Post by zealousmalaysia on Jul 22, 2007 15:43:38 GMT 7
Michael Venezia[/colour] is new on the Pro scene; he's grown from a novice X-ball player on well known newcomers Team Ultimate, to playing in the NXL with Miami Effect. He has sacraficed and worked hard in the past year and a half to achieve his goal of playing pro paintball. Read on as Michael shares his thoughts on becoming a professional athlete as this burst of youth is emerging into the Pro scene.
As our sport goes and progresses more and more every year, the ages of professional athletes are becoming younger by the day. Now agility, speed, and athletic condition are almost more of a factor than gun skills with the evolution of X-ball and then NXL.
That’s why you see so many young, athletic kids playing in the professional ranks against guys like Todd Adamson, Todd Hugo, and Ryan Williams who have been playing this game longer than some of these kids have been alive. Why? As our great sport progresses, it’s become more of a physical game. Don’t get me wrong paintball still requires great mental ability and understanding of the game, which is why all the players that have been around for a long time can still keep up with everyone in the NXL even though there are young kids in better shape.
If you are serious about playing profession paintball, then you have to dedicate a huge amount of time to practice and training to get to your goal as quick as possible. I’ve seen kids the haven’t even been playing the sport 2 years now playing on the Professional level, I myself have gone from a Novice X-ball player at the beginning of last year to playing on a NXL Franchised team and so can you. You have to be a dedicated person that’s willing to practice and run drills 3-4 days a week, while maintaining a good workout schedule to keep in shape. Now this is my first year as a professional paintball player and by no means do I claim to know even close to everything about this sport, but I didn’t reach my goal very fast and I wanted to share how I did so with you guys.
Practice, Practice, Practice[/colour]
Everyone is finally catching on to this crazy idea in the paintball world, and it took a team by the name of Russian Legion to come over here and convince everyone. It shows at tournaments that the teams the practice more than every other weekend, the ones that play 3-4 times a week are the ones winning tournaments.
As paintball progresses into a more organized sport, we have to realize that the teams that are practicing like normal sports are going to succeed over the ones that play every-so-often. I have always played a sport since I was 6 years old, and paintball was the first sport I encountered that did not require multiple practices during the week. Granted most Professional teams these days contain a roster that’s spread out all over the country, which makes scheduling practices much harder. That is why the teams that are for the majority located in the same area are able to compete against high caliber teams with not as much experience.
I was lucky enough to play the first 2 tournament years of my career with a team that believed exactly that, just like the age old saying goes “practice makes perfect”. The first step in your goal to become a Professional Athlete is to practice until you pass out and it takes 3 doctors to revive you. Just Kidding. You do have to try and play as much as you can, the more you play the faster your game will accelerate. I understand a lot of people run into the problem of not having enough people around them to play that much, you just have to find a way around it; shoot targets or do whatever you can to help improve your gun skills. The most important thing you can do is make sure you are constantly doing drills.
Drills: They May Not Always Be Fun, But Well Worth Your Time[/colour]
The fastest way to improve your gun skill and overall awareness for paintball is to run drills of all types, and doing them constantly. It’s my belief that for the most part you cannot run a wrong drill; any drill that involves you shooting your gun at something else will help you in some way.
That means that there’s no reason why you and your friends can’t come up with different drills to mix things up from your ordinary routine. Most of the drills we did on Ultimate were thought up by the team and coaches, because it helps you focus on areas you want to improve as well as making it more fun.
We had usually 2 days a week devoted just to drills; they are a key factor in bringing your game to the next level. The best thing to do as you start a drill regime is to rack your progress and take stats of each drill you complete. Every month you can look back at your stats and see where you are lacking and what areas you are acceding in, giving you a way to set goals for yourself. Mold your drills around the format you’re planning on playing too; since X-ball is all about living behind your gun, you would want to work things like on running and shooting and loading with your gun up, etc. Anything to give yourself the edge, you need to focus on.
Success Will Be Yours[/colour]
Now I don’t want anyone to think that if you just do what I say here, you will get on a pro team just like that. I’m just letting everyone in on the things that were stepping stones on my way to the big leagues, because I still have so much to learn it’s incredible. One of the great things about a sport is that you can always strive to be better, no matter how good you are, and I just hope that someone reads this and it helps them along their journey to the top. I know there are many kids out there that all you want to do is play professional paintball, and I believe that anyone who gives their all to this great sport can succeed in it. There is still much more to the sport; you need to be working out regularly and eating right, but I should save something for the next article.
