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How important is the front middleman? Or better yet, how effective can he be? In the years that I have played paintball I have played all the positions on the field. The Middle Front is the most exciting. Many times the job of the middleman is to sprint to the flag station off the break and pull that flag. Often times if he succeeds, then his job has been done. There is only one flag pull in each game!  One trick we have learned to help keep our middleman alive as he breaks for the flag is this:
When the back players are breaking they have the opportunity to see where the other team is
breaking to, and one code we use to warn the middleman (lets call him the Flag Runner since he
is breaking for the flag) is "FLAG, FLAG, FLAG!" When a player from our team yells "FLAG, FLAG,
FLAG!" that lets the Flag Runner know that he is going to have company a player from the other
team is breaking for the flag too. With this information our runner can decide what measures he
needs to take to protect him-self from this threat. Often the other team's Flag Runner doesn't
even know that our Flag Runner is there, which gives him the advantage. When the other player
is worrying about getting the pull he is not expecting a barrel to pop over and paint him!  So, you made it and possess the "flag". You have done what was expected of you. Now what?
Likely, if you don't find yourself in the dead box shortly after you pull the flag, you find yourself
bombarded with paintballs. Don't panic! Remember you did your job. Now it's time to get tight
and communicate. Ask or listen for the locations of the opponents. It wouldn't hurt to just sit there
for a few seconds to let the opponent find some one else to shoot at. Don't think of moving at this
point. A lateral move would be unwise. Actually, you are as far up the field as you can go until a
push is possible. Let's sit back and look at your situation. You are as far up front as you can be and you are in the middle. You are the opponent's biggest threat right now and you haven't even pulled the trigger. Chances are you are getting it from both sides. Shots from their Right Tape, Shots From the Left Tape. Most likely it's not their Backmen, they are too worried about your team members on the right and left tape!  Ever hear of the saying "killing two birds with one stone"? Here is what you can do. First set
yourself on the bunker in the center of the bunker. Position yourself so that you could shoot off
either side but you still are out of the fire lines. Basically set yourself just inside of the two angles
that the balls are coming from. What you do now is snap shoot with the Right Tape for 5
seconds. Then switch to the Left Tape for 5 seconds. Then repeat until you out shoot one of
them. Do you see what you are doing at this point? You are keeping 2 of their players busy at the same time. They both think you are only shooting at them. Which means when you are snap shooting with the Right Tape, the Left Tape is waiting on you to come back out and vice versa. Hence, "Killing two birds with one stone". This will free up one or maybe two of your teammates to move. Just be careful- remember that when you switch that player is waiting on you. You might even catch him off guard if he got impatient and started to shoot at another one or your teammates! "Warning" do not get tunnel vision while playing in the Center. That is the best way to get bunkered! I remember one five man game we lost. The count was three us against four them. We had a player in midfield center position. We had a player in our Back Left and we had a player in our Back Center. Our Back Left player couldn't see a thing on the Left Tape so he was pounding the Right Tape. Our Back Center was worried about their Back Right and Back Center. Our Mid Center man was posted up on their Right Mid Tape. Can you guess what happened? An opponent made his way up the left tape and bunkered our Mid Center and Back Center Players, Leaving three on one. Game Over! If only one of our center players had resisted the "Tunnel Vision" that posting up on someone creates, (posting up is very effective as long as you are not in the hole or you know that the whole field is covered) if our Back Left player had thought to communicate that he had the Right Tape and some one needed to cover the Left Tape, the bunkering would not have happened. The moral to the story is that a Center player can support and free up his/ her team member very effectively as long as they work off of both sides. "Joker" JOKER Sudden Impact SuddenImpact.org Return to Articles Thanks to PaintballChaos.com for Pictures © 2001 DirectPaintball.com |