for non-professional players - saves ammunition.
The ammunition is called paintballs and they are made from gelatin shell and food coloring. When the paintball impact a target, the shell cracks and the color marks the hit area.
Food coloring is biologically acceptable, water-soluble and you can wash it normally.
Paintball could never be that popular if it would not have strict safety rules. Lunatics that would face an enemy without a mask are rare (and their number is decreasing due to ugly wounds). The truth is on the other end - paintball is one of the safest sports there is.
There is not much to it: Paintball player needs to use the rented safety equipment. Especially paintball mask that covers the whole face from impact - most importantly eyes. Also professional organizer is supervising if safety rules are obeyed.