As our sport goes and progresses more and more every year, the ages of professional athletes are becoming younger by the day. Now agility, speed, and athletic condition are almost more of a factor than gun skills with the evolution of X-ball and then NXL.
That’s why you see so many young, athletic kids playing in the professional ranks against guys like Todd Adamson, Todd Hugo, and Ryan Williams who have been playing this game longer than some of these kids have been alive. Why? As our great sport progresses, it’s become more of a physical game. Don’t get me wrong paintball still requires great mental ability and understanding of the game, which is why all the players that have been around for a long time can still keep up with everyone in the NXL even though there are young kids in better shape.
If you are serious about playing profession paintball, then you have to dedicate a huge amount of time to practice and training to get to your goal as quick as possible. I’ve seen kids the haven’t even been playing the sport 2 years now playing on the Professional level, I myself have gone from a Novice X-ball player at the beginning of last year to playing on a NXL Franchised team and so can you. You have to be a dedicated person that’s willing to practice and run drills 3-4 days a week, while maintaining a good workout schedule to keep in shape. Now this is my first year as a professional paintball player and by no means do I claim to know even close to everything about this sport, but I didn’t reach my goal very fast and I wanted to share how I did so with you guys.
Practice, Practice, Practice[/colour]
Everyone is finally catching on to this crazy idea in the paintball world, and it took a team by the name of Russian Legion to come over here and convince everyone. It shows at tournaments that the teams the practice more than every other weekend, the ones that play 3-4 times a week are the ones winning tournaments.
As paintball progresses into a more organized sport, we have to realize that the teams that are practicing like normal sports are going to succeed over the ones that play every-so-often. I have always played a sport since I was 6 years old, and paintball was the first sport I encountered that did not require multiple practices during the week. Granted most Professional teams these days contain a roster that’s spread out all over the country, which makes scheduling practices much harder. That is why the teams that are for the majority located in the same area are able to compete against high caliber teams with not as much experience.
I was lucky enough to play the first 2 tournament years of my career with a team that believed exactly that, just like the age old saying goes “practice makes perfect”. The first step in your goal to become a Professional Athlete is to practice until you pass out and it takes 3 doctors to revive you. Just Kidding. You do have to try and play as much as you can, the more you play the faster your game will accelerate. I understand a lot of people run into the problem of not having enough people around them to play that much, you just have to find a way around it; shoot targets or do whatever you can to help improve your gun skills. The most important thing you can do is make sure you are constantly doing drills.
Drills: They May Not Always Be Fun, But Well Worth Your Time[/colour]
The fastest way to improve your gun skill and overall awareness for paintball is to run drills of all types, and doing them constantly. It’s my belief that for the most part you cannot run a wrong drill; any drill that involves you shooting your gun at something else will help you in some way.
That means that there’s no reason why you and your friends can’t come up with different drills to mix things up from your ordinary routine. Most of the drills we did on Ultimate were thought up by the team and coaches, because it helps you focus on areas you want to improve as well as making it more fun.
We had usually 2 days a week devoted just to drills; they are a key factor in bringing your game to the next level. The best thing to do as you start a drill regime is to rack your progress and take stats of each drill you complete. Every month you can look back at your stats and see where you are lacking and what areas you are acceding in, giving you a way to set goals for yourself. Mold your drills around the format you’re planning on playing too; since X-ball is all about living behind your gun, you would want to work things like on running and shooting and loading with your gun up, etc. Anything to give yourself the edge, you need to focus on.
Success Will Be Yours[/colour]
Now I don’t want anyone to think that if you just do what I say here, you will get on a pro team just like that. I’m just letting everyone in on the things that were stepping stones on my way to the big leagues, because I still have so much to learn it’s incredible. One of the great things about a sport is that you can always strive to be better, no matter how good you are, and I just hope that someone reads this and it helps them along their journey to the top. I know there are many kids out there that all you want to do is play professional paintball, and I believe that anyone who gives their all to this great sport can succeed in it. There is still much more to the sport; you need to be working out regularly and eating right, but I should save something for the next article.