Topic: "floating" rods

[bmtran]

So I've never played a foos tournament, and I was just wondering what kind of resistance the bars on those tables have to motion. At work, the tables have resistance enough to where the bars stay where you put them purely from friction. On the other hand, at school the table we have is lubed to the point where it feels like the rods are floating. I kinda just want to know what type is hould train on, because it seems like switching back and forth between those tables requires quite a bit of calibration on my part, especially on my defense. I guess I trained to block on the frictiony table so i'm having trouble realizing exactly where my men are.

so yeah... floating or with a little resistance?

[trader1499]

Lube and friction don't matter on the quality tables like Tornado because the men are "counter-weighted" so the'll stay up anyways.  I need my rods lube well for my roll over 

[bmtran]

I just played at my first tournament (just a simple singles bar tourney) and was having some issues with my shot due to the lack of friction. I'm not used to playing without the self-stabilizing force of friction. The problem is that you have to consciously provide back force to slow the rod, which is something i'm not used to. My snake was having some alignment issues, but my pull was a whole lot faster and more accurate than what i'm used to. It's very strange, but as I play there more often, I'm sure I'll get used it.

[Syronis]

I haven't played in a whole lot of tournaments, in fact I haven't played in any since Fall 02/Spring 03 when I was playing Lowen and P4P tournaments in Germany as an exchange student.... however, I've always felt that practicing on well lubricated rods would yield the best results. Most of the time if you're playing with other players who consider themselves foosers they'll also prefer the lubricated rods. I used to play at a bar in my old hometown (only table in town) and the table was in poor shape, so once a week I'd go there, lubricate the rods, wipe down the playing surfaces and balls, and within a couple weeks I'd go down there and there would be other people playing. I think good table conditions encourage playing.

[foozkillah]

There's nothing worse than "sticky" rods, which you will find at a lot of venues.  Even if you get used to them, sticky rods develop from wrong lubricant mixed with dirt, dried beer and soda and such.  They increase wear by a magnitude on the bearings and the finish of the rods themselves.  "Sawed-through" bearings make the motion unreliable, and sticky spots on the rods throw a "hitch" or slowdown into any lateral motion to pass, shoot, or defend.

You can get used to driving your car with the brakes sticking, but I hope you realize that's not a good condition to keep operating your car.  We had a good player down here in South Florida who was so used to his TS table that he actually tried to put resin powder on the normally well-lubed Tornado rods.  We should have killed him right then and there and chopped his body up and threw him in the Everglades.  Up until today, he still wonders why we and particularly myself were so mad at him.  For a math major, he was a total moron sometimes and highly inconsiderate of the owner of the tables and other people.

As you get better, your tolerances become much smaller for differences in table quality, and the best way is to have a little "eye-drop" vial of #20 silicone, or a little $4 can of silicone spray with you whenever you go out anywhere that you might play foosball.  You'll miss all the frustration of losing or even getting a ridiculously close game from scrubs because the table was terrible.  And sticky dirty tables at your favorite venues will lead to damage and you can probably guess how far between the maintenance visits by the owner or operator can be.  You have less time playing in a decent environment.

And if you go on tour, or even superlocals, the tables' rods float for maximum speed.  Same as they have the fastest felt for pool tournaments.  Foosball is for fun, not grinding your way and getting sick about inconsistent tables when it's hard enough getting your game up to snuff.