18-Nov-2008, 01:05 PM
pulled from the Foosball board
This is going to be long, so my apologies and be forewarned.
I think momentum is one of the hugest parts of the game. If it's a tight match, momentum can definitely make it or break it.
There's different ways of looking at momentum. There's getting on a role where one team is overpowering the other and making a few consecutive points. And there's setting the pace in a match, like the tempo, or speed in which the team's are playing at.
I agree with Jim that if the other team has score a few points in a row, then a time out would probably be a good idea. You also don't want to mess with your own momentum, so you would need to be aware of that as well. (A story for an example. OD losers side..fifth game. They got a few quick goals and were up 4-2. The goalie got the ball in the back and for no reason used up their last time out. Guess he wanted a beer break and was feeling confident. Well, the forward knew, as I knew, that that put a whole lot of pressure on them now. So, the goalie calls time in, then turns the ball over to me. I score it and immediately turn to my partner and say, "no matter what happens....DO NOT call a time out. We do not want to give them a chance to relieve the pressure that's on them now." I end up stealing the pass, passing and scoring, now...4-4. The forward tries to pass, whiffs, gets the rebound, tries another pass, miss executes again, it hits my guy and slops in. So, they ended up winning, but the bigger point is....the momentum which was in our favor that I didn't want to mess with. All the pressure was on them and they had no more time outs. If we had taken a time out we would have given them time to settle back in.)
Setting the pace, or tempo of a match is important as well. Again, I agree with Jim that you should play your own speed, but there does need to be room for adjusting. You should be comfortable with speeding up the pace or slowing it down. You also wanna think about taking your opponent out of their comfort pace, so be aware of what speed they are good at playing at and make them play to your own. If they play well at your pace, then try speeding things up a bit or slowing it down, but keep it the opposite of where they are good at playing at. You can also vary the pace between partners. I've asked my goalie to keep their pace slow, while I kept mine faster. (Another story for an example. I was playing this team where the forward played at a faster speed and was a very quick reaction type player. I found my partner and myself falling into their pace and we were not playing at the pace where we were comfortable. The result was rushing and some misexecutions from my goalie and quite a few pick ups by the other forward. I told my partner, "we need to slow down because this guy plays better faster. He has quick reflexes, so playing faster works in his favor. If we slow it down he will overreact and start to miss pick ups." Another issue was my goalie bailing out of the way of his shot because he was overanticipating it. I told him to not think about defending him for the first three seconds and let him shoot into his men. Well, it all worked. The forward ended up missing pickups, making more mistakes and just not getting the so called breaks he was getting earlier. We came back in the match and pretty much dominated the rest of it. In my opinion, it was the turning point of the match for sure.)
So, to answer your questions more directly...
>What do you do to counter act that, other than the obvious? (I have a tendency to grab for the ball and get more aggressive, which seems to fuel their momentum).
There's that little saying..."never let them see you sweat." Or the other one, which I love, "don't wake the sleeping tiger." Those two sayings work pretty well in this case. You really gotta put on a poker face while playing. Yes, having emotion is good at times, but it's up to the player to figure out when it's good and when it's not good. Sometimes all a player needs is a good burst of emotion from their opponent to fire themself up. If what you are doing is working for you at the time, then you really shouldn't change anything. If you start to get fired up, the opponent can get fired up from that. Although, players can also get intimidated by emotion. It really is up to the player to be aware of what causes a positive reaction or negative reaction in their opponent.
>If i went wall last and they caught on that quick, should i switch to a brush series, or drill wall harder and faster than before, in attempt to kill their momentum? Chip lane or will that be predictable?
My simplest answer to this is....play your game and adjust when necessary. If you try too hard to manipulate what's going on, you can expend more energy worrying about stuff that is not important and take yourself out of your game. Play your game until you need to adjust accordingly. But...be aware to not adjust too early. Players can sometimes outthink themselves and adjust before they need to. Sometimes the best adjustment is no adjustment at all. However, it is very important to learn when and how to adjust and readjust in a match. I always say, "he who makes the last adjustment usually comes out the winner."
>I guess my question comes down to how do you control/take over momentum whether it has been taken from you , or you are attempting to keep it. Any suggestions?
You need to be aware of when it's happening, what it is, and then figure out what you need to do to change it. That sounds pretty obvious and relatively simple on paper, but when you're in a match, it's not always that obvious or simple.
It sounds to me like you need to figure out what works for you and then make the necessary adjustments along the way. It really does vary from situation to situation and I think the only way you can learn something like this is through experience. Just remember to be aware of it when it's happening so you can make the adjustments before it's too late.
That's about all I got...thank goodness, I'm sure.:p
*hugs*
Moya
This is going to be long, so my apologies and be forewarned.
