How To Paintball

Paintball Gloves

Know what hurts more than just about anything else in paintball? Getting shot in the hands. As far as pain is concerned, it's a close second only to getting hit in the neck.

Even on the very first day you ever play the game, you should have a good pair of gloves. Wearing gloves in paintball is entirely optional, at least up until the moment you get shot in your exposed fingers or the back of your hand.

A good pair of gloves is one of the best investments you can make as you learn to play paintball. When it comes to your hand, there's not all that much meat between skin and bone. Therefore any amount of padding you can add down there is going to save you some very nasty bruises and welts.

Yet while getting gloves that are protective is a good thing, you also want them to be functional. Your hands need to be comfortable and free to move around unhindered. Gloves that are too big or thick will make it difficult or even impossible for you to pull the trigger of your paintball gun, creating a whole new subset of problems you don't need.

Most beginners or players new to the game of paintball don't immediately realize just how exposed your hands can be. Whenever you're firing your gun at an opponent from cover, he can see only a small fraction of your body and/or gun. But the one thing he can almost always see is your hands.

A pair like the JT Zephyr Gloves seen above are actually dirt cheap. For about twenty bucks, you're covering your hands with protective padding while looking cool and stylish.

To be honest, most gloves are pretty much the same; protection-wise, anyway. They'll all deflect or absorb the impact of even the fastest paintballs, saving you from a lot of hand-shaking, finger-cringing pain.

This leaves most paintball players do choose a glove based on look and style. And this is totally fine, because there are some really cool-looking and stylish gloves out there. Check these out:

Full-Fingered Gloves vs. Fingerless Paintball Gloves

The biggest differentiation in player preference is the fingered vs. non-fingered debate. There are a good number of paintball glove designs out there that have leave the lower half of the finger uncovered.

Honestly, it all depends on your gun. If you've got a very narrow or close trigger-guard, that makes it difficult to get your fingers in while gloved? You may want to switch to a fingerless glove. This would give you all the trigger-pulling freedom of wearing no gloves at all, while enjoying the same protection to the back of the hand.

Other players swear by full-fingered gloves. Because let's face it; you're just as likely to be shot in the lower part of your finger as you are in the upper.

Hell, some gloves even split the difference: they leave your two trigger fingers naked while covering the other two and thumb. These are known as '2 finger' paintball gloves.

You can check out more full and half-finger paintball glove designs at Amazon, below:

Other Paintball Protection & Playing Gear

Stepping onto the paintball field without proper equipment is like showing up to play baseball without a bat and a glove. Make sure you've got the bare minimum essentials, before jumping into a day of paintball.