Paintball Math Tools
This page is a collection of small calculators for a tournament paintball field. You type in simple things you can measure on the ground (how far, how fast, which point on the field), and the tools turn those into rough timing and distance numbers. The page does the hard work in the background so you can just read the outputs.
Everything here is based on very simple, straight-line models: players are treated like they move at a steady speed, and balls are treated like they come out of the marker at a steady speed. Real games are messier than this. Use these numbers to understand the shape of a play, not as a promise of what will happen.
This is an independent educational reference. It is not a rulebook, coaching guide, or safety standard. Always follow league rules, field staff directions, and local safety requirements first.
1. Core Settings Used by Every Tool
These are the basic dials that control how every calculator on this page thinks about the field. Once you set them, all the tools below share the same assumptions, so your timing and distance numbers stay consistent from one section to the next.
There are three main settings:
1) What units you want to work in, feet or metres.
2) About how fast paintballs are allowed to leave the marker at your field.
3) About how fast a player can sprint in a straight line at the start of a point.
Units
Pick the set of measurements that matches the way you actually measure your field tape. The tools will adjust everything for you.
You can switch at any time. When you change units, the page converts the speeds for you so the meaning stays the same.
This is the field-legal marker speed along the ball's path. Many fields cap somewhere around 280–300 ft/s. Check your local limit and type in a number that matches it. The higher this number, the shorter the ball flight time will be in every tool.
This is the steady "running speed" the tools use whenever a player is moving in a straight line. It does not try to capture every step, slowdown, or slide. If you want to see how things change for faster or slower players, adjust this number and watch how the times below update.
Gravity used: 32.174 ft/s². Here it is only used in the ball flight tool and only in a very clean, simple way (no air slowing the ball down). Real paintballs drop more and slow down sooner than this model shows, so treat those numbers as "best case" estimates.
2. Measuring Distances on a Paintball Field
This tool answers a basic question: "How far apart are these two points on the field?" You imagine the field as a simple grid, pick two spots, and the tool tells you how far apart they are in a straight line.
Example uses:
- Distance from your start box to a bunker.
- Distance from your back bunker to a point where a front player is expected to dive in.
- Distance between two bunkers that shoot at each other across a lane.
You do not need perfect numbers. Rough field measurements are fine. The tools are meant for planning, not for millimetre-accurate aiming.
Distance results
- Δx (side-to-side separation)
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- Δy (upfield/downfield separation)
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- Straight-line distance
- Enter all coordinates
The straight-line distance is "how far a string would be" if you stretched it tightly from Point A to Point B. It ignores bunkers, ground shape, and the path the player actually takes. It is just the clean separation between the two spots on the grid.
3. How Long Does This Run Take?
This tool takes a distance along a player's path and turns it into a simple travel time using the sprint speed you set above. It is basically asking, "If a player can move about this fast, how many seconds do they spend covering this distance?"
This is most useful when you want to know roughly when a player reaches a certain point on the field, or how long they are exposed while crossing a gap.
This is the distance along the path you care about, such as "start box to this bunker" or "start of a move to the end of an open gap." You do not need to break it into side-to-side and upfield pieces; just give the combined path length you want to analyse.
Time result
- Estimated travel time
- Enter distance and a non-zero speed
The tool treats the player like they instantly get up to their running speed and stay there. Real players speed up, slow down, and slide. In real life, actual times will often be slightly longer than these simple estimates, especially if there is any dodging, bumping, or poor footing.
4. Off-the-Break Lanes and "Dead Paint"
This tool lets you study a very specific moment on the break: one runner leaving the start box, one lane from a back player, and one spot where those two could cross. You tell the tool how far the runner travels to that spot, how far the ball travels to the same spot, and how long of a "danger zone" you care about around that point. The tool then tells you when everything lines up.
The goal here is not to tell anyone where to shoot. It is only to answer questions like:
- How long does it take the runner to reach this intersection point?
- How long does it take a ball to reach that same point once it is fired?
- If there is a short "danger zone" around that point, during which times does paint actually overlap that zone?
