Stealth and Team Communication 4/4

In this blog series we’ve been discussing the concept of stealth. We assume you have your paintball gun (perhaps a great used one recently purchased from us) your gear, your ammo and your team ready to go. Without effective communication all the best plans will remain just that, plans. Anyone who has played a single game of paintball will know that yelling is the only way to communicate verbally to someone who is close by. Sometimes it takes screaming and well, that is no way to maintain stealth! Some people forget that yelling is not necessary when using the radio to communicate in fact it will hinder communication because the radio will turn your yelling and distort it into ear busting static distortion. So, when you use the radio, speak calmly and articulate. Pick your words carefully and communicate only the basic information. Any superfluous information can confuse the people on the other end. Be succinct and unambiguous and wait for confirmation.

In the field the best method of communication to team member within your field of vision is hand signals. Most of the signals used by paintballers are universal and quite intuitive but you can look up a handy guide easily enough. Some communication is counterproductive, train yourself to not instinctively yell when you see an opponent and don’t die loudly, despite how fun that might be..save the dramatics for light-hearted practice time but don’t use it during a serious team effort. The best way to facilitate effective communication, be it radio, verbal or hand signals is to practice practice practice. Team work doesn’t happen by accident.