TIP #7: PRACTICE VS. TOURNAMENT GEAR
This is a topic I feel is severely overlooked by almost all tournament paintball players. If you’ve ever played other organized sports I am sure you are familiar with practice uniforms and game uniforms. Paintball is one of the few sports that players commonly use their entire tournament outfit and gear in every practice, the only common item not worn in practice is their team jersey for some players.
Every player should always have an extra paintball gun, barrel, tank regulator, & loader in their gear-bag at all times. Those items should be regularly used in practices so you can test and maintain them so they will be good to use when needed at the event.
Now let's look at my main concerned items, your apparel. You can honestly play more points in a single event practice weekend than you can in the entire tournament series in a year. The majority of practice facilities are also a little rougher on your gear due to the ground being rutted out from repetitive sliding and diving into areas. When you spend a decent amount of money on your tournament apparel you should use those for tournaments only, this will increase their lifespan and also could be a helpful training tool for you.
For instance, I would recommend players to use all of the Bunkerking’s FLY Gear at events. They are lighter, more flexible, and compress the parts of your body to help with fatigue and muscle soreness. For practices and training sessions I would lean towards the Bunkerking’s Supreme Gear. Supreme gear is more durable, still lighter than most other pants and pads, and will provide more padding to your arms, elbows, knees, and shins during the high reps of impact to the ground and shots.
At the end of every season, you should then transition your tournament gear to being your alternative secondary practice set of gear and get new gear for the events. Your team should also consider purchasing training jerseys to reduce the chances of ruining their event jerseys.
I hope this helps everyone with keeping their gear in tip-top shape and reducing practice injuries and unexpected expenses right before events.