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First games I got to play were in my Family's home town at a small arcade/game room/cafe/bar. Played a bunch... They let me do whatever I wanted. All doubles, won like 10 lost 2. No one knew how to defend a Pull or Push shot. The feet are tiny so getting around the ball was easy ... problem was getting to sit still.
At the end of the trip I went to a tournament in Rome ... Whole different story. Stronger Competition and RULES, RULES, RULES.
So, here's my synopsis of Tournament Foosball (ie. Calcio Balilla) - Italian Style ... INSANE !!!!
The competition table used now-a-days is "Roberto Sport". Please keep in mind that the Men's feet are way smaller & Square ... And the Light, Plastic, White Balls, never roll straight, and are nearly impossible to Pin or make sit still.
They understand 3 different styles of play, but for Competition purposes only play their crazy ass currently accepted style.
Here's a Breakdown of the 3 styles from Least Played to Competition Style.
American Style - They had another name for it, but I can't remember what. Basically, exactly how we play. Most everything goes, except spins. They never ever play this style ... I had to tell them 5-Bar shots were OK. Only played some pick-up games with me so they could see how we play the sport in the USA. Held my own this way Won 2, Lost 1.
When we played this way they basically stuck to their "Traditional" Style (ie. See the next section), but added in Stick Lane & Brush Passes and Push/Pull Kicks. One guy had an excellent Sling Shot and his Reverse Sling Shot was even better ... He had by far the best ball control of everyone there.
Traditional Style - Also know as "Naturale". I'm guessing this is how they used to play before the "Competition Style" came. So, basically with this style almost everything must be played "Off the Side Wall" before advancing (ie. Passing from 5-3 rod, or shooting). For example ... On the 3-Rod they would bounce off the side wall and then wait and chop the ball with one of the 3 guys. Lots of fakes and angle shots involved to try and score. Passing would bounce off the side wall and brush up or brush down. 2-Rod shots would bounce off the side wall and shoot with either guy or hit Bank Shots (Obviously, these were all Rolling Banks ... For this style and the Next Rolling 2-rod Banks were attempted 75% of the time). You could catch/stop/control the ball, but had to then use the side wall to pass/shoot.
No Pull, Push, Pull/Push Kicks, Pins (tough to do anyway), slingshots allowed.
No straight brush ups / brush downs, stick lanes allowed. I sucked ass ... lost every singles & doubles pick-up game I played.
Competition Style - The current style of play that can best be described as "1-Ball Roller Ball without any sort of rolling set-up shot what-so-ever". Almost any shot you can name is illegal, except for the bank shot, drive-bys, alley-ops, and 3-Bar to 5-Bar shots. NO controlling the ball allowed. If you touch the ball off the side or back wall and then touch it again with the same rod the ball is re-dropped. They allowed something called "One Touch" where you could block a shot with the 2-Rod then hit it again with the same rod, but if you waited more than a second to do so ... re-drop. A typical ball in play went like this ... A serve needs to hit the opposite wall to be legal. 3 failed attempts gives the serve to the other team. A successful serve hits the far wall and comes back to the server's side of the 5-Rod where he attempts a 5-Bar shot as hard as possible. Ball ricochets around, defenseman makes a save, ball rolls into the corner, rolls back down, and he attempts a Bank Shot, etc. Very Fast, Very Hard Shooting, kind of fun, but our version in Better :)
