Why Bunkering is The Most Pointless Move in Paintball

There has always been one thing in paintball I could never understand, and its why so many paintballers are obsessed with bunkering.  I won't claim that bunkering is the most pointless move in paintball, and I know the title of the article says otherwise (I named it that to grab your attention, and hopefully it did!).  What I will say is that bunkering today has become the choice of drug for paintballers, one that is being overused and abused.

I know there are going to be some ballers out there that will probably give me crap for bashing the one move in paintball they worship, and if that is you, all I ask is you please bear with me and hear me out.

Just as mainstream sports like Baseball and Basketball have their own power moves, so does paintball. Basketball has the dunk, Baseball the home run, and bunkering in paintball.  You could say each of these power moves has its purpose and advantage, but if you were to tell me that they are the end-all move, the best tactic, or something every player should shoot for I'd have to disagree.

First of all, home-runs and dunking are more crowd pleasers than anything else. There is no game winning advantage to hanging on the rim with your knees bent screaming "I own this b@#$%!,"  sure it looks cools, but it doesn't give you more points than a standard layup.  If one teams only strategy was to dunk every time they would more than likely lose to a team that drained 3's over and over.

As far as home-runs go, there will never be a baseball team that has an entire team of players that hit home runs every at-bat, it just can't be done.  On the other hand, it would just be plain foolish to have every player swing for the fence while at bat.

Just like there is a time and a place for dunking and swinging for the fence, there's a time and place for bunkering, and I think many paintball players are missing this concept.  They step onto the field with one goal, too bunker as many people as they can, to run through as far as they can, to see how many players they can blast in the back for their own personal gain.

To bunker for you own gain is a selfless move. If you succeed, fine, you boosted your ego, but remember, your not helping anyone but yourself.  Your one step closer to building a team that lives under the shadow of your glory, job well done.  If all you are looking for during a paintball match is that one great bunker move then do your team a favor and step off.  Once you have that mindset its difficult to truly see the right opportunities to bunker, instead you make your own opportunities, opportunities that might not exist.

Too bunker because the option presents itself and the timing is perfect is a smart move.  Below is a clip showing the perfect time for a run through.  This player saw the opportunity and took action in the right manner.  Smart players know when to bunker, they don't abuse it, and most importantly they don't use it to inflate their ego.

Great athletes aren't born with one single amazing play, they are born from their ability to prove themselves time and time again.  Play smart and understand that you can't always come out of every paintball match with a couple more bunkers under your belt.  If you are still bent on grabbing that perfect runthrough, know that patience and true timing is essential, and once you figure that out, you'll see that bunkering at the right time and bunkering just for bunkering's sake is like day and night; the latter is deffinetley a strategy left in the dark.