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Winning Tactics |
7-Man PlaybookBy: Micah McGlocklin, Sacramento XSV, Davis Paintball Center IF YOU'RE GOING TO BE SUCCESSFUL AT 7-MAN, THEN HAVING ONE PLAY TO JUST RUN OUT AND SHOOT THE BAD GUYS WON’T CUT IT. IF YOU WANNA SURVIVE IN THESE TOUGH TIMES, YOU'LL NEED TO ADAPT IN ORDER TO SURVIVE.
Tourney paintball is demanding more out of us players these days. If you're already in a 7-Man team that frequently plays on Sundays, you'll know what I mean. We are having to play game after game on the same fields with the same layouts, thus demanding that today's teams learn to vary their game plans more and more in order to be successful. These days, you need to be a chameleon in order to survive on the field. Your team needs to be able to change its colors and adapt its look so you don't get eaten up by the bigger beasts of the paintball food chain. In a similar fashion, the sport itself is once again changing its own colors next year. Instead of eight or so field designs, the NPPL will be streamlining the events to include just a handful of individual designs – two or three at most. So what the good teams already know; that it's important to have a variety of game plans and strategies in your locker, the rest of paintball is going to learn real fast. Here, I'm going to tell you all why it's so important to have these different plans to call upon and why it's vital that you're able to constantly change your look in order to fool the enemy. To explain what I'm getting at, let's turn back the clock a wee while. A few years ago I was playing with Joy Division in a Euro event. We were all set to play an up and coming amateur team later in the day. Being the one team that I was really worried about in our preliminary bracket, I made a point of watching their games on the field that we'd be playing them on. After only two games, I was very impressed. They played with speed and aggression, they consistently took a lot of ground and they generally looked to be a really solid unit. However, there was a flaw (there always is if you look hard enough). I spotted that they played the same super aggressive move twice, so I thought it was safe to assume that they would try the same game plan against us. After rolling up their first two opponents like a soft taco, their run of form came to a crushing end as we defeated them in minutes. And why, I hear you ask? Because we knew exactly where to set up for their aggressive players. Once we'd dealt with those three players, mopping up the back guys was a straightforward task, and victory was ours. MWAHAHA!! Groundhog DayThe thing is, if that team had tried something new, given themselves a different look, and exercised a game plan that I hadn't already seen, they could have caught us off guard and made us look a bit foolish. But fortunately for us they didn't have the foresight to come up with multiple game plans, and they ended up failing to make Sunday as a result. So there's a lesson there (I think). If your team consistently uses the same game plans on the same field over and over again, you're gonna be in for a rough year and you're gonna get gobbled up, a lot. Remember, every Pro team has someone that scouts out its upcoming opponents on the field they'll be playing on. And with the way the NPPL will be doing things next year, the teams that want to succeed are going to follow suit and start scouting themselves. That way they'll know what to expect from the opposition. If a team simply does the same thing game in and game out you'll soon know it, and they'll pay dearly. If you head into a game with a predictable opponent, you'll feel like you have the mental edge straight away. You won’t need to guess where everyone is going, or adjust your tactics once the game starts. If you're shooting off the break, you'll just need to concentrate on keeping your aim true and steady. If you're running to a spot you'll know exactly where to fix your eyes for the paint coming in, as opposed to trying to figure it out as you're running at full pelt. And once you have made your spot you don’t need to spend time figuring out where all the bad guys are; you already know. They do the same damn thing every game! Now you can focus 100% on killing the remaining bad guys.
