A small note- This
topic and this particular blog post almost killed me. My brain came close to disintegrating from
all the important tangents this post could have run off on. I tried to keep it streamlined and focused on
but a few of the more important factors regarding said topic. I still feel as if I may have had a small
aneurism or hemorrhage of the brain. I
apologize ahead of time. It has been
rewritten 6 times . . . no joke. This is
a topic I will try to readdress later if I am alive. If I die don’t let me vote
Democrat after I am dead.
Communication is the means by which we transfer and decipher
information. Whether it is thoughts,
emotions or ideas, we use our speech, gestures, and facial expressions, to
transmit whatever it is we wish to get across to those we are communicating
with. There are three essential components to communication: the sender, the medium by which we are
delivering the data (method of delivery), and the receiver. Now, I could get into theory and further
explain the science around all of this but let’s proceed using this base
understanding.
“Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they
have to say something.” – Plato
“First learn the meaning of what you say, and then speak.” - Epictetus
Ancient Greek philosophers understood the importance of
communication. They were quite
articulate about it actually. (Get it?).
With the creation of the Olympics, all those chiseled bodies (see what I
did there?) and their understanding of communication based off the
philosophical minds they had at their disposal, would have made excellent
paintball players.
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| Communicating the gameplan |
Probably the most overlooked, misunderstood, and vitally
important aspect of paintball is communication.
I don’t care if you are a beginner or a pro, you can never have enough
good information. The importance of receiving and transmitting this information
well is a crucial element teams should master if they intend to be
successful.
Think about it for one moment in the most basic of contexts: You communicate to your teammates the game
plan prior to a point. You communicate
what you want to accomplish. If you are
down bodies, good communication will help you pull it back. If you are up bodies, good communication will
help you ensure your success.
Too many players have a simplistic understanding of what
communication is or should be in paintball.
They feel that it is simply shouting out bunker codes or kill counts. Sure,
it is important to identify threats. But
is that the extent of it? Is that where
it ends? Absolutely not. Now that we have information, how do we
continue its transmission and how do we use it effectively?
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| Communicating expectations |
Something many players look past is listening, another
incredibly important factor of communication.
This is my own personal issue. I
have a tendency to communicate well in the first part of a point. While I am communicating, I am piecing things
together in my head on how I am going to react to the data I have. I see the game plan unfold, make my reads,
and then act. Regrettably, I may have
missed a key point of data from one of my players because I was talking/yelling
and not listening too. Or even worse, I
may not communicate what I knew or my intent.
In other words, I have a tendency to forget to share “my plan” and just act
essentially diminishing my success rate by not getting the “help” I need. This is where some of you would argue, “Hey,
if you see the move you have to take it!”
That is true. And you are still
wrong.
Once you have the necessary information (location of
opponents, recognizing your teams position in relation to those of your
opponents, up/down count), now we have to take this information and form a
response to it. Whether it is sharing what
we know (if we have additional information) or simply acknowledging we heard what
our teammate(s) shared, they have to know the message was received as well as
the additional information we can provide.
Once this is established, now we have to build a game plan. Yes, you had a plan on the box of who was
laning where, who was going where (and why) and you want to execute that
plan. One
or two specific goals should have been determined, too. It
is important to understand the reasoning behind the play (your goals).
So, the point begins and we go to accomplish and execute our
plan/goals. But now, based off the
latest data, we have to piece together how to execute said game plan based off
our new environment (what happened after the break). Has the game plan now changed and if so how, why
and where? What elements have
changed? Did we lose someone off the
break? Perhaps two? Did we drop one or two of them on the
break? Did we make it wide and they
didn’t? Does this allow us to take more
ground quickly? What elements and
variables have happened and how do we adjust?
How do we know how to adjust?
Communication, that’s how! After
enough time working with your teammates, instinct will also play a role, but
that is another topic/blog. Communication paints the picture for us and
now we have to finish the story by painting our own ending. Communication is the paintbrush. BTW, that is what we call “analogy”, a good
communication tool . . . anyway. . .
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| What now? |
It should be noted that the information derived from
communication is only as good as the context in which it is received. It is important in paintball to get the most
amount of information across in the most efficient way. Power words or short sentences that are code
for specific and distinct meaning are key.
Perhaps your team has a code meaning the snake side is clear from a
particular prop over? Same for the D
side. Or that there is a particular
situation you anticipated to encounter and trained to beat? If you don’t have these things, again, you
are behind the curve.
Additionally, the knowledge you already possess must be
built upon with the knowledge you receive.
If you are told it is “G4! Home only!” and truck down the field to dunk
the guy and end up getting smoked by a guy in the corner everyone missed, well,
that’s bad. However, having your data,
building upon it as accurate (trust but verify) gives even greater detail which
allows you to make a better informed decision.
But most importantly, have you and your players walked the field well
enough that they have a 3 dimensional map of it engraved in their brain? This is the next level. If I tell my front snake player “G out of the
can! Aztec is D side, corner is on the
wire!”, can he/she now see the field in his/her mind and make an informed
decision to set up and shoot another threat he is aware of? AND BECAUSE he has walked the field so well
and knows the shot from his position in the snake, it is second nature to pop
up and make an accurate shot without having to gather his bearings. Make sense?
Translation: If you
tell your snake player an opponent is looking away and he now has a shot on
another bunker but he doesn’t know the shot instantly, he could very well miss
the opportunity. He now has to prairie dog causing him to lose a valuable
opportunity.
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| Being able to talk to your team off the field is valuable |
Interestingly enough, communication doesn’t just have to happen
on the field. It is important that good
communication among a team happens off the field too. I had this conversation recently with a
member of Prime. We were talking about the difference between his perception of
his game and other more experienced members in the program. We were discussing how one takes steps to
understand what to do in complex situations and how one learns “instinct”. The more we talked the more I realized his
problem was that he didn’t understand exactly what we had been teaching. If A then B.
The issue he was struggling with was comprehension. That’s an issue since the “receiver” wasn’t
understanding the message and it was obvious the “sender” wasn’t delivering the
message well enough. But once I
recognized the issue, I began to break it down for him and really focused in on
his concern. I did my best to explain as well as I could, what we were driving
at. It clicked. He had a breakthrough and understood the
point. It was really cool to witness and
be a part of (I dig things like that… when the light bulb goes off and the
player is better for it. Man, I love
that stuff!)
Are there ways to improve communication? Yes.
Are there drills for this? There
sure are. What is an example?
Supper. . .
Yep, supper. For
those of you not in the know, supper is the correct term for dinner here in the
south. Now that we have the nomenclature
squared away . . .
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| Prime time SUPPER TIME! |
I love to eat, but I love eating with my friends and
teammates more. There is something about
breaking bread with guys you have chewed dirt with all day. No, this isn’t a drill. There are plenty out there and several the
Prime program uses. It would be easy to
supply you with a few that assist you with communicating better on the
field. But I have news for you. If you don’t get to know the guy in front of
you, beside you or behind you on that field, and you don’t trust them, then
there is no amount of drills that will help your comms on the field. If you
can’t talk to your teammates off the field, you won't do it effectively on the field
either. No manner of drill will make you
a better teammate much less a better team.
Emphasize communication at your next (and all) practices
going forward. Try to think of ways to
improve it. Trust me when I tell you
that a team that can communicate well and adjust will take the game more times
than not.
Be water my friends,
Mike Bianca
Team Pr1me
