Talked to Calgar about this before, and after reading Arthur’s (Arthur is the captain Red Sevens, go google) blog, it sort of reminded me to blog about this.
I’m sure most people know what the chicken & egg problem is and that is exactly what is happening locally; it’s such a paradox i don’t know where to begin but let me try.
Definition of a sport by dictionary.com:
sport 
–noun
1.an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature, as racing, baseball, tennis, golf, bowling, wrestling, boxing, hunting, fishing, etc.
Okay so we know a sport is something that requires skill or exceptional physical ability and competitive.
Here’s the thing: in Paintball, particularly Speedball, your brains are working before you play the game because there are a lot planning and strategising; you need to plan where to go, which bunker to hold, which lane to shoot, jargons to remember, etc. There are so many things to do i cannot list them out.
When the game starts, you have to run, dive, slide, crouch, prone, shoot at your opponent, dodging paintballs coming at you, think on your feet, change the game plan as the game moves along, shout, control the team, reload, and usually you have to do several things at one time. (Don’t be an idiot asking me how to run and crouch at the same time, it speaks a lot about your IQ)
There is absolutely no single player mode in a game of Speedball; everything is about the team, the team and the team. There are 3-men, 5-men and 7-men games but regardless, it’s always a team effort to win the game.
So i guess Paintball fits the bill as a ’sport’ aye? Good, now we move on.
From what i know, the Paintball Association of Singapore has a letter from the Singapore Sports Council saying (or should i say certifying) that Paintball is a sport. *Hooray* Surely, a letter from the Singapore SPORTS Council that Paintball is a sport is definitely a landmark victory for the sport in Singapore!
I.. guess not.
Let’s see, sports in Singapore are the likes of soccer, basketball, badminton, pool(?) and even *gasps* ballroom dancing and they’re, no surprise now, sponsored and backed by the Singapore SPORTS Council. Great! Paintball will be in the list next!
Make a wild guess what happens when sponsorship was asked to back the sport of Paintball?
It’s like this: Nope, sorry, son. Paintball just isn’t as mass-participated as other sports. You don’t need to quote the exact reply to imply the meaning behind it.
I’m speaking from a point of a Paintballer who loves the sport but sees no participation from the almighty Singapore Sports Council.
So where’s the chicken & egg problem you ask?
#1: Paintball is a sport
#2: To grow it, to promote it, you need funds and backing from a mighty body
#3: You ask for it from SSC
#4: Rejected cos’ it’s not a mass-participated sport
And it repeats. Talk about being retarded here.
Disclaimer: The above post is entirely MY opinion and MY thoughts as an active paintballer. No one directly or indirectly related to me have influenced me in anyway.
But i’m not done.
I don’t want to cuss here but take a step back think about other ’sports’ being a real sport, no pun intended.
Ballroom dancing? Ha, i’m sure it’s as tough as Paintball. Wow, i’m going to get my team to switch to dancing instead. How come i didn’t think of that earlier?!
Like what Arthur said before, it’ll probably take Singapore another 10 years to acknowledge Paintball; like how they so stupidly ignored F1 eons ago.
Good luck Singapore Sports Council and thank you for acknowledging my sport as a sport.
Oh i thank you on behalf of ballroom dancing too. 
And i’d suggest for anyone who wishes to comment to leave their real name and identity; don’t be a anonymous keyboard warrior.
Thank you and have a good day. Paintball will go on with or without some mighty covering of some almighty council (wow, council) and just so you want to know, you can go sit in the air-conditioned halls and watch your other sports.
I totally understand your situation. It was like this when I was in secondary school a long time ago. I was in the Micromouse team (If you’re unaware, a Micromouse is basically a robot that one has to write a program for for it to navigate a maze quickly and efficiently. Points are given for speed, and of course whether or not the mouse can navigate the maze without crashing into corners, etc.). They refused to give us money to even get basic training on how to program the damn mouse, instead telling us to produce results first. But without training, how are we to have a chance in hell to know what we’re doing, and produce results?
Same thing happened again when I went to JC. Our debate team had no coach. Same reasons and reasoning employed. Naturally, we lost the SIA-JC debates.
Oh, and may I add: in the latter case the lack of coaching compounded the situation of our team already being, well, shitty natural debaters, and being unable to get along with each other. LOL!
I wish i could start by saying how much i empathise you but i don’t see how micromouse and debating are related to sport so maybe that’s why the mighty council rejected you.
But it’s apparent that we’re rejected even when we’re certified as a sport by them.
Cheers.
Hi Tom,
You’re right, they’re strictly speaking they’re not related.
I meant as in I understand what it is like to be denied funding due to this show-me-the-results-first mentality.
Results = if enough people start playing paintball, and it becomes an “important” sport that sponsors will be interested in, then the money will come from SSC….
“Paintball just isn’t as mass-participated”
it just shows the need for us paintballers to sell the sport and get more people to pick it up as a sport.
like to thank all the paintballers who are helping to grow the sport.
Yup, well done, paintballers of Singapore.
Basically i’ve guess tom u have learn the so called “bad” things in singapore sports. Which is true i don’t deny. Because participation is their basic concern. That’s for all sports. All sports council around the world are concerned about participation numbers and how many people are currently playing the sport. It’s how it is in singapore. That’s the reason why many associations are focusing on getting more people to participate so that the association can grow and to be able to be recognised as a family/leisure sport. It’s also because it’s government so you know how things can get when ur dealing with government. A huge sum of money is given to the core sports in singapore like swimming and soccer. The rest of the small amounts of money are given to the other high participation sports. To be able to get sufficient funding to function, the association must have enough numbers. It’s sad but it’s true in our case. That’s how they work.
Even here in australia, the aussie rules is like multi million sport and the rest of the sports are not really mentioned and many have funding problems as well. I guess it’s happening everywhere. Hopefully the paintball association is able to create interest in people to pick up the sport enough to have future funding. =)
Cheers!
Give me some money and I’ll show you what we can do…
Don’t give me money and I’ll still show you what we can do…
Paintball for life. We tight tom haha!
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I can seriously sympathise. If you really love the sport though, then you need to put your money where your mouth is. Do your homework, and do what it takes to drum up some capital on your own. Talk to people, and show others what you can do with limited funds first. It will probably cost an arm, but if you plan this right (and you paintballers seem very familiar with doing that), break it down into smaller objectives, and do it like a military operation, one objective at a time, then I’d be surprised if you don’t get further funding one way or another. Good luck!
Equation: medalS = MONEY
So many archers in Singapore. So little fund
MANY and LITTLE do go hand in hand
How about an entire self-funded team going up against the best of malaysia in their division… getting 10th in their first season… out of 60 teams?
:D
Agree with Marcus. If you have a great product why don’t you promote it to those who don’t know about it yet. Talk about the virtues and benefits of paintball as a sport. Do your market research – who would be the ideal “buyer” profile for paintball. If you want funding then you must show that this sport has the potential to grow its membership and participation base. Chicken and egg situation? Yes and No. If you are a budding entrepreneur, you will need to have some of your own capital to start out. Beg or borrow. But don’t expect handouts from taxpayers money! Show them that you are a growing sport, come out with a workable marketing and business plan, sure they will reconsider. All the best!
B.C says that you guys don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.
Put your money where your mouth is? You guys don’t know shit about how much the community has grown in one year.