So let's just say that 'Team Predictable' is, in fact, your team. What if you did just a few things differently? What if you took the snake off the break one game? Even if you don’t make it you have given the bad guys something different to think about. Or what if you kept three or four guys in the back with the aim of shutting down a specific side of the field? Then your opponents might have to think twice about sending their front guys to their original positions off the break. Or what if you send a guy up to the center spike off the break; they would have to change their game plan to set up a guy or two to shoot him. Start throwing up small changes in your line up and you'll soon notice that the other team will start second guessing themselves. They'll now be spending more time thinking about where your players are going, rather than where they're going and what they're trying to achieve. The more change ups and variations you give the bad guys to think about, the greater your chances of being successful. Scouting NetworkNow that everyone is going to be playing the same fields over and over it would be a good idea to start refining your scouting as well. You'll want as much information about the bad guys as you can get your paws on. You'll need to watch the breakout and early moves in a game, and then decipher the team’s game plans. Did the team set up three or four guns to shoot out a key bunker? If so, maybe you shouldn’t take that bunker off the break. Make them waste those guns. Do they hold up a lot of shooters, or do they have five or six guys running to spots with their heads down? Well maybe you should try to take a little extra ground off the break, or take that far reaching bunker you've been looking at. With so many guys running they probably won’t be able to stop you going real far up the field. Maybe they keep a lot of guns shooting outside and have no containment in the center of the field – a perfect time to press the issue and take the center spike off the break. Going into the finals, XSV always have a few different strategies in their trusted play book. We always start out with a pretty standard breakout in game one. Nothing too crazy, just setting guys up in make-able bunkers and trying to play from there. If we are in the finals it's probably a good chance that we are playing pretty well with that standard game plan. So let us see how it is going to work in that first game; maybe we’ll pull out a win without being too crazy, or risking too many bodies. If we win that game we try to figure out what the bad guys were thinking. Where did we hurt them the most, and from what side of the field? Let's say it was the snake. So next game they're going to try to stop us in the snake. They'll have to, or else we'll just run it down their throats again. So how are they going to stop us? Are they going to take a risk and get up the field to shut down the snake? Are they going to heavily sweet-spot the lane going into the snake? Are they going to try to overload the snake and bully us out of it with more players? Your answers to these questions should form the basis of your new game plan. Think they're gonna sweet-spot? Then don’t give them a chance to shoot your guy off the break. Think they're gonna send someone sprinting up the field to shut the snake down? Then go take him down, and then fill in after he's gone. Think they're gonna load up the snake? Then position some heavy shooters at the lane going into the snake off the break. Think they're gonna... ah, you get the picture! Adapt and SurviveIf you go into that first game and lose then it's time to change up your game plan. Did you lose because they made more moves than you did, and took the game to you? In this situation we usually pull out a hyper-aggressive game plan where we take a lot of ground off the break and try to play the bad guys at their own game. But what if they shot so many of us off the break and then just breezed up the field to clean the rest of you up? In that situation I would make an effort to shoot back at the shooters, and revert to a more conservative break-out. If the bad guys were able to chew you up with a super-conservative game plan, then it's time to play a more cautious game yourself. As you move, make sure you have the support of the guys around you. Plan moves better, tag team guys before you move into the lanes they're covering, and use their game plan against them. Beat them by playing their slow-down style. Generally, crazy plays are only going to work once or twice per event. So if you think you've come up with a killer move, save it. Save it for when you really need a win, and if possible, save it until the finals. That way the bad guys never see it coming. Once a sneaky move has been revealed, its existence usually makes its way around the event, and once everyone is aware of it they look to shut it down. So use your super strategy at a time when it can serve you best. You don’t need to copy any other team's creative plays; you're better than that. So go out there and prove it. As paintball makes another evolutionary twist it's vital that we all find ways of keeping up with the changes. The route to success, whether it's winning titles, or consolidating a spot in a particular division, demands that we constantly adapt to the situation, take on a new look and change our colors to ward off our paintball enemies. If your team chooses to go with the same game plan and fails to adapt next year, you'll get eaten up faster than a donut in a police station. Coming up with multiple game plans and executing them is going to be one of the keys to winning next year. Throw some doubt into your opponent's mind. Show the willingness to play fast and aggressive, and then the ability to play conservatively, with control. Show them you can have the same players play multiple bunkers – that way they can’t just set themselves up for specific moves and positions when they play you. Make them work for a victory. Adapt and you'll survive. Good luck. |
7 Man Turf Paintball Field
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