Alright guys, here's the follow up to Diving, Sliding, and XBall 101. Snapshooting is a skill that many people know about, but not many people know how to do correctly. Snapshooting is extremely important in Paintball, so important that when Dynasty did a clinic at my field, a huge percent of the time was devoted to snapshooting. Many of the ideas represented in this thread are straight from Dynasty, so you know this thread is 100% Grade A High Quality.
Holding Your Marker
If you have a drop, lose it. If you don't, keep on reading.
Your marker should always be held in the correct hand. If you're coming out the left side of your bunker, your left hand should be on the frame, whereas your right hand should be on your reg, and vice versa. Your shooting hand should not be bent, which will cause your wrist to stick out. Everything should be in tight to your body, unless getting it tighter makes you feel very uncomfortable. Your tank should be positioned in your shooting pocket, in front of your armpit, outside your pectoral, and under your shoulder. Once your hands are in the right position, and your tank is in the right position, tilt your hopper in to lower your profile. When you snapshoot out, your hopper should be turned in at a fairly small angle to reduce hopper shots. When snapping over the top of a bunker, turn your gun sideways even more because your hopper is easier to shoot. Unless you have an Autococker, put your nose right behind the back of your gun and aim straight down it. Your nose and gun should be one unit. Also, keep your gun held STRONG. Don't hold it weakly so it kicks around, hold it like you mean it and you know where it's going to shoot.
Let's use Dynasty's Danny Tiljak as an example
Everything looks perfect except his wrist is bent a little.
And someone from JMD
Positioning
Your feet should be about shoulder length apart, pointed straight ahead. If you’re playing a post on an Xball field or something like that, get your feet closer in. It depends on the bunker. If you’re playing a cube or something that’s so short that you can’t bend your knees to get under it, get on one knee. Your inside foot should be down, and your outside knee should be down. Being on two knees is almost always bad because it slows down your movement. Being on both feet is always better than being on a knee, so if you can bend down enough to not fall over or be off balance, do it.
THINGS TO REMEMBER – Bend your knees. Bending your knees gives you more stability. When you snap out, keep both feet on the ground. Picking one foot up kills your balance. Also, lean forward a little. Not too much to throw you balance off, just a little.
Your inside leg should be most of the force for your snap. Use it to push your body straight out, just enough to see your opponent. Be sure to keep your hopper in.
Snapping
When you snap out, a few things can happen. If you see paint coming at you, bend your back backwards to get out of the way, and pull yourself in with your outside leg. If not, snap out and back in, and then snap out and stay out to gain dominance if you can. If you can gain dominance, especially if you are snapping with your mirror, step farther out with your outside foot to wrap the bunker. Wrapping the bunker allows you to see more of the field, but leaves you more exposed. Don’t forget about the player you were snapping with before, and keep him in his bunker. Don’t stay out too long or you’ll get blasted. Remember, don’t do the same things over and over. For example, don’t come out every 2 seconds and shoot 5 balls. Eventually your opponent will catch onto the pattern. Try to keep it fresh, and don’t always come out at the same height either. Bend down a little more, come over the top, wrap around the other side, etc. Do everything you can to keep your opponent off guard. Once you get into a pattern, you’re going to get blasted if the other player is halfway decent. Once again, just to reiterate, DON’T GET INTO A PATTERN! I really cannot stress this enough. Do not get anything to get into a pattern, unless the guy you’re snapping with is the last guy on the field, you’re up on numbers, and you’re blasting a rope just to the side of his bunker waiting for another player to bunker him. That’s the rare exception.
Here are some pics to further help:
BEND YOUR LEGS!
Look, Gator has his hopper in!
Look at Big Josh holding his gun STRONG!
My teammate Greg shows you how to play from one knee in the Snake!
My teammate Nick shows you how to play a Mini Maya, and then wrap!
Don’t end up like Goat Hong!
Learn to Snapshoot!
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