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For those who play paintball to live dangerously, the statistics may come as a bit of disappointment. According to the US National Safety Council, paintball is safer than bowling with both scoring less than one accident in every 1,000 participants. This compares to sports such as tennis and football, which respectively have 23 and 11 accidents in every 1,000 participants.

The UK’s Royal Society of Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) estimates that out of a million paintballers in the UK, there are only about 900 accidents a year. The majority of these mishaps being knee, ankle or foot sprains. However, RoSPA points out that in the US the most common injury is to the eye, largely caused by paintballers not wearing masks or removing the mask, inappropriately

International paintballer Chris Edwards, who has 20 years experience paintballing, says: ‘When you consider injuries per 1,000, paintball is no more unsafe than playing any other sport.’

The fact that paintball in the UK is generally organised and regulated may be one reason for the low level of injuries. Steve Bull, chairman of the UK Paintball Sports Federation (UKPSF), which used to be known as the European Paintball Sports Federation (EPSF), and promotes best practice in the sport, said: ‘Paintball is like a lot of so-called extreme sports, because there is the possibility of injury, safety is taken more seriously. Most of the injuries that occur are not paintball related.’

Steve believes the best way to prevent injury in paintball is: ‘to book through a reputable site’.  He adds: ‘Look for a well-known chain and check they have three to five million public liability insurance. Most of these sites will also offer chest protectors for women or children  as well as organising the games to minimise close shots, which can cause bruising.’

The UKPSF’s Code of Practice outlines that a paintball area must be free from potential hazards, as far as is reasonably practicable, and that hazards have to be clearly marked and pointed out to players in a safety talk before they begin. Issues paintball providers need to consider include:

• Stability of any buildings/structures on site
• The equipment: meeting legal requirements, maintenance
• Accessibility of the play area by general public
• · Public liability insurance is essential.

BOTTOM FIVE YEARLY INJURIES PER 1,000 SPORT PARTICIPANTS

1. Paintball       0.31

2. Bowling      0.50

3. Archery      0.66

4. Boating      0.92

5. Wrestling      1.09

TOP FIVE YEARLY INJURIES PER 1,000 SPORT PARTICIPANTS

1. Lacrosse      223.79

2. Baseball      27.67

3. US Football      27.50

4. Tennis      23.14

5. Basketball      22.04

Source: US National Safety Office

If you are interested in booking paintball through provider, click here.

Useful websites: http://www.ukpsf.com

Tamba Bay paintball enthusiast, Mike, who claims to run the world’s fastest growing paintball website http://www.techpb.com, compiled this video on improving your paintball technique. It’s clearly aimed at ambitious paintballers who don’t mind slip sliding away. Try it if you dare. But be warned, if you’ve just had a hip replacement – it may not be for you…

If you want to try paintball check out your nearest UK paintball venue. Click here

Chris Edwards started early. Aged 33, he has been splattering opponents for 20 years. His career with the national squad, London Shockwave, London Nexus and Birmingham Disruption, has taken him around the globe. ‘I have never had a prouder moment than playing for my country,’ says Chris. ‘Cheesy as it sounds, when the national anthem plays, there is a sense of pride you don’t get anywhere else,’ he adds. Over the last three years, Chris has captained Birmingham Disruption, a team which plays in the SPL division within the Millennium series. ‘I was asked by two leading paintball companies to put a team of northern players together to take on the European circuit. Without companies like www.planeteclipse.com and www.phoenixpaintball.co.uk my team would be unable to travel and compete at the highest level,’ he says. Birmingham Disruption is just back from Disneyland Paris, where they beat Dramin Solid 4-3 in the final to take first place.

How did you get into it paintball?

I am a stereotype of how most people get into paintball. I went to a local indoor paintball field with a group of friends and enjoyed it so much I decided to go back. Soon the guy who owned the place offered me a job, let’s face it when you’re 13 an extra 30-quid a day goes a long way on paintballs. When I first started out, we were using pistols and science goggles with only a very limited tournament scene. Now we have advanced to such a degree we have to cap the speed of the tournament guns for safety reasons – a bit like Formula One – so most tournament series only allow ten balls per second (BPS) ramping at the>ir events. This means if you pull the trigger five times in quick succession, the gun will ramp to shoot at ten BPS for the duration of you pulling the trigger. It will cease once you have stopped pulling the trigger.

