Kids in airsoft

[joshcowin]

you cant stereotype all kids to be annoying,ive played with a few kids who are real good players,abide by the rules,always take their hits and shake the other team at the end,where ive had others who run around spraying puddles trees and anything else,then shoot each other and dont call their hits

 

[Curly68]

I play alongside my 14yr old son and he knows more about tactics than I do (he hates C.O.D. as well) and likes to try and get me to run to the next objective, that's why I bring him so he can do the running making sure that is clear for me to get there! He takes his hits and doesn't spray and play.

There are a few others that play at our local site and I don't have a problem with any of them. Though one has been hit multiple times by myself, watching the bb's bounce off him and he didn't call a hit! We get more problems with the hirer's to be honest. I have lost my rag near the end of the day with the amount of non-hit taking and full auto hits in a single shot game!

 

[Chippins]

Where's all this hate for hip firing come from?!

But yeah, I don't have a problem with kids playing at all, unless they've played too many video games and think that they know it all already. A lot of the younguns that play are often more than happy to volunteer for suicide missions to screen advances or to hide in places no normal sized person could possibly fit into. At the end of the day kids are like regular people... some of them are arseholes.

 

[Gecko]

I remember a kid who played for the same team ages ago who hadn't been playing long and obviously had played too many computer games. In a closed corridor firefight with our team he declared "covering fire" and then proceeded to shoot several members of our own team in the back. I don't think he completely understood the term covering fire. That being said I know that I am still guilty of stupid mistakes like friendly fire in the heat of the moment but we just need to hold our hands up and resolve to improve. We all have noob days and kids are not exclusively the newbies, sometimes it's the adults. In which case as an airsofting community we need to get alongside our rag tag bunch of teammates we find ourselves playing with on a weekend and encourage new players, lead by example and be able to laugh about mistakes. Yes it is a competitive sport, but winning is that much sweeter when you're the underdog. Otherwise we have not learnt anything from the likes of the orignal A Team, Dodgeball and Billy Elliot.

 

[QuadMachine]

I remember a kid who played for the same team ages ago who hadn't been playing long and obviously had played too many computer games. In a closed corridor firefight with our team he declared "covering fire" and then proceeded to shoot several members of our own team in the back. I don't think he completely understood the term covering fire. That being said I know that I am still guilty of stupid mistakes like friendly fire in the heat of the moment but we just need to hold our hands up and resolve to improve. We all have noob days and kids are not exclusively the newbies, sometimes it's the adults. In which case as an airsofting community we need to get alongside our rag tag bunch of teammates we find ourselves playing with on a weekend and encourage new players, lead by example and be able to laugh about mistakes. Yes it is a competitive sport, but winning is that much sweeter when you're the underdog. Otherwise we have not learnt anything from the likes of the orignal A Team, Dodgeball and Billy Elliot.

"In a closed corridor firefight with our team he declared "covering fire" and then proceeded to shoot several members of our own team in the back"

That cracked me up!

 

[Airsoft-Ed]

I generally think of everyone as the same until they give me a reason to consider them either good or bad.

Examples of bad would be screaming movie catch phrases in situations that don't call for it, bullshitting to try and improve their social standing, not taking hits, being cocky arseholes and similar.

The people who are new to it and act in a way to give me a negative opinion of them, I rarely see again. They come along, act like an arse, get the vibe they're not wanted and then don't come back. It's their fault for not being more pro-active, they don't help themselves by pretending to know everything.

On the other end of the scale there are those who actively seek help and advice, the ones that go around the safe zone chatting to people, asking about kit, asking what to do and where to go on the field and offering their input when it comes to planning an attack. Those people I willingly help and step in to assist them in any way I can when others shun them for being so upbeat and positive.

I'm not talking about kids here, they could be 12 or 112. Age to me is no concern, young and old come with their own traits, they can cross over, you can meet older guys in their 40s who you could mistake as 15 year olds if it weren't for their grey hairs and wrinkled grins.

Once at my regular site there was a bloke who'd come for his daughter's boyfriends birthday party, there were about five 15yo's with him, he must've been about 40 and he was honestly one of the best guys ever. He was brand new, no idea what he was doing, what was happening, but he shadowed me most of the day, asking me where the best spots were, where to lay down fire, where to keep an eye on, how to move around safely and everything. Common sense questions and a positive, willingness to be helped.

We had a right laugh, it was great. If every new player was like that guy, I'd be the happiest person in the sport.

 

[joshcowin]

blank guns

Blank guns

mary why are you advertising on here,another troller peeps,be careful dont click the link

 

[Nickona]

I try not to discount anyone straight away, although first impressions are naturally made. I know some young guys who are incredibly good players while I've come across others who are very poor

On the cadet subject, the younger cadets are normally worse IMO, whereas the more senior ones 16+ tend to be better.

I also find that when younger teens are together in groups they can be worse than if they're playing with a mixed age group.

IMO young teen rentals who have no idea how airsoft or the guns work and have no desire to learn and judge how good a gun by how it shoots on CoD of BF are by and large the worse of the lot

 

[TacMaster]

I agree with nick, the younger cadets aren't great and most quit before they get anywhere in the ACF/CCF/whatever because they don't have any determination to succeed. However, some of the rental kids you see around aren't going to be the little idiots you think of after hearing the word 'hire kit'.

