They have natural physical ability and a diehard drive to play, but they also know they’d be worthless if they didn’t work paintball fundamentals day after day.

Look at paintball at its most advanced level today: 10 vs. 10, airball fields, and field walking. Everything from the number of players to the layout of the field affects the game.

Now look at paintball at its most simplistic level, one vs. one. This is where it all happens, where the skill is built and the rawest form of the game started. When it all boils down, the only thing that matters is that you can eliminate that a-hole standing 20 feet away who thinks you’re one too.

The bunker position doesn’t matter, your teammates don’t exist, and all the field walking in the world is gone. If your opponent has spent countless hours on his own and at the field working the basics and perfecting them and all you’ve done is admired your pretty jersey in the mirror and thought about how many people will look at your shiny new chrome gun, the next thing you hear will be a familiar splat sound.
Following that sound will be the laughter of the crowd while your lame ass walks, dejected, back to deadbox while your teammates shake their heads in collective disbelief, wondering how you ever got on the team.

Time for you to get back to the beginning. But now where do you begin? Class is in session.

Down to Basics
Today's lesson is snapshooting, the most basic of basics. The best thing about this drill is that you can do it with or without a partner, just like sex. The whole point about snapshooting is being able to hold your gun correctly, line up a shot, pop out from your bunker, fire two to three accurate shots, and get back in before some sniper (that you, Jeremy?) gogs you in the face. Sounds easy enough, don't it? The problem is, more than 5 million players in the world are trying to be good at the same thing, which is why you have to know what to improve in order to improve.

The first step toward proper setup is body positioning. You have to be in a position to snap out fast, deliver your shots, and get back in. If your body is in an awkward position, you may be off-balance, and either your shots will be off target or you'll be slow to get back in your bunker and leave yourself open to shots-or both. Neither result is good. So you must put your body in the right place.

Let's start with a bunker that you can stand up in, like most hyperball bunkers or "Coke-can" bunkers on a sup-air field.

The word to remember here is tight: legs as close together as possible, butt not sticking out too far. The word to remember here is tight: legs as close together as possible, butt not sticking out too far. If you're not getting pinched by other players, you can widen your stance a little, which will make you more comfortable and let you more easily move from side to side. But if they're raining hell down on you, click those heels together, Dorothy, 'cuz it's your feet, ass, and harness that stick out the most when you're in a bunker.

Don't Sightsee-Peek
Now you're in your bunker, and you're comfortable. Let's find the other team. The problem is, most people spend wayyyyyyyy too much time with their faces out in the open, looking for the other team. While you do need to know other players' positions, just because you can't see them doesn't mean they can't see you. Take quick peeks around a bunker or use communication (remember that word?) with your teammates (it's why they're there). If you spend too much time looking for opponents, you're taking yourself out of the game and increasing your chance of getting shot.

Once you've decided on your target, the distance between you and him will be a factor. If it's a large field and you're both back players, not a single ball will be coming close to either of you. You'd be better off looking for a closer target or just raining down fire for your teammates, which is the back guy's primary goal anyway. But sooner or later in the game, the back guy will be close enough to snapshoot with others, so just because you're fat and carry a case of paint on your back doesn't exclude you from this strategy.

Midfield Strategy
If you and your opponent are midfield, anything can come into play. If you're both in a standing bunker, neither of you has an advantage due to the bunker. So it all comes down to you, chief. Get busy. Take a quick peek and see if he's posted up waiting for you-the sound of the balls whizzing by should be a pretty good giveaway.

Shoulder your gun, make sure your body's as tight as possible (feet a little bit apart to give you some room to move), and then picture where he was the last time you looked: That's where you'll be shooting. The last thing to remember is to tuck in your elbows; I really can't stress this enough. If you're holding your gun correctly, both elbows should be pointing at the ground.

To see what that looks like, pretend you're holding your gun, one hand on the grip and trigger, one on your grip, expansion chamber, whatever. From this position, tuck your elbows in toward your stomach. If you're doing it correctly, the way your body looks when you're not holding a gun should look exactly the same as when you are. Now you're ready to shoot at your counterpart.

Lean out of your bunker using the top half of your body. DO NOT step out of your bunker to take a shot, because your feet will tend to come out of the bunker first, giving you away and giving your opponent another part of you to shoot. You should be in a position that doesn't make you move your feet in order to pop out; use the top part of your body and nothing else. Sometimes you might have to shift some weight over to the leg on the side of the direction you're leaning out to shoot, which is fine. Just don't step out with the leg.

