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paintballimpact.com / Beginner Basics / What Parents Need to Know
What Parents Need to Know About Paintball
In this article, we will look at what parents need to know about paintball. There are a couple of main concerns of many of today's parents about the game, namely the social values surrounding the game, and the safety of the sport. Is the game safe for my son or daughter? What are the chances of them getting hurt? And what kind of lessons and values will my son get out of the game, as opposed to high school sports, where the games are refereed and regulated by the school. Parents often encourage their children to play lacrosse or tennis or football so that their sons or daughters will learn the value of team play and healthy exercise. Some may ask, will my kids get the same out of paintball?
Safety. Are you a parent that heard about someone getting their eye shot out, or injured while playing paintball? Though there have been some paintball related injuries, the risk is nearly eliminated for players playing or licensed fields. When players wear their head protection system and plug their barrels after the game is over, the risk of injury is nearly eliminated. Some good head protection systems include the Venty Cylus Goggles from Empire, and the X-Ray Thermal Goggles from Extreme Rage. Nearly all paintball fields have a list of safety guidelines, and the ref or officials go through their safety rules before each game. All safe, reputable paintballs have the following 5 objects or rules and procedures.
- All fields must have a chronograph. A chronograph is paintball's version of a radar gun. All players marker speeds are checked by chronograph to make sure that they are not traveling faster than 300 feet per second.
- The referees and field operators must have a thorough knowledge of the field rules, and they must strictly enforce them to make sure that all players are safe.
- Field operators must be vigilant about making sure that any palyers that are not directly involved in a game hae a barrel plug over their marker. On paintball fields, there are game areas, and safe areas where players rest and east. When players are in the safe areas, they often have their goggles off. Whenever goggles are of, barrel plugs should be on.
- There should be safe areas that are far enough away from the playing areas players can relax or eat lunch and not possibly get hit. If the safe areas are relatively close to the playing fields, then the two areas should be separated by a netting.
- Players must wear masks/goggles in any areas of the paintball field where they could possibly get hit by a paintball.
If field operators enforce all of these safety rules, the risk of injury is extremely minimized. In recent surveys of sports related injuries, less people were injured playing paintball than when playing bowling, basketball, tennis or even golf. The conclusion is that the sport is very safe to play.
Paintball is a great team building sports activity, with leagues like the World Paintball League, and the Southeastern Xtreme Paintball League.
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