Two Days to a 3v3 Match: Learning Paintball From the Los Angeles Ironmen
Michelle Khare
Michelle, the host, gets two days of training from professional paintball players before playing a 3v3 tournament-style match. The coaches set a modest goal: not to win, but to stay calm under fire, keep the body hidden behind cover, and talk to teammates.
The Challenge and the Coaches
The training takes place in Oceanside, California. Leading it is Nikki McEvers, who introduces herself as paintball's first female head coach, for Team Ironmen. Her plan has four parts: explain the gear, teach communication, teach shooting, and teach movement. Nick Slowiak, a professional with the Los Angeles Ironmen who says he has played for 20 years, joins her.
Michelle asks whether two days is enough to "hold my own a little bit." Nick's answer focuses on nerves, not skill. If Michelle can learn not to panic with paintballs flying past her head at what he describes as 200 miles an hour, she will be fine. Nikki agrees that the biggest hurdle is the anxiety of getting shot. Michelle will get hit, she says, and the point is to learn from those failures and stay calm when uncomfortable.
Gear: Goggles First, Padding Optional
Nikki calls the goggles one of the most important pieces of equipment, along with the paint itself, because they protect the face. When Michelle asks how often players get hit in the face, the answer is "a lot."
Knee pads are not required, but Michelle wants them, joking that she would wear a giant marshmallow if she could. Nikki points out that the team jersey already has padding in the shoulders, the sides, and a little in the forearms. With that, Michelle is considered geared up enough to start drilling.
First Drills: Switching Hands, Feathering, and Reloading
The first drill uses three targets: a center target and two small cones. Nikki calls out which one to shoot. The catch is that when the call is "left," Michelle has to switch the marker to her left hand. Nick explains why this matters in a real game. If he is playing out the right side of his bunker and a teammate tells him to shoot left, he has to switch positions immediately.
Michelle misses the first shot. Shooting left-handed feels strange to her, since she has never done anything with her left hand. The coaches then teach "feathering," using two fingers on the trigger to fire faster.
Reloading comes next. When Michelle reloads, she takes her hand off the trigger, and Nikki points out that she could not shoot at anyone during that moment. The goal is to grab the pod, load, and keep shooting. Nikki sums it up: "reload when you can, not when you have to."
Getting Used to Being Shot At
The coaches then have Michelle shoot at Nick, and she is reluctant at first. After some adjusting, she skims him and then hits him in the center.
Next the roles flip. Nick shoots near Michelle without trying to hit her, so she can get used to the sound. One shot goes right past her ear. They ask her to stay still, watch the balls come in, and check whether a ball broke on her (one did not, so play would continue). During this drill Michelle accidentally shoots Nikki. Nikki says she knew it would happen at some point with a new player, she just didn't know when.
Bunkers, Shapes, and Angles
The next lesson covers positioning behind a bunker so that no legs, feet, head, or part of the gun shows. Nikki goes through the bunker names:
- Cans, shaped like soda cans
- Doritos, three-dimensional triangles
- Cakes
- Corner bunkers, which some call Aztecs and others temples
Each shape plays differently depending on whether it has a flat edge or a rounded side. Nikki says Michelle's height is an advantage, since she could stand upright behind a temple or a tall cake without bending.
Nick says the field layout is what sets paintball apart. A football field is always 100 yards long, but paintball layouts keep changing. Teams only have the time between the public release of a layout and the start of a tournament to study it and build game plans.
Crouched behind a bunker, Michelle can see only a small slice of the field. Nikki shows a technique players use: pushing the left knee into the bunker and shifting slightly to widen the field of vision. Nick adds a warning. The farther the marker sticks out from the bunker, the bigger the angle you give your opponent. He calls the game "really about angles." Players should value their bodies, be upset when they get eliminated, and learn to play tight. He admits some shapes are hard to play well, and with two or three opponents each shooting about 10.5 balls a second, it is going to "suck."
Snap Shooting
Nikki calls snap shooting one of the biggest fundamentals in paintball. The player stays tucked into the bunker, pops out, fires one quick shot to make the opponent duck back in, and returns to cover. The goal is to gain dominance over the opponent.
Michelle starts by putting her finger on the trigger too early, and the coaches correct her: keep the finger off until the marker is up, or you end up shooting people in the feet. Nick sets the rules from a tower bunker. He won't shoot back for her first five snapshots, so she can work on accuracy. After that he will shoot at anything exposed and call it out, such as "elbow." The lesson is that once he fires back, she should duck in instead of staying out.
