Topic: The Tic Tac

[bmtran]

I'm having trouble tictacing the ball between men. i think i have some issues with sensing how far apart two guys are or how to hit them. I've tried different ways, and the action seem so simple, but i can't really do a tic tac without some sort of changing rhythm (fast push, slow pull). i can set up shots pretty well; i've been using a pull shot since i started and i can do a decent pass (although sometimes it's illegal). It just seems like the next step to getting better is learning how to do this and i just don't really know how to do it.

any tips?

[papafoos]

To start with, let the ball do the work.  Instead of hitting the ball back and forth between the men, let it bounce.  Only add enough power to keep it going.  This will help you develop a smooth action and train your muscles to do it naturally.  As you get better, then you can add a little speed.

It's important to practice this with both your right hand and left hand, even if you only play goalie.  If you play goalie, the tic tacs on the 5 row will help you react to the slop.  You're building coordination between your hand and brain.

[bbtuna]

if you are right-handed spend at least twice as much time on your left hand and vice versa if you are left-handed

ball control will teach you things all over the table...it is worth every min...if I had control of a foos training school, new recuits would spend at least 70% of their time on ball control

write this down, test what I say...committ to nothing but ball control, as much as you can discipline yourself for 3 months - 100% ball control..when you are done, you will have improved every other part of your game and when you start practicing your passes and shots you will learn them faster

you will win more, you will feel better, you will improve your entire game, you will learn faster, and you will win more...oh yea, I already said that - also girls will swoon and take you to back rooms, back seats, and back home...okay, that is a lie, but you will feel like a stud anyway

[Old Meister]

That's a lie worth dreaming about Bbtuna , and he's right. You can shoot the most monstrous shot in the game but if you can't handle the ball to set it up, it's all for naught. I do drills just passing it back and forth from the 5 to the 3, back and forth, tap, tap tap. It helps imprint the range of each man. Tic tac dribbling is fun to do, remember that. It helps keep the frustration down until you can relax and make it happen like you want. Something I'm working on is dancing the ball without pinning like we used to do on the TS tables or even further back than that I guess. It is good practice to get a feel for the limitations of the table and believe me these tables have their limits.(grousing a bit still) But if the pro's can do it so can you with dedication as they are human too. Sure there are tricks to every skill but sometimes you can't be verbally told these until you have a certain amount of experience trying so that you can relate. There is so much good advice on this site that we are truly blessed to have found it. I visit other sites but none of them give the help that this one does.  Keep on foosin, life is good!

[bmtran]

yeah, mostly i'm really interested in learning how to pass. the guy i play against the most has this quick stick pass that i wanted to learn plus i was having trouble learning the brush pass since i couldn't get my 5 bar stuff working quite right... and i saw the espn video with Tony Spredeman where he said it was pretty much canon, so i figured it'd be a good thing to learn. of course, now that i hear that it has such a drastic effect on ball control, i'm ever more interested, although I thought my ball control was pretty good already.

but yeah, thanks for everyone's advice. i've been practicing and it's definitely getting a lot better, although i have trouble keeping the tictac going after the ball gets a certain distance away. i can pull it back to me, but not without stopping the tictac, toegrabbing the ball and pulling it back. any advice there?

[foozkillah]

... although i have trouble keeping the tictac going after the ball gets a certain distance away. i can pull it back to me, but not without stopping the tictac, toegrabbing the ball and pulling it back. any advice there?

Ball getting away, even if you're not speeding up the tictac?  I've found few things that have screwed up our local beginners/rookies attempts at 5bar ballcontrol than:

1. Wrong grip (any grip other than a square "hammer" grip).
2. Frisky thumb - when the thumb is used in any way to roll the handle.

Separating your back & forth lateral motion from your stroke or passing "swing" motion is important.  Most rooks use a handshake grip at an angle to the 5bar.  Too many muscles and tendons involved.  I teach our rooks to use the forearm to move the bar back & forth, and using only the wrist & square grip to roll the bar, 90degrees to the rod.  Keeps it simple... you just have to remind them to keep from cheating with the thumb.

Once you have separated your back & forth lateral motion from your thumb and wrist, it is a lot easier to maintain a dribble, while keeping your wrist and hammer grip ready to backswing and stroke the ball.  Also prevents overcompensation with the thumb and wrist as the dribble speed increases, and then you can even learn to speed up, slow down the dribble.

Then I teach them how to backswing at will, WHEN they wish to, not when the ball wishes.  To backswing I just tell them to lift the elbow instead of thinking at the wrist or handle area.  I show them how to let the hammer grip open up like the letter "C".  Then to stroke, they just have to close the "C".  They learn to pull the elbow, opening the hammer grip just enough to get to 45degrees, and to close the hammer grip to stroke or punch the player foot forward to about 45 degrees the other way.

Once they learn to dribble, and then realize the elbow-to-hammer motion allows them to jab and jab at the ball in offense or defense continuously... they really love it.  And all lateral motion is controlled separately by swinging the forearm towards or away from the body.  very simple.

I'm a natural lefty, which is probably why I and my fellow "sinistros" always wondered why mundanes (righties) couldn't figure out the simple "separated" way, ala "machine" way to do either a lateral back'n'forth, unaffected by whether they were swinging and hitting the ball or not.  Once you learn, however, how to "jackhammer" with the elbow-to-C, while smoothly moving the rod back and forth with your forearm, you've become an honorary lefty.

[MR.STEVE]

My pass I do about 5 tic tacs stop then 3 then 4 so on and pass it some where along the line I to am learning that pass so I make the stops to readjust and throw off the other guy..I am haveing trouble throwing a quick wall pass in help me if you can..

[foozkillah]

To make a quick "mini pullkick" wall pass, where the last motion is to hit it with your 52 to your 51 at the wall:

Whether you're stopped, or tic tac'ing, or slowly bouncing between the 52 and 51, the last thing you do before you hit it with the 51 is: brush the ball with the inside of your 52 front-to-back, enough so it will spin.  The more spin, the less you have to pull or bump the ball to your 51 on the wall.

So just time it, so you start the pass at the 52, instead of the 51.  The last thing you think of is backswinging to brush-spin the ball with the 52, towards you, towards the 51 at the wall.