How to Become the Foosball Champion in Your office

Improve Your Skills to Become the Office Foosball Champion!

Like any other sport, foosball is about skill rather than luck. If you're eager to impress your co-workers, here are some top tips that will have you dominating the office foosball league.

Choose Your Grip

There are two common grips in the world of foosball. Neither is superior and ultimately the choice comes down to which one is more comfortable for you. However, whichever one you choose, stick with it; if you switch around, you're wasting valuable time that could be spent mastering your grip.

First, wrist-grip involves wrapping your hand around the handle. You'll rotate your wrists to turn the rod; with practice, you'll be able to do this quickly, for more powerful shots.

The alternative is the open palm grip. This is looser, and offers greater speed - but there's a bigger chance of accidentally spinning, which is against foosball rules.

Find the Right Partner

One-on-one foosball is rare; it's more common to play with a teammate. Your partner doesn't need to be incredibly skilled. What's more important is the relationship you have with each other. You'll progress much faster if you and your partner are happy and comfortable with each other, and neither gets angry and blames the other when things go wrong.

This is especially important in a work environment when you're not going to be able to avoid each other outside of foosball time. Find a partner you trust, and you'll soon see big improvements in your game.

Practice

Seriously, nobody became a foosball champion overnight. Ideally, you and your partner will have the same work schedule so you can practice together. Take your time to test out new strategies, and play against each other. This way, you'll be able to see each other's weaknesses and work out how to compensate for them in competitive play.

If you're working with a teammate, some essentials to practice together should include:

• Roles: Does one of you prefer to play offense and the other defense? Switch around to see who's a better fit.
• Passing. This is an essential part of winning foosball.
• Ball control. As soon as you fumble the ball, you're creating opportunities for your opponent.
• Serving. You want to get each game off to a good start, with a powerful serve that announces you're here to win.

Never Neglect Defense

You want to score a goal. Everyone wants to score a goal, but without a good defense, it's irrelevant. Foosball champions recognize the importance of defending against the opposing team. Make sure you've got this down perfectly.

The defense can seem like the boring side of the game. People remember goals, they don't remember great defending. Nevertheless, if you want to win, get on it.

Take on the Best Players

Anyone can win playing against chumps. You'll do yourself no favors if your opponents are worse than you. Instead, look for the most skilled opponents. Even if you start out losing more often than not, you can learn from these players and slowly get better and better.

Buy a Foosball Table

It might sound crazy, but if you're really serious about being the office foosball champ, why not practice at home? Check out our foosball table reviews, and consider buying a foosball table for your house. A folding foosball table won't take up much room. Even if it's not the same model as the one at work, you'll still be able to practice the basics of the game.

Be the Kind of Person Others Want to Play Against

This final point really can't be neglected. In a work environment, if you get too competitive, angry, or boastful over the foosball table, you're going to lose a lot of friends and create tension. As your skills improve, you might want to shout it from the rooftops - but don't. Stay humble, and always thank your opponent for a good game, no matter who won. You might even want to strategically fumble a few shots when playing against a weaker opponent, to keep things running smoothly.

It's not just about sportsmanship. Being polite means that the office environment remains good - and, maybe, more importantly, people will want to play against you. If you get a reputation for being a sore loser or a bad winner, you'll soon struggle to find opponents.

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