Stay Safe. Stay Sharp: Axel Gaudin

The Tonton snake-side surgeon, the incredible Axel Gaudin had this to say when we asked him about the current situation.

Photo: © All In Media

Do you have your own personal plan for keeping yourself on point so you’re always ready?

I don’t have a planned program, but I do have a workout everyday. I got myself a routine of a 10 minute stretching/warmup, 30/40 min workout prep + workout, 5 min cool down. I have the chance to have a sport-center at work and can do my workout before lunch. I like to have a running session once a week, but mostly based on speed/cardio and not long distance. I also do some street rollerblading every now and then during the week.

What kind of drills do you do at home ? If you can.

I have a stretching/mobility routine that includes all the positions I’m using when in a snake bunker (cake+beam let’s say). I basically get some repetitions done to build muscular memory on the body movement. It’s also a position that builds mobility all around your body. I don’t have a specific home drill at home. I just enjoy having my gun set up and practice some hand switch, juggling, finding myself comfortable with the gun in any position basically. I still do some ghosting when I’m bored ahah.

Do you have a usual core of local players who play together under normal circumstances? What will you do now?

After years, my local field became the Tonton’s field which is about 3hours from home. We are all impacted by the circumstances and have no other choices than waiting for the situation to be safe again to practice. As of now, we are doing the only thing we can do about paintball : Talk about it in between the team.

Photo: © All In Media

If you play COD or whatever, do you genuinely think there are things in those games that help keep paintballers sharp?

I don’t do much video games, we used to play Starcraft 2 with the guys some times ago. I don’t think shooting games are giving paintballers any help in their paintball skills. Meanwhile, I do think that playing any type of video game (multiplayer eventually) have you/your team building cohesion, execution, leadership… There’s a lot to learn from playing video games, or any type of outside of paintball game together. (Escape games, card games…)

If there can only be one event this year, what would you like that to be? And why?

I would like it to be Orlando World Cup, a one tournament champion. The intensity would be crazyyy ! Orlando because that’s where I’m used to see the best paintball on earth every season.

But I would like to stay optimistic, and hope we will be able to have 4/5 events done this year after the situation gets better.

Any last words to your fans out there?

Thanks for following the Tontons, we really appreciate feeling you're with us during the season. We hope everyone stay safe in those crazy times and are looking forward to see all of you at the next event we will all be able to participate in.

Axel Gaudin.