Topic: Tournament soaccer vs Tornado play

[Old Meister]

Oh boy what I've had to shed and what I have to learn and am learning. I used to catch a ball up front with a pin and turn it into a shot without thought. Now I have to  stop the ball, then tap it to the man I want to shoot it with but only if it is at the right position to "toe' it where I want to shoot it from. I used to do an uphill pass under the bar but now it has to be behind the bar and "brushed" or do a "stick" pass, that is what they call it now because that pass stops or "sticks" to the man passed to. When in back I would set up and shoot, now you have to bounce it back and forth on one of these two foreigners on each side of the goalie, then tic tac all over the place or shoot a pull 2/3ds of the way across the field and back cut it. OK, I get it, I'm out of touch, or was. Oh how I would love to get some of these young "pros" on a TS table and show them the wide open game of  foosball as I know it. Just an old fart remembering what seems to be the good old days.

[foozkillah]

  OK, I get it, I'm out of touch, or was. Oh how I would love to get some of these young "pros" on a TS table and show them the wide open game of  foosball as I know it.

I went through that, too, but I realized you have to change, because for one thing besides the difference and non-symmetry of the Tornado men, they were slung much lower in length, ie, closer to the playing surface!  This has to change your play the most!  You stay in contact on stroke a lot lower on the ball than with the shorter TS robot or greentop/bluetop/striker player feet.  Tornado balls are more commonly mis-hit with a scoop motion that lifts the ball and stub less often because the feet are longer!  To get to a pin, you have to be further away from the rod to have your player's feet still be touching the middle top of a pinned ball.

Once you figure this out, however, you can change your stroke to take advantage of the longer stroke on the ball.  More power.  You can also "hide" a backpin or frontpin ball better with the player foot at a more horizontal angle, showing less ball to the defender.  And you can hide whether the stroke will be a brush or a bank or just square with those balls more of it hidden under the pin.

[This Week In Foosball]

Hey Old Meister!

If you miss being able to control the ball better, then I hope your going to Kentucky State.
The Warrior table has much more control than the Tornado!
You can still shoot all the shots you shoot on a Tornado and then some. It's my bet that you'd love the Warrior as it's playing characteristics are the best of both worlds.

And if you love the way a crisp hard bank from the back sounds and feels, then Man! are you gonna have some fun on this table!

If you haven't seen it yet, there's some video of the table here>>> http://www.thisweekinfoosball.foosball.com/gallery.html

go to the "This Week In Foosball Videos" section and click on "see all playlists".

There's some videos titled "who's going to Kentucky" in the News and Information playlist.
Wait till you see the match winning shot. Man, it's pretty!

Anyway, hope to see you there!
Happy Foos'n

[Old Meister]

I'd have to divorce my wife first, then I could go to Kentucky. And since I don't have any real conflict going with her at the moment I think I'll wait for a better opportunity to play on the Warrior table. It sure sounds good though, the warrior table, I was hoping that the big tournament on the west coast would be a little farther north rather than LA. My day will come. It's the story of my life. When I got into foosball I would buy the table being played on, master it, go to a tour tournament only to find a different table. This happened twice. Living in N.Wisconsin in a time before internet, you were out of the loop. When I moved to Oregon in '79 I finally got in with a crowd who was on the cusp and again climbed to the top only to have the rug pulled out around '80. I always loved the game, 20 years later still found myself reliving the games that meant the most. Now having got back  into the game, I'm finding exactly what I should find. These kids are good! But the play is foreign due to the tables so once again I have to adapt and I am. I have found that those blistering fast shots now are better done with 3/4 the power and twice the control. The dazzling footwork is replaced by deliberate positioning and a period of contemplation before a deliberate shot. The game has changed, the time is different, it's all still good, but how good was it back then? Back when we were smoking,,,