The 5 Most Commonly Heard Myths and Misconceptions Surrounding Paintball

While many believe paintball is an unsafe game glorifying guns and killing, from experience I know this and many other statements to be 100% false when the sport of paintball is played properly.

Myth 1
Paintball is an unsafe sport and you can be seriously injured while playing.

This is probably the most commonly believed myth and that is because it is completely true. Well, sorta. You see, when playing paintball properly you should be wearing a mask designed for paintball play, a long sleeved shirt, and of course pants. This limits the injuries you could recieve from being hit by a paintball (it still hurts, its like being snapped by a rubber band). You still have to worry about tripping, hurting yourself when sliding, maybe even running into a tree or something. But you could recieve any of these injuries while playing almost any sport. In fact Insurance companie's statistics show that paintball is one of the safest sports with an 0.2% chance of serious injury per 1000 players (and insurance companies know what they're doing when it comes to statistics). Also, the sport paintball is only responsible for 8.3% of eye injuries (most involving players not using masks). If your wearing a mask I can almost guarentee you will not recieve an eye injury unless you take it off on the playing field, as masks are rigorously tested (one company shoots them with a 12 gauge shotgun at 20 feet, while another fires steel balls at them from 10 feet).

Myth 2
Paintball glorifies war and killing and can be used to train for criminal acts.

Paintball does not glorify war and killing, myself and others play for the adrenaline rush, the fun you can have while playing with friends and family, and the friendly competition. Also, firing a paintball marker is completely different from firing a firearm, markers have an arc on any shots longer than approximately 50 feet while firearms have a flat trajectory.

Myth 3
Paintball is only played by rednecks.

This one is definitely untrue. Many players are educated and working in every type of job imaginable. The only reason some people view paintball as a redneck sport is all the videos of rednecks shooting each other 100 times without a shirt.

Myth 4
Most paintballers shoot unsuspecting victims in "drive-by shootings".

Most paintballers despise those involved in the drive-by shootings because they are negating the progress that legitimate players have made in getting paintball recognized as a sport. Probably 1 percent of all paintball markers are those who do the drive-by shootings but they cause most of the negative publicity.

Myth 5
Paintballers are spoiled kids who think they are "2 cool 4 u" and make fun of new players.

While there are some spoiled and arrogant players (as in any sport) most players actively try to help those new to the game. In fact at a popular forum a common signature is "If the person you're playing with doesn't walk away having had one of the best experiences possibe, you have failed as a paintballer."

If you have ever wanted to play a sport involving communication, teamwork, courage, perseverance, and meet some great people at the same time (ignore the bad ones) then I suggest you try paintball.

I used wikipedia.org/paintball for the statistics.