After the fifth shot, Nick calls out her elbow and foot, and she eventually takes a hit, though it bounces. Nikki observes that Michelle knows she has a gun that can hit him but doesn't yet trust her own skills. Michelle says peeking out while knowing that is "terrifying." The coaches' answer is that she has to accept getting shot.
One-on-One
Day one ends with one-on-ones. Each player starts at an opposite gate and tries to shoot the other first. Michelle asks whether Nick will go all out, and he says he should but won't. Nikki coaches from the side: Nick is in one of the Doritos, move to the big brick, don't expose too much, keep shooting, move up while shooting him in, and get behind a bunker before reloading.
Afterward Michelle is sweaty and compares the experience to David and Goliath, except she knows she won't be the one winning. Nick concedes he is still going easy on her. He says what matters is that she took what she learned and it worked. By keeping up pressure and using the tools she has, he says, she can win any situation.
The Format and Michelle's Job
Before the final challenge, the format is explained. A game lasts 15 minutes on a field with mirrored bunkers. A team wins a point by eliminating all opponents or by hitting the buzzer on the other side, and the team with the most points at the end wins. Nikki says that as a novice, Michelle's most valuable contribution will be communication.
Michelle says she feels much better after the first day's one-on-ones. Nikki says she is fully confident in her abilities.
Pink or Purple Paint
The team has to pick a paint color, and two custom colors were made for the shoot: pink and purple. Nikki explains why it matters. Pink paint is visible in flight, so opponents can dodge it. Purple is harder to see, so opponents may not be able to dodge it, which gives the shooter a better chance.
Michelle settles it by shaking out a single Tic Tac. It comes out pink, so the team goes in with what Michelle calls a strategic disadvantage. She is happy anyway because pink is her favorite color.
The 3v3: Early Losses and Learning to Talk
Nikki describes the final challenge as putting everything from the two days into a team format: holding the gun properly, playing tight, moving when needed, and telling teammates the plan. Nick adds that you can't know how it works until you go out and try it.
Michelle is eliminated quickly in the first point and calls it "so lame." Nikki's role during the game is to give feedback between points so the team can adjust or change plans. Her main correction is about communication. Even after getting hit, Michelle can keep talking. She has teammates to rely on, but they need information. She should tell Nick who is shooting at her so he can shoot that person and free her up. Nikki also stresses that there is no rush to win quickly, since they are still working on basics. Michelle has to "commit to communicate," and Michelle decides to just call out everything.
In the next point Michelle is calling positions like "Vegas" and "back center" and saying where she is taking fire from, but she is eliminated again. Nikki says this was avoidable. Michelle was hit in the hopper because of how she held her gun. She was not outplayed or out-positioned, just holding the marker wrong, and that is easy to fix.
The First Elimination
On a later point, with Nick calling the play, Michelle moves up and eliminates an opponent for the first time. She describes being thrilled and says she just wanted to do one cool thing that day.
Nick explains why the play worked. The opponents' widest player cut back in to play him, and the player in the Dorito also turned toward him. When he came in, they had to move up, and they were blind to Michelle because the "50 brick" blocked much of their view. Her moment came from how the opponents shifted their attention, not from beating someone in a direct duel.
The Last Point
The final point shows the communication working. The team takes the opponents down to two players, then one. When only one opponent is left, Nick tells Michelle the man is playing toward her and to take her shot when ready. She shoots, keeps shooting, and Nick pushes her forward.
After teammate Jeremy is eliminated, Nick tells Michelle there is no one wider than her, since all the opponents are inside. With Brandon down to one-on-one, Nick says the last opponent is only in the back center and sends Michelle all the way up the field. Nikki praises her for "executing the game plan."
Closing
Michelle says she is sad it's over and wants to keep playing. Nick says that is why he enjoys sessions like this with Nikki: they expose people to the sport. He hopes viewers will be encouraged to try paintball, adding that they don't need to play tournament paintball or shoot 10 balls a second to enjoy it.
This week I am going on an adventure to train like a professional paintball player, and you're gonna wanna watch to the end of this video because with only two days of training, I am going to be entered into a 3v3 tournament-style match.
Thank you so much to Tic Tac for sponsoring today's episode and making this adventure possible. The Tic Tac Big Berry Adventure was created to inspire fun and adventurous moments, like my adventure learning paintball this week. So be sure to follow @TicTacUSA on social media so you can learn how to use the hashtag #BigBerryChallenge to inspire your next adventure.
Hi, I'm Nikki McEvers, and I'm paintball's first female head coach of Team Ironmen. This week we're in Oceanside, California, at Victory Paintball Park. I'm going to be teaching her about the gear that we use, how to communicate. I'm going to definitely teach her how to shoot her gun, and I'm going to teach her how to move.
