mothergoose
08-07-2005, 03:54 PM
Please read the following that was written by ZAPCOnj on the A5OG forum. If this sounds like something that you would be willing to commit too then we should start a real team. Thanks for looking.
What does it take to start a team... here is some info that you may find helpful...
Since the current incarnation of the N.J.T.A.G. was formed I have been asked a few times what does it take to get a good team together. The answer is simple.. GOOD PEOPLE! If you have good people who you can trust and who are as dedicated to you are in the drive to play the best paintball you can and have a good time doing it then you have yourself the makings of a great team!
When I first started out redeveloping the N.J.T.A.G. early last year I had 2 semi active offline members and 0 online members. With the help of lessthanchris I set up a few regional games to see who in our area was out there and if there were any good players in the region. This proved to be a great resource and I was able to hook up with some good players around the region I play. I also visited some local fields and a outlaw field that a few A-5 OGers played at. From these scouting trips I was able to pick out a few good players and approached them with the idea of joining and helping me form a recreational paintball team The First A5OG members to join the team were JESTER and Sgt. Hansen (then known as Pvt. Hansen). The 3 of us with the help of one of the offline players started to hit more and more games around the region and recruit a few more players from the A5OG as well.. over the short span of 4 months we were able to pick up a total of 7 more members (not including the 3 of us) to total up 10 members of the N.J.T.A.G. Now I dont want to shade the fact that we have had some members join up only to find out later that they didnt fit our overall scheme and style of play so some members were cut and new members took their place. Its important to pick your members wisely. It is also very important that each team have ONE team captain/spokes person. Ill address this more later
When picking prospective members we looked for some key attributes.
Team Work
Willingness to take orders
Aggressive style of play
Leadership
Planning skills
The ablitity to improvise overcome and adapt
Commitment to the team (had to be able to make practices and trips to games)
And more
These skill sets are vital to every player. If a prospective member lacked a vital skill set but was overall a great player we would see what we could do to cultivate the portion they lacked. If the person was good enough we were willing to take the extra time as a team to train the prospect.
Once you have a good base team, I would say 3 members you can start to create tiers of membership.. PROSPECTIVE MEMBER, PROBATIONARY MEMBER, FULL MEMBER.
Prospective member = person you think may be a good addition to the team
Probationary member = person who you have made an offer to join the team this member does not have full perks of being a member.
Full member = person who has full benefits of being on the team.
Each prospective member was approached with the offer of joining the team and presented with its goals and mission. If the prospective member was interested they were then moved into the team circle.
Each Full member of the NJTAG was consulted before any offers were put out. The reason for this is that we wanted to be sure that each member of the team was comfortable with the prospective member and that the prospect fits with our style of play. If the prospect didnt fit they were not offered a spot on the team.
After we had a good member base the member rolls were discussed myself being founder of the team was appointed the team captain/spokes person and Jester was appointed my XO. Its important to have ONE spokes person for the team as it is equally important that the team discusses topics and opinions as a whole and have it relayed to the public though ONE person. Why you ask.. well you see a team is perceived not only by their actions but by what its members say and do both online and in the real world. If a member of a team starts to bad mouth someone then suddenly the WHOLE TEAM is responsible for the words that came out of one persons mouth. If ONE member is caught cheating then suddenly the WHOLE TEAM are cheaters. If ONE member of a team steals something the whole team gets tagged as thieves! Having one spoke person is vital to many parts of the team if you want to search out sponsorships then you want ONE person to be contacting and negotiating the deals. When you have 2 or 3 people trying to get a deal it makes you look like a rag tag group that does not communicate well. Having ONE spokesperson also shows that your team speaks as one and is well organized. A TEAM THAT SPEAKS AS ONE, PLAYS AS ONE, AND ACTS AS ONE! If there are topics that members disagree about these topics are discussed at team meetings and a general TEAM point of view is decided on and the WHOLE team agrees to go with whatever decision is voted on. This includes seeking sponsorships but that is a whole other topic Ill cover soon in another thread. One of the most over looked items a TEAM needs are RULES. Without rules your team will crumble and die in a matter of weeks. Come up with a good set of rules for your members to follow and you will find that many of the little problems that other teams have will not be present in yours.
