-Hey, Chandler, why do you think they call it foosball?
-You know what I like about you, Joey?
-What?
-You’re curious.
Exactly! You will indeed need to be curious enough to know about the foosball and play it.
Whenever I think of foosball, I think of Chandler and Joey. And if you don’t know who they are, you are simply missing the most astounding fun of your life.
However, they are two of the main characters in F.R.I.E.N.D.S who are often seen playing foosball and this was one of the scenes where they were playing it and quoted so.
Foosball is something that gives you a different excitement. You won’t be needing to use up your foot but you will need the help of your hands to play it.
So, if you think you are curious enough to know about how it is played, this write will work as a help to you.
Goal For Goal
Your objective in the foosball match should be to put the ball right to your rival’s goal. Make sure you try to keep it far away from yours. Well that seems pretty easy but if you are a greenhorn, it won’t be an easy match for you.
However, you will be having 11 men-like figures and to control them, you will need to maneuver each of the 4 rods by turning, pushing and pulling them. You might have some hard luck at the beginning, but if you practice much enough, you will definitely get the hang of handling all the men and the rods.
Listen to this, the goal will be a battle of five points that you can earn each by throwing the ball at the rival’s goalpost and win. The one who gets to score the most goals in each round happens to be the winner of the game.
So, this is what your aim should be and this is how the game is played.
Rules’ Tools:
Start
Because flipping a coin is considered to be the most traditional practice to determine the first approach. So, you can do the same to see who gets the first serve.
Serve:
So, it’s the coin that will determine the first serve. If it is not the first match or if the ball gets out of play or if the ball suddenly stops out, then the team scored last would get the serve after he scores one. Oh and there is a term as well when the ball leaves the table or gets stopped somewhere out of the men-like figures’ reach: it’s known as dead ball.
Passing the ball to the closest player or the one that scored last would let you have the ball a fresh serve. The ball is required to hit the field of playing prior to your rival hitting it. So you need to lookout what the ball is hitting. You will get about 10 seconds for a time limit to either shoot or pass the ball. The shots that will be going right to the goalpost will be counted as legal.
And there are something that you should also know in the game. These are: Turning of the rods to 360-degree is not allowed. Sidetracking of your rival is not allowed. Table movement is not allowed. Unsportsmanlike action or verbal violent is not allowed.
Offense:
It’s better to aim at serving the ball to your 3-bar through you rival’s 5-bar. For this, you can rehearse different techniques to serve the ball. This will help you in serving to your figures consistently.
However, you will need to ensure that your 3-bar is correctly positioned so that you can grab your call, it means the men are required to be aimed frontward in the direction of your goal so that it can strike the ball by the player’s back and gets stopped underneath the 3-bar.
So, at this point, you will need to hold up and strike the ball with the feet of your player by tapping or pushing the rods and pass it just before the goal to shoot so that you can make a goal.
Defense:
Here, you will need to aim for keeping the ball from your rival’s striker row. In this technique, you are likely to block the ball so that your rival cannot shoot.
You will be needing to have the control of the ball after you are done stopping it. Whenever you will be playing defense, you will always need to position one of your men in front of the ball.
And yes, you better not strike the ball randomly as it will rather backfire and lead to making an own goal for your rival.
Teeny Tips:
You better try to pass the ball with your 5-bar. However, you will get a lot more tactics for serving the ball. You will need to keep on practicing those techniques so that you can understand what can work the best for you.
Besides, fuel yourself to be consistent, fuel your passes to be consistent so that the ball stays around your men only.
- Position your men in such so that they stay close to the ball. Don’t swing them up high enough if you want to have more control of the ball.
- Keep both of your eyes on the movement of the ball, not the movement of the rods. It will help in keeping you from getting sidetracked by the rod actions of your rival. However, it will also help in upturning your skill to concentrate on your shots.
- Try to keep on practicing wrist-flicking. It will help you a lot to make most of your shots.
- Staggering the men will help you block quite a lot of routes to the goal. For this, you will need to move each rod cleverly. It’s because you’ll block the same path twice if you line up 2 different players perfectly.
