First, reread this post on defense.
http://foosballboard.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=6505&highlight=bar+defense+defence Pay attention to the post on what the indicators are on what to look for in blocking a pass. This is what that guy is doing to you. You say you do a scoop off the wall.....is your man near the wall when you do this pass or do you wait with your man about an inch off the wall when you do this pass? I would bet your man is off the wall, which is why this guy is blocking that pass. This is how I would read that pass. You pull the ball to the wall but your man does not go fully to the wall....why would I respect the quick wall, your man is not near the ball to advance it. See my point, that's why he is camped on the quick up.
In your brush series, if you're passing from different locations, you're making a critical error. You need to work on options from the same location. This is where the strength of the brush pass is, deception. A ball passed from the same point on the table but to different locations is hard to read and block. When you pass out of the sweet spot for the most options, you severely diminish them which in turn limits your pass effectiveness. What is sound like to me is either you are too high up past the sweet spot to have an effective down or you have not worked on an option to go down effectively. So as a defending player, why would I worry about the down? I'm gonna sit lane and race wall until you can prove otherwise you can go down from that same location you are doing an up at. You must have a strong up from that location but a weak down, so why would he move? Again, see my point.
As for you fakes...are they done with a man near the ball? If they are done a half inch away from the ball they are worthless. Again, if your man is too far away from the ball, there is no threat of advancement, so now, how good is that fake? As a defender, when the man leaves too far away from the ball, I can relax even on a fake because I know you are not going to advance the ball. So now to advance it, your man has to re-approach the ball. Can you say, TELEGRAPH? Once more, see my point?
Okay, now I will get critical.
Your complacency with your pass is not the way to think. You say you have a good brush pass but this person sits lane and races your wall. Sorry to tell you but that does not equal good pass, it may be okay but not good, this guy has proved that point. This guy has recognized a glaring weakness in your 5 that you have not.
You say you have a solid lane wall series, I beg to differ. If it is way slower than Billy's, it will not be effective. This series relies on pure quickness, not speed, and the ability to hit the high stick lane right behind the second guy on the defensive five. This is a very complicated series of which Billy has found out because it is not his primary series anymore, he does more brushes now. He got the series from a guy who plays here in Dallas locally, Denis Ory. Denis on the other hand, has some downright sick options in the series that no one else in the world does. When he's on, nobody stops him, and I mean nobody.
So I would say first do an ego check, your pass may not be as good as you think. If the same guy is stonewalling you, that is proof you have a weakness somewhere in your five. If he will tell you, ask him," What am I doing or not doing that is giving you a tell on my pass?"
So remember, when someone stonewalls a portion of your game, it is a sure indicator that portion is not good especially if they do it over and over. What you need to do is recognize the weakness they have realized and do what you need to do to fix it.
ICEMAN.
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