I also had a question regarding shooting strategies. I know shots like the rollover and such are very popular, and are great shots when executed well. However, I've been steering away from that and have been focusing a lot of my practice time and game time working on the tic-tac series. Would it be a good strategy to switch styles, or would it be safer to focus solely on one style or series of shots so that those become even better shots in the near future?
I would strongly recommend against using a tic-tac as your primary shot series if you're looking to score consistently on good goalies. It can be highly effective against beginners.
There are only 2 pro-masters (of 200) who shoot this series regularly. Lazlo Teke does, but he switches to a front-pin against good goalies. John Zoller shoots it almost exclusively, but he has trouble scoring on pros (and has never won a major open title, or even really gotten close).
It's incredibly hard to execute consistently, day in and day out. Even when it's on, it has the same problems that push-kick and pull-kick series have (including being somewhat raceable). If goalies are buying your fakes, shifting out of the motion, failing to follow you, leaving dinks open, etc then you can score--but good goalies won't bite often, and your percentages will drop.
But if you find you can score effectively on top goalies, may as well stick with what works.
Also, I was considering trying out foosball at the professional level sometime next year. All of my friends and colleagues at GVSU say that I’m the best fooser they’ve ever seen, and some of these people say they know guys that make tutorial videos for the sport, and some even say they’ve played alongside pros before. I was wondering if there are certain things I need to look for as indicators as to when would be the right time to join the USTSA.
Join whenever you feel like going to a major tournament. There are different divisions (amateur, semipro, pro, open) and you'd start off as an amateur (meaning that you can play the amateur events and higher level events as well). It's well worth going to a local weekly tournament to see what the tournament players are like (Michigan has some great players), but even just jumpin in at a major can be a fun experience.
How fast and accurate do I need to be able to pass and shoot? Should I be able to stop the ball at defense 9 out of 10 times, or better? What do I need to be able to do to win games at the professional level, and if I’m not there yet, what can I do to get there?
If you can stop 50% of a good pro's shots then you're doing well. If you can stop 30% of his passes that's respectable.
To win a major title at the amateur level, you should be familiar with the rules (at least know and recognize stopped ball passes/adjustments/2-wall violations, jars/resets, and other common violations) and be able to:
1. Pass effectively from the 5-bar to the 3-bar against players with a good 5-bar defense. This means passing 90% or better against non-tournament players, and at least 60% against tournament-caliber players.
2. Score effectively; you should be scoring close to 100% (say 95%) against non-tournament players who are trying to race you around and you should be able to read a good motion defense and pick the holes to score at least half the time on good tournament goalies. You should have some experience blocking people who shoot less common shots (push, push/pull kick, tic-tac, front-pin) and you should have played enough to shut down gimmicks like texas T, scorpion, etc (which amateurs will go to).
3. Play effective defense: you should have a good 5-bar defense especially, and know how to block shooters who have a rollover or pull shot that you can't race. You should know at least a couple effective zone defenses to use in singles, and a couple to use in doubles. In singles, you should be comfortable defending against a 2-to-5 passing series without opening up a lot of shooting holes, and in doubles you should be able to stop 2-to-3 passing while maintaining your zone. In singles, you should be able to play 5-bar defense with your right hand to cut off the shooting options from the 5-bar.
4. Clear and shoot effectively from goal against a wide variety of defenses.
5. Control the ball; you should be good at catching loose balls, preventing hard shots from bouncing out of goal back to the opponent, be able to reign in those balls that are nearly out of reach, etc.
6. Shut down sloppy banks and angles to prevent easy junk from scoring.
7. Be able to adjust; have backup options for passing and shooting (this doesn't mean a second crappy shot; it usually means having enough options with your primary shot/pass so that you can try some new stuff).
8. In singles, at least be able to stop players with a very fast transition game (being able to play that style can wait).
And you need to be able to do all of the above for a couple days straight, consistently, and manage your sleep and endurance (don't shoot your arm out on day one).
To get there, you need both practice and tournament experience (playing weekly tournaments or other live-game experience against good tournament players).
Practice should be focused, and at the amateur level should center almost exclusively around ball control and passing. If you practice passing, then in your live play you'll get to pass against live opponents and then when you're successful you'll get to shoot against live opponents. If you practice shooting, then in the live play you'll never have the ball and you'll never get to practice passing or shooting. Just practice moving the ball back and forth across the 5-bar between all the men at first, and your passing will get a lot better just from being able to set the ball up and being comfortable with it.
I'm a fairly successful amateur (I've won MD States, Philly championship, just won the Maryland Classic amateur doubles this weekend, a few top-10 finishes at majors) and I've never practiced my shooting. Just shooting in games is plenty, and the solo table-time spent working on passing and ball control is a much better time investment.
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