Paintball = Martial art?

Someone on another thread equated a particular activity’s martial arts-ness to paintball. I’ve never paintballed. Heck, I’ve only ever fired anything like a gun twice in my life (they were real guns, though). But I do watch a lot of war movies and read a lot of history and strategy & tactics books.

And there must be someone out there who might think that paintballing could be considered a martial art, or why bring it up at all?

So I have no dog in this fight, but I would love to see an honest and fair discussion of whether and why one could or would not consider paintball a martial art.

No .

No. and NO

IMHO unless you are receiving professional level military or law enforcement training “paintball” does not count as a MA. Paintball is a still a kids game.

While it’s fun…

No.

Next up for debate: Laser tag vs. Nerf guns: Who has “the real”?

ROTC guys at lindenwood university in st. charles missouri have a kick ass airsoft/paintball team.

damn near unbeatable. they might have a claim to it being a martial art. i dunno.

anybody else, big ass no.

since nobody has a gun that shoots at the speed of light, i would say nerf is more real because you can dodge the bullets like in teh matrix.

When you’ve got skills like mine, you don’t even need to dodge nerf bullets.

OK, I’m seeing a lot of one-word answers here. How about a slightly more directed inquiry: Is the near-universal “no” coming from the non-lethal nature of the activity, or because no one studies, trains, and competes in it as seriously as if it were a martial art, or because of its inapplicability to real-world martial/combat/life threatening situation? A combination of the above? Some other reason entirely?

YouTube- 235lb Strict Press

YouTube- Paintball Bloopers Original

It’s kind of martial, but there’s no codified system of transferring the skills, so it’s not a martial art. Good enough reason?

Now can we go back to making fun of the question?

I’ve paintballed alot…mostly woods “scenerio” paintballing and it is a blast! But it doesn’t equate to a martial art the way most people do it…including myself.

In my humble opinion, if an activity I do in my leisure does not equip me with the skills to restrain a suspect, or in some cases debilitate an attacker (hand to hand) it’s not a ma…

Is paintball a martial art?

In short: no.

In long: nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

[quote=captainzorikh;2388500]Someone on another thread equated a particular activity’s martial arts-ness to paintball. I’ve never paintballed. Heck, I’ve only ever fired anything like a gun twice in my life (they were real guns, though). But I do watch a lot of war movies and read a lot of history and strategy & tactics books.

And there must be someone out there who might think that paintballing could be considered a martial art, or why bring it up at all?

So I have no dog in this fight, but I would love to see an honest and fair discussion of whether and why one could or would not consider paintball a martial art.[/quote]

I understand your question but I think it would have to change to get meaningful information that you request on this thread.

The question is not whether a sport that kids play (my kid loves paintballing and fencing) is a martial art… the question is whether this activity, namely the game of paintball, helps with martial skills of one sort or another.

I think like most games paintballing is a great preperation for martial endevour. It might be better than most because of the object of the game, thats possible,though not probable. Most sports started as military prep of one sort or another… ad infinitum we could deconstruct how games are played on a field with goals and the strategies how they involve altruism that applies to combat (the blocker sacrifices his powder to throw his body into the path of the defender who wants the running back, yada yada…

To answer your question I personally do not see the skills of shooting carefully and properly displayed in paintballing… it is more like mass attack and dodge ball imo… I also think fencing is a waste this way. it develops fast hands and little else… I mean from my combat experience with knifes the last thing I will do is stand in front of an opponent and take no angle nd try to be faster than them.

So all sports are great but they are alas sports and not a combat activity per se.

Is paint-ball further from a gun-fight than Olympic TKD is from a brawl?

Yes…only because in Olympic TKD people can and do get knocked out cold as result of being kicked in the head…never heard of or seen that in paintball.

So in any ‘martial art’ of gun-fighting there must exist the real possibility of getting killed? Is fencing not a martial art because you don’t get actually stabbed?

I think SWAT and military training with simunition and paintballs is martial in nature, and so is fencing.