Who’s your extreme sports hero?

Anthony ‘Ledz’ Leadbetter – one of the UK’s legendary professional paintball players.

What’s the biggest thrill you’ve had playing paintball?

I have won my fair share of events, but the biggest thrill has to be playing an American series of events called the NPPL back in 2004. The venue was Huntington Beach, California. Huntington is one the biggest places in the US for surfing …also its about two miles up the road from Sunset Beach where Baywatch was filmed. However, the real thrill was playing in front of 3,000 people on centre court in a stunning location. Amazing!

What’s the best terrain for paintball?

Without doubt the best surface I have played on is something called XL TURF – what American football is played on – it is sort of a very thick Astroturf that cushions you when you dive. http://www.xlturf.ch

Explain in a sentence why someone should try paintball.

What other sport allows you to shoot someone ten times and then go to the bar with them later?

What other extreme sports are you into?

I would love to say I am into all kinds of different things, but sadly paintball has taken over my life. Pretty much every weekend I practice with my team – we tend to have one weekend off in four.

What’s the next big thing in paintball?

I’d like one worldwide format for tournament paintball. At the moment, we have too many variations. From Xball M7, seven-man, five-man and three-man, without one world governing body to make these choices, it’s going to be difficult to go forward with the sport.

What are your views on the debate between C02 versus compressed air for markers?

For me CO2 is what we are used to, but most up-to-date rental fields now use air, which is much safer and can have a compressor on site to generate its own air for the tanks.

What is your response to people who think paintball is a game for would-be Rambos?

Paintball is a very diverse sport which any size, shape or gender can play. We get a huge diversity within the sport. There are people whose lifelong dream is to play at the highest level. At the other end of the spectrum, there are people who want to run around the woods playing war – nothing against these guys – they do it because they love it. A lot of people who want to play war tend to head towards Airsoft as the equipment is much more realistic.

What do you say to people who think paintball is unsafe?

Paintball is no more unsafe than playing any other sport if you look up the statistics which show injuries per 1,000.

If you’ve never tried paintball before, what would you advise to get the best out of the day?

I would approach paintball like any other sport, just go and enjoy it – take it for what it is and have fun. If you are going as a group of friends and have the choice of going to a selection of rental fields, have a look of what type of game zones the rental field has: you want to get the most out of your day so the more game zones the more fun.

If you want to try paintball check out your nearest UK paintball venue. Click here

Only Americans understand the true fervour and passion of US college sport. For the English sports fan, the enemy might be the Germans, the Argentinians, the other home nations, and, of course, the Australians. Definitely, the Australians. Meanwhile, the Scots traditionally support anyone who is playing England. But US sports teams rarely compete in national competitions. Baseball’s World Series justifies its name by extending the boundaries of the US to Canada. Golf’s Ryder Cup is one exception, but the bi-annual coming together of US golfers to play their European counterparts is something US tour professionals occasionally seem as comfortable with as putting downhill at Augusta.
No, for US sports nuts it is college sport that gets the adrenalin gushing and passions rising. So it’s no surprise that the US National Collegiate Paintball Association competition is a blood-boiling hit. It allows competing state university students to stop shouting at each other and start shooting. Just the way they like it.

The competition itself is as old as paintball in the US. Not surprisingly, the first college paintball club was formed at the United States Military Academy in 1986. In  1994, the first intercollegiate tournament was held at Sherwood Forest in La Porte, Indiana. Former Illinois Senator Barack Obama was no doubt pleased that the University of Illinois was crowned the first national winner in 2000.
In fact, it is was a former University of Illinois student Chris Raehl who co-founded the National Collegiate Paintball Association (NCPA) which now runs the competition. Chris, who began playing paintball with a friend’s church group, set up the NCPA in 2000.
Over the last few years, a growing band of the US’s top universities such as Cornell and the University of Pennsylvania have entered the battle to be the top university. Iowa State University Paintball Club is even funded by the University to construct a permanent on-campus paintball field.
The league has a long and short format, which is described as class A and class AA.  The national championship for class A is decided in a shoot-off between 12 teams in April, while the class AA has over 100 teams competing on a league basis. Topping the table in the short format rakings for 2008/9 are the University of Texas Mean Green – well you’d expect Texans to be sharp shooters.
If you want to try paintball check out your nearest UK paintball venue. Click here