The Shooter as Target
Now that you're on your way out to shoot, you're opening yourself up to being shot as well. The most important thing to remember is to minimize how much of a target you're giving your opponent.

The proper method here is to stick out just enough to enable your barrel to clear your bunker to line up a shot-no more, no less. If you don't come out enough, you'll just shoot your own bunker and look foolish, but if you come out too much, you've pretty much guaranteed your elimination unless you're playing some blind team from the YMCA. Your other shoulder should never come out of the bunker while you're shooting; it is not necessary for you to get off your own shots. When you're out of your bunker, your opponent sees you and will probably fire before you do, so you have to get back in your bunker as soon as possible. Don't wait to see if your shots hit him. If they did, a ref will pull him out or your teammates will communicate (there's that word again) that he's gone.

The Waiting Game
An interesting thing to remember is that when most people are being snapshot at, they will fire their own shots when they pop out, but they'll duck back in quickly to make sure that the two to three balls you shot at them don't connect. If you're the one snapshooting and see your opponent duck back into his bunker to avoid your shots while you are doing the same, immediately come back out of the bunker and zone up, now turning the tables and forcing him to be the snapshooter.

Snapshooting has two primary purposes: eliminating players and getting them to stop zoning up on you so you can do the same to them. While some players are great snapshooters, they would all rather be the guy waiting for the snapshooter, because they'll be able to get more balls in the air than the guy snapping.

Now that you're waiting for him to come back out, the same rules still apply. Keep as much of your body in as possible so that when he comes out to snapshoot you'll be able to duck back in more quickly-plus it'll give him less to shoot at. You also have to consider whom you're playing. If you know it's a brand-new team and you've been playing for a while, chances are you're a better shot than your opponent. So you might want to stay out just a little longer than usual when you snap out. You're more likely to hit them with more balls in the air than they are to hit you. Just don't get cocky with your new Jedi powers. Much more to learn you have, my young padawan (my Yoda impression). If you're playing Dynasty, not only are they all great snapshooters, but they also know to change their positions while they're zoned up on someone. I'll explain that later.

Lowdown on Bunkers
Now that you're waiting for him to come back out, the same rules still apply. Keep as much of your body in as possible so that when he comes out to snapshoot you'll be able to duck back in more quickly-plus it'll give him less to shoot at. You also have to consider whom you're playing. If you know it's a brand-new team and you've been playing for a while, chances are you're a better shot than your opponent.
So you might want to stay out just a little longer than usual when you snap out. You're more likely to hit them with more balls in the air than they are to hit you. Just don't get cocky with your new Jedi powers. Much more to learn you have, my young padawan (my Yoda impression). If you're playing Dynasty, not only are they all great snapshooters, but they also know to change their positions while they're zoned up on someone. I'll explain that later.

If you're in a kneeling bunker, get on both knees. Some people won't agree with me on this, but they're not writing this piece, so you will listen to me.

The only time you should be on one knee in a kneeling bunker is when you're getting ready to get out of there, or if the bunker is high and long enough for you to have to move around to shoot from both sides. If you try to pop out on one knee, your balance will be thrown off. Moreover, many people tilt to one side, coming out of the bunker with their body sideways instead of straight. Bang, you're dead.

As with standing bunkers, when you snapshoot on your knees you'll be leaning out of the bunker with the upper part of your body. If you can help it, don't face both of your knees forward; put one in front of the other, to the point where you're sideways in the bunker, with the knee closest to the inside wall of the bunker you're coming out of in front. Confusing? What I mean is if I'm on my knees and I'm going to pop out of the right side of the bunker, my left knee will be in front of my right. That gives me two advantages, both of which make me a smaller target when I pop out: First, from the sideways position I can lean back and put some extra weight on my back leg and knee. Second, I can lower my entire body a lot more by spreading my legs open a little and really pushing my upper body into my knees and legs.

Quantum Paintball
Now that we've covered basic snapshooting strategy, let's get into some advanced theory. That's what separates the good from the great. Paintball is as much a thinking as it is a physical game. If you can beat your opponent with your mind as well as your body and equipment, you're that much more likely to shoot him before he shoots you. How is this possible? Simple: Switch it up.

