Actually, before I let you start on this one, I've got somewhat of a question for all of you. Seems that the number of posts actually discussing what's been said in the articles have been dropping off. I don't know if this is because we're swinging at the 10th article or something, or if its because what I'm saying has become a kind of law handed down or just automatically accepted as some kind of truth or people are just like "Shut the **** up, Gramps!"

I'm curious, how many of you are reading this and thinking about what I'm saying, are you accepting what I'm saying without question or are you just admiring the writing and not absorbing the information (This represents a failure on my end--one that as a writer I need to fix)? Do any of you actually use what's going on or am I just preaching to a choir filled with people that are too nice to say anything to stop me?


Teams need help with how fast and how well they work. Its part of being a team. We’ll always talk about why little league teams do this and that, and how that works for a group of teenagers playing paintball. Well, those things the little league team does are the Speed and Chemistry pair: The ability to work together and work quickly.
Speed and Chemistry are two very difficult things to work on for a team. Mostly because the team is required to get off the field and hang around other places. Speed generally results from the Commander’s own ability while Chemistry results from the team’s off-field actions. It’s hard to get the two to coincide. In fact, nearly impossible on the field.
Chemistry can be worked on in the field, but it requires the team to be on the same side and have something like Player A saving Player B’s skin. And that keep happening all day. This comes from good chemistry, not while developing. Regrettably, you have to start somewhere.
So, what is a commander to do? Simple: Get the hell off the field.
Now, I’m not saying stay off. You’re going to play paintball. And this is all going to factor in at some point. Commanders are supposed to know something beyond the regular “Marker, Position, Tendencies” and delve into each teammate’s personality and abilities. Go past that even. What each one likes and doesn’t like. Does said Player A prefer cheese over pepperoni pizza? Does this Player have a girlfriend? Does he even care for one? What kind of car does he drive?
Then, go for each player. Find out everything you can. After all, you’re going to hold these guys playtime in your hands. You may as well know something about them. This is the first benefit of good chemistry: Loyalty. Your team will be willing to follow you if you care enough to know about them and what they’re up to and how they are that day beyond how they’re playing. A commander is valuable on the field as a leader, and off the field as a friend.
Now, take all of this weird knowledge and find somewhere that’s not even remotely paintball related and go for it. Does your team generally like cars? Go spend a weekend at the Car Show instead of on the field. Does your team have a flair for exotic Chinese cuisine from shady hole-in-the-wall local places? Drop by there after you get off the field. Happen to enjoy video games? Call your team up and hang out for an afternoon playing the games. See a movie that you think your team would like? Invite them to meet you when you go and see it. By some weird twist of fate your team happens to be poet warriors? I kid you not that Poetry is a window to the soul, and Poetry Jams happen to be a good laugh (Not to mention a good way to pick up chicks).
Its’ that simple. A team that is already friends has an easier time of working together on the field and has a higher chance of making risky moves to help save a teammate. The goal here is to create a shade of a phenomenon called the “Brotherhood of War”. This is the often-imitated-but-never-quite-correct element in many war movies that cause certain characters to go and do bizarre things to help their buddies. A team that has even a remote connection to this can do things never heard of before. Three to One odds tend to mean nothing to teams with this.
This sort of thing means that teams are friendly. Especially a team that is good at talking. Communication can help thwart even the fastest markers with little to no problem. The direct benefit of Chemistry on the field is a habit of being downright chatty with the other teammates. That means important information is passed between players quickly and helps make decisions instantly easy and good for the situation.
Now, what about the commands that you’re giving to these brothers of yours? You find yourself in the position that you need to make sure that regardless of anything that is going on around them and that they can figure out what you mean and what you want. Not to mention the commands have to be clear enough they can get other teams and walk-on players to understand and go along with the commands.
A command makes up the first half of a team’s Speed. The actual physical speed that the order is completed in tends to depend on the players on the receiving end and can change what happens as a direct result of the command. That can be worked on with Drilling (We’ll talk about this in a later article).
Your commands consist of two parts. The first being Objective, and the second being Directive. The Objective part of the order is what you want, or where you want the teammates or what you want them shooting at. Think Nouns. Directives are how they get there and what they do. Like, going around a particular bunker or capturing an objective (Note that the action is capturing.). Think Verbs.
Let’s look at a command that you’ve probably given hundreds of times to your team: “Capture the Flag.” Objective: the Flag. Directive: Capture. Simple order. But we generally don’t give orders like that at the beginning of the game and let it go. That tends to lead to really bad situations for us and that hurts Chemistry.
We tend to give orders something like this:
“Broadsword, go around the left side and lay down cover fire while our Daggers spearhead* the flagbase and go after the flag. Myself and the Sabers and Hammer will lay forward cover fire behind the daggers and flank them. Then we’ll let the Ambush pick off the stragglers.” (*Spearhead means a direct frontal assault on an enemy position)
Okay, mouthful. A huge one. Let’s break that down by position.

Broadsword:

• "Flank on the Left Side" O: Left Side D: Flank
• "Lay Down Cover Fire on the Flag" O: Flag D: Cover Fire

Dagger:

• “Spearhead the Flag base” O: Flag base D: Spearhead
• “Capture the Flag” O: Flag D: Capture

Saber, Hammer:

• “Cover the Front” O: Front D: Cover Fire
• “Flank from Right Side” O: Right Side D: Flank

Ambush:

• “Eliminate anyone that Runs or is left.” O: Players D: Eliminate

There’s something wrong with that order though. It’s good, and can result in quite a quick capture, if your team can understand it. The sentences are all tied together and long and confusing. This doesn’t help a player at all because they won’t remember what their goal is. Then it doesn’t matter how good of a plan it is. If you notice, the command used two really bad things for walk-on players: One, it used position names, which aren’t widely known (Yet), and Two, there’s a lot of fluff or jargon there. Simply put, the order doesn’t make it past other SpecOps members and then just your team members if they don’t bother to translate for other Brigade members. What needs to happen is give the players simpler commands that don’t sound so hard. Seriously, what if I assigned you something in a class that sounded like that? You’d be pretty upset with me too.
The order works better for all involved as follows (I’m using names this time):
“Tenacious and Private, I want you to get the flag. Sarge, attack from the creek. Me, Whip and Cub will back up Tenacious and Private. Tabbie, hit the ones that try to run.”
Easy and much more translatable for the rest of the team and the walk-on players nearby. Exactly who is doing what, where and how. Given an order like that, a team can make a much more effective attack because they can remember what they’re doing and not be bogged down in separating their orders out from everyone else’s. What can improve this even more is turning towards specific members as you say the order. Then the walk-ons are clued into that person’s job and can tag along more effectively.
Want in on a secret? When your players see the walk-ons following them, it causes a surge of Confidence. They’ll be really ready to do anything with some backup. That also means there’s a greater chance of success which helps improve Confidence and Chemistry even more. Your plan succeeds and your team sees that they did it working as a team. That is amazing improvement right there. And that helps insanely with the team’s abilities and improvements.