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Topic: Avalanche-style bunkering techniques (Read 733 times)

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Avalanche-style bunkering techniques
« Thread Started on Dec 16, 2004, 4:10pm »

By Glenn Takemoto, Avalanche

“Highway to the danger zone, gonna take you right into the danger zone.” Such a great quote from the classic song in Top Gun. For those of you too old to remember, Tom Cruise plays the ultimate dreamboat hero, an air force pilot that challenges authority, pushes the limits, and takes huge risks. Instead of taking the normal everyday route, he takes the high road and it lands him in a world of trouble.

But what does Maverick have to do with Paintball, you might ask? Well, apart from the Cruiser, shades as worn by Matt Richards of Detroit Strange, the best way to win at Paintball is to push the limits and live the high life with the up-close and personal art of bunkering.

So, you want to be the Highwayman of the Paintball field and get some street value added to your name? Well, learn how to bunker and you will gain the reputation as somebody who is down and dirty and willing to try anything. Whether you're a skinny 100 lb kid, a fat short old man, or a hunk of muscle, if you can bunker people good you will always have that in their mind when they play you. Here are some yays and nays to get you started on the highway to bunkering fools.

Recognize
There are so many different variations on your standard bunkering move, you could write a thousand different scenarios during one game as to when opportunities arise where you can bunker someone. Paintball in general is a thinking game, and you have to be constantly thinking about what you want to do and take advantage when the occasion arises. There are people like Markus, Ollie, or Jason Barrett from my team who make bunkering look so easily, but if you went into their brains and got to listen to their thoughts it would be insane. They don't just suddenly decide to bunker someone and run at them, hoping it'll turn out good; there is actually a complex thought process that goes on. Not to scare you or anything though, bunkering is actually quite easy to fathom out and can be summed up into three general parts: Recognition, Technique, and Execution.

First off is recognition. Before you even think about becoming a run-thru artist or a bunkering maniac you have to make this step feel as natural to you as walking and talking is in your normal life. This will not only help you in bunkering, but it will help you in moving and playing Paintball, in general because you will begin to think about everything on the field.

So you see the guy you need to get, he is in the bunker in front of you. Peek at the guy by taking quick glances out of your bunker. You can gather so much information about what is going on with a quick glance around the field. Even if the guy is out on you, it will be almost impossible for him to hit you, unless the ball is in the air already. Look to the inside of the field and behind the guy for people that may be watching over the lane that you have to run through. Look at the guy himself and determine what exactly he is doing – is he looking inside? Is he looking at you? Watch for his paint streams and which way his gun is shooting, as this is the easiest way to determine what he is up to. Never, I repeat, NEVER, just run at a guy without thinking about who might shoot you or not knowing what the guy is doing.

This simple thought process should be done in less than a glance, and this is just the simplest one because you are only finding out what one guy is doing. So now you have recognized that the guy is looking the other way, and for some reason his teammates are not watching over him. Next up, techniques to bunker him.

How 2

There are many different techniques for bunkering people, and I will briefly go over a good number of them.

The most common form of bunkering is the 1-for-1. What this means is you are going to trade with the guy you want to bunker and either he is going to shoot you or his team will. This is relatively easy to do and does not take much skill; just recognize the moment when you can run at him and not get shot and your job is done.

But say you want to get even better; this is where you begin to get recognition and earn the Highwayman status at your local fields. This is called bunkering and living. That means that you bunker the guy out successfully and live to do something else. That something else is anything from running through, getting another guy, creating a distraction, or just making a clean move and living. This requires you to think about who can shoot you, what the guy is doing, and make sure that all possible threats are checked off before you go and get the guy.

Over the top. Bunkers like laydowns and half shells are easily accessible to shoot your opponent by standing over the top of it. A lot of the times people will run to the side of the bunker, but if you want to live this is a very handy technique to shoot the guy out and live because you now have a bunker in front of you. Also, you will probably catch the guy off guard and scare the living daylights out of him and he won't be able to shoot back in time before you come back down. If the bunker is not small enough to look over, come to the side just enough to where you can shoot the guy, shoot him, and immediately come back to your side of the bunker.

A more advanced technique of bunkering is what we call 'ghosting'. It means you block out people and use the blind spots of the field in order to get the job done. Rather than running in the open, use the bunkers to hide your movements and it will catch people by surprise when they lose you on the field.

Diving: The diving bunker is really not that complicated, it just looks very cool. You go bunker the guy and dive either into the bunker with him – like, if he was in the snake, you dive into the snake and hit him, then slither up next to him and wait for him to walk out. The other way is to dive into a bunker that is past him, so you shoot him and then dive simultaneously into another bunker.

The last bunker technique that is becoming more and more a necessity is putting people in or pinning people. Not always do you find the right moment where no one is looking at you. You have to do things on your own and force the issue. Shoot at the people and keep shooting at the person while you are running to go get him, that way the person can not shoot back, or by the time he realizes you are out in the open it is too late.

Death penalty

Execution is the part where you actually have to bite the bullet and make the move. You have already recognized the bunker move and picked out what you are going to do; now you just have to do it. Stay focused on what you are doing and make sure you get the job done. Time the move and make it work for you. If you do not have to force the issue, do not do it, wait until you feel comfortable. People who are great at bunkering, without fail have great timing. You can be 800 lb, but as long as you can time your move you too can be great at bunkering.

Do not second guess or hesitate when doing a move; either commit to it or do not do it at all, because if you do go after you hesitate it probably will not work out how you wanted it to. Make sure you have good basic gun skill and do not run around like a chicken with its head cut off. Never go without thinking about the move, and when you do go, don't run up to the bunker and blind shoot around it, or shoot the guy with your gun in one hand. You will look like a newbie and probably not get the job done. Stay focused, have good field awareness and don't go crashing into bunkers, tripping over your feet,or running out of bounds. Keep in mind that you have to have some basic aiming, running and shooting, and general gun skills in order to do some of these moves, so if you are getting shot, it might have to do with that.

As always, practice makes perfect. Don't just go out into a tournament and try running and bunkering people after reading this. Start out at your field and practices and try things out. After a while you will get the hang of what works and what does not work. And do not give up. Just because you got shot doing some move doesn't mean that you suck at it. Learn from your mistakes and try to adapt so the next time it will not happen. Even the best bunkerers in the world have moves that don't work. In fact they probably try something every game that turns out for the worst. But people remember the good more than the bad, so you should remember that.

Taken from P8NTballer.com

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