Paintball Clinic 101 DVD Set

Review by Bill Mills - Nov 2007

Paintball players who have been around a while may remember the Slackjaw Productions video of the Pan Am Circuit tournament in Phoenix, Arizona back in 2002 as the first widely distributed paintball video to take a stab at something that is a standard in most sports – a running scoreboard on screen tracking game time and player eliminations. That was a few years ago, and the creative minds behind it have learned a lot since then, and joined forces with more video folks as well as professional paintball players to produce Paintball Clinic 101, Winning Techniques with Oliver Lang. Paintball Clinic 101 has a sharp, technically clean look, shot in HD, with plenty of graphic splash.

The disks themselves are widescreen DVDs, which will letter box automatically when displayed on an old-school 4:3 TV and fill the screen on newer HD TVs, though a couple of the show's hosts were shot in 4:3, giving the unfortunate “chubbyvision” effect as they were stretched to fill the wide screen rather than cropped with a pillarbox.

The Paintball Clinic consists of four DVDs, each introduced by legendary paintball coach Bob Long, and hosted by Oliver Lang of the LA Ironmen. Additional instructors in the video course include Rich Telford of XSV, Jose “Pep” Esuctia (former Avalanche player,) Mike Lanour (LA Ironmen,) Eric Pevitt (LA Ironmen,) Jeff Milan (Strange,) and Arizona based amateur player Jonathan Logan [Author's note: From experience, I can say that Logan is a good guy to know when you've just flown into town and are starving, as he has an innate sense of the shortest route to the nearest Carl's Jr.]

Three DVDs are available individually, each focusing on players in a particular position on the field. Disk One is for front players, Disk Two for mid players, and Disk Three for back players. When purchased as a boxed set, a fourth Bonus Disk is included.

Each of the three main disks is introduced by Bob Long, who sets the tone by talking about the position the disk covers, and the traits typically seen in that type of player. All three disks share a lot of common material. Because of this, they are really best described as a set, rather than a series. Each disk teaches many of the same lessons, but its focus and stressed areas are on how those lessons apply to the position being covered. All three include issues like starting position, and making the most of a break, choice of equipment, and even how to hold a marker for maximum effect. Simple to follow graphic representations of the field are used both to teach bunker identification, and to clearly illustrate movement and crossfire tactical concepts.

Disk One – Front Player, is 54 minutes in length and like all three player videos starts out with a two and a half minute introduction of the pro players involved in the Paintball Clinic, followed by an introduction to tournament paintball and description of front player qualities by Bob Long. Specific front player skills are shown with examples both of how to do it right, and of common mistakes, with use of slow-motion and graphic overlays to highlight the critical issues. Before Disk One jumps into the equipment section with Logan, there is a three-minute scratch and spin music video intermission with DJ Radar, filling out the disk's program length because being a front player material just isn't as complex as the other positions. Sound levels drop down a bit during the equipment portion and slide out of synch a bit, so having a remote handy to turn up the volume is a help here.

While it's shorter than the first disk at 47 minutes (about 7 minutes at the end is bloopers/outtakes and credits,) Disk Two is packed with more information. It still covers the common topics but also gets into bunker shadowing and making use of lanes to deny movement options for the opposition. Not surprisingly, the third DVD in the set is full of the most on-field training and game oriented information focusing on the back player. It follows the same format and has a run time of 54 minutes.

The Bonus DVD is all about player and team improvement. It includes specific drills designed to improve the skills covered in the class videos, as well as some of the most common methods of cheating to watch out for on tournament fields. The sponsorship section includes anecdotes from Bob Long about teams he has sponsored and turned down, and why. It goes further with Oliver Lang walking through the process of seeking a sponsorship covering a wide range of issues from who to approach, and how to work a deal that supports both the team and the sponsor, through positive representation, and making a professional pitch with a solid team portfolio.

Paintball safety with constant wearing of goggles on the field, and use of a barrel blocker when goggles are off is stressed with Rich Telford explaining their importance, but like so many paintball instructional videos, that is not put into practice through the entire series, with the mid player video even including a player in a game with goggles on their forehead, and most of the course instructors handling unblocked paintball markers with their masks up.

Several major companies in paintball put their support behind this video series in the form of sponsorship, and are clearly recognized in the packaging and sponsor tags during the video. Refreshingly, unlike many promotional/training videos in the past, the pro players involved are wearing and using the same gear they use on the field, not something shoved in their hand for commercial reasons, lending a feel of authenticity to real advice from real players.

In a Unique format that instructs players by position, Paintball Clinic 101 provides training that is cleanly presented and understandable for tournament players with even a few seasons under their belt, but at the same time puts together enough information at the very basic level that even beginners who have never stepped on a field before can not only get in the game, but be competitive as well.