I think momentum is one of the hugest parts of the game. If it's a tight match, momentum can definitely make it or break it.
There's different ways of looking at momentum. There's getting on a role where one team is overpowering the other and making a few consecutive points. And there's setting the pace in a match, like the tempo, or speed in which the team's are playing at.
I agree with Jim that if the other team has score a few points in a row, then a time out would probably be a good idea. You also don't want to mess with your own momentum, so you would need to be aware of that as well. (A story for an example. OD losers side..fifth game. They got a few quick goals and were up 4-2. The goalie got the ball in the back and for no reason used up their last time out. Guess he wanted a beer break and was feeling confident. Well, the forward knew, as I knew, that that put a whole lot of pressure on them now. So, the goalie calls time in, then turns the ball over to me. I score it and immediately turn to my partner and say, "no matter what happens....DO NOT call a time out. We do not want to give them a chance to relieve the pressure that's on them now." I end up stealing the pass, passing and scoring, now...4-4. The forward tries to pass, whiffs, gets the rebound, tries another pass, miss executes again, it hits my guy and slops in. So, they ended up winning, but the bigger point is....the momentum which was in our favor that I didn't want to mess with. All the pressure was on them and they had no more time outs. If we had taken a time out we would have given them time to settle back in.)
Setting the pace, or tempo of a match is important as well. Again, I agree with Jim that you should play your own speed, but there does need to be room for adjusting. You should be comfortable with speeding up the pace or slowing it down. You also wanna think about taking your opponent out of their comfort pace, so be aware of what speed they are good at playing at and make them play to your own. If they play well at your pace, then try speeding things up a bit or slowing it down, but keep it the opposite of where they are good at playing at. You can also vary the pace between partners. I've asked my goalie to keep their pace slow, while I kept mine faster. (Another story for an example. I was playing this team where the forward played at a faster speed and was a very quick reaction type player. I found my partner and myself falling into their pace and we were not playing at the pace where we were comfortable. The result was rushing and some misexecutions from my goalie and quite a few pick ups by the other forward. I told my partner, "we need to slow down because this guy plays better faster. He has quick reflexes, so playing faster works in his favor. If we slow it down he will overreact and start to miss pick ups." Another issue was my goalie bailing out of the way of his shot because he was overanticipating it. I told him to not think about defending him for the first three seconds and let him shoot into his men. Well, it all worked. The forward ended up missing pickups, making more mistakes and just not getting the so called breaks he was getting earlier. We came back in the match and pretty much dominated the rest of it. In my opinion, it was the turning point of the match for sure.)
So, to answer your questions more directly...
>What do you do to counter act that, other than the obvious? (I have a tendency to grab for the ball and get more aggressive, which seems to fuel their momentum).
There's that little saying..."never let them see you sweat." Or the other one, which I love, "don't wake the sleeping tiger." Those two sayings work pretty well in this case. You really gotta put on a poker face while playing. Yes, having emotion is good at times, but it's up to the player to figure out when it's good and when it's not good. Sometimes all a player needs is a good burst of emotion from their opponent to fire themself up. If what you are doing is working for you at the time, then you really shouldn't change anything. If you start to get fired up, the opponent can get fired up from that. Although, players can also get intimidated by emotion. It really is up to the player to be aware of what causes a positive reaction or negative reaction in their opponent.
>If i went wall last and they caught on that quick, should i switch to a brush series, or drill wall harder and faster than before, in attempt to kill their momentum? Chip lane or will that be predictable?
My simplest answer to this is....play your game and adjust when necessary. If you try too hard to manipulate what's going on, you can expend more energy worrying about stuff that is not important and take yourself out of your game. Play your game until you need to adjust accordingly. But...be aware to not adjust too early. Players can sometimes outthink themselves and adjust before they need to. Sometimes the best adjustment is no adjustment at all. However, it is very important to learn when and how to adjust and readjust in a match. I always say, "he who makes the last adjustment usually comes out the winner."
>I guess my question comes down to how do you control/take over momentum whether it has been taken from you , or you are attempting to keep it. Any suggestions?
You need to be aware of when it's happening, what it is, and then figure out what you need to do to change it. That sounds pretty obvious and relatively simple on paper, but when you're in a match, it's not always that obvious or simple.
It sounds to me like you need to figure out what works for you and then make the necessary adjustments along the way. It really does vary from situation to situation and I think the only way you can learn something like this is through experience. Just remember to be aware of it when it's happening so you can make the adjustments before it's too late.
That's about all I got...thank goodness, I'm sure.:p
*hugs*
Moya
"Man's way to God is with beer in hand." - some Belgium monk
