Paintball

PAINTBALL

Paintball is the fastest growing sport in the United States. Since its debut, in the late 1980's "paintball has become a worldwide phenomenon". Enthusiasts have setup leagues and tournaments. But paintball still isn't as popular as older sports such as basketball and baseball. There are three main things that set paintball apart from other sports. The biggest one is the equipment that is used to play. Next there is the paintball guns and how they work. Then finally there is the playing field and how it differs from other sport's playing fields.

Equipment

In paintball there is a variety of different essential and non-essential pieces of equipment. Some of the more essential items include, the paintball gun (also called a marker), paintballs, CO2 tank, hopper, and then there's the safety equipment.

The paintballs are obviously an essential item because if you didn't have them you couldn't get anybody out, just like you cannot

go hunting without the shotgun shells. The common paintball is like a small water balloon, it weighs only a few grams and measures only 0.68 inches in diameter. But instead of having water inside it contains a paint like, liquid substance referred to as paint. The "paint," which comes in many colors, is non-toxic, biodegradable and water soluble (so it will wash off skin and clothing).

The CO2 tank holds compressed CO2 (carbon dioxide). The Compressed CO2 is what propels the paintball out of the barrel and into the air (hopefully) hitting your target. CO2 tanks come in many different sizes and shapes. Some tanks fit in the handle of the gun and some tanks can big enough that they go on your back and attach to your gun using a hose. The most common size is 10-20 ounce tank that attaches to the bottom of the handle using a drop down to hold the tank horizontally. The only aspect of a tank that can seriously affect your performance while playing paintball and it is the capacity of the tank that you use. This affects your game because the smaller the tank the faster your CO2 runs out. This is why some professional players have CO2 tanks that are so big that they have to carry them on their backs.

Next is the hopper. Hoppers can, and usually are, pretty simple. It holds the paintballs above the gun and feeds them into the gun using gravity. But there is a new kind of hopper that is becoming more and more popular every day. These new hoppers use batteries, motors, and paddles to feed the paintballs to the gun faster than regular hoppers. But these hoppers usually cost more than a regular hopper and don't really do much unless you have a very nice, very expensive gun.

Next is the safety equipment. When playing paintball you should always wear proper safety gear. This includes wearing a safety mask, safety goggles, and thick or baggy clothes or professional paintball clothing. A safety mask is a must when it comes to paintball. There aren't a lot of things that could hurt worse in paintball than getting hit right in the ear, or in the back of your head. A safety mask will definitely prevent these things from happening. Then there is the safety goggles, these usually come with the mask. Many goggles are even part of the mask. Safety goggles protect your eyes and parts of the face from being hit by a paintball. When paintball was first started people didn't use goggles. There have been some reported cases of people becoming blind because they where hit in the eye with a paintball. Because of this it is now required in paintballing leagues to wear not just goggles but other forms of safety gear too. When playing paintball you should wear either baggy clothing or specialized paintballing gear. The reason you should wear baggy clothes is because when hit with a