Reprinted with permission from Inside Foos The newsletter of southern California foosball 1991
The defensive five-row, is a game all it's own. It also is the most vital areas of foosball. If you keep the ball off the other persons tnree-row, you have a better chance of winning. Before I qet started, I would like to make amends to a player I had inadvertently left off the five-row list last month.
All of you reading this have at one time or another tried to defend Gabriel Mangosing's five-row. You guys know as well as I do that he as one of the best five's around. He is a hell of a guy and would help anyone who has any questions.
There are basically three different defenses that I know of. They are the race, bait and the harp shuffle.
The five-man is a thinking game. The key to defense, is to find an opponents weakness, and capitalize that weakness. Most players have a tendency to go one way or another, Either uphill or down, more often, usually, people tend to go to the wall more, since it is easier to catch. It doesn't matter which way your opponent favors, what matters is that you take advantage of this flaw.
Using the race defense in connjunction with this knowledge about your opponent, you simply take
away the players best pass, and race him to his slower side. For example: If the player's best pass is his wall pass, sometimes I will stay on the wall and race his uphill. This can be extremely effective against beginning or novice players. It forces them to execute (without telegraphing) a good uphill, which in most cases is the harder of the two passes to execute properly. Also, many players have a tendency to hit the second man on the five-row.
Many times when I jump to the wall for a block, and the opponent tries a chip or squeeze up, the ball still gets blocked because the pass was just a little too deep. This is why it is imperitive on your offense to practice your uphills -with the opposing man against your wall, so that this doesn't happen to you. I believe I neglected to mention that in the last article It's very important. This allows you to see his move to the uphill, as well as taking away most player's best pass. This is also where you want to throw in some bait. I want to block every pass, however against a good five-row, this is impossible. It is vital to learn about your opponent as soon as possible, without letting him get the ball too many times right off the bat.
I like to combine a race with a bait. The way to do that is to practice not jumping off the pass you are racing from. I like to bait people to the wall initialty, making sure that I don't jump off the wall anyway because I'm racing to fast. I would much rather have an opponent get a good uphill by me, than to have him fake me off the wall which I was racing off of. This is like jumping for a dink shot, and is allowing the forward to call the shots instead of you.
Any of these things can help you defend against someone's five-row. If you know they are going a certain way right before they pass, this is a good time to bait them for the hole that they want to pass anyway. Keep in mind that the bait defense needs to be constantly changing.
If the forward is passing the ball equally well to the wall and the lane, and is not giving away the pass, then theoretically he should complete at least 50% of his attempts. It is vital when using the bait/takeaway defense on the five, or and defense for that matter, that when you do make a block, you either catch the ball or deflect it so the opposing forwards doesn't get it right back again. This is particalarly true for the block against the wall. How many times have you blocked a wall pass, once, twice three times and each time the ball goes back to the opposing forward? I absolutely hate that. This takes a 50% pass and transforms w into an 80% pass. If you've blocked him and the ball goes back to him, it is not an even trade. You have lost in this encounter because that was you're block, your 50%, and you have now shown him how you are reacting to his passes.
Another vital aspect to catching the pass versus giving it back up is, once you start catching your opponent's wall pass for example, they are going to start to get gun-shy. This means on an important pass, guess where he is going to go? To the wall where you've caught the last three passes. This is the time for a major bait uphill.
The defensive five-row is a guessing game alot of the time. Make darn Sure that when you guess, you end up in the hole you mean to be in. Alot of players get caught in between the two blocks. This means you are blocking nothing. Make sure that when you commit to a hole, that you are there to catch, spike or deflect the pass.
If your opponent has a great five, then most of the time the race won't work, unless he telegraphs Most players including myself, have certain idiosynchrasies about their pass that allow you a little bit of forewarning as to what they are going to do. For example: Most forwards who use the squeeze or hover passing series, tend to start their pass from the one side of the ball or another. i.e.. When they do their uphill,they start on the left side of the ball and when they do their downhill it is on the right side of the ball or vise versa. Some people speed up when they do their wall, some slow down. Look for -anything that might give away their pass. Is their shoulder dippinq before they do their fast wall? Does their hand change positions for the chip up? Does their body tense up for the wall and relax for an up? Remember not to be too predictable. The bait defense will not work if you do the same thing every time. If I bait you the wall and catch you -pass, next time I might show you the same bait, the exact same motion that I jumped to the wall on, but now I stay on the uphill.
The last defense is definitly one of the best. An aggresive hard shuffle that forces the forwards to hit the perfect pass. You can also use this if someone has a tendency to go one way or the other, by cheating that way slightly. Locally Roberto has a very good hard shuffle defense. If you are hitting a great pass, you can drill it. If you're a little off, he can block you real well.
Bottom line is to be aggressive as you can without cheating. If someone feels you're jarring and you know you are, cut it out. If you think you are just playing hard and not affecting the roll of the ball, have them call a judge, particularly if you are shutting someone out.
Keep in mind that when you are playing somone a game of "Five-Row" that you practice all three of these defenses in case you need them. A winner adapts.
But you can't adapt and suddenly use a different defense if you have never practiced it.
Please don't hesitate to ask questions, it's the best way to learn.
to Return to the Foosball Source.