I'm Nick Slowiak, a player on the Los Angeles Ironmen, professional. Been doing this for 20 years and really excited that you're out here to give our sport a shot.
So I have two days to prepare for a 3v3 match. Do you think I can improve enough to hold my own a little bit in this game, or are you guys kind of skeptical? If you can learn how not to panic when there are paintballs flying past your head at 200 miles an hour, then you'll be good.
One of the major hurdles that Michelle will need to get over is just the anxiety of getting shot. You're going to get shot, and you have to learn from those mistakes and that failure. Part of that is learning how to stay calm in situations that you're uncomfortable in.
Tied along with paint for being one of the most important pieces would be the goggle. This is going to be the thing that protects your face, which is probably the single most important part of your body that you want to protect while playing. How often do you get hit in the face? Oh, a lot. No, that happens a lot.
So, goggles. Next, there's no rule saying you have to wear knee pads. I'm going to. Okay, there you go. I would wear a giant marshmallow out there if I could. Bubble, yeah. Oh, I love the colors.
Okay, but in that jersey that you're wearing, you've got padding in the shoulders, you've got padding on the side, and you've got a little bit of padding in the forearms. I think we're ready for drills. We've got you pretty much geared up, so we're gonna head out onto the field and start shooting some paintballs. All right, let's do it.
You've got three targets out there, two small cones and the center target. Nikki will have you pick which one to shoot. The thing to note, though, is when she says shoot the left target, switch your marker to the left hand.
That's just the practice of in-game time situations. If I'm playing out the right side of my bunker, my teammate says, "Hey, Nick, shoot left," I have to immediately switch the position I'm in and shoot that way. Go ahead and pick the center cone. That's so skinny, that one. Okay. Oh no, I didn't even get it.
All right, so now you know what to do next now, right? Switch hands. Okay. Okay, so keep on targeting. Yep, switch hands. Perfect. Okay, aim. Oh my God, I've never done anything with my left hand. This is so strange.
You're just going like this, right? Yeah. Okay, so if you want to shoot faster, you can use both fingers to go like this, kind of like... We call it feathering. It's both, yeah. Let's keep going. There we go. Oh, you feel fully relieved. Oh yeah, I like that.
Okay, and then the one thing to think about now, too, is that you've shot a lot of paint, so you're going to want to reload. And I leave it in my left hand? You can if you want, if you can. So look at what you just did, though. You took your hand off the trigger. Yeah, there you go. Okay, got it. Oh God. There you go. And if you see anybody, you wouldn't be able to shoot them at that time. Okay. You want to be able to take that pod and load and continue to shoot. Reload when you can, not when you have to.
How about we spice this up, then? All right, now you got to hit me. No. You got to shoot at people. Let's go. But I don't want to hit you. Oh my God, this feels so strange. Are you sure? What? It's paintball. Okay, I will prepare to shoot you now. Yeah, thank you.
So we didn't have to move at all because you're off a little bit. Okay, let's readjust and let's try again. Oh, nice, and you actually skimmed him, so good job. Keep going. Keep going, yeah. Oh, there you go, right in the center. Yep. Oh, sorry.
I didn't shoot you. I was not expecting that. That was close, though. Yeah, I heard it right by my ear. Oh my God. So I'll shoot at you, not gonna try and hit you, but just get used to that sound. Yeah. You gotta overcome that fear. Ready? Yeah. Okay.
Just try not to move. You're fine. Can you see the ball? Yes, I can. Good. So now put your gun in. Yes. Did it break? No, it didn't. So keep playing. That would be one of those things where you felt... That wasn't bad. No, I turned her marker off.
Oh my God, did you just shoot Nikki? She just shot Nikki. What does this button do? You shot coach. Oh my God, I'm so sorry. I knew that you were going to shoot me at some point. I just didn't know when it was going to happen, because with all the new players...
So now we're going to move on to positioning behind a bunker to not show your legs, your feet, your head, any part of the gun, so that you can stay safely behind it. So the bunkers have different names? Yeah. What you'll see on a paintball field is a can, looks like a soda can; the Doritos, they're three-dimensional Doritos; the cakes. You're gonna have different names with the corner bunker you see over here. Some people call them Aztecs. Some people call them temples.
Each one of these shapes is going to play differently, with it being a flat edge, a rounded spot. And you're in, I would say, a lucky position because you're short. Hey! Right? You could probably stand up in these temples, in the tall cake, and you don't have to bend down.
The one thing that really sets paintball apart is the field layout is always changing, and we only have a set amount of time from the moment the layout drops publicly to the time the tournament starts to adapt to that and to learn off of it and to make our game plans. The football field's always going to be 100 yards by however wide it is.