At a skirmish a few months back, we were playing an ambush-style game type where the patrollers would attack as soon as the ambushers opened fire. In this situation, you would expect the younger players to open fire immediately; in this case we caught them right in the middle of a crossfire because the newbies had used common sense which us regulars just didn't expect.

These moments of noob-on-vet domination make me come back to the U18 games every time

 

[Ian_Gere]

I know you're not talking about me, Ed, because you'd never see my grin behind my 1/2face...

 

[Dan's Ark]

Well I'm only 16, but I make sure I stick to the rules and act in an appropriate manner (and join in with the banter ). I don't consider myself a decent tactician, though. I leave that to the more experienced guys. I know someone at my site who despite being older than me, treats the skirmish like Medal of Honor: Warfighter and copies the way they run, and always calls out "target down!" unnecessarily after hitting someone.

 

[Airsoft-Ed]

Well I'm only 16, but I make sure I stick to the rules and act in an appropriate manner (and join in with the banter ). I don't consider myself a decent tactician, though. I leave that to the more experienced guys. I know someone at my site who despite being older than me, treats the skirmish like Medal of Honor: Warfighter and copies the way they run, and always calls out "target down!" unnecessarily after hitting someone.

What a penis.

 

[NickM]

I've been following this and for the most part I think its like everything, mostly young guns are pretty good especially if they get stuck in and play by the rules, but you always get some that just don't get it. I'd echo the thoughts above about using them as shock troops. Since busting my knee I don't have the ability to sprint about the place so by directing their enthusiasm without "ordering" anyone we get the best of both worlds.

If the rentals or young guns aren't how you want them to be then its your responsibility to help guide them. Guide mind, so go over and have a chat, show them the way, let them test out your kit, show them how to set the hop ( on most rentals I had the hop was never set and once shown it greatly improved my range). There is one guy in our team who did 2 years in the German army he's pretty good at taking some of the rentals and getting them a bit organised. However most of our frustration comes when you start using tactics and being sneaky and someone who doesn't understand what you are upto starts thrashing around behind you giving your position away and generally making your life impossible, but that kind of thing isn't exclusive to rentals or kids.

I'm not under 18 but I work with kids, my only experience of anything like airsoft was my cadet days where I ended up teaching fieldcraft and shooting. It does frustrate me when I see kids who have come from cadets who appear to know less than someone who hasn't. Last Saturday I tried using hand signals with 4 cadets that had turned up as rentals, they didn't have a clue, they didn't understand spacing or how to patrol. So what should have been a fairly easy objective was failed.

But I would like to come back on what you said Dan's Ark. Calling someone as "target down" (although I wouldn't use those words, he's hit tends to be fine, sounds like he wants you all to know how many hits he gets) is actually a good idea, sometimes the person doing the firing does not see the target call their hit, so as courtesy if I see someone take a hit I'll call out to the team that they are down. That way we can focus our attention on someone else and they don't get peppered by a further few rounds fired after they have called hit, another of my pet peeves.

 

[Tariq]

What i find with kids is that they just lack confidence.

We have a small "village" at our local site. There were 3 small kids trying to assault it, being defended by 8 people.

Most were out or just in range of it, so not really making a huge impact.

A friend and I just blitz straight in pistols drawn and within a minute we had cleared it. Walked out with the kids looking rather confused how we just did that since they were there for ages.

Aggression pays off. Don't be scared to get hit.

 

[Zak Da Mack]

Aggression pays off. Don't be scared to get hit.

I second that, I sometimes run across an open bit of ground to get to the other side. About 90% of the time, they only realised what you've just done after you're safe and sound

My friend came with me last game, he's never played airsoft or paintball before but we were able to co-ordinate well and effectively. He also proved very good at flanking the enemy if we were suppressed.

 

[remus]

yea better to be doing something and probably fail than to do nothing and definitely fail... fortune favours the bold. somehow the runs that shouldn't work seem to work more than those that should(cause they watch the areas that runs are more likely to be made etc and ignore the more open areas as youd be daft to make them attempts. most people i play with attempt to flank etc, yet i go straight through the centre most often get very close to the objective as they always seem to forget to defend the centre line(course the problem is trying to watch all around you at that point and is often how i die as you cant watch them all when your surrounded....

 

[Ian_Gere]

I know someone at my site who despite being older than me, treats the skirmish like Medal of Honor: Warfighter and copies the way they run, and always calls out "target down!" unnecessarily after hitting someone.

What a penis.

Yeah, he should shout, "Tango down!"

not

 

[Airsoft-Ed]

What a penis.

Haha I was serious.

Well... Obviously he's not actually a penis. Unless he is. But that'd be weird, how would he hold a gun?

I think it's good to say a target is down, hit, out of the game or whatever, but if you say it with a "Hollywood spin" you are just a gigantic penis.

 

[Nickona]

I find communication or lack of is one of the biggest issues on game days. Its always really difficult to play with people if they're not prepared to muck in with everyone and get along with strangers.

Never underestimate how helpful it is to let others on your team know if an areas clear or where the targets are, a lot of the time people play like one man Rambo, whereas if the team operates together well it can be really helpful!

 

[Ian_Gere]

Yeah Nick, but a penis is still a penis and we all know one when we see him, right?