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This was taken off of http://www.858airsoft.com/writeups/great.html Please read through the entire article.




One of the many questions that have come up in airsoft is the topic of this write up. What makes a great airsoft team? Is the tactics? How about the people on the team? Is it the events that the team participates in? Could it be the amount of weapons and gear the team have? Does having 20 or more members make an airsoft team great? Will playing airsoft or training with airsoft every week do it? If the team has been around for multiple years, does that qualify? Up until recently, I thought I knew until my own airsoft team began to have problems.

I have come to the conclusion that what makes an airsoft team 'great'.. is communication. I'm not talking about radio's or hand signals.. I am talking about just plain old conversations and talking with each other. The way it used to be, the way it always was. Like true friends.. not a bunch of people that want to prove that they are better than the other person. So lean back and take a trip through my mind as I attempt to discuss what 'I' think makes a great airsoft team.

September 5th, 2004.. The birth of my airsoft team. It was a bunch of strangers that had one thing in common and that was airsoft. A few people knew each other but for the most part, we all had met for the first time. We all shook hands, sizing each other up. Is this guy a good player? Does he take airsoft as serious as I do? Am I going be making a big mistake by teaming up with these guys? These are just some of the questions that went through our heads. After sitting down with them and discussing what 'I' was looking to get out of the team, each person voiced what they thought the team should stand for.

In the first months, we hit airsoft hard. We trained or played an airsoft game every week. It was a blast. We'd all show off our new gear, new weapons and brag about the last kill we made and how cool it was. We began to get people interested in the team and started to allow people to 'recruit' the team. We had set a standard of what they needed to own in order to be on the team as well as a 'basic' tactical ability. Many of the first recruits stated that our airsoft team was one of the most 'demanding' and 'organized' team in the area and that was one of the reasons they wanted to join.

Over the next few months.. our 'demands' were getting harder and more intense. We 'required' that in order for you to even have a 'chance' for the team.. you had to be as good a player as we 'thought' we were. Our airsoft team had become known for it's tactical ability and 'hardcore' training techniques. We couldn't just let any person on to the team... NO.. they had to be one of the 'best' in the sport.

Fast forward to a month ago... Our team now had become so 'drunk' on our own vanity, that certain members actually believed that we were untouchable. I honestly don't know where this came from. It seemed as if a few members felt that they were 'so good' that they didn't need to have meetings or training anymore.. so they would just disappear and show up at the games when they wanted to. No longer was anyone calling up the other members to discuss the next airsoft purchase. No longer were we hanging out and bragging about our latest airsoft kills. Basically in a nut shell, we were not talking anymore..

ALTHOUGH.. some members were talking with other members and some of those members were talking with other players about starting up their own 'groups'. I'm not going to say 'team'.. because I don't know if that was a topic or not. What I can be pretty sure of is this... Whatever they were talking about, was not being discussed with the rest of the team.

So, let's pretend that these 'team members' felt that we need to 'expand' to other fields.. or play with other groups that we have never played with before. Let's imagine for a moment that they were talking with these 'other' players about what is going wrong with their 'current' team. We'll say.. they thought that the team was getting soft.. or the games were getting boring.. we'll just throw that onto the table. The fact of the matter.. what ever they 'thought' was wrong.. was never communicated to the rest of the team.

A few members on the team had noticed that there was something 'different' about the team. We never got together for meetings. Hardly ever had 4 hour trainings like we used to. We'd be lucky if we could get 50% or more of the team together to train for an hour. So a meeting was called to discuss the problem. The main topic of the meeting.. was to discuss why members weren't showing up at the meetings. Well.. as you may have guessed by now.. less than 1/2 the members showed up for the meeting.

During the meeting.. we discussed what we thought was wrong. It was a very productive meeting. We laid out all of the problems that we thought the team was having and went through each one and discussed a solution to fixing the problem. We were communicating our problems and through that communication we came to a common solution to fix each problem.

Well, apparently the solutions that the team had come up with, were not acceptable to many of the members that did not show. So they quit the team. They gave their reasons and left. Now, only one of those members that quit.. actually explained why he opted to quit the team.. for reasons he believed in. This was accepted by the remaining members of the team and we moved on.

Now.. what does the above story have to do with communication? Simple, if the members that were having or noticing problems would have communicated with the other members and discussed these problems.. there would have been no reason for the 'meeting' to begin with. What happened was that members that were having doubts or problems with the way things were going, did not say anything. So this meant that the other members of the team didn't know that it was a problem.