With the positioning that you're in right now, how much of the field do you think you can see? Just this. Yeah, just this area right here, right? So you're going to want to be able to get in a position where you can see the other side of the field. So sometimes with the... Oh, you can... So what the guys do sometimes is they use their left knee to push into it, move it a little bit, and now that gives you a bigger field of vision.
And the one thing to think about here, too, is look at the distance between your marker and the bunker. The more you push yourself out, the bigger that angle becomes. The game of paintball is really about angles. You don't want to get eliminated, and you should be upset when you do. So you have to value your body, and you just have to learn that, hey, I need to be able to play tight, expose very little of myself. And you're going to find that some of these shapes are going to be very challenging, and you're going to be uncomfortable. You're not going to like it, and when you've got two or three other people shooting ten and a half balls a second at you, it's going to suck.
We went over playing the bunkers. Now we're going to go over snap shooting, one of the biggest fundamentals of paintball. What a snapshot is, it's being tucked into your bunker, not exposed to your opponent, and it's taking a very quick shot, one ball, to force them to go in so you can gain dominance on your opponent. So just one shot? One shot. Okay, going on.
Oh. You put your finger on the trigger too quick. Don't apologize to me. So the gun's on, the loader's on. Don't put your finger on the trigger. That's how you shoot people on the feet. Okay.
I'll go in this tower. Okay. The first five snapshots that you shoot at me, I will not shoot back. Okay. So you just get your accuracy on. After the fifth shot, all I'm going to shoot at is the exposed part of you. Watch your feet. If you start to lead with your elbow, I'm going to say "elbow," and I'm going to shoot at it. Jesus Christ. So when he's shooting back at you, then you want to go back in. Don't just stay out and get shot. Yeah. Okay, okay.
One. Two. Three. Four. Okay, so that's five, so now I shoot back. Elbow. Okay, I can see your foot. There you go. Get set. There you go. So now you're off to the left quite a bit. Get a good shot. Good. Elbow a little bit.
He got me. I know, it bounced. I can see you. You understand that you have a gun that's gonna shoot him, but you're not confident with your skills yet. Yeah, it's terrifying peeking out, knowing that. But you just have to accept you're gonna get shot. Yeah.
Now we're gonna go to one-on-one. Okay, what does that entail? So that's basically you against him. One of you is going to start at this black start gate here, and one of you is going to start at the other end. The objective is to shoot him before he shoots you. Okay, are you going to be going all out on me? Well, I should, but no. Okay. Okay.
Why are you not shooting? Oh, wait, wait. Oh my God, wait, wait, sorry. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh. Oh, ow.
You know that he's in one of those Doritos. Okay, move to the next bunker, that big brick. Oh. Don't expose yourself too much. Oh, I got it. Keep shooting, keep shooting, keep shooting. Move to the next one. Now shoot him in, and let's go to the next bunker. Keep going, keep going. Get behind the bunker if you're gonna reload. Okay, wait, wait, wait, wait. Do you see where he's at?
We just finished day one, so how are you feeling now? Sweaty. I feel like it was definitely watching a hamster on heroin, but who's never seen that before? Raise your hand. You all have now.
I feel like it's like David and Goliath a bit, except you know how David wins in the end? I know I'm not going to win in the end. Yeah, yep. You're going easy on me still, though. But you took what you learned, and it worked. And that's just one of those things where continuing to apply pressure and taking the marker and the tools that you have at your disposal, you can win any situation. Oh yeah. That was so fun. It was fun. Yeah. That's not too bad.
In a game of 15 minutes, there's a field. The bunkers on the field, they're mirrored, and the objective of the game is either to eliminate all the other players or to hit the buzzer on the other side. The team with the most points at the end of the 15 minutes wins. As a novice, the best thing that Michelle can contribute is her communication.
So, final challenge, it's about to happen. I feel so much better after yesterday, getting into those 1v1s, getting some hits. Well, I'm 100% confident in your abilities. Even after I shot your foot? Yeah, so now we're just gonna put it into play, and we're gonna see what happens.
We have to make one big decision, and that is the paint color my team will be using today. One is purple, one is pink, just like the Tic Tac Big Berry Adventure. We actually had these two different types of paint custom made for us. So, Nikki, why does the paint color matter? Pink paint, because you can see it flying through the air, you can dodge it. Purple paint, you can't see it coming through the air so well, so the people that you're playing against, they possibly cannot dodge the paint, and you have a better chance of shooting them.
So right now, guys, I am going to shake out one Tic Tac, and this Tic Tac will determine whether or not we have the strategic advantage of the purple paint or the cosmetic and my personal favorite color advantage of the pink paint. Let's see what we get.
