Table Football Techniques

Table football -- sometimes called foosball by the masses -- is one of those mainstays of sports bars, rec room and garages across the country. While there are leagues and tournaments, most people play for fun while hanging out with their friends. With that comes a wide variety of strategies and techniques that players use to win.

Hand On The Goalie

Most foosball tables control players using spinning levers on the side of the table. Each lever controls all the players on the rod. Depending on the table design, there can be five, three, two or one foosball man per rod. Many defensive-minded players will always keep one hand on their goalie and one playing the rod closest to the ball.

The Spinning Method

While some tournaments look down on spinning the rods, which is when a players spins rods wildly to cause confusion, there is some benefit of spinning because it causes constant motion on the table. The upside is a player can score some goals from the wildly moving foosball men. The downside is that he has less control of their foosball men, which could lead to bad passes or even own goals.

The Straight Attack

Another popular method is constantly trying to keep players "straight up" at all times. This means constantly moving players so that their heads are up and their feet are down. On some tables this gives the player more control over the action as well as the accuracy of the shots. The player may also try to line his defenders up so they provide a zig-zag pattern across the board.

Pass and Go Scoring

Pass and Go scoring, which is also known as the push kick, is a somewhat advanced move of passing the ball between players on the same line and then going for the shot toward the goal. The idea is to do this quickly so the opposing player has little time to react to the moving ball. A similar strategy, but much harder, is to fake the pass and have the original foosball man take the shot.