The Joys of Pump

Pump play is the roots of paintball. If you have never played pump you are missing a great experience. It teaches the game at its most fundamental level. It forces a player to think and to react using primary skills and focuses the player on the entire game. Pump and Stock play are by far the most competitive games of all the paintball disciplines. Pump paintball is on a huge rise in the paintball community. In Southern California it has always been a percentage of the players on the field but even in this area pump play is on a come back and it is not alone in the nation. Pump players are not only the guys that started out playing pump and are just going back but also we are seeing a ton of young players picking up pump markers for the very first time. I have had a dozen players in the last few months give up semi player entirely for the world of pumps. But why?

Going backwards in time when you played paintball you played pump because that is all there was. You played pump if you played paintball plain and simple. There was no constant air or even hoppers and the semi paintball marker were not even conceived. The game was one of strategy and honor. But the game is so different today and most players have never even seen a pump marker. There are so many different reasons for making the switch to pump but I think the most common reasons are Cost, Enjoyment and Challenge.

With markers shooting 20 to 30 bps a single player can now burn through several cases of paint in one day of play. Most pump players average about 500 rounds per day and after they have adapted to pump style play they claim to have even more eliminations with far less paint. One player that I spoke with states “I used to play with my Semi and shoot 3 cases of paint a day with my Phantom I shoot less than 400 rounds a day and my kill count is about the same”. Now, of course, this did not happen over night and the adaptation to pump style play can be super frustrating almost maddening at times when you first start out but if you can make the transition it can be more fun. It is nice to have someone throw 300 rounds at you and you lean out and take maybe one or two shots and take them out. Not that this happens all the time but you will be surprised how often it does and how great it feels.

New pump players especially comment at how much more they enjoy paintball. The transition to pump, especially with a strong pump community, can be an enjoyable process. New pumpers find a brotherhood (and sisterhood) that fosters fairness and principle that I am told they have never experienced in semi play. Now I know that is not always the case. Not all semi players cheat and not all pump players are honest but in our pump community we value and respect those that play fair. For players that are burned out on semi play that pump intervention recharges the batteries and reminds them what our sport is all about.

There are those players out there that jump into new things just for the challenge and if that is the case pump play is definitely for you. Pump play is a whole new style that must be custom fit to your skill level and your own playing style. Pump also offers an entire different set of markers and configurations that must also be learned and adapted. So pump play is yet another challenge for the true Paintball connoisseur. So is pump the future of paintball? It certainly is just one road that paintball is taking and, for many players, it appears to be continuing with new fond love.

Visit the OldSchoolChallenge.com for local events and more pump information. November 6th 2010 will be the next OSC tournament in Las Vegas. Our Season Finale will be hosted in HSP this season. We invite pump players of all skill level for the ultimate pump experience in April 2011 where the largest pump happenings in pump history will take place come witness the pure excitement. Visit our website for all the details. www.oscseries.com and www.oldschoolchallenge.com