All right, we got pink. All right, well, here you go. It's so pretty. Okay, I know it's a strategic disadvantage, but look at that. So we'll be heading into the final challenge with pink paint.
So the final challenge we have set up for Michelle is taking everything that we've worked on and putting it into a team-based format. From holding my gun properly to playing tight in my bunker when I have to, to moving when I have to, and to telling my teammates what the game plan is. Where do I need to go? What job do I need to do? It's one thing to look at it on paper, but until you actually go out there and attempt to do it, you're not gonna know. All right, here we go. Yeah, you got it.
The Vegas. Okay, so the back left, back center, and the Vegas. Cobra is the corner. Hey, the center tower, the Cali. I got hit. We lost Michelle. Oh God, that was so lame.
My role as the coach during the game is to provide them with feedback when they come back in after a point, so either we can make adjustments or corrections or change the game plans if needed.
See, one thing to remember is even when you're getting shot, you can still always talk. Okay. It's not just you by yourself over here on the side. You have teammates to rely on, but they need information. Tell Nick who's shooting at you so he can shoot at that person, so then you can get out. Okay.
I'm good. Yeah, again, there's no rush saying, "Hey, we have to win this really quick." We're working on just the basics. Okay. Okay, cool. You have to commit to communicate. Okay. You have to decide that you're going to communicate. Okay, I'm just going to say everything. Just go at it. Okay. All right, Michelle, let's go.
Vegas. God, Vegas. Hope in the back center. You good? Are you good? I'm getting hit from the Vegas. We lost Michelle.
So, all things avoidable, right? You got shot in your hopper because your gun was like this. You can correct that. Okay. It's not like you're getting shot because you're getting outplayed or getting outpositioned. You've got to realize that you've got to have it in a certain position. Okay, yeah, here we go.
He's up in Vegas. He's playing me. Okay, Michelle, you can make a move. Yeah, I'm gonna move. Okay, go for it. Good job, there you go. Okay. Hey, your mirror, Michelle, the same position that you're in right now. 300. Right behind it. Hey, our snake. One down. Holy smokes. Whoa. Center 50.
Hey, there we go. I did something. Oh my God, thank you. I got someone out. Oh, I'm so happy. It's such a satisfying feeling, huh? Yeah. Yeah.
So the one mistake that they made is that their widest guy cut back in and played on me, and the Dorito guy played this way on me. And the one thing, that's when I came in, that's when you made them move up because they're blind. That 50 brick cuts off a lot of their vision. That was awesome. We're not done. I know. All right. I just wanted to do one cool thing today. That felt like a cool thing.
Hey, the money, the right can, Michelle, the can right in front of you. Yeah, kill one, the back center. Back center. You gotta communicate, Michelle. Madrid on the left, Michelle. You gotta get in tight on the right. Hey, kill two. It's two on one, you and me versus one other person. Okay, there you go, right there, right there.
Is he still there? Yeah, yeah, he's still there. He's playing towards you, so when you're ready, go ahead and take a shot. Go ahead and take a shot, Michelle. There you go. Keep shooting, keep shooting, keep shooting.
All right, here we go. You under the corner. The Cobra. Hey, kill the top rock, kill one. Hey, we lost Jeremy. There you go, Michelle, there you go. There's no one wider than you, Michelle. They're all inside. Hey, Brandon, it's just me and you. All right, it's two eliminations, Michelle. He's only in the back center. Only in the center can. You can go all the way up to the Echo. Go straight up. There you go, all the way, all the way. Oh, he's on me. You're running to your left, to your left.
Good job executing the game plan. Thanks, Coach Nikki. Yeah, that was so fun. Great. Thanks so much. Oh, you're welcome. This was such an amazing experience, and I'm really sad that we're done playing. I want to keep playing.
That's why I love doing this. That's why I love coming out with Nikki, and I love that you guys are out here doing this and just exposing people to what we do. Hopefully this encourages people to get out there and actually just play paintball. You don't have to come out here and play tournament paintball and shoot ten and a half balls a second and look good doing it.
But yeah, I do look good. You do look good. I mean, I think you should wear that out to dinner tonight. Just saying. I think I should shower before we do anything. You're telling me.
Thank you guys so much for joining me on today's adventure, and thank you so much to Tic Tac for sponsoring today's episode. If you guys enjoyed this video, be sure to give it a thumbs up, comment below with what you
Want to see next, and if you're new here, subscribe. Also, if you want to try out a pack of the brand new Tic Tac Big Berry Adventure for yourself, you can do so via the link in my description. I'll see you guys next time. Bye!
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