Paintball in SEA Games?

Recently, someone asked me if I have spoken to anyone from the Singapore Sports School about promoting paintball in the school. When faced with this question, I felt amused and helpless. With a few years of working experience in sports development, I have worked with people from the Singapore Sports Council, Singapore Sports School and several sporting associations and I kinda knew where this conversation will be going... nothing...

To find a footing for a new sport in Singapore is one of the toughest thing that can ever happened in this part of the world.

A few years ago when a student first approached my department about starting a Bossaball interest group in the school... 2 thoughts came to my mind: "What is Bossaball?" and "Who plays this game?" Then there were other considerations: 1) How big is the Bossaball community in Singapore? 2) What are the resources that are needed? 3) How much money does this sport need? 4) How can Bossaball contribute to school sports? 5) How "huge" is Bossaball interationally? When we compared Bossball with paintball... I do see a few similarities. No offence to the Bossaball people, I think you guys are doing a good job introducing this sports to Singaporeans. But seriously, how has it been so far? The same is for paintball...

The typical Singaporean will understand that unless we stand a good chance of winning some medals in the world stage, we might not want to "pump in" resources into the development. Surely we understand the reasons behind supporting these core sports (swimming, table tennis, bowling, sailing, athletics (1.2 MILLION!!!))... these are the medal winning sports and yes, we should concentrate on what we do best! But I am also urging the good people of the Singapore Sports Council to embrace other sports... and paintball is one of those.

This year, there are 7 Singapore based teams who participated in the recent World Cup Asia as compared to 2 teams in 2008 and only 1 team in 2007 so surely the numbers are growing... and we are not even counting the number of teams who want to be there but couldn't due to travel expenses. We don't need 1.2 million dollars to kick start paintball in Singapore... and $3000 is definitely too little. Singapore teams have proven time and again that with proper resources, a review of current firearms law and support from relevant parties, we can bring back the medals!

With sports such as dancesports, woodball, ice hockey, contract bridge, bowls, Muay Thai, pickleball and powerboat recognized as a National Sports Association, I am sure paintball as a sport (not recreational) will surely fit the bill and we are talking about a team sport which require players to possess agility, quick decision making skills, teamwork, speed and accuracy. People from different gender and ages (14 years old and above by Singapore Police Force regulations) can participate in paintball. You can pit a 14 years old student to play against a 45 years old man and the results can go either way!!! You can pit a female player against a male player and yes the results can go either way too!!! To the good people who are behind sports development in Singapore, please have an open mind towards the game... and yes, we have helped ourselves since 2007 and its about time...

Okay, will paintball in Singapore be as popular as Malaysia? Most probably not... We do not have available Datuks or Sultans who are ready to support the game just for the reason of community building. Just look across the straits... and the number of tournaments, that's what I call support! But again, Singapore and Malaysia are 2 different countries. Will paintball be in the SEA games? That's possible... when Malaysia host their next SEA games... Big bosses of the paintball industry, if you are reading this, please MAKE IT HAPPEN! Medal contention is indeed promising...