I watch players all the time. The number one thing that tells me I'm looking at a newbie or an advanced player is how the player uses bunkers. Your bunker is a tool, like your marker. If you use your bunker effectively, you will excel. If you don't, it will hinder your game.
Next time you are at the field, watch players in their bunkers. See how they use--or don't use--their bunkers effectively. Hint: If it looks awkward, it is. Does the player have to move around a lot to get into a shooting position? Does the bunker just plain get in the way?
Now ask yourself how you play bunkers. Do you fight your bunker instead of your opponents? If so, let's fix it.
Think of your bunker as your house. (This is the best analogy I have ever heard, and I heard this from Dave Bassman of Conquest Paintball Park in California.) You have four walls and a ceiling. Your house should be as big as possible, because you want to own as much real estate as you can, without getting eliminated.
To understand these words, let's look as a few diagrams, and lay out a few technical postures that you can repeat easily in your own game.
1 In the first diagram, the blue arrows indicate your walls. The walls represent your boundaries in your bunker. The boundaries are to your left, to your right, how far back you can play, and the bunker itself ahead of you. Figure 1
2 In the next diagram, the orange arrows show your ceiling. The ceiling represents how high you can stand, or kneel, in your bunker--without being exposed to your opposition. Figure 2
3 Now let's throw our red player into a game, so we can better understand how we define our walls and ceiling.
As our blue team shoots at our red player, you can see that the boundaries begin to make sense. The red player can move safely (without fear of being eliminated) in a specific area. The blue team is limited in where they can shoot because of the bunker ahead of the red player and the blue team's shooting angles. Figure 3
4
Now you can see how the walls and ceiling of a bunker work during a game. The red player has a safe area where the bunker offers protection. Figure 4
5
As the blue team moves up, though, the house gets smaller. Blue players have better angles on the red player as the red player's house begins to collapse. The more the opposition moves up, the better shooting angles they have. Figure 5
Avoiding the Big Mistake
The biggest newbie mistake is playing too close to the bunker. By backing up to your back wall (this is as far back as you can go without the fear of being hit), you will see changes in the amount of movement you need to make, in order to shoot out the left side or right side of your bunker.
If I can back up 10 feet, I can shoot out my left side and my right side with a simple shift of my marker left or right.
If I have no back wall or I play right up against my bunker, I have to shift my entire body and crawl from one side of the bunker to the next to be able to shoot out either side of my
bunker.
Your House
Now you should understand your bunker--whatever size or shape it may be--and recognize your bunker as the tool it is. Learn to use each wall and the ceiling of your house to your advantage. Play back as far as you can. By using your house effectively, you can better control your opposition and your own game.
Kristen "Lady Attitude" Kleist writes from southern California.
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