Preparation: Half of the Battle

So instead of waking up to a day of airsofting, I woke up to a day of sickness and the flu so I decided to hang out in front of my computer screen writing a requested blog. “How do you prepare for an airsoft game?” I will tell you one key idea behind this. Being prepared will save you from a lot of potential headaches.

I have always been that “being on time is showing up ten minutes early” kind of dude. I hate feeling flustered and I hate being late. I love showing up early, being prepared and giving myself time to soak in the environment. Showing up prepared is beyond having everything ready on time; it is having everything ready with ample time and planning your approach to the day. I am not sure about you guys but when I get ready for airsoft, I have to plan an entire day around my event. An event that goes for six or more hours and that doesn’t include the two hour drive one way. That’s at least ten hours of airsoft related activity. That’s 62% of my waking day (assuming that I sleep a minimal eight hours). I prefer not to feel flustered or nervous about forgetting anything during that ten hour period. 

Here is an example of one of my packing lists (speedsofting packing list):
Click Here to Download

Before you keep reading, I want to note that the following is what I do. I don’t want to say you should do everything I do and in all honesty, it may be overkill but it’s important to look at this from a “what can I learn” perspective. You can come in close minded and tell yourself “yah… okay… this is pretty stupid” or you can come in open minded and ask yourself “why does he do that?”

My day technically starts the day before with preparation. I start off by charging my batteries and checking their integrity.  Older batteries will struggle with memory loss and holding a charge. Since I do use older batteries, I have to keep an eye on them. I make sure I have two fully charged batteries during the day. There’s nothing like ruining an entire day because of a bad battery or a lack of charge. I, then, go through my packing list. My packing list is a detailed listening of gear and “things” that I bring during an airsoft game. It is number coordinated with each item number on the list corresponding with a number on my tangible items. After that, I sit down and plan out my entire day. When do I have to wake up? When is the latest time I can leave and still make it on time? What time should I arrive? Etc, etc, etc.

As you can see, it’s not too bad. It’s all about preparation and planning ahead. It doesn’t take long (my routine takes roughly an hour) but it will save a lot of your headaches. I hope this helped!