Let's start with a simple discussion of the positions in speedball. 5 man is fairly standard, so I'll start off with that.

There are 4 positions in a 5 man game, your two back players, a middle man, a snake player, and a front. Technically a snake player is a front, but it's played in a different manner so I'm breaking it up to simplify the discussion.

Your back players are the support positions. They will put down 'lanes' of fire to impede the movements of the other teams fronts. Usually packing lots of paint, they put down constant, or nearly so, streams of paint for the first portion of the game. Usually they will take the back two corner bunkers and cover the tape lines, hampering snake players and the flanking fronts.

Your middle man is also concerned with covering lanes for the first portion of the game, but they have to move up to take positions of the fronts if they get eliminated. On our team we usually send the mid player snake side, ready to fill in the position as soon as needed, but they can also cover the front flanker if the snake is secured.

The snake player has to be fast, and usually is your smallest, quickest player. They'll have to dive into the snake in the earliest portion of the game and advance up as quickly as possible. Snake players are your snipers, they will score the most eliminations if played well. You have to be able to keep very low, then pop up and let off an accurate snap shot on the oppositions flanks without getting popped in the process.

Front players are your flankers. They'll carry the least paint (I play with only a hopper filled) and the lightest loadout. Their job is to snatch real estate as quickly as possible, and they need to work with their back player to do so. While the back player lanes, the front can occupy bunkers along the non-snake side and try to pick off opposing players while working the angles. Having the back player lane for you will help prevent you from getting bunkered. If the game goes well the front player will do the final run to clear the field. That's provided they don't have to do bunker runs first to take out tough nut bunkers.

All the positions must work together as a team, constantly yelling back and forth, to win games. While it seems like stellar players can own the field by themselves, the truth is quite the opposite. Teams must pull together and be willing to compensate for early eliminations.

Breakouts, the first 30 seconds, and winning the game.

Many people new to speedball make the mistake of going for bunkers right away off the break. This is a very quick way to lose, even with the feeling of security a nice safe bunker can give you.

In speedball, much like anything else, knowledge is power. Knowing exactly where the opposition is gives you the opprotunity to pin them down and advance up on them very quickly.

With that in mind, most teams play a type of chicken were they both start firing right off the break - all of the players. You walk out from behind the middle bunker and you put your shots down the field. Not only are you trying to score early eliminations (harder at range due to bounces), your trying to drive them to their bunkers so you can see where they went.

Once the first team breaks for their bunkers, so does the other, and it comes down to the backs, covering lanes, to pass information forward regarding bunker positions.

All of this takes place in the first 5 seconds of the game, so you have to be very quick on the draw. This is why most speedball markers are designed to be as light as possible. You bring your marker to a firing position in half a second.

Moving across a field with that much paint in the air is scary at first, since you don't want to lose, but you get the hang of it rather quickly once you get practice in. Slides, superman dives, and leg slides are important skills to master when taking bunker positions. A snake player has to be able to superman dive since it will leave you with your marker facing the opposing snake player and the ability to rapidly crawl. Fronts on the non-snake side often go into large bunkers legs first provided you can pull up tight onto your knees quickly as a baseball slide covers more ground quickly. Backs and mid players tend to do knee slides as you can fire throughout the entire motion and not leave the lanes your covering open.

Taking up positions is critical, and knowing where you need to be comes from both experience and having walked the field before the game.

Clarified. Thank you.

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I think if more woodsball players played speedball, there wouldn't be such hostility from one group to another. Learning one helps with the other, that's for sure.

personally i dont like speedball much but now i want to barrow my friends spyder electa(probably not that good but better than my gun for speedball) and try it out.

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yeah.. Im getting an Ion.. take my own at speedyb

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I think you'll find it's a very intense version of paintball, which will force you to re-evaluate the way you play.

You'll also have to learn the names of the bunkers, the most common being the pyramid shaped 'dorritos' the 'aztecs' the 'pop cans' the 'x's' and the 'tacos'. Learning to play each bunker takes practice, as they all offer different advantages and disadvantages.

Dorrito's require you to crouch behind them, and while you may want to put down a knee for comfort, try to avoid sitting on both knees unless you practice rolling onto your feet from that position. You don't want to get anchored down. Dorritos allow you to shoot from both sides fairly easily, as you can sit a little higher than in an aztec, but your field of view can be compromised and you'll be exposed the higher up the sides you shoot.

An aztec let's you peek over the top, which means you can choose between firing from both sides or going over, but you'll have less protection than a dorrito. It's nice for back positions as you have a nice field of view so long as you can see shots coming and react fast enough to get back behind cover before they reach you.

Pop cans are tall, so you can stand behind them, but being round they don't offer much protection from the sides. It's easy for people to get an angle on you so you have to be very aware and keep checking both sides. More important than in any other bunker, you have to be aware of everything going on around you. You will have the best firing position of all the bunkers because it's open, but you have to take risks to take advantage of that.

Tacos are like pop cans on the side, and offer what can amount to the best protection on the field. Snakes are usually made up of these and aztecs. You'll want to shoot over top of them, but don't pop up in the same place twice or you will be shot out.

X's are rare on the fields but usually take the center position. You have to lean to play these bunkers, and you will have a reduced field of view so be careful in them.

THanks STC

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First off, Nice Post Syam Tam Chuk. Very informative.

Second, Your right on the mark. Speedball is basically a compacted and fast paced version of woodsball.
I am a woodsball player and personnaly dont see myself diving into speedball. Just not my style i suppose. But I do enjoy watching the guys and gals play sometimes. Its a rush sometimes just spectating. The ill will between speedballers and woodsballers that sometimes comes up is more or less lack of knowledge of the others style of play or just plain ignorance.

True fact is Woodsball started the paintball world. I would have to say that Speedball has been a major contributor to getting the sport of paintball where it is today. I think both styles need to respect the other fore without each other our sport would be diminished.

To be honest I havent seen this too much myself but it obviously exists. My biggest rivalry I have is my friend up the street. He is very heavy into Airsoft and he rags me all the time about paintball. Course I dont care and its all in fun.

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Just try it and see if you have fun. It can be intimidating at first, but it's really a lot of fun. Most of my team started out as woodsballers, several declaring their disgust at the idea of speedball at each chance. The funny thing is, once we got them involved, they had a blast. Two of them were on the team that took first place in our division at the nationals.

Don't worry about what kind of marker you have at first, light wieght and high ROF in semi are nice, but when I started playing I was using my 98 with an BT AK47 Apex tipped barrel and a commando stock running remote line. That set up was 36" long and hefty, and akward to get behind a bunker to boot, but I had a lot of fun with my friends.

It wasn't until just before christmas that I got an Angel to replace my 98 as my speedball marker, so just remember it's getting out there and playing that's important.