EKITAI KEI

Of course, you can't plan for all eventualities, at least not with a rigid plan. If you start taking all the things that can happen in a game, the plan would be so complex as to be impossible to understand.

So what is a ekitai kei, or fluid plan? An ekitai kei is a general plan, with small specific rigid plans placed within it. The rigid plans are placed there to control certain situations you know will eventually come up. For instance - rigid plan:

• If someone captures the flag, make sure you have someone in front of you as you bring it back.

• If you can spare a person, leave someone behind at their flag station, in case they have our flag.

Eventually, this type of occurrence can be considered an SOP (Standard Operating Procedure). Using the example; players on your team will eventually know that, when they can, have the flag carrier escorted and leave someone behind to guard the opposition's flag station. Even the rigid plan is fluid (or flexible) in some parts. You will note that a route to return the flag was not indicated, that is left up to the player to decide, as circumstances will dictate the route they take.

INDIVIDUAL INITIATIVE

As you can may well guess, ekitai kei relies on the initiative of the individual. If a player sees a way to seize the advantage, they should be allowed to do it. In a rigid plan, they may not be able to leave their "assigned position" to exploit a weakness. This individual initiative is essential in making a ekitai kei work well.

TEAMWORK AND INITIATIVE

Do not confuse individual initiative with "every-player-for-themselves" you are still a team, and individual players must still have direction and leadership. The direction and leadership, however, is flexible and adaptable to the changing aspects of the particular game. Players who are on the left side of the field, should more or less remain there, and exploit advantages in their local area. This "assignment of positions" is necessary as you don't want players going off on their own, and leaving a hole in your lines. Initiative should not be used as an excuse for a player to abandon his position because he is bored and wants to see some action.

Every player on the team has a job to do, and a place to do it in, however, within this restriction comes the freedom to do what they see best in their area of responsibility.

INEXPERIENCED PLAYERS AND THE EKITAI KEI

Speaking of initiative, how are inexperienced players going to apply their initiative when they really don't have a general understanding of the game? Inexperienced players should be teamed up with experienced players so that they can follow the seasoned player's initiatives until they are comfortable enough to make them on their own. Inexperience is not the stumbling block of ekitai kei. Most times, players do not seize an opportunity due to timidness, not because they don't know what to do. You don't need a whole lot of experience to recognize that there's no one on your side of the field. If you foster the use of initiative amongst the team, they will use it more and more. Be warned, you should NEVER admonish someone for failing to accomplish what they tried. The effort itself should be rewarded, the very least that should be said is, "at least you tried". If you chew someone out for taking a risk and failing, maybe they won't bother trying, next time. Keep in mind, if you don't TAKE a chance, you will not GET a chance.

COMMUNICATION

However, all the individual initiative in the world is worthless if the rest of the team has no idea that a player has gained an advantage.

Communication is another important key to ekitai kei. This way everyone on the field knows what is going on and your team can react to changing circumstances accordingly -- using their individual initiative. Communication also helps you exploit any advantage you can get if a player uses their initiative and is successful. Some will say to develop codes so you can shout and the opposition will not know what you're talking about. This is fine, but eventually codes can be deciphered, and then you are lulled into a false sense of security. I have seen the results of tournament play, when one team has figured out the other team's codes. The other team is blissfully unaware that their opponents know that "Blue Seven" means there will be a player running up the left tape shortly. I have seen tournaments where teams have called out the OPPOSING team's codes and caused great amounts of confusion. I have found that in Rec-Ball, codes will wind up fooling YOUR OWN players most times. The benefits you gain in communication outweigh any disadvantages that come from it. Good communication pays for itself, in the long run.

CENTRALIZED COMMAND

Ekitai kei also relies on a central command. You can simply have a player hang back and keep an eye on as much of the action they can. This player receives input from the communication of his fellow players and can direct their actions. This can also be a serious as a Team Captain barking orders and shouting his fool head off. Whatever works for you.

WHY?

An ekitai kei is ESSENTIAL in paintball. The game changes almost every second and you simply cannot have contingencies to cover every permutation of every game. If you only remember ONE THING from this whole section remember this: The SITUATION dictates the TACTIC, not the other way around.

THE REALITY OF IT

Basically it boils down to any plan will be successful until you start getting shot at. Then it is all up for grabs. The team, or opponent, who can make a ekitai kei will be the successful one.