British Foosball Association

Player Skills - Advanced Skills

The perfect Stick Pass

By Dave Gummeson, posted on the RSTS newsgroup

There are several different styles of stick passing and they all have their advantages and disadvantages.

I think the biggest mistake people make when developing this series is to make it too complicated. Start simple and work from there. I think it's extremely valuable to be able to read and execute the wall from either a slow roll or a complete stop on the 2nd man out. If you can only tic tac your wall pass (like Horton) your mainly using timing instead of speed to pick a hole. This is very difficult to use effectively unless you have fantastic ball control(like Horton) and can be even more difficult to execute under pressure or when play becomes rough.

The key to my series is to be able to move the ball between the men smoothly yet methodically use all three men at times to set the pass up. Once your comfortable moving the ball between your men and still being able to get a read on what your opponent is doing (how they are reacting) your half there. You need to know whether or not you can effectively beat your opponent to a given hole or if they're racing into or out of a hole. A lot of times I can tell my opponent is ready to dive wall so, I know there is no possible way for them to get to the lane because they are collapsing to the wall as I drag the ball in that direction. Conversely, if I drag the ball toward the wall and I sense they are reacting to the lane I can use that knowledge to my advantage(hesitation wall).

It's very important for you to be able to execute both the lane and wall so that the take off looks identical. Make sure both passes start from the same position under the rods. In other words, you don't want your wall pass back further under the rod if your lane is easier to execute directly under the rod. Body positioning and grip should also be the same.

Some good options to have with this series are: bounce off the wall lane, Tic Tac lane, Tic Tac wall, pump wall, hesitation wall, 2nd man brush to lane(I've added this one over the past 2 years), off speed lane pass. There are many others including several brush pass options that can be worked into the equation.

**Important**while it's nice to have several options to go with any series, how you use them is far more important then the pass itself. In other words you want to start simple and work from there. I generally only use options as a way to get them off the simple pass or to distract them and give them something else to think about. I see people all the time who's 5 man series is just a random series of different options with no real purpose to them.

The key is to make them fear a couple of passes enough so that they are focused on them to the point where you KNOW certain options are there. Establish the basics and work from there. This applies to any passing series or shot. Look at Todds pull shot for example. He would get people so focused on the long that he would literally get them to have a man pinned there making his splits and occasional straight wide open.

As far as practice routines for the pass I would say work on your ability to get the ball to roll to where you want it every time. If you can only pass the ball every other toss over your in trouble. Practice your ball control by yourself and do a lot of repetitions of the passes alone. Then play a lot of 5-man wars and see what works and what doesn't and adjust from there. The best practice is when someone starts getting all over your passes and you pay close attention to what it is they're doing to get to cetain passes. Then when you practice by yourself you can work on those options that break that defense up. Thats about all I have right now. If anyone has any questions I haven't answered let me know and I'll do my best to respond. Hopefully this made sense and it helps somebody :)

Dave Gummeson