I’ve been told before that athletes are artists. A soccer player who makes a nice move and makes the defense looks silly is apparently “artistic” with his skills. The same goes for a hockey or football player with the puck/ball. Yet, in Paintball Smash, athletes are able to express their true artistic talents.
Similar to baseball, a pitcher—or a hurler, as it is known in Paintball Smash—throws a paintball towards a batter who must consequently smash it onto a blank white canvas. The player or team who covers the most square inches on their canvas of paint comes out victorious.
Paintball Smash can be played as a one on one game, or with numerous players on a team (popular professional Paintball Smash leagues play three-on-three). Each team or player has 15 paintballs to rocket at their canvas so, on a one player team, that one player gets to hit all of t 0 00he 15 paintballs. On a two or four player team, players must all hit as similar of a number as possible to their teammates; if there are two players, one player must hit eight paintballs and the other seven. On a four-player team, each player hits four paintballs except one (who only hits three).
Hollowed, wooden bats with six-inch diameters are used to blast the paintballs. A player can use a less than six-inch diameter to hit with, in order to gain speed but lose accuracy when hitting the ball. The bats must also be perfectly rounded, seeing as a flat surface provides better control when a player hits the ball. Balls are thrown from a 50-foot distance and must be thrown slowly, so as the player has an easy opportunity to hit every ball thrown to them. If the pitch is poor, players get to re-do that pitch and the batter is awarded an extra. The canvas is located just five feet away from the batter.
Mathematically, the canvas, batter and pitcher create a 45-degree angle so that the pitch can come straight, and the batter must direct the pitch onto the canvas.