First off, I am a 14 year old guy, my whole family except for my dad plays foosball, but I am the only one who takes it seriously and doesn't spin and stuff.
Awesome!
1. Why is the pull shot preferred over the push shot? Whenever I play friends, I can dominate them with both shots, and whenever I face those shots, I find it no harder to block the pull shot then the push shot.
Well, either one works against most amateur defenses (especially if their idea of defense is to sit still in front of the ball and then try to race you to the long hole--that kind of defense doesn't exist in tour-style foosball because it just gets torn apart). Indeed, for a lot of amateur-level players, it's actually easier to learn an okay push shot than an okay pull shot. It's when you try to take it to a top tournament-level shot that it gets very difficult for most people.
The major problems with the push are two-fold:
1. It is hard to get good recoil into the shot. When you're shooting a pro-style pull shot, the long shot requires you to pull the ball toward you but then be pushing the rod away from you as you shoot the ball. Notice that if you just pull the ball toward yourself and then hit it forward (try hitting it slowly at first), the ball continues rolling toward you as it goes forward. So the shot angles rather than heading squarely toward the goal. Obviously the harder you hit the ball forward, the less it angles--but the faster you move it sideways, the more it angles. Top-level players are able to bring the ball even just slightly past the near edge of the goal and hit it more than squarely back at very high speed. To do that, you need a very precise and fast recoil (shooting back through the ball).
That recoil is hard to add to the push; for most people it's very hard to as precisely get your arm moving away and then square it back toward yourself during the shot (it has to do with how the wrist tends to snap during a hard shot).
2. It's even harder to use the same motion for your straight, split, and long options. There are some push shooters out there with killer longs, but many of them have a bit of a hitch when trying to hit the split.
Now, it's certainly not impossible to shoot a great push shot--Frank Goff has a doozie. Maggie Strong used to shoot it (maybe she still does). Billy can crush the push in pickup games. Guys like Kevin Munroe and Mark Tachell have pretty good ones, too. But it's certainly worth noting that Billy's the only pro-master male player on that list, and even he doesn't feel like it's as high percentage as his rollover or his pull shot. He never uses it in serious play.
3. Our angle shots recommended? I have a decent angle shot, it just does not go in often.
Isn't "it goes in often" the most important factor in whether it's a good shot or not? :-)
Aside from dink options on kick shots and sprays, angles are almost unused in pro-level play in the US. It's worth noting that the angled shots (dink/spray) that _are_ used get their angle from moving the ball sideways and hitting it with the front of the man while it's moving, NOT from hitting the ball with the corner of the man. Slider/spray angles are much more consistent than corner-chip angles, which are really hard to aim precisely.
A part of that is the table--the Tornado table used in the US isn't particularly conducive to chip shots. On the older Tournament Soccer tables, and on some foreign tables (e.g. Bonzini) they are more common, although still mostly limited to bank shots from goal in high-level play.
4. If I wanted to play harder players, do the public foosball locations tend to have a lot of smoking/drinking/inappropiate behaivor? I hate smokers and drinkers.
Sadly, most tournaments are in bars (smoking laws depend on your area) unless you're at bigger regionals or majors, and even there you're likely to see some people wandering around with beers in hand (smoking tends to be outside).
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