last saturday

Saturday.

It felt like I hadn’t played Mike in a long time. Stupid Mike.

Anyway… Mike, Q, and I showed up to the ‘ol BZ for some air hockey action. I met Q at the change machine. I had a feeling he’d be there. I didn’t get a reply from when I texted him letting him know that I and Mike would be there… but I had that feeling. The man is hooked. I shared a quick story about the times I’ve been running a little late to air hockey and getting stuck in traffic… and how it made me angry. I feel like I know what Q is going through… wanting to get better… getting some success, but still not being good enough. Being blown away at how complicated the game can get. Laughing at how stupid someone is for getting faked out, thinking nobody could be that dumb… then going out there and moving that mallet even though you *know* what shot is coming. The physical part is really important early on… but it’s the mental part that makes the game addictive.

Playing a set against Mike and losing 4-0 was pretty frustrating. Y’know, since all but one game went to 6-6. That… and it’s Mike. Stupid Mike. The worst part was that he was playing stupid, and bad defense… and it didn’t seem to matter. Even worse, is that I know what it takes to beat him… and that is being accurate with my shots… and hitting the corner of the goal instead of trying to fake him out. It doesn’t work – because Mike uses a false rail defense. Mark’s shots against him at IL State were accurate.. they weren’t fancy.. just accurate. I beat Mike when my accuracy is good. It also drove me a little nutty because I should have been able to block his lwu better. Too many of his goals didn’t come in with a lot of heat… and I let too many go past. It wasn’t like he was blowing me out of the water… a tiny edge would have meant the difference.

Afterwards, the little smartass shrugged it off like it was no big deal to him to win. He was going off about how he beat Goran 4-1, and that he’s better than him, now. Simple as that. I had to look up the data… holy shit, Mike has beaten Goran 3 times out of the last 6. I had to go back to May to where Goran beat Mike consistently. This is very interesting.

I mean.. certainly, Mike turned some heads in Houston. Billy said a year ago, Mike may not have been in the top 10 IL air hockey players (I can’t remember exactly)… which is a pretty dramatic change. Could Mike be the next great player coming out of IL? Can he supplant Goran as the definitive #2 guy behind Billy? I think a challenge match is in order.

Shit. Just for giggles.

Ok.. so then Mike, Q, and I played a version of ‘winner stays’… where, instead of someone waiting a full game – we reduced it to a point. So, when you got scored on – the third would jump in. It was great in that you played both sides of the table.. you didn’t get a lot of time with just one person for very long… and we just played and played and played. All of us very active and not sitting around much. It took me awhile to even think to count how many people I sat down.. and then Mike made a rule that once someone goes 7 in a row, we’d end the game. I didn’t think this would happen, actually… but we were going to need *some* way for us to know when to stop. (It really creates one of those – just “one more point” kind of syndromes) Both Mike and I got to 6 points and faced Q… who managed to sneak one past us… and kept the game going. Then, since we had been playing solid for over an hour (maybe closer to 2)… we changed the rule again, such that the person who scores – gets possession after each score. We played like this for awhile.. and Mike started to fade. Instead of y’know… saying, “hey guys – I’m done…” he instead got very lax with his defense when he was up… so long as it wasn’t the final point. When I faced Mike after 6.. I knew he’d give me his best. I shot a pretty hard left wall over, and it sunk right off the bat. I saved that shot for him.

Now.. if one were to read that liberal-biased, non-fact checking blog (http://pucksnmallets.wordpress.com/), you would have read that Mike won this little pissing contest… but that would be wrong. I don’t know where Mr. Q got his journalism degree from, but it wasn’t the fancy, correspondence-only school of Burundi, where myself and my dog, Zoe got our degrees from (y’know, I’ve never been able to find that place on a map… I’m assured the campus is “amazing”, though).

New Air Hockey Blog!

Holy Sh*t.

The IL air hockey community is blessed as our new player Brian Q has started his own freakin’ blog… much like mine… but better.

Follow along as Brian increases his skill week after week here

Last week in IL air hockey…

Weekly roundup.

Thursday. Found out the only people interested in playing on Thursday night was Billy and I, so we went to the bowling alley on Western to play. It was odd being recognized. Some kid was there the last time we were there. He even played some other kid there and held the mallet correctly. I believe this is the extent to which I should influence any kid.

