• Take your time! – If you’ve got time, use it! There’s no need to run like a madman every time you move on the pitch. Just going that little bit slower will make less noise and give you more chance to advance without being hit!
• Watch your feet! – When it comes to quiet footwear, soft is the way to go for paintball. Sneakers/trainers are great – but try and get ones with ankle support. Boots are good for support – but just be aware that hard soles will make much more noise!
• Soft not scratchy! – When it comes to clothes, again, soft is best for paintball. Soft clothes less likely to make a noise if they catch or rub against a bunker or tree.
• Watch your paintballs! – Loose paintballs rattling around in pods is sure to give your position away to the opposition! Make sure your hopper capacity can take a full pod of paintballs so when you reload your paintball marker, you never have a half-full pod left in your belt.

Things to note beforehand:

• Be careful with your mask – being so close to the ground can cause mud and dirt to fly in your face, while heavy breathing and lack of movement can cause serious fogging.
• You may be close to the ground, but make sure your paintball marker isn’t dragging along it! For the majority of you, your marker will have a gravity-fed hopper so not only will you damage your marker, you won’t be able to fire either! Keep your marker upright!
• Being that close to the ground will mean a lot of dust and dirt so if you have asthma, it is not a good idea.

Gear:

• Blend in! – If you’re going to be crawling around in the open, best to do it in something that blends into the background. Camo is great for woodsball, whereas dark colours may be better for speedball.
• Wear comfortable footwear and thick socks– boots or trainers/sneakers are best for paintball.
• Limit your paintball gear – bulky or heavy accessories or clothing will make it much harder to crawl with ease.
• Check out your clothing and paintball gear to make sure there is nothing that will catch on the ground as you move.

The Crawl:

• First things first, lay flat on your stomach. Keep your paintball marker upright in one hand, while using your free hand, knees and elbows to move along the ground.
• Twist away! When you step forward, try to twist your toes into the ground to give yourself a better grip.
• Keep digging! While your twisting your toes into the ground, try and dig your elbows into the ground to keep you balanced.
• Push! – Use the twisting and digging to get yourself in a good position to push forward and propel yourself across the paintball field.
• Hide! Just because you’re on the floor, doesn’t mean that you forget about using bunkers and obstacles to cover your movements. Where possible, stay out of open ground.
• Move at random! Being able to more irregularly is your friend when trying to avoid detection. Steady movement attracts much more attention than unpredictable bursts of movement.
• Practice at home! Crawling around stealthily while holding a paintball marker in your hand is not easy so if you really want to be fast and invisible then practice is the way to go!

• Stick to your bunker: One of the easiest things to remember in a paintball game is to keep close to your bunker – this means tucking everything in! When you’ve taken up a position, make sure you only expose yourself when you need to. This gives your opponent less of a target, so there’s less chance they’ll hit.
• Avoid the open: When you’re moving up the paintball pitch, try to use obstacles and bunkers and avoid running into the open when you’ll be an easy target for the opposition.
• Keep to the side: When you move up the middle of the paintball field, opponents can come at you straight on, on the right and on the left. When you move up on a side of the paintball field, opponents can come at you straight and from just one side.
• Blend in: If you’re in a woodsball game, and you’re wearing bright pink, I’d be very surprised if you’re weren’t shot within 5 seconds of the game beginning! Wear darker clothing for a speedball game and camouflage for woodsball and you’ll be more likely to avoid paintball fire.
• Don’t be stupid: Feel free to act like Rambo and play out your movie fantasies but just know that you’re not invincible and you’re likely to get shot! Running and gunning may work for a short distance, but running across the paintball pitch guns-a-blazing may lead to your untimely exit.

Offence

Lead group: The most experienced group that go ahead to aggressively locate and flush out the enemy. However, in paintball fields that say your offence should stay in one group, sending the newbies ahead might be better – otherwise you may use your best players in an ambush!

Defence

Flag Defenders:Stationed in the immediate area of the flag, and stay in the same position pretty much during the entire paintball game unless they have to chase the stolen flag.

Forward defenders:Should move forward at the beginning to a point downfield then lie in wait to take out approaching opposition. Forward defenders may eventually become either attackers or flag defenders during the paintball game, depending on the circumstances.

Listening to the pace, direction and frequency of fire could give you a clue as to where the opposition is – and what their next move will be.

1. Don’t fear the paintballs! The constant thud of paintballs may sound scary but every paintball that hits your bunker is one that is no longer a threat to you.
2. Listen to what side of the bunker they are hitting with paintballs, so you can snapshoot from the opposite side.
3. Don’t go by the sound of their marker, go by the sound of impact! It takes a second for paintballs to reach you so there’s still paint around when the shooting stops.
4. Listen for rounds of heavy fire. People usually use heavy fire to cover their movements – so watch out for opponents who have moved nearby.
5. Listen for growing noise – you will be able to hear if the thumps are getting louder, which means the opponent is getting nearer!
6. Silence can be deadly. If there’s a sudden change in rhythm, there’s bound to be a good reason. Your opponent may be charging you or reloading, giving you the chance to hit them.
7. Listen out for multiple opponents hitting your bunker – there has to be a good reason for suppressing you so aim to find out why!

1. Move! When the ref blows the whistle, get to cover! And don’t waste time shooting people on your way!
2. Keep your team spread out! It makes it far harder for your opposition to move around your flank and take out half your team.
3. Travel in pairs if you can. It makes moving much easier when your partner is covering you.
4. Move down the sides of the course instead of the middle; it gives you a much better angle when trying to take people out.
5. Fire heavily at the opposition (and make sure your as many of your teammates do too) when moving for the flag. It’s a huge advantage if the opposing team is unaware of who has the flag and where that person is once it has been removed.
6. When you capture the flag, only run towards the base as fast as possible (although don’t keep to a straight line) if there are only a few opponents left.
7. If there’s a huge opposition left when you capture the flag, make sure your teammates cover your run back to base – or pass the flag to one of them!
8. Decide what to do in case the opposition reaches the flag first. If it’s a small course a center third of your team should fire on the enemy positions while the other two thirds charge down the flanks. If it’s a large course then it’s likely that a team member located on the flanks of the field can snipe the runner if they make a break for it.
9. Break cover and start shooting if an opponent has the flag and is running towards their base. Better the loss of half of your team than the loss of the game.
10. If you find yourself cornered, launch yourself quickly and unexpectedly from cover to cover, firing as you go. This will hopefully shock the opposition and still give you a winning chance.
11. Make sure your team has the whole field covered. If you get flanked, you’ve given the game away.
12. If you’re being covered, it may be better to move without checking where the opposition is. This will make it more difficult for the opponent to guess your location.
13. Communicate! If your team is works together to coordinate their movements then a win will be secured. Hand signals are best – as it can get difficult to hear in the heat of a game.
14. Never give up, even if you’re the last remaining member of your team you can still win. Stealthy movements and sniping can still win you the game.
15. Firing when you move just slows you down. Don’t make it easy for the opposition and get to cover quickly!
16. Remember, you can also win by elimination. If the flag is too well defended, concentrate on taking out the team!
17. When playing against new players, be bold. They are often scared to come out and fire. Use this to your advantage to get around them.
18. Don’t just move for movement’s sake. You’ll end up far from your teammates or shot down.
19. Think before going it alone – Running and shooting on your own is going to get you shot in the first minutes of the game!
20. Don’t be scared of getting hit! Keep moving – a shot will only hurt for a few seconds!