Paintball skill and strategy...

In the first article we revealed three important ingredients to
teamwork:

attitude
skill
and strategy.

We covered attitude in the first email mini course. So lets finish
up on skill and strategy, and then in the next article we'll dig
deeper into battlefield techniques and secrets!

Skill is the second major ingredient in effective teamwork.
Teammates of widely varying skill levels can work well together;
the key is ensuring that each player's skills integrate well with
everyone else's.

If one person's tactical skills are far below those of his
teammates, he probably won't be able to keep up. If his skills are
vastly superior to everyone else's, he'll get bored and quit. Then
the team has lost time that could have been spent getting a better
candidate fully integrated into the team.

Another issue is each player's learning curve. Say you've found
the perfect candidate in terms of attitude and commitment, but her
skills are a little below everyone else's.
Does she have natural talent, or is she a quick study?

Is her strategic approach similar?

Is she always working to improve her performance?

If each answer is "yes," then she probably is the right person
after all.

Each team member should also be able to play a backup role, in case
you lose a crucial teammate. Suppose your team loses its wingman.
At the moment, you need someone to watch the center, but you don't
need a sniper. Does your sniper have well enough secondary skills
to fill in as wing man?

However, strategy is often more important than skill. No matter
how well you get along with your teammates or how high your skill
level, lack of strategy loses games. The most common strategic
mistake occurs when players forget that they are part of a team.
Yes, it sounds obvious, but in the heat of a firefight it's hard to
remember that what's happening to you is only one part of a much
larger picture.

Paintball is also a game of logic. One expert player describes
paintball strategy as "playing chess in your head," and it's an apt
metaphor: Teammates must think several moves ahead and plan for
contingencies that may never occur. Each player needs to be able
to think logically, anticipating each move's potential results, and
analytically, anticipating unexpected or unintended consequences.

There is a final factor that grows out of the other three:
Communication. Communicating with each other clearly, both on and
off the field, goes a long way toward ensuring that attitude,
skill, and strategy take care of themselves.