Padding And Protection

Jamie Innes - 17/03/2005

One of the most common newbie concerns in all of paintball, is how to protect yourself from possible injury while playing. In particular, guarding the most vulnerable spots on your body, such as the neck, hands and groin. Not all the things in this article are entirely necessary for paintball, What you choose to employ and what you disregard is entirely your perogative.

Gloves

Pretty much any gloves are ideal for paintball. Because the gloves are only absorbing impacts from paintballs, and giving you minor protection from cuts and grazes... just about any type of glove will do. Woolen gloves are a popular choice because they are inexpensive, however they tend to stick to dried grass, so they will need to be brushed clean or washed often.

Armoured gloves are also extremely popular. These are made for paintball, with plastic armour on the outside of the fingers, and back of the hand. They come in both full-finger and fingerless. The plastic does eventually wear out, but you ought to get a good life from them.

You can also buy made-for-speedball, and made-for-law enforcement/military style gloves. The only downside is really the colours or emblems they may have on them. If you're thinking camo, you won't want something bright yellow, or something with "POLICE" in white letters on the back of the hand.

Neck guards

Taking a direct hit to the neck from a paintball is quite a scary thought for most people. Definitely if you are aware of how sensitive your adam's apple is, you know you don't want to take a paintball hit there. However... like your groin, the adam's apple is such a small portion of your body, the chance of you being hit there is entirely miniscule. Most paintballers can play for years without taking such a direct hit.

There are a few aftermarket neck protectors available. The two most noteworthy ones are the Neoprene guard from JT, and the Ronin neck guard. The JT is thin, lightweight and comfortable. You won't get too hot wearing it. Wheras the Ronin is much thicker and sturdier. You might get hot, and may be uncomfortable, but it offers the best neck protection currently available.

There are a couple of low-tech (and free) ways you can protect your neck.

1. Use a scarf/veil etc. Simply wrap something around your neck while playing.
2. Take 1x piece of 3cmx20cm corrugated cardboard, and wrap in a bandana. Then wear the bandana around your neck cowboy style. Very ghetto yes, but free.

Chest protectors

Chest protection is generally only of interest to women and children who play paintball.
Because paintballs only mark thier target, they only leaves a bruise (Usually not even that). If you are interested for whatever reason in protecting your chest, there are sveral chest protectors available. You can also wear more layers of clothing.

Recently, special made-for-paintball padded clothing has entered the aftermarket. This is camo clothing with full padding built in. Not ideal for hot weather, this is marketted as "taking the sting out of paintball". Be aware however, padded clothing like this is frequently disallowed because it bounces paintballs.

Pads

In skateboarding or BMX, you wouldn't think of doing anything "seriously tricky" without full padding and a helmet. But paintball isn't like skateboarding and bmx, you don't need much. But there are situations when padding is ideal.

If you frequently drop to your knees while playing, which is pretty common for most paintballers, then two things are going to happen...

1. You're putting stress on your joints
2. You're getting your pants dirty

Both aren't anything to lose sleep over, but if you value your joints, and your clothes. Knee pads can be beneficial.

Elbow pads can also be beneficial to a far lesser extent. These are most useful for the paintballer who gets down and dirty, and crawls on all fours. However, considering that only a select portion of paintballers do this, elbow pads aren't as reccomended.

Groin guards (cups)

For men, who consitute the *extreme* majority of paintballers, the thought crosses your mind as to what it's going to feel like, the day you are shot in the groin by a paintball. Fortunately this happens very rarely, and often when it does happen, your pants already provide some protection anyway.

Groin guards are not used by the majority of paintballers on the basis that they are cumbersome, and not needed most of the time. While a sturdy plastic cup may provide the best protection, it's not everyone's "cup" of tea.

The groin guards I most reccomend are the soft kind (just padding, no plastic cup) that are often built into special sports underwear. They don't provide the same level of protection, but are much more comfortable to wear for regular use.

Winter and wet weather wear.

There aren't many made-for-paintball winter products out there. That said, common sense is the order of the day. Use extra layers, and/or or thermal underwear in cold weather. It also helps if your bdu/playing clothing is a size too big so you can fit these extra layers underneath.

For wet weather, either wear a raincoat, or jacket... or get wet. You make the choice. It may screw up your camouflage scheme, but sometimes health has to take priority over concealment. For recball, you can adapt a military poncho or water proof jacket to do the job.

Footwear

For speedball, where you often have a nice flat, grassy surface, you can comfortably get by with sneakers. However depending on the field, you sometimes don't have such a nice surface. Recball fields are usually wooded, bushy, or paddock fields... and they're anything but flat. And because of this changing terrain, you need footwear that offers ankle protection.

Gumboots will do, and while they are most ideal for extremely muddy conditions... many recballers opt for hiking boots, motorcycle boots, rugby boots or army boots. These boots are usually made of a strong leather, and fully support the ankle in the event of a sudden twist of the foot.

So stay safe and protect yourself!

Credits:
"Groin guard" thanks to www.kwon.com
"Army Boots" thanks to www.sas-kiwi.com
"Chest Protector" thanks to www.xtremez.com
"Knee pads & boots" thanks to Ricebrnr of www.A5OG.net

Jamie Innes