Anyway, to make a long story short, I have decided to practice the snake shot. I ruled out the push shot because, while practicing the push, a very good player who rarely gives out advice came over to me and said something to the effect of, "Do yourself a favor and never shoot that shot ever again! There is a reason why you don't see any of the top pros shooting that shot". You can't argue much with that logic. So it was down to the pull or snake.
All that means is that that player tried that shot and FAILED at making it a part of his arsenal. Yes it would save time and concentrate your practice on one killshot. But you have to decide what to practice for 1. Your main kill or "money" shot, 2. Your secondchoice shot for sneak attacks and weaker opponents, and 3. Your playful or fancy shots.
Yes, you must decide on a kill shot because you play competitive fooz, and just like any game or sport you wish to be good at, you have to have that shot that you can "groove" on and call upon when you MUST make a shot. I agree that the snake is easy to learn to be good at, but your secondary shot (pullshot of course) must also be practiced. Why? Because as you get higher up in skill and play against better and better goalkeepers, you have to have alternatives. I compare goalkeeping to batting at the plate, protecting the strike zone (the goal). What do you notice about great pitchers? They have an arsenal of pitches (shots)!!!! They may have a money pitch, but the best pitchers have three or four!! You always have to TAKE WHAT THE DEFENSE GIVES YOU.
How? Easy as scoring a straight on a rookie or scrub goalie! When the goalkeeper bricks a succession of your shots without breaking a sweat, even when you're completely warmed up, THAT's the CLUE!! One or two secondary shots (HOLD ON: secondary means you've practiced these shots, maybe not as much as your primary, but practiced nonetheless!) might smoke the same goalkeeper.. without you, the pitcher or the forward shooting, burning out your best strokes and kicking yourself with consternation every time you flub an easy point! Just reload every time you get a chance to shoot, to make sure your muscles have recovered and are ready to draw on muscle memory like Michael Jordan's fadeaways or Dan Marino's passes. You know how those shots that have a screwed-up takeoff or a mishit look. THEY FEEL WRONG FROM THE START.
I've found that my two secondary shots and soon a third (moving Florida T from the middle frontpin) are extremely effective in going by a sloppy or scrub goalkeeper. I do not waste my time. I also detest having a rookie goalie figuring out how to anticipate my killshot (some do). Pros & Promasters do the same thing... after scoring with their two or three kill shots to keep their hand in, they will start with auxiliary shots and dinks and quicksets against weaker opponents. They save their mental preparedness, their muscle tone, and their stress levels for the bigger matches. Weaker opponents do NOT DESERVE MORE THAN ONE OR TWO of your killshots. One or two good secondary shots that work prevent your better opponents waiting and watching on the sidelines to check your killzones and tendencies. If you have watched Rob Mares and Tommy Adkisson win their Worlds and other majors, they would go with either Tommy's quick snake or pull, or Rob Mares' longer snake series. This and quicksets would keep their opponents off-balance. When Frederico came along, he would shoot and concentrate on one side or the other and then adjust even when he had drilled that side.
That's why Adam usually will shoot straights all night, especially on weaker opponents, after he's made sure his long and split set pullshots are working. He mixes these well with his tick-tack crossover pushkicks to the split. Gary Gold will drill you for a year down the middle or with simple 1inch rollovers if you show that he doesn't have to go long. That's also why your brother Mark's snakeshot, which I've seen him continue to keep shooting despite easier holes, can desert him at the worst times (4-all or meatball). A rookie tendency after making a great long is to keep shooting faster, longer, & harder. This can work for a match or two, but high experts, pros, & promasters will show their kill series on a long if THAT IS WHAT THE D KEEPS GIVING THEM. Otherwise they will not keep pullshooting or snakeing until they burn out and wonder why they can't seem to get their muscles to keep doing these high-concentration reps. This can stress out your limited concentration (everyone only brings a certain amount of concentration to each match, whether for shooting, passing, or defending) and lead to "brainlock" on the 5man: you keep getting impatient to try the shot again and hurry up and stop smoothing out your passing to the 3man.
Do you notice what Barry Bonds or Cesar Pujols or A-Rod (think of them like goalkeepers protecting their goal) do to the best pitchers that challenge them with their overhurled best pitch? Barry Bonds, steroids or not, can name every homer that he hit against every pitcher that year, and he embarasses them with this every time he comes to the plate. He couldn't do this to even an old fogie like Rocket Clemens or to Pedro Martinez (before he got unpopular) .. They could decide to keep striking players out with a nasty slider or split-finger, but could also decide cold-bloodedly to throw an 85mph breaking ball that would drop almost two inches within the strike zone. These were all KILLSHOTS.
So, practice your killshots to the max on your own or while warming up, have at least one other killshot, and have auxiliary shots to destroy the scrubs, and take what the D is giving you. Do not develop "tells" by overshooting your killshot like Mark does. You can even note that several of our excitable experts fall prey to the "HARDER, LONGER, STUPIDER.." trap when shooting. Heheheheh... I LOVE THOSE GUYS!!!! You know whom I am talking about. We are human, and we need to be in a "zone" or "groove" when shooting (passing, too!), and we can practice technique to not waste any concetration on killshots. We can have fun with weaker players with auxiliary shots.
CLARIFICATION: A set long pullshot with the straight or split options (long-split-straight) IS A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT shot from a moving quickset short or long pullshot. A Euro front-pin shot off of a moving roll dribble is totally different from a Euro front-pin from a stopped or slightly swaying center position, same with a snake. A tick-tack quickset pullkick is also quite different from a set long-dink-split set pullkick series. It sure helps to have variations of the same basic shot (snake vs pullkick vs pull vs push vs Euro). Staying within the same basic shot saves practice time, but REMEMBER, these don't force the goalkeeper to make extreme defensive strategy adjustments. AND the secondaries MUST BE PRACTICED to make them good for use as secondary shots.
Remember that everyone loses in a tournament except one team, and they may even lose too, before winning out. Just like treading water: treading faster than you need only burns you out. Remembering how the steady-state feels and going on automatic is better than thinking about treading concsciously.
