Ryan Greenspan Q&A Interview

Ryan Greenspan was nice enough to answer some questions for us in the lead up to the Clinic this weekend. It certainly gives a great insight as to the approach Ryan takes to training and the sport and only makes me more excited to see how it all goes on the weekend. Remember, there is still time to register

How important is fitness to compete at the top level in paintball? What does your fitness training consist of?

It is not extremely important to be able to compete at the top level, but it certainly helps to give you an edge.  I know plenty of players who don’t care about what they eat.  I don’t think Alex Fraige has exercised in over a decade.  With that said, i am active nearly every day, unless I am on a flight that takes up a full day.  I eat clean and healthy when i am home and I try my hardest to eat well on the road.  in the summer I swim every day.  In the spring and fall I surf a lot and several times a month I do sprints to stay quick

What are some of your favourite exercises for explosive moves? 

Hill sprints are the absolute best for explosiveness.

What era of paintball was his favourite? And/or what was your favourite tournament format? 

I do really enjoy the race to format that we are in at the moment. I am not a huge fan of 15bps, but I do like unlimited paint.  7-man events were really fun also because of the strategy involved, but I do think that this is some of the best paintball being played skill wise.

Do you think tournaments should go to limited paint format? 

I like the idea, sorta. But I don’t see it really helping the teams like the leagues said it would. It does promote movement, kinda

Is there ever any talks about pro players signing contracts like other professional sports? 

I wish!

What’s the most important thing to do when in a low body situation (1v3, 2v5, etc)

1v3, good luck! try isolating the single player and try to be aggressive.  Don’t get a penalty.  2v5 cross up and try to whittle the other team down as much as you can.  If you are up on points, grind down the clock.  If you are down on points, then attack.

What was your favorite match you ever played in? How about watched? 

I can’t even remember at this point, you guys would have to tell me to be honest! As far as watching, there have been a lot of great matches against teams like infamous and Heat and impact.  I am going to let you guys choose that for me!

How did you first get into paintball, how do we get more people into the sport? 

I started with some friends at a local field and then played a lot in my backyard.  I think the important thing is to make sure that every new player and existing player has a good experience.  I think that a good experience will translate to more people talking about paintball and playing paintball.  Another thing that will help the experience of new players is decent paint.  We can’t have field operators sacrificing the quality of paint for a few bucks on their bottom line. I think having brightly colored paintballs and fill greatly increases the experience of the rec ball player.  If they shoot crooked brown shell shit with grey milky  fill then they have no clue what is going on out there.

A lot of reasons have been given trying to explain the reduction in paintball participation from where it was 10+ years ago. What do you think? 

I don’t think paintball is dying at all.  I think recball is going very well and i think some tournament players aren’t spending as much money as they used to, but that has to do to a lack of innovation in the products they’re buying.  I think the cost of paintball has gone down a lot in the last 10 years, but so have the margins within the industry due to competitiveness.  I have discussed this a lot and it is hard to figure out…