Topic: Women and foosball

[pebbles]

Too bad you weren't around in the 70s when women not only played open doubles but sometimes won them women had  then, and still have, more choice of events than men, cuz women were allowed to play open events but men are not allowed to play women's doubles or women's singles, so women could "double dip." Some women placed very high in open singles and even won open doubles events! I believe they allowed women to play in open events to allow them a chance to break even on their expenses because women's events have never been known to pay much. Without this option, it is very hard for a woman to break even even if she does very well. It would be interesting to see how many more women participated if their events such as women's doubles, women's singles and mixed doubles had better payouts.

[alaris]

 That is funny Crazy8... and so true!

[crazy8]

While it is true...I do not believe the problem is insurmountable.  Unfortunately, it probably means women taking the responsibility of introducing other women (I almost wrote 'new' women - lol) to the sport.  Since there are relatively few (or we wouldn't have this thread), it is a steep hill to climb.

One deterent seems to be the perceived need to play 'well', as opposed to playing 'well-enough'.  Miriam (wife) plays well-enough.  Well enough to block, well enough to control and clear the ball, well enough to pass and score from the back.  She doesn't have the desire to work on other aspects of the game - to her, well-enough is enough.  It's good enough for me, too.

However, none of my (male) freinds have spouses/gf's who will touch the rods for fear of not playing well.  Certainly, this is common with male non-players as well, but, generally, men do seem to have a more natural ability to 'see the ball, hit the ball'. 

Truly, the only real option is for women to introduce their female friends to the sport, then nurture them to the point where they play well-enough.  Then they have the option to improfve, or not.

 




 

[bbtuna]

foosball like many other things is primarily a male thing...its not because they can't play, its like high end audio, it is mainly a male "sport"...love to have more women, they can play as well as men for sure, just not as many...the 70's proved women were as good as men

if it was up to me, there would be no womens events, I think it is demeaning to them as if they can't play with the men equally and that is not true

foosball could be one of the first if not the first sport/game that men and women play equally and that I think would make foosball totally unique

[ronron]

Woman are better goalies than men

True, and that's because women get years of practice playing "goalie" long before they ever touch a foosball table.

[alaris]

hahahahaha Ron

[gitablok]

The number player at our tournament is the best, and we have the 13 ranked player in Iowa there also so that has to tell you something. She is the 2 best in the world so.... come on down to Iowa, Cedar Falls that is.

Well.... Stayce is good, one of the best women to play the game I might add, a future hall of famer... she is not number two in the world, sorry.

[tonyfromak]

way back in 77 or 78 I went to visit my brother in sea-tac area. I went into a bowling alley where they had tournament soccer table and two guys were playing a girl who looked to be about 12. all she did was spin the rods really fast, and move from one rod to the next really fast. I thought it was funny these two guys about 16 couldnt beat her. So i tryed to beat her for about 10 games before I realized she was planning all her spinning real well.   P.S. I never could beat her.   Then in the mid 90s I went to a seattle tournament where i heard a loud shot going in the goal, I assumed it was just some guy practiceing. When I turned around it was moya teilens from canada. She was warming up her pull shot. I also noticed that when her hand and hips whipped at same time she made a hard crisp long pull, but when either hand or hip had very slightly different takeoff times she useally whiffed her shot. Ever since then moya has been my girl fooser hero/idle/something like that.

[crazy8]

"foosball like many other things is primarily a male thing"

Didn't know foosball was popular in the 50's.

[Foos_Consigliere]

The whole sport is shrinking. Tour expenses have climbed. Local locations are drying up.
 
Women are getting this best bang for the buck in foosball on the IFP tour and still numbers are stalling out.

Even if some huge pop culture phenomena occurred tomorrow, foosball  would lack the infrastructure and organization to capitalize.

Foosball needs some big changes. The manufacture doesn't care.  Players are beginning to not care more every tournament.  The current formats are not equating into player growth.  Local promotions are drying up across the nation.  When I started playing in 95 my state and most state had multiple tournament locations. Today, most states are lucky to have one tournament location.