In my never-ended effort to find some sort of edge on Billy besides actually getting good – I bought some silly putty and was just playing with it in front of Billy – who desperately wanted it in his hands… and I teased him with it. I’ve begun to recognize a trend in air hockey players, in that they’re all have a serious case of attention deficit disorder. I thought Billy may be the lone standout as one who doesn’t suffer from it… but I was way, way wrong. Anyway, I was thinking I could get him thinking more about the silly putty than the game.. but once we started – he was all business. It was in between games that I was able to fuck with him.

We did have fun when we decided to play a handicapped set. I got a 3 point lead in each game… and it was tied up 3-3 going into the final game… and Billy destroyed me. Still.. lots of fun, and the handicap put pressure on Billy.

Saturday was exciting because we were to have a new player come out. It was pretty interesting to see my development over time, and Brian seems to have the same skills I had when I first started playing. Brian may even have a leg up, since he played with pros in the past. By the time I showed up, Brian was already playing with a triangle defense – and that made him a much better player, already. Billy was showing him a couple things, mostly about stance and some other basic things… I don’t think he even really got into offense, other than for Brian to take advantage of his height and shoot from the centerline. After a brief warmup – he played a set with Eric.

I didn’t get to see much of this because I was playing a set with Billy.. but I remember stopping because Briand was up 3-2 going into what could be the final game and it was at 6-6. I remember Eric having the puck and missing a shot, and Brian coming back with the sweetest rwu I’ve seen him shoot. In practice, Brian’s right wall under seemed pretty weak and I was able to defend it pretty easily – but this last one that finished the game was probably the best shot I’ve seen him take. Talking to Eric that night, he thought he should have won. He didn’t think Brian’s offense was anything special. Them’s fightin’ words. There may be blood on the table the next time they play.

I remember back when I was learning, and Billy had us paring down our offenses to a still puck offense.. and remember playing through that time. Eric’s offense stopped at ‘line attack’ and now that he’s recently added power to his game, I’d suggest he get some new lessons… 1st – would be defense. For instance – when I play Billy, my defense isn’t always good enough… and when Billy is killing me with fast unders/overs.. I’ll go into my shell (I forget the name of this defense).. but it starts when I’m in a triangle… and when Billy hits the puck, I go right to the rail, right in the middle of the goal… forcing him to hit either perfect shots on the corner – or hit straights on me. Billy has mentioned times when he’s gone to a rail defense to beat some elite players… and I think Eric could benefit if he realizes he’s not fast enough or if he realizes he can’t read a shot well enough… that he can use an alternative defense (though I wouldn’t suggest that against Brian). Eric’s got a decent cross.. but it would be a lot better if he hit it with a complimentary shot – like the left wall under. I’d like to see him practice that shot. Basically, I’m saying Eric may want to learn some new tricks – and it’ll be fun for him.

I got in some games with Goran.. and still lost my games.. but I got to trying some other shots against him. I had some success… I still have problems putting him away and winning games when I’m ahead.

After that, Billy, Brian, and I went and played some disc golf. It’s become our new fascination.

Illinois State Tourney

I need to write about this, sorry for not having any great pictures or videos or anything. I didn’t feel so much like an embedded reporter than just a simple participant.

So.. it was nice that it was at a Brunswick Zone that’s different from the one we normally play at. A little change of scenery was welcome. Directions are goofy, and I had 2 friends of mine go to the wrong BZ before finding the place.

My friend, Robb, whom I conned into participating showed up, and I tried to give him a brief 3 point lesson. How to hold the mallet, how to stand, and use the triangle defense. The only thing he seemed to pay attention to was the holding the mallet part. With some Canadian whiskey in hand, he didn’t seem to have the attention span to listen to any more of what I had to say. His whole perspective of showing up at all was that of Hunter S. Thompson in “Fear and Loathing”… he was interested in the “spectacle” of it.

I wasn’t really excited about this tourney, because I figured I’d play all the people I play on a regular basis. There were 2 new faces there that day, and my first set was against one of them. Brian had pretty much the same exact game I had when I started playing out at the BZ. Slow drift, hard, accurate straight shot. Little to no deception. He played a back rail defense, though – and I just hit straight shots on him. I may have attempted a bank shot of some kind 3 games into it… but against a rail defense, banks are unnecessary. I won this one, 4-0.