If you're snapshooting from a standing bunker, snap out, putting your opponent back in his bunker. Drop down to one knee (in this move it's OK to be on just one knee), tuck in as much of your body as possible, line up your barrel with his bunker, and wait for him. Most players will come out of their bunkers exactly the same way 95 percent of the time.

Anticipate this and use it to your advantage. By dropping to one knee, you'll know your opponent's next shots are much less likely to connect, plus he'll spend an extra second or two out of his bunker as he realizes that you're no longer where he thought you were, giving you extra time to put a couple more shots on him.

By the same token, if you're the one snapshooting, don't come out the same way every time. Come out high, come out low, come out from the other side of the bunker-anything to trip up the other guy and make him worry more about which way you're going to pop out, instead of eliminating you. In a one-on-one situation, you can even come up over the top and get some quick shots off, but don't do it more than once. If you become a robot and come out the same way every time, anyone with an accurate aim will eventually get you.

Another advanced trick that works well for some people, especially while in a kneeling bunker, is to line up an accurate shot before even coming out of the bunker. One of the greatest paintball players of all time, Eric Felix, who played with a ton of teams but is best known for playing with the Ironmen in the early days (back when they were unstoppable) came up with this idea. If I'm in a bunker and know what bunker my opponent is in and which side he's waiting for me on and from where (top, middle, bottom), I can find something, either behind him or next to him, whether a tree, the horizon, or whatever I feel is at the same level as he is, that I can aim at first.

I can get my gun into the right position behind my bunker, so that I don't have to readjust when I snap out, wasting precious time.

To find this preaiming tool, you can take a quick look out of the bunker. If I see the guy is standing up and coming out of the left side of his bunker, I look for something behind him that I can also see when I'm safe back inside mine. That works great on sup-air and hyper fields at tournaments because there are banners and signs everywhere.
So I look again (quickly) and notice that there's a WDP banner to the left of him that's at exactly the same height as he is. When I'm back in my bunker, I raise my gun so that I'm aiming at the WDP banner, then move my gun sideways (not up or down) so that it's pointing where I'm going to be shooting.
Now when I pop out and shoot, my balls are already aiming at the right height and position of my opponent, making my precious two to three shots count even more. It's even better if you can line up a shot with something behind the guy, rather than something from the side, 'cuz it involves less guesswork.

Sometimes it won't be an easy thing to see, like a large color banner; it might be a tree branch or something smaller, but you have to have an eye for these things if you want to get anywhere. Make sense? If not, Eric's cutting hair somewhere in Beverly Hills. Go bother him for an explanation, and he'll put some highlights in your hair. He can use the money; pro players didn't get paid back then.

Some Off-hand Remarks
Once you've mastered these tasks with your dominant shooting hand, apply what you've learned using your off hand, which for most of us is the left. Snapshooting with your off hand changes everything. Although the best off-hand shooters can shoot better than most of us can with our dominant hand, only a few are equally proficient with either.
So unless you're in the top one percent of players in the world, you're going to have to adapt, learning to shoot accurately rather than quickly with your off hand, because although you probably won't be able to shoot as fast with your off hand, you'll definitely be a worse shot. Focus on quality, not quantity.

Master one hand, and then go to work on the other. A good technique to utilize is to train your off hand twice as much as your dominant hand. If you're right-handed and you take 50 snapshots with your right hand, take 100 with your left. Get accustomed to using only your left hand when shooting out of the left side of your bunker. You cannot snapshoot with your right hand out of the left side of a bunker because the entire left side of your body will come out first, screaming to the other team "shoot me." And shoot you they will.

Practice on a Friend
When you've pissed away enough money and time practicing by yourself, grab an unsuspecting buddy you don't mind shooting the hell out of on the field for some one-on-one. Start out simply. Make one of you the zoner and the other the snapshooter. Have him out of his bunker waiting for you, but every time you pop out and go back in, have him change his position. That will hone your ability to quickly realize his new position and adjust accordingly. If he wants to shoot back at you (and he will), just have him shoot your bunker to remind you that you've been out of your bunker too long.

If you're from Podunk, Mississippi, though, and have no tournament players or good coaches that can help your game, buy a couple of paintball videos and get to a couple of quality tournaments. I've learned a lot in one day at SC Village just from watching Dynasty and Ironmen practice. These guys have been playing longer than you, at a higher level and with better players, but they all started at the same place: nowhere. They all got to where they are through constant practice and these basic fundamentals. Just stick to it, and don't give up.