Why paintballing is a healthy sport

Sarah Combs
English Composition I
Professor Shepherd
November 9, 2010
Paintballing is a Healthy Sport
Paintballing has grown since the 1980’s and now is a very popular recreational sport. All ages are able to participate in this sport. Paintballing is actually a good way of learning because it teaches people to organize, build team work, good exercise, and many more learning experiences. In “Paintball: Promoter of Violence or Healthy Fun” from Taylor, Ross’s argument is that paintballing is a violent sport, but it also is a healthy sport that anyone can participate in. I have the same views as Ross that paintballing can be harmful, but that is only if you aren’t being safe and going by the rules.

Ross Taylor’s article is explaining how paintballing is a violent sport, but also a healthy one for so many people. He thinks that people are getting the wrong impression of paintball, and that he thinks it’s like any other sport. The only difference is that they think it’s bad because it’s used with CO2 guns. He wants people to understand that paintballing is a learning sport and it can actually help out a lot of people. He wants them to understand that a lot of people who do violent things, actually never played paintball before. Even a lot of businesses are taking their co-workers to play paintball to fain a better relationship and to see how they work and strategize together. He wants parents to not worry so much about their children playing paintball because they hear a lot of wrong impressions of it. The parents hear about how people have gotten killed, hurt, and even used paintballing as a violent act, but that is a really rare occasion. The reason people get hurt is because they aren’t wearing the proper equipment and by not following the rules. In all Ross is saying that it’s a healthy sport and that one people play it, they will figure out that it’s actually not as bad as they thought (Taylor 257-259).

I believe that Taylor has the right impression that paintballing is a healthy sport. Paintballing should be reconsidered by a lot of people such as parents. A lot of parents think that paintballing is a harmful sport and that it would pretty much mess up their children’s minds and that when they get older they will start doing violent acts. I think Taylor has a good point when he says, “They link paintball to all the other violent activities that they think lead to such things as gangs or school shootings”, (Taylor 259). When the Columbine shooting occurred the students didn’t play paintball before they started shooting and killing people at the school, they actually went bowling right before they did this horrible violent act (259). I know that my brothers played paintball when they were younger, and they sometimes play now, but they never grew up being violent people. I think parents are way too precautious about not letting their children play paintball.

Businesses have really gotten involved with paintballing because it helps out getting to know there co-workers. They use this recreational activity to build team work between the co-workers. They use this recreational activity to build team work between the co-workers and to teach them to stategize better. The companies are able to get everyone involved because paintballing isn’t about how strong or weak you are, it’s about if you are good at teamwork and figuring out the best methods of the game. “An advantage of paintballing for building company spirit is that paintball teams, unlike teams in other recreational sports, can blend very skilled and totally unskilled players”, (Taylor 258). I think this would be a great fun activity for a lot of jobs because people who get to know each other more and it’s not more of a competitive than a teamwork activity.

Injuries are a major factor of why people are really scared to play paintball and the parents to have the children play. A lot of people heard of cases of serious injuries from paintballing, but they didn’t really hear the stories of the reason why they got hurt in the first place. Most of the people who get hurt from paintballing are the ones who don’t wear the proper equipment or use the equipment wisely. If people are using everything the right way, the only problem they might have is bruises because that’s pretty much a given playing paintball since they are getting hit at a fast rate. Ross pointed out an example that his friend lost his eye from playing paintball, but the reason was he wasn’t wearing the proper equipment and he wasn’t handling the equipment wisely (259).
I don’t believe that paintballing is a horrible recreational activity. In the future I wouldn’t mind if my children participated in paintball because I think it’s a fun activity for everyone. It’s a way for them to learn to have good sportsmanship and to work together with different people. I believe it could help with their schooling because you need to strategize in paintball and during school there are a lot of different activities that you would need to organize your time to figure it out. I just don’t see any harm into playing the game of paintball.

Ross Taylor has given a lot of good points on why paintballing is a healthy sport, and not a horrible violent sport. Paintballing is a great sport for a lot of people who want to interact with one another and not have to feel like they can’t play because of their size or physical strength. I had nothing to disagree with him because every point that he said made since. I believe that you can learn from paintballing with teamwork, strategizing, eye coordination, and knowledge of what you are supposed to be doing in the game.
 
Work Cited
Taylor, Ross. “Paint: Promoter of Violence or healthy fun?.” Pearson Education Inc. (2009):
257-259. Print.