The kill zone length is the stretch of the runner's path where you care about overlapping paint. For example, it might be the short space where they are most exposed while standing up or diving. If you put in zero, the tool acts as if you only care about one exact spot with no extra room on either side.
Timing results
Fill in the runner distance, ball path distance, and (if you want) a kill zone length. The tool will then show when the runner and the paint are at the same place and how long there is any overlap.
How to read this:
- Runner arrival at intersection is when the runner's center reaches the chosen crossing point.
- Ball flight time to intersection is how long it takes any one ball to reach that point after it leaves the marker.
- Center-of-zone shot time is when a single shot would need to be fired so that the ball and runner arrive at the center of the zone at the same moment.
- The useful window shows the range of times when continuous shooting could overlap the chosen kill zone. Shots outside that range are "dead paint" for that specific zone, because by the time they get there the runner hasn't arrived yet or is already gone.
- If the whole window is before zero, the model says the only way to cover that zone would be to have paint in the air before the point starts, which is not allowed in real games.
5. Bunker-to-Bunker Kill Corridors
This tool looks at a player running through a straight "window" between two bunkers. You tell it how long that window is along the path the player runs, and it tells you how long the player is inside that window.
You can think of the corridor as the slice of ground where a lane is open and the player can be hit. It does not matter how far away the shooting bunker is for this tool; we only care how long the runner spends inside that slice.
Imagine drawing two lines on the ground: one at the start of the open gap and one at the end. The corridor length is the distance between those two lines along the player's path. When the player crosses from one line to the other, we say they have left the corridor.
Exposure result
- Time inside kill corridor
- Enter a corridor length and non-zero speed
The number here is "how long the player is in danger" if they move at the steady sprint speed you set at the top. In a real game they might slow down, stop, or slide, which would increase that time. Again, treat this as a clean baseline, not as a promise.
6. Ball Flight: Time, Drop, and "Can the Ball Even Reach This Far?"
This tool looks at one clean shot to a single point and asks:
- How long is the ball in the air?
- How far does it fall during that time if you shot flat?
- What is the furthest possible distance a ball could travel in this simple model, if you tilted the marker at a good angle?
The model used here is very clean on purpose. It pretends there is no air slowing the ball down and no wobble. Real paintballs slow down and drop more than this. So if the tool says something is just barely "possible," that does not mean it is realistic in an actual game.
This is the straight distance from the barrel to the point you care about, as if you drew a tight line between them. It is not the full field length, just the distance for this one shot. For a flat shot at the same height, the tool shows how much the ball would fall during that time in this simplified model.
Flight & drop results (idealized)
Enter a shot distance and marker speed to see how long the ball is in the air, how far it falls in this simplified model, and what the clean "best case" maximum range would be.
If your requested distance is bigger than the idealized maximum range, the tool is telling you that even in this perfect no-drag world there would be no way to reach that far. In the real world, the practical range is shorter than this because air slows the ball down and paint is not perfect.
7. Long Shots and Leading Moving Targets
This tool helps you think about a moving opponent at a distance. Instead of trying to treat this like a video game, it simply answers:
- How long is the ball in the air to that target distance?
- How fast is the opponent moving sideways relative to your line of fire?
- If they keep moving steadily, how far along their path would they travel during that ball's flight time?
That last number is the "lead" distance: how far ahead of where they are right now the ball needs to go, assuming they keep moving in the same direction at the same speed. The tool does not tell you where to shoot. It just shows you how motion and travel time fit together.
The angle tells the tool how much of the target's motion really matters for "leading." If they run directly across your field of view, that is a large angle (near 90°) and lead matters more. If they are running almost directly toward or away from you, the angle is small and sideways lead matters less.
Lead result (idealized)
Enter a distance to the target, a rough speed for how fast they are moving, and an angle that describes the direction. The tool will show how long the ball is in the air and how far the target could move in that time.
This model assumes a very clean world: the ball does not slow down, the target never changes direction or speed, and there is no spread in the paint. Real players cut, stop, and dodge, and real paint spreads and slows down. Use these outputs to understand the basic geometry of motion and timing, not as an aiming recipe.