How To Choose The Right Paintball Chest Protector

Paintball chest protectors are very popular with players of the sport nowadays.  They provide excellent and needed protection to a person's front and back, yet they have the added benefit of what is called the bounce advantage.  That means exactly what it sounds like it does.  Paintballs will really hit them and then bounce off without breaking.  Don't think that you don't need a paintball chest protector and that you'll just "tough it out".  Paintball is fun, but it can also hurt.

A youth paintball chest protector is made for children from around 9--14 years of age, and is designed to give protection from chest and back paintball shots.  Getting hit with a paintball shot at close range can cause welts and bruises, so it's especially important to protect youths from these dangers as they haven't yet developed the muscle strength of adults and thus are more vulnerable to injury.  

What constitutes a good adult paintball chest protector?  Well, there are many brands of paintball chest protectors to choose from.  One of the brands is called the Warrior Paintball Chest Protector.  It's promoted as a lightweight paintball chest protector, which has padding to provide a buffer to help shield you even from the worst paintball hits.  You wear it under your shirt and it's supposed to fit like a t-shirt with pads built into it.  There's padding on the chest, back, shoulders and arms.   While it's promoted as having heavy duty padding, there have been complaints that it doesn't have enough padding to make it a good paintball chest protector.

Another paintball chest protector is the Empire Paintball Chest Protector.  This type of paintball chest protector is said to be among the best.  Empire made the first padded shirt-like padding system, and they have years of experience behind them.  They also make the Empire Paintball Grind Chest Protector which has more extensive body protection.  It uses thermo-molded high density padding in the front and back, with lightweight padding in the chest, back and shoulders.  This makes it a paintball chest protector that offers extra protection where its needed the most.

While it's probably the most important piece of paintball protective gear you'll buy, a paintball chest protector isn't the only type of protective gear available.  There are neck protectors, elbow pads, tactical elbow pads, leg and knee protectors, sliding shorts and even helmets. 

In its own way the game of paintball is almost like being in the military, complete with the threat of real injury, which is why all this gear exists in the first place.   But it isn't a sport you have to be wary of.  It can also be lots of fun and exciting, you just have to be careful and take a few extra precautions.  In the end, when all is said and done the challenge and skill required for the sport are the things you'll have to worry about the most.