Taking a break

I've recently find myelf on a unplanned break from foosball, and am actually quite enjoying it.
I'm enjoying the added time spent with my kids - my 7 year old son is in football - with practices and games every week, and we have a blast in the backyard doing various things. My daughter is a treat - she's 4, and my work has been pretty busy of late.

My last tournament was in Vegas a few months ago, didnt't have anything special to write about other than the stellar play of my opponents B-).

I've been too busy to play foosball, and now i'm not going out of my way to find time to play - so we'll see how long this break lasts - its been a couple months so far. World's is the next tournament i'm likey to go to (in September - in Dallas i think).

I ponder if this is the start of my retirement - like most things with me, once i stop doing them i stop being addicted to them - and i kinda do a full stop on it. All it would take is some new partner that would ask me to play, and i'll likely pick it back up again (practicing, and playing once or twice a week).

I would still like to have a Major title (or at least some hardware from an open event) before i officially retire, but i'm not entirely sure thats realistic anymore - given the little i do play anymore - and my current semi-lack of interest - that combined with the platuea i've seemed to reach with my finishes /skill of late - i'm still pretty good, just not able to crack the top 10 at majors consistently.

Warrior events have me rated as a pro, and I could do well at that level, but that's not my goal anymore - its nice to win, and pay for trips, but nothing i would practice extra hard for or anything.

I don't look upon my table in the basement with disdain, so i don't think i'm officially done - but i've lost interest in running TSAC (Table Soccer Association of Canada), and even if i do retire i can't see myself getting more involved in that - but TSAC sure could use a more passionate leader at this point.

so there's some real ramblings for ya.

Commentary on my Pro Singles Final at the US Open

At the Warrior US Open Foosball tournament, in Atanta, GA (some time back in April i think), i made it to the finals of Pro Singles.   With the permission of InsideFoos, i've been able to take their video and add my own commentary to the match.

My opponent is Chris Harrington, one of the players interviewed in the ESPN article i mentioned last blog entry.   Scary player.

Final was best 2 out of 3 - so first to win 2 games wins the match.

Here's Games 1 and 2

Game 3 - Part 1

Game 3 - Part 2

Again big thanks to inside foos for shipping me out the dvd as soon as it was possible, and as bad luck would have it, I was sent away on business and was not able to do my voice over / editing until i returned, a couple of weeks later.    Hopefully you enjoyed it.

When i get the full set of DVDs from the US Open, there should be a match or two of me and Jeep in Open Doubles, where i'll be able to provide another voice over version, and post it here.  It's been a while, but hopefully i'll be able to remember some of the interesting bits.

The Foosball Master Tour aired today on the Versus Network but i'm so pissed that i can't see it, cause we don't get Versus here in Canada.  So far reports have been good.

Oh, also i'm on twitter.  Follow foosghost 

random stuff

Here's one of my favourite foosball articles of all time:  ESPN
Todd shows once again, why he's the master.

Article also involves Chris Harrington, whom i played in the finals of Pro Singles, at the US Open in Atlanta a few weeks ago.
About the match, i've received permission from InsideFoos to be able to re-post a few of my matches they recorded to this video blog, but i'll be adding one additional feature. I'll be commentating over top the video, so I think it'll be one of the first times that the players that are actually playing in the match are able to comment on what they thought was going on in the match.

As far as i understand i'll be able to do this for at least 2 matches, and maybe 3.

1. Pro Singles Final - Me vs Chris Harrington
   
2. Open Doubles for 4th or better - Jeep and Me vs Billy Pappas and Terry Rue
   
3. (maybe) Open Doubles - Jeep and Me vs BILL HAYDON & DELANO CASEY

should be fun, hopefully i'l get the vids soon while the matches are semi-fresh in my mind.

Another thing to mention, is that the FoosballMasterTour is going to be on US National TV on Versus Networks. 

It's airing June 3rd, 5th, 10th, and 11th at 5:30pm EST. Nice time-slot! Check here for latest airtimes. Can't wait to see it! Judging by the promo real on the site, Darren Carter and I should be getting some good air time. Can't wait to see Darren's 'Big D' face on tv, the man is so intense! I swear he's scares the ball away from the goal sometimes.