Assigning roles to each player is also key find the strong points of each player and assign rolls based on that, BUT be sure to cross train on each others position. If a front player/scout goes down its important that the mid line player fills his spot ASAP and the back player/SAW bumps up
In order to have a good team you must practice. If you do not practice and the group just plays events now and then. YOU ARE NOT A TEAM! You are a group of guys who play paintball once in a while. A team practices whether it be walk on days or drills, the team must play together and often! How else are you going to learn each others style of play and if tactics you want to use will work and how to implement them. These practices should be once or twice a month, if you play walk on days try to make sure your whole team plays on the same side. What good will it do you if you only play against yourselves. You wont be learning any new styles of play or how your plan works against other people who may not already know your plans. Practices also help you develop a communication base for your team whether it be codes or hand signals its important to develop a communication base for the team. Playing often will also help each member READ the other member properly.. if put in a situation a good team will have members who will anticipate each others moves and follow suit without hesitation a good example is when I see a member bogged down Ill make the move to cover my player while he moves when my team sees me move at least one other will follow and back me up or fill the position I left. I dont have to ask for assistance the player covering me automatically knows what Im doing and follows suit. If we didnt play all the time my teammate would not know what I was doing or what to do when I moved.
Drills are very important and are the most over looked component in a Recball/scenario team. Many teams see Drilling as a Tournament only tool. NOT TRUE! Doing drills can help your team become better and better at dominating on the field. The N.J.T.A.G. spent most of the 04 05 winter season drilling and cross training in another style of balling and playing severely out matched games found that our skill sets got stronger! We played a stronger more aggressive style of paintball at our first scenario of the season and found that many admire the style of play. Snap shooting is very important. Be sure to spend some time practicing your snap shooting. All the times you lost a mid to close range gun fight was because your snap shooting skills are weak! Just practice practice practice practice
GEAR! While its an important part of each players requirements to play paintball sometimes its not as important as you think the N.J.T.A.G. has a member who plays from time to time with a old STINGRAY. And he dominates the field when playing against angels, Cockers, Matrix, Vikings and timmys. Its the players skill and how he works with his team mates. I will say this though.. no matter what gear you have its important to maintain it. Keep it clean, lubed, and well kept! Treat your gear well and it will treat you well. Everyone wants to have the fastest or the most accurate weapon on the field. The best thing is to have the right marker for your position or style of play. If you are a Front PLAYER you want a light fast and maneuverable marker and rig and carry about 4 to 5 pods of paint. The front players must have Great snap shooting skills as 90% of their game is snap shooting against other players. If you are a MID PLAYER you need 5 -6 pod of paint with a little more fire power (speed) than the front guy.. a flatline barrel or the new APEX Barrel is great for this position as the mid player will be able to really lay in to the far back spots from angels that the BACK player doest have. The BACK PLAYER or SAWs job is to lay dominating cover fire for the squad to move on and to keep the other teams shooters in their bunkers. This player should have a FAST marker and carry the most paint. This player will need to cross train on ALL positions in the team as they are normally the player who cleans up the field when there is a heavy gun fight. The back player needs to call out positions as they see them so the mid and front guys know where the fight is. What good are your players if they are blind and def on the field?!
The size of your team depends on you. Do you want a large team with multiple squads? Or do you want a small tight knit team? The N.J.T.A.G. was put together as a small team with a cap of 14 players. This would allows us to have an active roster of about 7 - 10 players for each scenario or event we went to. As a team you have to understand that not all of your members will be able to make it to every event. Even though paintball is a fun sport many of your members have lives out side of paintball. If you want a showing as a TEAM then you want a minimum of 5 players showing up at each event. 1 squad leader and 4 specialists. If more show up to the event then run as one big squad or break in to two squads working together.
Finding sponsors will eventually be something that each team will want to do. The best thing to do is to get the team together, play some games, attend some events and make a name for yourself! No company is going to want to sponsor a relative unknown. On the flip side be sure that your team is ready for sponsorship. Many shops and companies will require you to provide a profile for the team, a proposal, and event list. Theyre going to want to know what you will do for them if they give you some help! Make it worth their while to help you. Many teams will not get sponsored for at least the first year. The best kind of sponsorship you can look for as a new team is a place to practice. If you get your home field to give you a deal on playing fees and paint you will find that more of your team will come out to play ball at the practices. The NJTAG has a deal with one of its sponsors to play at the field for a discounted rate and paint at team pricing. This cuts our cost down dramatically! More on sponsorships in another thread
Once you have your team roster, defined rolls, gear set ups, team rules and a mission for your team you are well on your way to having a great team!
