Is paintball a martial art?

[RobinTKD]

Most of the arguments against paintball being a martial art could also be attributed to light contact point-stop sparring. Neither will prepare you for a real fight, whether with weapons or without, both teach bad habits. Would some forms of karate be deemed not to be a martial art because that is their main form of sparring?

 

[Josh Oakley]

Most of the arguments against paintball being a martial art could also be attributed to light contact point-stop sparring. Neither will prepare you for a real fight, whether with weapons or without, both teach bad habits. Would some forms of karate be deemed not to be a martial art because that is their main form of sparring?

It could be applied to Kendo, too.

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[Makalakumu]

Yeah, for sure, great points above Josh and Robin. I think it could be a legitimate martial art with a little organization. It wouldn't take much thought to create an actual curriculum for growth of skills. I'm sure it's been done already, but I haven't checked.

I think if you join a team and start working out regularly, that's a martial art for sure. If you work out by yourself and practice the skills, for sure it's a martial art. The only thing missing is an actual teacher and perhaps school or studio that you would go to...and I'm sure that exists somewhere.

For me, when I think about how removed some of our martial sports are from actual fighting, I can see a similarity between paintball and those sports. I loved the comment about how once the poster stopped thinking about it as a combat situation, he enjoyed it better and actually got better at it. I did the same thing with tournament sparring. Once I stopped thinking of it as a "fight" I actually started to get better because my strategies for striking changed.

So, for the people who think paintball isn't a martial art, what would make it a martial art? Is it even possible for it to become a martial art in your opinion?

 

[J W]

This would be a fun question to cross-post to one of the paintball forums. I'm pretty sure most of those guys have never thought of themselves as martial artists (unless, of course, they also practice karate or kung fu or something), however I'm sure many of them think of themselves as athletes, especially the speedball/tourney guys.

There is certainly some serious training going on with those tourney guys, but again I would think that they think of it more like a hockey or basketball team practicing plays and devising strategies rather than a group or martial artists developing martial skill.

As far as the comparison to point sparring; if all a martial arts school did was point sparring, would we still consider it martial arts? For most schools sparring is only a part of their curriculum. The sum total of their training makes it a martial art; if all that was taught was point sparring, wouldn't it just be a sport?

When I trained TKD years ago, our main form of sparring was light contact point sparring. I was pretty good at it, however alot of the strategies and techniques that I used to win those matches would have gotten me destroyed in an actual altercation. I considered myself a martial artist because of the martial skill we were developing outside of point sparring; if we only did point sparring, I'm not sure I could make the same claim. Paintball players don't train to improve any actual martial skill, they only train to win paintball matches.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

Side question: Any interest in adding a sub forum for paintball here?

 

[Kittan Bachika]

Uhh. No.

 

[Makalakumu]

Side question: Any interest in adding a sub forum for paintball here?

I'd support it. I'm sure a lot of posters get into paintball. My son is addicted. He's saving his money for a starter kit and I told him I'd buy one too if he bought one. So, yeah I may be getting into this soon.

 

[ballen0351]

I paintball all the time. Woodsball mostly not much into the speed ball. Im in a jeep clud we have a few hundred acres of wood with traila nd stuff theres about 20 of us into paintball we go out in the land and play. We use simunitions at work kinda like paintballs but the hurt alot more lol. Ive got a few scars from them.

 

[puunui]

There is certainly some serious training going on with those tourney guys, but again I would think that they think of it more like a hockey or basketball team practicing plays and devising strategies rather than a group or martial artists developing martial skill.

Once playing paintball I was guarding the fort by myself (partner got killed). The opposing team was sitting next to my fort. At some point during the game, I ran out of either air or ammo, so I grabbed a couple of guns from the opposing group. One looked at me and said "hey that's mine, you can't use it." I responded "This is war, you're dead, you don't need your gun anymore." to which he had no response.

 

[Steve]

For those of you saying that it is not a martial art, can you be specific as to why? And then, can you not think of several martial arts sharing those same characteristics?

For example, it's not self defense. But neither is kyudo, kendo, tai chi, or any number of other "martial arts."

There's no formal rank structure. But there is none in many CMAs, along with Muay Thai, Boxing, Wrestling, and many other "martial arts."

It's physical, unlike chess. It's tactical. The skills learned are definitely martial in nature. I'd say it's as much a martial art as most other "martial arts."

 

[Twin Fist]

cuz it is a sport that simulates armed combat. to most people "martial art" means unarmed combat

 

[Makalakumu]

cuz it is a sport that simulates armed combat. to most people "martial art" means unarmed combat

I can think of about a dozen ancient weapon arts that have been turned into sports.

 

[puunui]

Can you call something a martial art if it has no formal, standardised pedagogy?

Who says paintball doesn't have that?

 

[puunui]

cuz it is a sport that simulates armed combat. to most people "martial art" means unarmed combat

really. What about iaido, kendo, kung fu with its many weapons, kuk sool won, hapkido, okinawan karate and kobudo?

 

[puunui]

I paintball all the time. Woodsball mostly not much into the speed ball. Im in a jeep clud we have a few hundred acres of wood with traila nd stuff theres about 20 of us into paintball we go out in the land and play. We use simunitions at work kinda like paintballs but the hurt alot more lol. Ive got a few scars from them.

I was playing once with a woman I used to work with. She made an open field run and I nailed her in the mask and I guess neck area several times before she finally said she got hit. She ended up getting some bruises, and when people asked her what that was about, she said I had given her some hickeys.

Paintball is a rough game. It's not for the weak of heart.

 

[Steve]

cuz it is a sport that simulates armed combat. to most people "martial art" means unarmed combat

Is kyudo an ma? What about kendo? Why do almost all cma and jma have sword, stick and spear training? Weapons have a long tradition within martial arts.

 

[wingerjim]

Note sure I would call it a martial art. Certainly a sport and though it can be colorful, not really an art.

 

[J W]

For those of you saying that it is not a martial art, can you be specific as to why? And then, can you not think of several martial arts sharing those same characteristics?

For example, it's not self defense. But neither is kyudo, kendo, tai chi, or any number of other "martial arts."

There's no formal rank structure. But there is none in many CMAs, along with Muay Thai, Boxing, Wrestling, and many other "martial arts."

It's physical, unlike chess. It's tactical. The skills learned are definitely martial in nature. I'd say it's as much a martial art as most other "martial arts."

This thread could easily turn into What makes something a Martial Art? I'm going to stick with no, paintball isn't.

Oddly enough, there's a resurrected thread from 2007 over in the fencing section that asks the same question about fencing.

http://www.martialtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?52263-Fencing-martial-art-or-no

I didn't read through that whole thread, but my logic for why paintball doesn't count as a martial art runs right along the same lines as the first reply in that thread. Things like fencing, point sparring, and maybe Kendo (again, not really too familiar with that one) would be sport components of martial arts, or maybe sports based on martial arts. But they aren't really martial arts in and of themselves, in my opinion.

Paintball (at least as I think we're discussing it here- typical woodsball or speedball games) doesn't teach you viable martial skills. I do all sorts of things while playing paintball that would get me killed in an actual firefight. I started playing paintball maybe 10 years ago, and I wouldn't want to test whatever skills I may have learned in that time in a real firefight.

 

[Makalakumu]

Just as one can pick up a shinai and practice more realistic swordsmanship, one could stick to combative fundamentals in paintball. Or, if I may bring up another example, point sparring is pretty damned removed from real fighting, yet millions of people who practice it think they are doing a martial art.