Handling Burnout

As we open our eyes to the 2023 season it’s exciting to see all of our teammates and friends start to pipe up in the group chat or talk about playing x or y event. But how long has it been since we last saw some of these faces on the field?

Over the start of a paintball season, we see a flurry of excitement. promises made by both players and their organisations. That they will commit to playing all of one series… Oh and I've been asked to play this event… Oh actually there is also this other thing that a team need one more for something. 

How often do we see players get hauled up into division 1… to then find they have other commitments as the year goes on?!

Regardless of our personal resources (Money, Time, Industry support, The strain on relationships that being away weekend after weekend can be). We will often find ourselves at one point or another realising that just maybe we did bite off more than we can chew… That was certainly the case for me over the past couple of years trying to commit to: 

• Playing the full CPPS season.

• My part in pushing and developing the team.

• Photos at UKWM.

• Practice

• Mayhem Big Game.

• UKPSF Players Committee.

• NXLE (France).

• A few Woodsball classic series events.

I’ve certainly been extremely fortunate to not only have the opportunity to do these things, but also the support from our corner of the paintball community, my family in terms of allowing the time away and also having a job that currently keeps me clear of the bread line. With all of this, it can still feel exhausting by the time october arrives (woe is me!).

So, the reduction of UKWM events will in fact be a huge benefit to my time. There are media outlets who can turn around event photos in one or two days. I just can’t match that workflow alongside my full time job (some people are just extremely efficient), so it would take the event day (5:30am-7pm)  and at least up to around 11 pm the Wednesday after to get through the cull and edits to create the releasable images. 5 times a year, that wound up taking around 20 days worth of my free time for just the UKWM season (counting an evening editing as that day’s free time). This year I expect that to be about ¼ of the effort. Brilliant, I’ve got some free time back.

If you’ve read this far… you must be thinking “why are you telling me this, and why should I care about Ant’s choice of how to spend his time?!”. Well, you probably shouldn’t. But you should care about the decisions YOU make this year about how to spend your playing / free time.

To do this (organise our paintball life), we need to have an idea of what we can afford to do (at the cost of all our resources). You have a calendar on whatever device you are reading this on, I promise that if you put all of the paintball you think you want to play into it (based on our still very busy UK scene)... you will quickly find that there are very few weekends from march to october where you have time to even go to practice… let alone go out for birthdays / weddings /  dates etc.

So we need to prioritise our season. I’ve already seen players in our organisation get excited for more than they can necessarily find the resource for (and thanks to a little help from our friends, been able to capture that and redirect a little of the excitement).

I’ve been working through the list of events and weekends for this year, budgeting for a season with the team, and gently pruning out or prioritising which of the bonus events I think will be possible given my resource budget this year. Perhaps if you are getting excited by the year ahead, it’s a good time to take a look at your season plans and build a plan around what you want to play, what you need each month to do so, and what free time you have to apply yourself to getting the most out of the year ahead. 

Maybe for you, Like me last year, the season trophy is the main goal. Perhaps it’s getting to travel and play 1 or more international events. We have a new team in the organisation who are setting goals for themselves. I wish them the best success and that they have the resources they need to play all they want. But I also hope that they manage to stay together throughout a full season as other things can eat away at players' resources, especially when others in the organisation have the resource to play almost every weekend.

If you’re in a state of planning your season, here’s a few things to make a note of and compare, be sure to check your resources cover your expectations of playing, or maybe you can find a way to take part such as reffing, helping in the pits or doing media:

Resource:

• Disposable Money
• Free Weekends
• Transport

Base Paintball Costs:

• Entry Fees
• Paint Budget
• Practice
• Accommodation
• Enforced Equipment Purchases
• Basic Food / Drink

Bonus Paintball Costs:

• Media
• Bonus Equipment Purchases
• Meals Out / Beers