An example would be.. let's say you're allergic to garlic. So you go over to your buddy's house to have dinner and he puts garlic in the mashed potatoes. That's the way 'he' likes them.. he thinks that they taste better that way. But you don't say anything... you don't COMMUNICATE with your friend to let him know that you are allergic. So, you eat the mashed potatoes and to your horror.. you find out that there is garlic in them. You break out in a great big rash and you have to spend the next few days indoors until it goes away.

Now.. who do you blame? Do you blame your friend for putting garlic in the potatoes? No.. you can't.. and if you did.. you're not really a friend. You did not communicate with your friend to tell him that you will have an allergic reaction to garlic.. so in turn.. he did not know not to put them in the potatoes.

So.. what makes a 'great' airsoft team? It's communication plain and simple. If each member of the team communicates with each other daily or at least when there is a problem or a concern.. they will be able to work it out as it comes. If they don't communicate.. all the little problems are going to compile into bigger problems and before you know it.. you'll be calling a 'meeting' to discuss the problem.

Tactics and skill come second to a well working team. If every person on the team can work together.. can problem solve together.. they can honestly call them selves a 'great' team.. because they are working together as a team. If they don't communicate with each other.. and don't work together.. they really can't call themselves a team. And if you can't call yourselves a team, you'll never be a 'great' team.

Some people may disagree with me and say that what makes a 'great' team is skill or tactics or game frequency or whatever.. but again.. how can you call your team 'great'.. when you are not working together as a team.. and you can't work together.. without communication.

I have seen all types of ‘clubs’ and ‘teams’ start and then fail in the first couple of days and within the first month. I am going to attempt to give you some of my insight into making an airsoft team work. I will be using my experience of joining, little league baseball teams, soccer teams, truck and car clubs, racing teams, starting a business and my current membership to my airsoft team 858 Quick Response Team – aka 858QRT. Now before everyone gets all huffy and puffy about what I am about to say, this is from my personal experience of what I have seen work and not work. Other teams can and will work in different ways, but this is how I have HELPED to successfully start an airsoft team.

First thing, notice how I said “HELPED”. The reason that I say that is even though I ‘technically’ started the team and got the ball running. It was not me that ‘made’ the team what it is. All I did was to set the initial guidelines and when we had our first ‘meeting’.. I went over all of them with each person and we discussed whether or not the guidelines I set would work. If they didn’t work, we changed them. If we couldn’t change them, we got rid of them. Remember the old saying..”There is no ‘I’ in TEAM..”?. Well that is true IN EVERY ASPECT of the saying.

So what I am going to start out talking about is the ‘leader’ of the team. Yes, you have to have someone that ‘can’ take charge of the team but is not ‘always in charge’ of the team. You see, people are going to disagree. If nobody has a say in the way a team operates, then the team WILL fail and it most likely will fail quickly. 858QRT does not have a chain of command. This is one of the very first things that we had discussed when we formed the team. I came out and stated, “Yes, I initially formed this team.. but it is NOT ‘MY’ team by any means. I am NOT the captain or leader or Commanding officer of this team.” I did this so that the other members knew that I was not trying to ‘make’ them do anything a certain way. My tactics and techniques may not be the way that they are used to playing. So if I were to push the issue and be like, “My way or the highway” then I wouldn’t be a part of the infamous QRT.

Too many people think that there ‘has’ to be a leader or captain of the team. Truth is yes, there will always be someone that ends up taking more of a directors role on the team and that is good. But as soon as that person claims to be the ‘Commanding officer’ then you run into problems. Either one, everyone that follows the ‘Commanding officer’ has absolutely no leadership qualities and just follows because they don’t know what else to do or two, people within the team begin to disagree with the ‘Commanding officer’ and start to plan a ‘coup d'état’. In case you don’t know what that is.. it is an over throwing of a government. Or in this case an airsoft team.

Another thing about ‘leaders’ or Commanding officers is that if they just happened to ‘quit’ or move on.. where does that leave all of his faithful subjects? Well, I’ll tell you where it leaves them, standing on the side of the field with their thumbs up their… well you get the picture. So first things first, it is not always a good idea to have a Commanding officer on an airsoft team. AT LEAST not at the beginning. As time goes on and you gain more members, you can start discussing team ranking and officers and so on and so forth. But even then, it should be via TEAM VOTING. In other words.. one guy shouldn’t just stand up and say..”Okay.. I’m team leader commanding officer.. start doing what I say.” Because I’ll tell you that if I were put into that situation, I would tell the guy to pound sand and walk off the team.