What does it take to start a team... here is some info that you may find helpful...
Since the current incarnation of the N.J.T.A.G. was formed I have been asked a few times what does it take to get a good team together. The answer is simple.. GOOD PEOPLE! If you have good people who you can trust and who are as dedicated to you are in the drive to play the best paintball you can and have a good time doing it then you have yourself the makings of a great team!
When I first started out redeveloping the N.J.T.A.G. early last year I had 2 semi active offline members and 0 online members. With the help of lessthanchris I set up a few regional games to see who in our area was out there and if there were any good players in the region. This proved to be a great resource and I was able to hook up with some good players around the region I play. I also visited some local fields and a outlaw field that a few A-5 OGers played at. From these scouting trips I was able to pick out a few good players and approached them with the idea of joining and helping me form a recreational paintball team The First A5OG members to join the team were JESTER and Sgt. Hansen (then known as Pvt. Hansen). The 3 of us with the help of one of the offline players started to hit more and more games around the region and recruit a few more players from the A5OG as well.. over the short span of 4 months we were able to pick up a total of 7 more members (not including the 3 of us) to total up 10 members of the N.J.T.A.G. Now I dont want to shade the fact that we have had some members join up only to find out later that they didnt fit our overall scheme and style of play so some members were cut and new members took their place. Its important to pick your members wisely. It is also very important that each team have ONE team captain/spokes person. Ill address this more later
When picking prospective members we looked for some key attributes.
Team Work
Willingness to take orders
Aggressive style of play
Leadership
Planning skills
The ablitity to improvise overcome and adapt
Commitment to the team (had to be able to make practices and trips to games)
And more
These skill sets are vital to every player. If a prospective member lacked a vital skill set but was overall a great player we would see what we could do to cultivate the portion they lacked. If the person was good enough we were willing to take the extra time as a team to train the prospect.
Once you have a good base team, I would say 3 members you can start to create tiers of membership.. PROSPECTIVE MEMBER, PROBATIONARY MEMBER, FULL MEMBER.
Prospective member = person you think may be a good addition to the team
Probationary member = person who you have made an offer to join the team this member does not have full perks of being a member.
Full member = person who has full benefits of being on the team.
Each prospective member was approached with the offer of joining the team and presented with its goals and mission. If the prospective member was interested they were then moved into the team circle.
Each Full member of the NJTAG was consulted before any offers were put out. The reason for this is that we wanted to be sure that each member of the team was comfortable with the prospective member and that the prospect fits with our style of play. If the prospect didnt fit they were not offered a spot on the team.
After we had a good member base the member rolls were discussed myself being founder of the team was appointed the team captain/spokes person and Jester was appointed my XO. Its important to have ONE spokes person for the team as it is equally important that the team discusses topics and opinions as a whole and have it relayed to the public though ONE person. Why you ask.. well you see a team is perceived not only by their actions but by what its members say and do both online and in the real world. If a member of a team starts to bad mouth someone then suddenly the WHOLE TEAM is responsible for the words that came out of one persons mouth. If ONE member is caught cheating then suddenly the WHOLE TEAM are cheaters. If ONE member of a team steals something the whole team gets tagged as thieves! Having one spoke person is vital to many parts of the team if you want to search out sponsorships then you want ONE person to be contacting and negotiating the deals. When you have 2 or 3 people trying to get a deal it makes you look like a rag tag group that does not communicate well. Having ONE spokesperson also shows that your team speaks as one and is well organized. A TEAM THAT SPEAKS AS ONE, PLAYS AS ONE, AND ACTS AS ONE! If there are topics that members disagree about these topics are discussed at team meetings and a general TEAM point of view is decided on and the WHOLE team agrees to go with whatever decision is voted on. This includes seeking sponsorships but that is a whole other topic Ill cover soon in another thread. One of the most over looked items a TEAM needs are RULES. Without rules your team will crumble and die in a matter of weeks. Come up with a good set of rules for your members to follow and you will find that many of the little problems that other teams have will not be present in yours.