My next game was against Mark Robbins… and I’ve yet to crack his manic/random style. I imagine I’d do better against him if I had a semblance of a decent defense. I took a game off of him, but that was it.

In this round, Mike played Goran, and upset him (I won money on this, too. Billy and I had some very low stakes betting on the side).

Of course, this meant that I had to play Goran. Me beating Mike in a single set is like 50/50… against Goran… I’ve yet to beat him. I took a game or two from him by getting really vanilla with my offense – doing the super, super slow drift and cocking back for a huge swing. Add some delays, some fakes, and then just hit it home. Again… my defense let me down. Everything scores on me – and I really need to pick a shot to defend and just stick with it. And with that – I was out of the double-elimination tourney, and I never got to play my ‘peers’.. Nick, Mike, and Geoff. Instead I had to play Sean in the spinoffs.

I’m pretty confident against Sean.. and we had some defensive battles going on, but I surprised him with an accurate and powerful forehand, as well as my hard bank shots. I don’t worry about Sean hitting a bank against me, so my defense held up reasonably well… and I beat him fairly easily. There were a couple moments where he gave me a good game, but overall – I didn’t really feel like he had the same tools to use as I. He mentioned that I was a completely different player than what he’d last seen… and he’s right.

With that win – 4 sets, 2-2, I was done, and finished 8th. I beat those I felt I should beat, but didn’t upset anyone. Bummer.

There were a couple sets that were classics. The first, of course, is Mike vs. Goran. Mike plays so well when he wants to give his all. If there was a way he could have that mindset all the time, he’d be great.

An even better match was Goran vs. Geoff. Geoff being Goran’s project… who taught Geoff how to play. Both are capable of a chase game, both are analytic with their game playing. Goran has a bit more power than Geoff, but this time Geoff was able to pull the upset. Instead of Goran in the finals where may would have predicted him to be, he fell out early. Billy thought it was cool that the student beat the teacher… and I told Billy in a few weeks, I’d do the same to him.

Even better than that was Geoff vs. Mike. Mike was winning even with a suspect defense all day. When Geoff was able to hit right wall overs, he was very successful against Mike. Mixing in crosses (Mike’s bane) was also a good strategy. Mike’s offense was on fire, though – and the games were a tossup. In game 7, it was for all the marbles, and both came out with attacks that were working throughout the set. The game got tied at 6-6 and the next point would determine the winner. Geoff came out charging! And everyone around were shaking their heads for doing such a risky move. Both had possessions and both failed to score as Geoff kept going for the right wall over, until finally Mike ripped a nice straight and ended it.

Mike had little time to rest, as he had Mark Robbins to play next – with the winner playing Billy in the finals. We all gathered around to cheer on Mike. Not that we dislike Mark – but because he was a big underdog. I’m pretty sure Mark took the first game before Mike came back and took the next 3 that involved Mike coming back from big deficits. And then something happened. Mark started hitting crosses… and Mike couldn’t block them. It got ridiculous… there was one game where Mark hit nothing but crosses. Inbetween games, we tried to tell Mike to just stop that shot and he’d win. He didn’t think he was flinching, but he was. Mike didn’t appreciate the advice for some reason because he “knew” what was going on… but he was pretty helpless to stop it. In the end, Mark just pounded that shot home – at least 11 times in a row for easy scores… and Mike was done… losing both of his sets to Mark.

…and then Mark played Billy in the finals, and besides a game when Mark just blew Billy out of the water – it was all Billy.

So.. congrats to Billy for doing what was expected and winning, and to Mike – who was involved in the best games… it was great to watch. And thanks to my wife for coming out and putting up with it for a couple hours.

The other great set was Geoff vs. Goran. Geoff defeating Goran in the losers bracket

saturday

Big, big Saturday of air hockey. It’s funny – what I consider a really big day of air hockey is probably a pretty awful day in Houston. We had Danny, Billy, Goran, me, Nick, Mike, Eric, and Brianna show up for a tourney. 8 people.

