Rollover Training System
Pre-setup:
Your kit comes with: 1 Practice puck and 2 Horizontal
strips.
These pictures show you the height of the "puck", a block of wood can
be used if you do not have a puck!
Table
sides:
Let?s
assume you are going to be practicing from the Yellow or Red side of the table.
We will make statements based on you being positioned on the yellow side
or the black side of the table, please note this is based on the handles/men you
control on that side.
Concept
of shooting holes:
If you are
playing goalie you will be defending 5 basic holes.
The 1 hole is closest to you and the 5 hole is the furthest from you,
this puts the 3 hole in the middle. The
person who is shooting against the goal (like the rollover shooter) would see
the holes in reverse (because they are on the other side of the table) the
defenders 5 hole would be closest to the shooter with the 1 hole on the far side
of the goal!
We
advice you to lay everything out and play with it for a while to see if you like
the placement. When you are
satisfied go back and peel the backs and stick the strips on.
If you save the back papers you can reuse your system as it was designed
to be reused several times!
Setup:
I.
Take a Horizontal Strip and place it on top of the rail in front of the
score peg, the red one should be closest to the yellow side so the 5 hole is
closest to you
II.
Take the other Horizontal Strip and place it behind the 3 bar so it will
not interfere it your practice. Does
your table look like the picture above?
We
want you to learn the stages of the rollover in reverse order.
Learn the rollover from the rebound, back to the setup.
You may think this silly now, but when you are in a 4-4 game and you miss
a shot but pickup the rebound, you can call a time out and say a little thanks
to us for teaching you the rebound, before you put away the game winner!
Concepts
The
rollover is a very mechanical, regimented shot. You do the rollover in different stages.
This shot is not nearly as fluid as say the pull shot.
You have the setup, the pitch, the stroke past the
ball, the spin, the cut back, the striking of the ball, and
the rebound. You must learn
each part and you can?t do the shot well if you don?t do each and every part
well. Remember, it is far better to
shoot a slow shot, that is sharp, crisp, at the corner of the goal then to shoot
a fast, sloppy shot that hits the wall.
Rebounds
Assuming
you are not going to shoot 100% and assuming the goalie is not going to gather
in and keep every ball you miss, there will be opportunities for rebounds.
Rebounds are free shots, same as a good pass, a steal or a technical
foul.
To
catch a rebound
Before
you can catch a rebound, your man must be down, your hand must be on the handle
and you must be thinking rebound. This
is going to be the hardest thing to learn about the rollover, but if you learn
to do it well, you will play well.
Striking
the ball
This
is the pay dirt part of the shot, the point where the man hits the ball.
If you have done all the stages up to now correctly, the ball will be in
front of the rod. It will be at the
place where you intended to shoot from and your man will be moving back against
the direction of the ball slightly. You
will be hitting the ball with the outside 25% of the mans foot.
Outside
25%
That?s
right the outside portion. Did you
even know that the foot of the man is slightly curved inward?
Well look at it closely sometime, you have a nice little curve there.
So think about it, if you hit the ball on the curve ?inward? part the
ball will tend to go in that direction, so, you get a natural ?cutback?
effect.
Cut
back
When
you are about to strike the ball, as you are snapping your wrist down and
pulling your arm up you may want to go back against the direction of the ball.
We say ?may? want to because many shooters don?t need a cutback and
if fact just spray the ball a little bit.
The
Spin
The
principle of the shot is to pull or push the ball then spin the rod on your
wrist and hand (but less then 360 degrees) and strike the ball.
The spin is not reckless or hard. You
really don?t need that much power or speed.
Do you know that the fastest rollovers don?t go over 35mph?
Focus on hitting the ball properly to beat the defense.
The
stroke
Move
the rod all the way PAST where you want to shoot, say about ¾ of an inch.
Do not start the spin until you are all the way out there.
Do not cheat or cut corners. Complete
the entire stroke!
The
Pitch
This
is the part where you start with your man on the ball and you use your wrist to
roll the ball towards the spot you want to shoot from.
Sounds easy but this is the second hardest part, after the rebound.
You will need to practice this part of the shot more than any other part
in the beginning. The pitch needs
to be accurate, but we admit this is the part where speed helps.
The faster you get the ball out there, the better off you are.
The pitch goes from the point of setup, along a line towards the shooting
point. This shooting
point is a little behind the setup point. This will serve several purposes: a. If something
goes wrong with the shot, the ball will stay in your control.
b. Slightly back from the
setup point is the ideal spot to take full effect of the curve of the front of
the man. c.
If you don?t bring it back too far, the ball will tend to lift a little
which will make it easier to score and much harder for the goalie to keep
control of a miss, so more rebound opportunities.
The pitch needs to be practiced millions of times until it is automatic,
fast, perfect, effortless, thoughtless and best part of your game!
Rocking
the ball
Most
rollover shooters do a rhythmic rocking of the ball after they have the man on
top of the ball and the rod on their wrist.
This rocking serves a couple of purposes, has a couple drawbacks and is
pointless in a couple of ways.
The
good reasons
a.
It may hide any tells you might have as to which side you are going to
shoot.
b.
It may give you a better ?feel? for the ball.
c.
It may deceive the defense and open up the middle more.
The
drawbacks
a.
Many rollover shooters have tells in their rock, they speed
up before they shoot, they hesitate when they shoot the straight, and many
others.
b.
If you are rocking, you may not be concentrating on shooting
the ball.
c.
Most shooters rock left before they shoot right and vise
versa, so if the defense rocks with them and moves sharply, they can be right
where the ball goes.
d.
