With most businesses fortifying themselves against the economic struggles ahead, several Indianapolis businesses have taken the military metaphor to the next level.
Paintball.
That’s right. What started as a wannabe warrior’s chance for ephemeral
heroics has become a popular corporate training tool. According Kent Marsh, Head Referee and Field Manager at Indy Acres Paintball, several Indy area businesses are looking to paintball as a way to develop teambuilding skills.
“Some of the corporate groups incorporate team building skills into their play,” Marsh said. “We let them talk with each other, even after they’ve been shot, which is usually against the rules.”
Businesses use paintball to teach a variety of skills that the game
facilitates in a less threatening method than the workplace itself. In
addition to teamwork, several other skills come into play:
Interpersonal communications
Cooperation
Small-group dynamics
Competition
Setting and meeting goals
Time and materials management
Working from small objectives to a bigger picture
Trust and confidence
Team spirit
Steve Haskett, electrical supervisor for Ellis Mechanical and Electrical
Engineering in Indianapolis, said that his company uses the paintball outing
as an employee appreciation event.
“We took a day to relax somewhere not in a work environment,” Haskett said.
“Everyone enjoyed it a lot, although perhaps some of the supervisors did not,” he added with a laugh.
“We had to come together as teams,” Haskett said. ” I would recommend that
any company with employees try playing paintball. It did a lot to build our sense of team spirit. I highly recommend it.”
Indy Acres offers several different fields and even an old house for use with some special scenario-type games, Marsh said. Most paintball
competition is just a variation on capture the flag.
Each player is equipped with a helmet and facemask or goggles, usually a chest protector, and a gun that shoots small balls of paint using compressed
air as a propellant. Cost is $30 to $42 per person, with additional
paintballs at $5 per 100.
The two teams approach each other from opposite ends of the field. The
fields are filled with plenty of manmade hiding spots, such as wooden walls and barriers. Occasionally, some paintball fields have old military and civilian vehicles that also serve as obstacles.
Prior to the start, each team hides and secures its “flag,” and the
objective of the game is to infiltrate the other team’s area, capture their flag, and return to your team’s base.
Marsh said his job is to explain the rules to both teams, and then to step back and see that those rules are enforced. Still, sometimes competition gets to the best of people.
“People still go out and do it,” Marsh said.
Indy Acres Paintball is a little over one-year old, Marsh said. “I’ve been playing for more than fifteen years, and I’ve seen a lot of fields come and go. A lot have folded, but Scott Waterman, our owner and operator, has done a great job keeping us going.”
Marsh notes that despite the economy, two groups still keep coming out to play paintball-birthday parties and corporate events. In addition to Ellis Engineering, Buffalo Wild Wings and Texas Roundhouse restaurants have brought groups out to Indy Acres this year.
Moreover, winter weather is not a deterrent,
“We’re open year round,” Marsh said. “We’re always glad to accommodate
corporate groups.”
Ideally, most groups are 10 to 20 people. These groups get exclusive use of one of Indy Acres several playing fields.
For more information about Indy Acres Paintball, or to schedule an event for your business or group, contact Kent Marsh at (317) 356-4639.
Indy Acres Paintball is located at 7225 E Raymond St, Indianapolis, and is open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturdays and noon to 7 p.m.
Sundays.
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