Due to me losing to Mike, my ranking has tanked. I had to fight off Goran in the first round. Goran always has some kind of voodoo against me. I can’t really figure it out, but I’m starting to see holes that I can exploit. As I’m getting comfortable shooting out of a circle drift, I’ve noticed that I can emulate Donovan’s shots. I think it’s more surprising to see it come from me – but I’ve gotten some pretty easy points off of Goran and Geoff lately. It’s an effective attack that’s not fancy or really too different from what I’ve done in the past. Anyway – in my first couple games against Goran – I was incredibly accurate with my shots. I was hitting straights against him that I normally don’t get. I got it tied up 2 games to 2 games, when I let Goran hit his cross against me. He mixed in just enough lwu’s to get me thinking.. and hit a couple crosses from different parts of the table. He did a good job of catching me not recentering… thus Goran worked his magic against me once again and took the set. Still, it was probably my best set against Goran. Something must’ve clicked in his brain after playing me, because he killed Billy 4-0.

So, I headed into the loser’s bracket, and played Eric. I normally plow right through Eric… and even though it doesn’t feel like he’s getting better – the scores would indicate that he’s making great strides. He’s not scoring on himself like he has in the past, and he’s able to rip a pretty good rwu sometimes. His defense is still a little rough, but everything is getting slightly better. He even took a game off me this set. I think he just needs to get fast… just work on hitting everything harder and get used to a puck moving really fast. Like, he should just spend a day playing the chase game with a goal blocker until his arm hurts. Kid played baseball.. if he can hit a fastball, I’m sure this will start working for him. Real shame he may not make the tourney.

So, with my win, I was slated to play Nick, who beat Mike, then lost to Danny. In our first game, I got caught up in his bullshit. Nick was playing very fast, but enough in control that he was getting goals past me… I made too many stupid mistakes, and Nick won the first game. The 2nd game, I went into slow motion. I took my sweet old time, and hit lots of offgoals… either cut shots that miss left and come back to me, or off-goals that hit the corner and come back. Nick got incredibly impatient. My attack consisted of cuts and right wall unders… that’s it. I hit so many off-goal cuts, it really set up my right wall under. It made it unstoppable. I’d dribble the puck.. drift it over the middle.. cut-shot. Repeat. Should Nick get the puck – he was being so impatient that he would hit pot shot after pot shot… rarely, if ever, setting up his shot. I won the next 2 games handily, and in the 3rd – Nick started shagging more of my pucks… kind of expected since I didn’t alter my strategy… but in the 4th game – tied 6-6, I just got pigheaded about it, and won the game. The last game, Nick got even more desperate and tried to get transition shots every chance he got. He’d usually miss and I’d get the puck back – and I’d take my time… and I knew I was driving Nick nuts. When the set was over, he blew up. He was just really pissed off.

…after a cigarette, Nick came back in and Danny had some words of wisdom for him. Now, Danny isn’t going to lecture anyone…. When Danny talks – it’s like he’s dumping wisdom on people… more of a “Hey, by the way…”. He talked to Nick about being a good loser. How losing is an experience in learning, and that losing makes you better… and this isn’t just in air hockey – but permeates your life. Losing is a part of winning. If you’ve ever seen Danny play… he’s not blowing smoke up your ass when he says this. Most players when they make a mistake, will sometimes yell at themselves for making a mistake. Danny’s play is a string of compliments. “perfect shot” is what he’d say most times. It’s like he loves to see the game played at its best, even if he isn’t the one doing it. I wonder if Nick will take what Danny said to heart. Danny, Eric, and I watched Nick play Mike. After awhile, Nick didn’t set up a single shot. Danny thought most of his drifts were out of control and that it was unlikely he could hit out of many of his fancy drifts. Everything Nick did against Mike was rushed and run on pure instinct.

Oh yeah, and then I met Billy in the loser’s bracket. Yeah.. that was fun. Billy was pissed about losing to Goran, so he pretty much walked all over me. Not much to talk about there. So, I got kicked out of the tourney by Billy… not the worst way to go.

After Danny beat Billy in the finals, I got the chance to play him. I think I did pretty well. I think it was 7-5, 7-6, and 7-3, and I did a really good job of blocking his off-speed shots, but that’s not really good enough to beat the best. I’m pretty sure I led in each game at some point. The third game was worst.. I gave up the puck and lost control. Danny was also reading my shots like a book, putting his mallet in places where he anticipated I’d shoot – and did so with clairvoyant accuracy. It was weird.

Mark showed up as I was leaving… predictably, 4 hours late. I imagine I’ll see him next week.