In 95 there were 15+ promoters running multiple regional tournaments. Today there are a handful of remaining promoters and most either don't run a regional or run 1 per year.

 

 

[Buckshot]

I thought foosball was dead when Tournament Soccer died in 1981.  Dynamo filled the vacuum. Tornado has always been there. Striker came and went. Warrior came and may or may not last, time will tell. I thought video games killed foos, wrong again. If foosball can survive the rise of video games, and it has, nothing can stop it.  Foosball is such a great game that it will always be there in both casual and serious tournament play. If Tornado and Fireball stop having tournaments, people like the people who comment on this site will have tournaments in their game room or garage. This game is unique and awesome and isn't going anywhere.  Tournament Soccer came out of nowhere like a Tornado (haha) and something like that could happen again (Fireball?).  After 60 years on this planet one thing I know for sure is life is full of surprises, so never count foosball out.
     Oh yeah, and women will continue to play, too.

[Old Meister]

I had a younger player(30ish) come over to practice some foos. After playing a while I asked him if he would like to play my wife. After a bit of prodding she reluctantly came in, kicked his ass and then left. He says,"Thanks a lot!" She partnered with me through half the 70's on TS but something about Tornado's just agree with her style. She's got a stingy 5 bar and loves to back cut a close handed push as well as push kicks with all the options. Our state director still talks about her and how good she is but try as I might I can't get her to get back into tournaments.

[crazy8]

Whether we are talking about men or women, there are a lot a foosers that we've never met and who've never been to a tournament.

Recently, my wife mentioned to a co-worker that I had bought a second table - thinking the other women would think it humorous that anyone would have one, never mind two..  Instead, the other women replied that almost everyone on her kid's soccer team had a Tornado at home.  Wow!

Add this to the zillions of SportCraft, etc. tables that are sold each year and you have to wonder what's holding us back.  If you were to look at any Craig's List you'd see enough of the other-brand tables to fill a tounament hall.  Someone must have wanted the table and wanted to play - once.  I think the potential is there, but I'm plumb out of suggestions on how to bring these 'outsiders' in.

Paul

 

[SilentSam]

To bring outsiders in, the tournament scene needs to redefine the term 'Beginner'. This obviously is very difficult to control and regulate from a tournament director's standpoint, but it takes someone with some serious tires on them to show up to a tournament, sign up for beginner, get their ass handed to them by someone brush passing & snaking (in beginner ffs), and still stick with the competitive foos scene. It's been said before, but there needs to be a grassroots approach to build interest at local levels to generate a trickle down effect to the tournament scene, not the other way around.

[PatRyan]

SilentSam is on the right track!  Most foosball "players" (not tournament players, but regular players), play the game to be competitive and to have fun.  Most have no desire (at least initially) to go to a tournament only to have their butt kicked, feel bad, and never show up again.  Then they put thier table up for sale on craigslist, where we see all of those tables for sale.  There needs to be a more nuturing and fun environment for those "newer" players to experience foosball.  Not just the game of foosball, but the friendships, the socializing, the comraderie, and all of the other things that keep the rest of us coming back. 
And these newer players don't need to be called beginners either.  Most of these particular players already have abandoned spinning, but have not yet honed the skills necessary to be fully competitive against a seasoned tour player.  We would have alot more players filtering into the tournament scenes if there was also a night of the week in each foosball town set aside for these newer players.  A time not for tournaments, or for kicking the newer players on the table.  But a time for showing the fun, friendship, comraderie, and yes, also teaching them the skills necessary to improve thier game.  If you keep it fun and social, these new players might just come back the next week to have fun, socialize and learn a little more.  But you also have to accept that only a small percentage of these players will ever be tournament players.  The majority would rather just have a place and time to get together to play a really great game that they enjoy, among friends.  And if uou find the one or two that want to try their hand at tournament foosball, you can point them to the other day and time for the tournaments (but only when they are ready, and they will let you know if and when they are ready). 

Just my 2 cents

PR