Remember this simple phrase..”How do you expect them to follow you.. if they don’t respect you?”

A team is only as good as it’s worst player. Yes.. let me say that again, A TEAM IS ONLY AS GOOD AS IT’S WORST PLAYER. Very similar to the phrase, “A chain is only as strong as it’s weakest link.” This is something that is addressed by 858QRT EVERY SINGLE meeting and training session. Say for instance you want to start an airsoft team and you are an EX-Army Ranger. Well, yeah.. you have skills but what about your teammates? If you allow people to just join your team and they have no skills.. then it makes no difference on what you know. When you get shot out, your team will only play as good as the next best player.

858QRT has VERY strict qualification levels. If you are not up to par with what the team requires of you, you will not make it onto the team. I’m not going to get into the specifics of what we require but I will say that you may ‘think’ you are the cream of the crop, but if you can’t ‘keep up’ with the rest of the team, you will not make the cut.

This brings us to training. 858 Quick Response Team trains EVERY WEEK that we don’t have a game. Why? Because we want to learn new tactics, brush up on the ones we know and figure out what went wrong at the last game. Every other training is a classroom session. Again, I am not going to tell you what we train on or discuss, but I’ll give you a general idea.

An airsoft team needs to be able to work with each other. They need to know what each member is going to do without having to ask or tell them. This is going to make the team that much more effective in a fire fight. Just imagine all of the wasted time you spend each game, by telling a teammate that he or she needs to “Go that way around the hill” or “Hey.. who’s watching our 6?”. Train together and you will fight together. That is another strong point of what is going to keep a team together. As I stated above, a team is only as good as it’s worst player.

Test, how many of you have played with a group of people, teammates or otherwise, that have been completely on a different page then you? I have and it sucks. Okay, here is a little story. 858QRT went out to a RAID game (Roughnecks Airsoft Infantry Detachment). The first game.. we were teamed up with a group of guys that we had never played with. When we met up with them, we asked them what radio channel they were on and they didn’t want to tell us. We told them that we (which outnumbered them by 2 to 1) were on channel 3-3. We told them that it would be best if they switched to our channel so that we could communicate. They ‘reluctantly’ did and we proceeded to ask them what their plan was. They told us.. “Well we’re going to go over here and wait for them to come up the trail and when they do, we are going to shoot them.”. I asked, “I think we should stick together though, because we are the first check point and we are going to have the entire team (about 40 people) bearing down on us. They responded with, “NO… we know what we’re doing”. So I asked, “Okay.. what if they don’t come up that way? What if they flank you? What if they get past you?”.. They said..”Oh.. they won’t”… I said, “What if they do?”... “They won’t” and walked away.

So we went our way and proceeded to put together our battle strategy AND contingency plan. After the game started, we proceeded to give radio communication and inform the rest of the USFOR of enemy location. We were told by our ‘other’ team.. “Okay fine… NOW KEEP THIS CHANNEL CLEAR.”. That was the last we heard of them. So as the fight proceeds.. OPFOR was coming up on checkpoint 1… FAST. A few of QRT fell back into position to receive some serious incoming fire. But I had noticed that the guys that had such a great position hadn’t taken a shot. We had OPFOR EVERYWHERE and these 4 guys thought they could take out everyone? Anyway, to make a long story short, ‘their’ plan was completely ineffective. I am pretty sure that they were taken out pretty quick considering that OPFOR came out of the bush right where they were ‘suppose’ to be. Either that or they ran away like a bunch of chickens.

So, what does that have to do with team work? Well, at the time that checkpoint 1 was overrun, we still had a good amount of our force, we just didn’t couldn’t hold the check point. We had given current and accurate intel on OPFOR position to the JOC and ultimately USFOR were able to recapture CP1. Even though QRT was overrun, we worked as a team by relaying intel to not only JOC but to each other which helped us to stay alive a bit longer.

Staying alive longer has a lot to do with your equipment. Realize that if you start an airsoft team with the “Only this type of gun allowed” mentality then you are blocking yourself from a lot of advancement. I am not going to get into the ‘types’ of team styles because everyone has their thing. What I will say is that when you start a team, think of where you want it to be. For instance, if you start a team that only allows sniper rifles that shoot at 500+ FPS.. chances are that you may not be playing a lot of games with other teams. Especially if they have FPS limits. So the point of this paragraph is.. think about what and where you want your team to be once it gets started.

