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The Importance of the Pre-Game: Travel Set Up |
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Sunday, 02 September 2007 |
One aspect often overlooked about the scenario paintball team is what happens before the whistle blows, before you air up, before you get your gear on, even sometimes before you put gas in your truck the day prior to leaving. This is called the Pre-Game.
The Pre-Game is the meeting the commander of a team has with his fellow team members before they go on any kind of a paintball outing. Many things are covered in this meeting from travel arrangements down to what radio channel and privacy code your team will be using. It can take anywhere from 5 hours to just 5 minute meeting right before you go out. For this articles sake and to cover all aspects of the Pre-Game we will use the longer version of the meeting that would happen most likely at least one day prior to the outing. The main aspects that we will be covering will be travel set up, unit structure, gear issues, basic strategy, and communications.
Travel set up is one of the most take-for-granted aspects of paintball play. It is assumed that everyone is going to be there because that is when the day actually starts. However, all it takes is one oversight and your tank hunter is left waiting in the wrong Denny’s parking lot or at his own house wondering when the guys will be there to pick him up. It really takes a lot of effort to make sure that everyone is on the same page in the travel department. This is where email and phone skills really come into play. First be sure to pick a meeting place that is central to all of your players attending the event. Do not pick the parking lot that is closest to you, the organizer, just because you do not feel like waking up any earlier. Also be sure that the parking lot that you are leaving everyone’s cars in is safe and that it is ok to leave cars there all day long.
For example my brother used to work at a grocery store where the owner of the center had hired a towing company to tow cars that had been left there by the renters of apartments across the street. There was also a tour bus company that, with the center owner’s permission, would leave elderly peoples cars in the lot while they rode the bus to Las Vegas to play Keno and slot machines. The tow company decided to take the liberty to tow all of the elderly people’s cars and impound them no more than 15 minutes after they left for their trip. This is one of the last things you want to happen when you get back from a fun day of paintball. When you ask the center owner for permission ask them if they have a towing company in any form that watches the lot.
I always send email updates to everyone attending the event every couple of days leading up to it. I always offer everyone the carpool and let them know when and where are leaving from. Even if they have already declined the offer I still make sure they know that it is available and that they are welcome to join.
It is understandable that this is all really difficult to keep track of. It is not really possible to remember every conversation and who said what. This is why you need to write everything down. I always print out a sheet of paper with the name and contact information for each person in my group. So if there are 8 people in my group then I have 8 pieces of paper. Then each time I call them I write down the date, the time, and what we talked about. Any emails between the two of us are printed and then stapled to the sheet. This way no one can say that I did not talk with them.
Other things to be sure and think about are how many people are going versus how many seats are available in the cars. The last thing you want is two people to have to double up on your way to Oklahoma D-Day. Another aspect to account for is cargo space. You may have enough room for all of the people but will you have enough room for all of their junk? You really do not want to a have a duffle bag fall off the roof of your car because there was no room left in the car and you had to tie it to the roof with someone’s extra shoe laces. So you have everyone accounted for, they all have seats, and there is going to be plenty of room for all of their stuff. The logistics are now over and you can start to work on the fun part.
This is a Special By:
Josh Goedl |
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Last Updated ( Friday, 16 November 2007 )
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