Just a quick rant.
Padding on jersey and pants needs to go and the NXL needs to lead the way.
There is one reason tournament paintball players want padding on their jerseys, bounces. it could be argued that padding on pants is useful but, in reality, it does very little for knee protection.
To make matters even worse, the NXL allows the use of chest protection, yes chest protection. You can wear a layer of padding on your entire torso!
Having padded jerseys, pants and chest protection in tournament paintball is a form of cheating the game. Everyone has been in the situation where you shoot someone directly in the arm and the ball just ricochets right off. How many game breaking moves or perfect snapshots have been ruined, because some guy has two inches of padding on his arms?
Imagine playing basketball and missing a shot because the hoop moved. The perfect crossover, perfect form, and none of it matters because for some random reason the basket moved. This is akin to bouncing someone.
the NCPA knows what they are doing they banned padding on jerseys, but they need to take it a step further and ban it on pants as well.
Tournament paintball players should be allowed to wear one set of elbow, knee and slider shorts.
I’m not against padding in general. I think it is great that we can offer extra protection for new players and kids, having a little more protection makes new players feel more confident and parents more at ease.
If the NXL banned padding I’m sure that many of the leagues around the world would follow suit.