It?s pointless. If
you can shoot both corners, without rocking, without a tell and without moving
your body or changing your grip, why rock?
Consider not learning a bad habit just because other people do it.
If after you learn to shoot the rollover you want to add the rock, go
ahead, but don?t just do it because other people do.
It
is far more important to shoot a quick, accurate shot then it is to do tricky
stuff. Simplify and you can focus,
focus, focus.
The
Setup:
Before you
can even shoot a rollover, you have to get the ball under the man.
We want you to make a commitment; never, never, never take and place the
ball under your man. Always
practice setting the ball up, you will never see a Pro Master player just stick
the ball under the man,
The
bottom of the man:
You need to know where the bottom of the man is so you can put it on the top of
the ball. Set the practice puck on
the table, under the shooting man, and look at where the man touches the puck,
amazing. The bottom point of the
man is a good ¼ of an inch behind the tip of the man!
Now put a ball out there, crouch down and look where the ball and the man
touch. You need to get it just
right, memorize that spot. For the
first couple of weeks you will need to do this from time to time to make sure
you are not too far forward or too far back.
Setup
the ball:
We don?t
care what method you do to get the ball out there under the man, we have seen
dozens of ways. Whatever way you
want to do it, just do it steady and smooth.
We did not say slowly, but we don?t mean fast.
You should handle the ball with confidence but you want to control it.
If a ball is moving too slow, funny things can happen.
If a ball is moving too fast, you can lose it to the defense.
Shoot
the spot, not the ball:
This is the
trick to the whole thing. You need to learn to shoot where you want to shoot.
After you have that down, learn to pitch the ball to that spot so you can
hit it. If you are tying to hit the
ball at the 1 hole, you need to spin your man at the 1 hole, not the 2 hole, so
focus on the spot, not the ball as it moves to the spot.
Trust your motion to get the ball there.
Setup
the ball
First
things first, practice getting the ball under the man at the correct spot.
Practice moving the ball around a bit with your hand.
See if you have good control with a bit of move and catch of the ball.
Where
are you going to shoot the rollover? Don?t
spend a lot of time on this. Pick a
spot, if it works okay, if not move. After
a while you will find a spot. Maybe
the best way, at first, is to setup a ball, then move off the ball and basically
do the shot slowly in reverse. Once
the man is back in the right location, put the man back over the ball. Now look at your wrist, this is the place where you are going
to have the handle every time, until you get a better plan. Don?t push down on
the rod or lift the rod. Don?t
push too hard on the ball. Don?t
be too far up on your arm. Gentle
is how you get a good feel for the ball.
Practices
rocking the ball around, not because rocking the ball is an important part of
the shot, but because you will need this feel for the ball to be able to do the
pitch.
Pitch
the ball
Practice
pitching the ball. You will be
doing this pitch for a while. You could practice this part indefinitely, and it still will
be perfect. You know you got the
pitch right if you can practice it and never lose control of the ball and if it
never goes behind the rod. Keep
control and keep it in front of your rod!
Puck
time
Take
the ball off the table, remove and save the backing from the puck (you can reuse
the backing paper) and stick it on the table.
Line the middle of the puck up with the tip of your man.
Practice rocking on the puck, to get the feel for it, notice it is the
same height as the ball.
Put
the ball on the table between the closest two dots, this is the five hole.
Now we want you to do the next series slowly, mechanically and with a
pause between them.
With
the man on the puck, slide the man off the puck just like a pitch.
Stroke the man slowly towards you all the way over to the bumper, you
will need to lift slightly to not touch the ball. Now stop and pause, look at things, repeat this a couple
times. Without spinning the rod,
practice the cut back by snapping back towards the center with your wrist, about
an inch or two.
Now
you have the man on the bumper, here it comes, lift with your hand, twist your
wrist and snap the man around. Remember the cut back is only an inch or two, you should not
hit the puck. Try to hit the ball
with the outside 25%. Did you get
the ball into the goal? (HINT:
Do you remember about the rebounds?
Where is your hand and your man? Could
you catch a rebound if the ball came out to you?)
Repeat, Repeat, Repeat
Switch
the ball to the push side or the 1 hole. Do
the process again, the stroke, the snap back, then do the shot.
You
must learn this now and never forget it, shoot the spot, not the ball!
If you put the ball on the 2 hole, will you even hit it when you shoot?
You better not hit it.
Can
you move the ball farther and farther out?
Can you shoot a ball in from outside the goal? We know you can!
The Rollover Shot (Finally)
Ready
to try the shot? Remove the puck,
put the backing paper on it, pass a ball from the 5-bar to the 3-bar, and set
the ball up. Roll your hand down.
Take a few calming breaths and clear your mind.
Let your body do the parts that you have practiced.
Casually pitch the ball to the 5 hole, stroke the rod out to the bumper,
snap it around, do the short cutback and BLAMMM-O. Well, you may have missed, but you will get the motion with
practice.
Keep
at it, you are on the road to a rollover. Go
back and practice the drills and then try the shot again.
Remember to shoot the spot not the ball!
Work on your pitch to get the ball to the spot.
Work on your timing to have the ball at the spot when you shoot the spot.
One
more thing. Some people
accidentally cut the ball back at a sharp angle when they learn to shoot as far
out as we are suggesting. You may
see this happen. This is not a bad
thing? If you can learn to do this
on demand you will be the best rollover shooter on earth! Remember to be in
position for the rebound! Your game
will improve faster if you think rebound first!
TSTS
- The Ultimate in Gaming Accessories