7 Basic Foosball Defense Tips To Improve Your Game

If you’ve been spending some time playing foosball but not having much luck when comes to winning, then the problem just might be that your defensive moves suck. Don’t worry though, here at Foosball Revolution we can give you a few tips that can help you improve your game performance in no time. In fact, if you take our advice below, your opponents won’t know what hit ’em the next time you have a match.

1. Always be on the defensive

As you play, you always need to be playing defense. So, keep an eye on that ball no matter what. Don’t get distracted by what your buddies are doing around you and or by anything else. As you follow the ball, you will begin to notice that you have lots of opportunities to block some shots by your opponent. Keep your men active on the side of the table where your opponent has the ball and you should be able to increase your defensive plays.

2. Don’t have bounces and ricochets off of your defensive tip

You know what sucks? When you have a foosball table with a 3-man defense and your opponents ball should just bounce off the wall, but instead one of those three men get in the way and your opponent ends up getting a point cause the ball bounces off one of those defensive men. Guess what? You can definitely prevent this from happening! All you have to do is tilt your rod backwards so that the men are out of the way. Now you’ll have no more accidental bounces or ricochets. Once you see the opponents ball coming and move your men out of the way, get ready to get the ball on the rebound with your 2-bar defensive rod.

3.Create a solid defense unit with two rods as one unit

For a powerhouse defense, you need to get your two defensive rods working together as a unit. This means lining them up so that the men don’t overlap one another. This gives you a solid line of defense as long as you make sure that the space between your men isn’t large enough for the ball to pass through. Try this and you will see a definite improvement in your game.

4. Play both defensive rods at once with your left hand

You don’t need to be a magician in order to be able to play both defense rods with one hand. Just take your left hand and use your thumb and pinkie to control each of them. It can feel a little awkward at first, and maybe even a bit of a stretch, so give it a little practice until you get the hang of it.

5. Don’t try to cover the entire goal

Let’s face it - you can’t be everywhere at once when trying to defend against your opponent. Think of it like this - a goal is the same width as five balls, so you have five different zones to defend and you can’t defend all of them at the same time. So, try to position your men so that part of two zones are covered at the same time to maximize your goal blocking. It’s effective at all shots except for those that come in at angles.

6. Keep your opponent guessing

Once you find a good defense that works, you can’t use it every game. Instead, you want to mix up your patterns and movements so that the opponent cannot adapt to your formations. This is most important when you are playing people who are really good at the game.

7. Don’t use your middle goal defensive man as a shooter

Definitely resist the urge to shoot with the middle man on your defense rod three. Yeah, it puts you in a position right in front of the goal, which also happens to be the easiest shot for your opponent to defend. Instead, focus on using this guy for blocking.

By following these tips, you should not only make it harder for your opponents to score against you, but you might even start winning more games! And if you’re just getting started with the game, check out our tips for beginners.