Visible Arm Bands

I find at the games I've been to the arm bands that one of the two teams (or both teams) are wearing are very hard to see. In a few cases players had rolled up sleeves and the arm bands weren't visible at all. Has anyone thought about using wider tape or arm bands to make it easier to see which team a player is on? As a newer player just getting to know many of you it is hard to recognize people as being on your team or the other. Just my 2 cents, what do you guys think?

http://www.identi-tape.com/vinylthree.htm

I find at the games I've been to the arm bands that one of the two teams (or both teams) are wearing are very hard to see. In a few cases players had rolled up sleeves and the arm bands weren't visible at all. Has anyone thought about using wider tape or arm bands to make it easier to see which team a player is on? As a newer player just getting to know many of you it is hard to recognize people as being on your team or the other. Just my 2 cents, what do you guys think?

The giant can of worms has been reopened. Someone could write a book on the history of the arm band issue in the lower mainland airsoft scene.

there has been many discussions in regards to this. Personally im not a fan of colored armbands but i understand why they are used.

what we need to drill into people is if you are unsure of your target, dont shoot. the reason we have radio's is to be aware of the field and know where friendlies and enemies are.

personally, i think having a 6'' piece of marking tape tied to the side of your goggles would work great. Its not sticky and its highly visible.

the problem with putting tape on your arm is that your sleeve gets folded and twisted and it does hide the tape.

even if someone is playing peek a boo with you from around a tree it will still be easy to see a piece of marking tape on the side of their eye protection.

thats my 2c

[Tjfast]

ive always been a fan of it, as long as both teams, or all teams have them.

Milsims -- another story....

TJFast pretty much said my thoughts. But alot of the guys and myself included will say this. Before you take your first step in the game, and your entire team is gathered at the starting point, study them. Study what pattern they're wearing, what primary they're using, what kind of gear they're wearing, and any noticable features (i.e. helmets, shemaghs, a primary strapped to their back, etc). Get a general idea of what your teammates look like. Also, Admins usually split teams by camo patterns. Take a sharpie and write on your arm what patterns are on your team (i.e. multicam, marpat, cadpat, acu, pmc, etc). You'd be suprised how much a little observation can go.

Before you take your first step in the game, and your entire team is gathered at the starting point, study them. Study what pattern they're wearing, what primary they're using, what kind of gear they're wearing, and any noticable features (i.e. helmets, shemaghs, a primary strapped to their back, etc). Get a general idea of what your teammates look like. Also, Admins usually split teams by camo patterns. Take a sharpie and write on your arm what patterns are on your team (i.e. multicam, marpat, cadpat, acu, pmc, etc). You'd be suprised how much a little observation can go.

+1

+1 loops, almost knife fights over the debate

for me proof is in the puddin! we wear arm bands now and still have friendly fire kills all the time, as much as we preach about observation and radio comms, too many guys struggle to just get by on the basics week in and week out ie: kill rags, barrel condoms and radios?

hell last game I was shot twice while walking out kill rag on and saying "dead man walking" ???!!!

nope, for me the louder the tape the better, matter of fact I have found when we use the colored ribbon tied around our arms with a 3-4in tail on it works well for the rolled up sleeve issue also.

[Claymore]

OH boy Who opened the barn door ? As some of the experienced players have mentioned observation, observation, observation. when I started playing the clubs were not using tape at all. As a newbie you had to LEARN how to Identify who was on the other team by playing on a regular basis (HINT, HINT ) and beening shot enough times, that you remember who you are playing with and against. But it can work against you too. On the weekend @ MRTMS I hesitated too long to pull the trigger on Mav because I recognized his movement and silhouette I know it was Mav and we are always on the same team... but not on Sunday he shot me the bastard . Most newbies just shoot at any thing that moves and until they are embarrassed enough time'S of shooting their own plays they start paying attention. That just part of the game .

The last two week I have been taping the arms with a crisscross pattern with the tape if some of you may of noticed.
It helps the situation of the tape in the bend of the elbow or rolled up sleeves.

Now when whoever is taping up the teams make sure that the tape is crisscrossed. Try that for now on. Lets see if that works better for lazy players

I'll check my sight, Shoot you later

Wow I really did open a can of worms! Lol, sorry guys :p

Personally I'd actually prefer if we divided up teams by camo patterns, takes more thought and observation (and a bit of knowledge about camo patterns), but it's a lot better than guessing. Obviously this creates other issues with team balancing since most players can't just throw on different camo in a few seconds.

That being said, now that I've played a few times I recognize many players and if I know they aren't on my team at the start I can distinguish their movements or shape in the distance. I realize that this is what some of you are eluding to, but I worry that we may scare off some newer players who are on the fence if they come out for one game and end up team killing over and over. The criss cross arm band sounds like a decent easy solution though, also would be nice if it's on both arms and if both teams have to wear them.

With so many camo patterns its getting almost impossible to divide teams on camo alone. I have at least 6 camo different sets of it for airsoft alone. If you dont have some or are getting another set look back on how we divide teams and base it on who you want to play with.
Most common are light colors like multicam or vegetato, and darker like woodland.