The next thing that I want to touch up on is again about equipment, but in a different light. 858QRT has strict requirements on what gear you MUST have in order to be on the team. These requirements were put in place because we wanted a uniformed look. In addition to having a general ‘uniform’ we also did it so that we could ‘weed out’ the non-serious players. For instance, QRT requires that you have spare magazines for your AEG. Why? Well, one we train on mag changes but in addition, we don’t want to be advancing on a bunker and have one of our guys be like..”UH… I’m out of ammo.. .hold on”. NO.. Change your mag and move on.

Anyway, when you start up your airsoft team, figure out what ‘minimum gear’ requirements you will have. At your first meeting, you and the other members can figure out if that is too much or not enough.

Communication is a key point to the survival of any team. Not just airsoft but for anything. Let’s take baseball, for a moment let’s pretend that they didn’t have the hand signal between the catcher and the pitcher. So when the pitcher threw the ball, the catcher would have to ‘hope’ that he can pick up on it to catch the ball. Otherwise there will be a loose ball and the opportunity for a runner to steal a base. Same thing applies with an airsoft team. You have to communicate with each other. Now, I’m not talking during games.. I am talking in general. For instance, 858QRT has a special section on the 858airsoft.com forums where we talk about upcoming games, training dates, team issues and more. It helps to keep our team closer together to know what is going on. Now ‘obviously’ not every team can have a website or a forum, but if you are reading this, you OBVIOUSLY have a computer. Hold team discussions on other peoples forums, chat rooms, instant messengers, etc. There is no excuse.. and since 858airsoft.com forums ALLOW for teams to ‘chat’ on their forum.. YOU DEFINITELY don’t have an excuse.

Non airsoft related events. From time to time, people are going to get tired of doing the same thing over and over. This is true about a lot of things, food, cars, video games and everything in between. In order to have a ‘tight knit’ airsoft team, you have to all get along, even when you are not playing airsoft. 858QRT is more like a family then it is an airsoft team. That is because we get together to do other things other than airsoft. I’m not going to get into what it is that we do.. because it will be different for every team. Just get out and do something as a TEAM… anything.

The last thing that I want to talk about is team numbers. Don’t try to get too big too fast. If you start with a large team, you are asking for nothing but trouble. Hardly anyone will agree and if you have someone stand up and say.. “Okay.. it’s going to be like this..” then a lot of people will disagree and the team will be over even before it started. So start small and get your team priorities squared away first. Then once your foundation has been set, start letting in members and you will be able to accept or deny people on their skills and teamwork.

So now that you have read through my short story novel.. let me break it down into a small list of things that I believe will help you when starting up a new airsoft team.

1. Don’t assign a Commanding officer… at least not in the beginning.
2. Set a training/meeting schedule and stick to it
3. Figure out what you want to your team to emulate and follow that to it’s extreme.
4. Look into the future and figure out if you team ‘style’ will keep you from advancing.
5. Communicate with each other on all levels. After the game, you still need to be friends.
6. Don’t start too big. If you do, it will be over before it starts.
7. Get together as much as you can. The only time you see your teammates SHOULDN’T BE only at the games.
8. Train together… fight together.


Remember the phrase…”A team is only as good as it’s worst player”..

Alright, here's a topic I hope hits home with everyone. Guys please read this entirely. This is for both the noob and the aging vet: I am not exactly sure how to address this but seriously guys, call your hits. Bascilly it boils right down to respect, and it very frustrating and down right just bad sportsmanship not too. I was talking with a few guys from the Night Game and they were getting a little ticked at guys not calling their hits, even though they knew they hit you, there is nothing worse. This year marks my 2nd year playing with the boys over in Sask and let me tell you, there is nothing more important than first impressions. I can't stress this enough, but there would be no way I could have lasted as long as I have out here if I didn't play honestly. Please guys, call your hits, it not only tells that you are dishonest but it gives us a glimpse of your character, and we will seriously rethink about asking you to come play again. So here's an article I dug up, hope you all read through this, it is really important. [I vouch for a new club rule: If you don't call your hits, your done, like go home!]

Why calling your hits is so important...