- Observe the messy shots given by your rival. You will see that many goals are not scored by focused shot, they are rather scored by deflecting.
- It would be a mistake if you stop while your rival sets up their shot. If you want to stay ahead, you will need to keep on moving.
- Don’t create a pattern of your ball and rod movement, because if your rival gets to understand it, it will get easier for him to strike you.
- And lastly, the only thing you will need to do is to practice to get the hang of the game. This will help you win the match with ease.
How To Win A Foosball Match
Ball serving strategy:
The point in the foosball match basically begins with a serve. As it is allowed legally in the foosball rules to serve yourself the ball, why wouldn’t you boost your offensive chances by passing the ball to your 5-bar?
This kind of techniques help a lot to augment the control of the ball only if you keep on practicing your serve. You will just be needing to add a tad of spin on the ball simply while you drop it into the goal-hole and you will see it rolling to your 5-bar rather than your rival’s.
All you have to do is practice a little on the serve as it will help in catching the ball right from the pass and making an attempt to serve.
From 5 to 3:
Serving the ball from 5-bar to 3-bar is an essential technique to win the match. It gives you a good offensive chance and help you enrich your skill to make a goal. If you utilize 5 player chance for shooting the ball, you will never be able to enrich your ball serving, shooting and catching knacks from your 3-bar.
Being a game of ball possession and control, it is essential to know how would you pass the ball from 5-bar to 3-bar.
One-shot policy
To win the match, this technique is also essential. You will be needing to put all of your concentration to become a pro on one-shot strategy rather than being a rookie at all regions.
Majority of the pros try to aim at the snake or pull shot since these are considered as the quickest shots opening more chances to make a goal.
So, focusing on one-shot will make you a pro at making the shot.
Follow your men:
Albeit this strategy is not that much highlighted but you can give it a try. However, it’s vital to realize the significance of focusing on the ball regardless of who owns it or where it’s positioned.
Many of the rookies get sidetracked and they don’t understand that the ball can simply be blocked via just following it.
So, your players should be moving continually if your rival owns the ball at offence and if it is on the left side.
Wrist flick tactic:
You are going to have better chance to beat your rival if you have a faster shot. You will find most of the pro players who got this strategy with a way they move the rods and give shots.
However, there are many rookies that happen to hold the handle of the table with their hand too hardly. But you have to act opposite. Having a loose grip rather maximizes the speed and movement and limits the resistance.
If there is some gap between the handle and your palm, you’ll realize that you’re holding the handle properly. You can use up another technique and that is to turn your wrist fast so that the rod spins 180-degree while making a shot.
But, hey, you will need to understand this as well that if you turn your wrist a quarter of it will not help you much to win the game.
So, you must get the strategy properly to score.
Defense aiding offense:
The better the defensive, the more chance to win the game. So, if you once get to enrich a strong defensive knacks, just once, it will be the only factor that will let you disappoint your rival and win the game.
You will get many pros who play as a defender limiting the opportunities of their opponent team to make a goal.
Ball domination:
Like I have said, you will actually need to have the control of the ball. You cannot just pass it to the wrong player because once the ball gets out of your control, you will lose a good chance to make a score. And who wants that right?
So, for mastering this tactic, practice yourself to serve and catch the ball so that you can have all the control of the ball and make most of the possible shots.
Defense vs. offence:
Before playing the match, you will also need to know which type of strategy you will be using for the game. You want to play offensive or defensive? However, you can use up your brainpower here to select the positions of your men. And you know how? It’s simple.
Kick off the match where you think you can get the best shots to beat your partner and analyze the whole match as your progress.
Practice makes perfect:
The most old-school strategy. Without practicing foosball, you can never get to win it. So, you have to be dedicatedly active in practicing the game.
Because, this is how you can make yourself a pro and win most of the games with ease.
Wrapping Up
Foosball has done a great contribution to the world of amusement. This is one of the most interesting indoor games that you can play with your Joey or Chandler.
And if you have either of them, you will know how fun it can be to play the game. Although it looks a very easy concept before you use the table, but nope it isn’t. Reading the article will never help till you don’t practice.
However, hopefully the information will be useful to you and you can instruct yourself well enough to be a pro soon.