Hopefully i don't come across as a pompass ass - i have a feeling i might look like a bit of a elite-ish jerk in some of the interviews.  Not sure - but we'll see.  

$50,000 Warrior - US Open

I recently traveled to Atlanta, GA to attend the $50,000 US Open.  This tournament was on Warrior tables.  Warrior tables are very similar to Tornado tables, but they seem to be designed to fill every gap or limitation that Tornado tables currently have.  

Warrior tables have awesome controlability, where pretty much anyone can catch a loose ball.  Now depending on who you talk to, this could be a good thing or a bad thing - it kind of lowers the bar on the required amount of consistency / skill required to win agaisnt the best players.   

You can also bank consistently on this table - which is something that Torando tables took away from the arsenal of old TS or Dynamo players.  My partner is Open Doubles for this event shot awesome banks from the back - which I would say had a large impact on our good showing.

The rods are solid and heavier, which is harder on the body than players are used to, so you see lots of players wearing out later in the tournament - especially pull shooters.  Even though i shoot a rollover, the muscles in my right forearm where close to cramping a couple of times.  This could attributed to me simply being out of shape, or the climate or lack of eating good, but i ate lots of bananas, and drank lots of water - so i'm not thinking it was a lack of potasium or anything.

The table is not quite built as solid as a tornado table, they're still working out the kinks, but overall the table plays awesome, and can't wait till they get a commercial level table built - where right now they have home models just available - which are a bit light.

The one major thing that Warrior has going on that Tornado doesn't is that Mary Moore is running her tour (IFP) on Warrior tables, and not Tornado.

Warrior:  http://www.warriortablesoccer.com/

IFP: http://www.ifptour.com/

Another thing that IFP is doing, is running a very nice points race, where the more you attend IFP tournaments, the greater chance you have to win trips to play at their year end foosball tournament in Hawii.

enough background.   I wasnt able to make as many video entries as i hoped, but here's what i was able to do while I was in Atlanta:

Day 2: Saturday morning - before Open Doubles thoughts:

Day 3: Sunday - quick tournament room walk through

Day 3: Mid day match result, I've just won the kings seat in Pro Singles, and find a nice hiding place to share my thoughts

Day 3: After winning Pro Singles, i share my thoughts on the match, and show off my new hardware - i love trophies.

Day 3: Finishing kind of a funny story - not really foos related, but me babbling along on the kong show it was when i purchased my tickets to fly to atlanta..

The Duplicity of Defense

Its a wacky title, but like i said before, i like alliterations.   So yea.  defense. foosball.  what's up with that.  

Well here's a bunch of videos of me talking to myself and my cat about defense and foosball.

I might have the order of things mixed up, but i know i talked about this stuff at some point or another...

Overall Strategies

blocking 5 bar

blocking 3 bar

blocking 2 bar

and wrap up, with a bit more on gameplanning opponents - and why that is sometimes a good idea.

5 Fundamentals of Foosball: Execute

Here's the 5th fundamental: execute.  You've got the ball, you've setup, read the d, decided on a option, and now it comes down to how well you execute the shot/pass.  Here's some tips to help you execute at a higher rate of consistency.

Practice Pressure:

Practice like you play:

Well that's the 5 fundamentals.   Hopefully they were useful to you.   If you have any additional ideas, comments, whatever, please share.

Next up: The duplicity of defense (yes i think alliterations are cool).

5 Fundaments of Foosball: Decide

If you've made it this far, you've got control of the ball, you've setup, you've read the defense, and now its time to decide what to do with all that information you've gathered.

Here I talk about basic 'Decide' based on what you've read, plus i touch a bit on the best case scenario, where one reads to decide how to shoot/pass, then reads more with that reading method in mind, and then decides what hole to shoot/pass and when.  

Here i go into what i call playbooks - and deciding ahead of time - allowing a coach to dictate how one can read and how one can adjust if blocked.  Scripted? yes.  hard to do? no, effective? very much so.

Here i talk more about coming up with game plans, and how i discovered the importance of seperating the coach within from the player within, and when to let each out.

continued...