.......As far as percentages go, anything that approaches 30 or 40 percent is excellent, especially against a top pro master forward. The goal is just so damn big and it is really hard to stop these guys. I have never found it yet, but I had a dvd of me and Thor Donovan playing Todd and Rico in Championship Doubles in which I blocked Rico at a 66 percent clip. I had him so confused he would call timeout sometimes to bring Todd up for a big shot. Though we lost that match, I considered it a personal victory because I had the world's best forward scrambling to score. Anything that approaches 50 and beyond is simply brilliance. There is a reason these guys are the top forwards and if you can stop them 30 to 40 percent of the time, you are excelling in your duties.......
I would agree wholeheartedly with GitaB, and I regard it as very close, at the highest levels, expert and above, to a collegiate or Major League pro baseball hitter's batting percentage, specifically the ability to protect the strike zone. When advising (more like consoling !!!
) the goalkeeper, ESPECIALLY MY GOALKEEPER, I remind them that blocking 30-40 % against an expert or better forward is like batting 300 or 400 in a major league baseball game. And would you believe it, many beginner and rookie goalkeepers who can be blocking a decent forward at only 65 to 70% actually feel dejected in their performance, because they foolishly have the image of a "brickster" or 90% or better blocking, as the only good goalkeeping. A major league hitter with anything above a sustained 450 clip (Slo-pitch Softball numbers) would be an instant legend!
In advising or instructing newbies and scrubs, it often helps if they've played some baseball or softball. The "mano-a-mano" old cowboy draw duel is much closer to the 3bar v Goal D of foosball. And in a tense, close match with money and or titles on the line, the pendulum swings from absolute terror/despair to high exhilaration, although a pitcher and batter are regarded as defense to offense, they are almost analogous! Much more so than classic field soccer, where the goalkeeper has to contend with other incoming attackers, header shots, etc..., when not in a penalty kick situation.
Those newbies quickly get the idea of blocking to protect the plate (strike zone), and they more quickly realize that they can defend from a standstill (race D) or a motion D, very similar to the hundreds of individual styles of swinging you see in college and MLB and South American baseball. Making contact is the most immediate and important factor, no matter how one gets there. They easily understand the importance of stance, alertness, and learning to anticipate an incoming ball without giving away which part of the strike zone is going to be swung through (which part of the goal to be covered, in foos, of course).
Especially at the highest level of both games, where the pitcher or the shooting forward are deadly, and not very prone to giving away hits or homeruns (in foos, a block cleared to one's own forward, or even scored as a "stuff" or spiked point), the typical first priority is to hit that ball and not allow a called strike: protecting the zone.
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