Paintballing is a sport that is becoming more and more popular every year around the country.

Paintball began in 1981 with 12 competitors playing capture the flag with air-powered pistols. Since then, the game has exploded into a multimillion-dollar sport with amateur and professional tournaments across the United States and Europe, offering cash prizes in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Daisy (manufacturer of pellets, B.B.s and air guns), Crossman (manufacturer of airguns), Scott USA (manufacturer of ski poles and goggles) and JT USA (manufacturer of motocross safety equipment) are just a few of the companies that have expanded into the paintball world. Today, tournaments are sponsored by companies such as Pepsi-Cola.

What is paintball? Well, combine the game of capture the flag with chess, mix in hide 'n' seek and add a large dose of adrenaline. Paintball is challenging and fast-paced. As few as two or as many as eighty can play

The basic game has two teams, each with its own flag station and matching color armbands. Each team starts at its own flag station. A starting signal is given and each team tries to reach the other team's station, grab the flag and race back to it's station. When a player gets tagged -hit by a paintball- he/she is out of the game. If a player is carrying a flag when tagged, he/she must drop the flag at that spot, then leave the game.

All paintball guns use air pressure from an air tank or 12-gram cartridges to fire a paintball. The velocity of the paintball leaving the barrel is usually 250 to 300 feet per second (fps). 300 fps is the maximum allowed at tournaments while 280 fps is the maximum allowed at most playing fields. Air tanks come in different sizes. The bigger the tank, the longer you can play before requiring a refill. Sizes begin at 9 oz. and go up to 20 oz. Compressed Air is also used.

To check the velocity at which a paintball gun is firing, a chronograph is used. The radar chronograph uses a small Doppler radar to measure the velocity of a paintball. The paintball is fired over the machine. The radar picks up the paintball and records the speed of the ball on a digital display. If a gun is fireing paintballs at over 300 fps, it is adjusted to lower the velocity.