Assigning roles to each player is also key find the strong points of each player and assign rolls based on that, BUT be sure to cross train on each others position. If a front player/scout goes down its important that the mid line player fills his spot ASAP and the back player/SAW bumps up
In order to have a good team you must practice. If you do not practice and the group just plays events now and then. YOU ARE NOT A TEAM! You are a group of guys who play paintball once in a while. A team practices whether it be walk on days or drills, the team must play together and often! How else are you going to learn each others style of play and if tactics you want to use will work and how to implement them. These practices should be once or twice a month, if you play walk on days try to make sure your whole team plays on the same side. What good will it do you if you only play against yourselves. You wont be learning any new styles of play or how your plan works against other people who may not already know your plans. Practices also help you develop a communication base for your team whether it be codes or hand signals its important to develop a communication base for the team. Playing often will also help each member READ the other member properly.. if put in a situation a good team will have members who will anticipate each others moves and follow suit without hesitation a good example is when I see a member bogged down Ill make the move to cover my player while he moves when my team sees me move at least one other will follow and back me up or fill the position I left. I dont have to ask for assistance the player covering me automatically knows what Im doing and follows suit. If we didnt play all the time my teammate would not know what I was doing or what to do when I moved.
Drills are very important and are the most over looked component in a Recball/scenario team. Many teams see Drilling as a Tournament only tool. NOT TRUE! Doing drills can help your team become better and better at dominating on the field. The N.J.T.A.G. spent most of the 04 05 winter season drilling and cross training in another style of balling and playing severely out matched games found that our skill sets got stronger! We played a stronger more aggressive style of paintball at our first scenario of the season and found that many admire the style of play. Snap shooting is very important. Be sure to spend some time practicing your snap shooting. All the times you lost a mid to close range gun fight was because your snap shooting skills are weak! Just practice practice practice practice
GEAR! While its an important part of each players requirements to play paintball sometimes its not as important as you think the N.J.T.A.G. has a member who plays from time to time with a old STINGRAY. And he dominates the field when playing against angels, Cockers, Matrix, Vikings and timmys. Its the players skill and how he works with his team mates. I will say this though.. no matter what gear you have its important to maintain it. Keep it clean, lubed, and well kept! Treat your gear well and it will treat you well. Everyone wants to have the fastest or the most accurate weapon on the field. The best thing is to have the right marker for your position or style of play. If you are a Front PLAYER you want a light fast and maneuverable marker and rig and carry about 4 to 5 pods of paint. The front players must have Great snap shooting skills as 90% of their game is snap shooting against other players. If you are a MID PLAYER you need 5 -6 pod of paint with a little more fire power (speed) than the front guy.. a flatline barrel or the new APEX Barrel is great for this position as the mid player will be able to really lay in to the far back spots from angels that the BACK player doest have. The BACK PLAYER or SAWs job is to lay dominating cover fire for the squad to move on and to keep the other teams shooters in their bunkers. This player should have a FAST marker and carry the most paint. This player will need to cross train on ALL positions in the team as they are normally the player who cleans up the field when there is a heavy gun fight. The back player needs to call out positions as they see them so the mid and front guys know where the fight is. What good are your players if they are blind and def on the field?!
The size of your team depends on you. Do you want a large team with multiple squads? Or do you want a small tight knit team? The N.J.T.A.G. was put together as a small team with a cap of 14 players. This would allows us to have an active roster of about 7 - 10 players for each scenario or event we went to. As a team you have to understand that not all of your members will be able to make it to every event. Even though paintball is a fun sport many of your members have lives out side of paintball. If you want a showing as a TEAM then you want a minimum of 5 players showing up at each event. 1 squad leader and 4 specialists. If more show up to the event then run as one big squad or break in to two squads working together.
Finding sponsors will eventually be something that each team will want to do. The best thing to do is to get the team together, play some games, attend some events and make a name for yourself! No company is going to want to sponsor a relative unknown. On the flip side be sure that your team is ready for sponsorship. Many shops and companies will require you to provide a profile for the team, a proposal, and event list. Theyre going to want to know what you will do for them if they give you some help! Make it worth their while to help you. Many teams will not get sponsored for at least the first year. The best kind of sponsorship you can look for as a new team is a place to practice. If you get your home field to give you a deal on playing fees and paint you will find that more of your team will come out to play ball at the practices. The NJTAG has a deal with one of its sponsors to play at the field for a discounted rate and paint at team pricing. This cuts our cost down dramatically! More on sponsorships in another thread
Once you have your team roster, defined rolls, gear set ups, team rules and a mission for your team you are well on your way to having a great team!