If you about to enter the sport of airsoft, one of the most frequently asked questions is, "How do you know when your hit?" Well simple, you will either feel the bb impact or you will hear it. It is a game of honor. That is why when you play airsoft for the most part you can count on your opponents and teammates to be a higher caliber of person in general. Yes, there are the handfuls of people that will not call their hits but don’t worry because these are also the same people that will not be invited back to any ‘organized’ airsoft game.

When you get shot, it means that somehow your opponent was able to sight you and make the shot. Whether the shot was ‘luck’ or precision sniping is of not consequence in this write up. What we are talking about is why it is important to call your hit.

If you don’t call your hit, how do you expect to ever advance in your skill level? Better yet, why would you want your opponent to continue shooting at you? So let’s address the first question. The entire reason of calling your hit is so you can find out what does and doesn’t work. If you advanced to a group of trees that you had thought was going to be ample cover, but then when you got there you found out that the other side of the trees was wide open, you can chalk that up as ‘not’ a good position. Now, if your opposition were to shoot you while you were in those trees or were to completely suppress your position you can learn from that by knowing that you shouldn’t just ‘rush’ for a position unless you knew it was a secure location. But, if you don’t call your hit then you didn’t learn that that particular type of position was a potential death trap.

Moving on to the second question, we’ll use the same trees. Now let’s assume that your opposition is firing a weapon that is 450fps. He is 30 feet away, which is close enough to break skin. Now, you rush for the trees, he sees you and fires. He hits you and it hurts, you know it does. But for some reason, you don’t call your hit. Your opponent, now wondering why he couldn’t hit you the first time, lays into you on full automatic. Each time connecting his 450 fps .25g bb’s with your body. Yet, you still don’t call your hit. So, if your opponent was anything like me and he knew you were hit but not calling them, he is going to start aiming for your face. At the same time, He is going to start advancing on your position. All the while, calling in support from his team members who have now started to unload on your position. So now, because you didn’t call your first hit, you have made it so that the only option is for the entire OPFOR to bear down on your position in full automatic fire, aiming for your face mind you and to continue shooting you until you call your hit.

Now, you may think that this is a bit harsh, but the harsh reality of this is that, if you were ‘really’ shot by a ‘real’ bullet, you wouldn’t have the option to call your hit or not. So by not calling your hit, you have cheated yourself into thinking that the trees are good cover. If you are playing airsoft, you are emulating some type of tactical unit. Whether or not it is SWAT, Delta, SEALS, Rangers or whatever, doesn’t matter. What does matter is that if you are going to cheat, by not calling your hits, you are NOT emulating anyone and you had might as well just give up on the sport of airsoft all together. If you don’t give up, what will happen is that people will begin to tell other players that you are not calling your hits. Well when this happens, you are almost guaranteed that you will no longer have anyone to play against. If you have been branded as a cheater no one wants to even waste his or her time inviting you out to a game. Because they know that when they shoot you, that you will not call yourself out.

Personally, I am not the type to call someone else’s hit. If they don’t register the hit, maybe I didn’t shoot them, but if I know for a fact that I made the kill and they still don’t call themselves out, I will continue to shoot them and I will be aiming for their face. With each connecting shot, I will become more and more pissed off. The more I get pissed off, the more I want to see you bleed…

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1... Okay I’m calm again. Now, I’ve always said, “If it didn’t work for him, it won’t work for you”. Another reason to call your hits. For instance, you advance to a position and get shot but don’t call your hit. Then you tell your teammate to rally up at your position. He gets shot, but he is an honest player so he calls his hit. Now you’re down a man and you request two more members to your position. They get shot and again being honest players they call their hits. So you have one guy left as support, you call him in. You need him at your position because you’re about to make the ‘RAMBO RUN’. So he rally’s’ up and gets shot and being that he’s honest he calls his hit. So..... Congratulations Rambo, you just killed your entire team simply because you didn’t think that ‘anyone would know’ if you cheated.

Another lesson to learn about calling your hits is that you are showing respect to your opponent. You are acknowledging his or her skills in being able to sight you and make the shot. This allows your opponent to advance in his or her skill level by knowing what ‘they did’ does or doesn’t work. So by you calling your hit, they can get on with the rest of the game and proceed to the objective. Now, if you don’t call your hit, you are basically saying, "Yeah you got skills, but I am Rambo and I don’t need to practice". It is basically a slap in the face to your opponent. So when you are an honest player that calls his or her hits, it builds respect for you as a player because you become known as an honest player and one that people will want to play against in the future.