Not merely a bar game to play while drinking some beer. Foosball is an actual sport with profesional players, tournament tours, and many obsessed fans.

A foosball table has a total of eight rods running horizontally across the table and a goal at either end. There are three types of rods. The 5 man rod, the 3 man rod, and the 2 man rod. If you made one person red (r) and the other blue (b), the order of the bars would go like this: 3b-2b-3r-5b-5r-3b-2r-3r. (I tried to not make that confusing but I think I failed)

The rules are fairly simple. After the ball is served through a hole in the side of the table, the players twist their respective rods to "kick" the ball with their men. The first person to get the ball in to the opponents goal scores a point and the ball is then served again. Play continues until one person scores ten points.

Of course, there are some other smaller rules (the most important being NO SPINNING the rods) but, when learning the game, this is all the game boils down to.

No game would be complete without it's finer points, and foos ball is no exception. What follows are examples of shots, players, and slang used within the game.

Shots:
1. The Auto Stuff: Angling your forward 3 man so any shot from the opponents defense will bounce off his "toe" and back into the goal.
2. The Snake Shot: Pinning the ball under the toe of your man while being angled slightly forward. Then pushing/pulling the ball and rotating your man very fast over the top over the rod in one motion. Thus the ball is moved and shot in one very quick motion.
3. Front Bank: Banking the ball against a wall using an outer man on your 3 man rod. Hard to do with much force but eventually become natural.
4. The Weasel Shot: Trapping the ball against a wall then slamming it into the wall with your man. Shoots off at a strange angle, and at high speed. Best used from the 5 man.

Types of players:
1. Bar Player: A person who has a good shot with his 3 man, but lacks ball control. Hence, is only used to playing in bars.
2. Battle-Hardened: A profesional grade player. Has usually played in a tournament for some money. Only takes good shots, and never loses a loose ball.
3. Foosball-Widow: a girlfriend or boyfriend who hasn't been exposed to the game much. Or has been ignored due to the power of the foos.

Slang: 1. Hearing birds: Taking or receiving a cheap shot. (cheap, cheap.)
2. Lemming: A ball that will slowly roll untouched across the table to drop into a goal. The most annoying thing in foosball.
3. The Worm: A poorly executed Snake Shot.

Once you start to play it will be hard to stop. Here's some tips from me. Practice your shots. Now practice them again. Learn to move your hands fast. If you can beat your opponent to the other end of the table, that's a free shot! Learn to get your 5 man out of the way. There's nothing worse than your defense getting blocked by your own man. Consider getting a Gauntlet of D, it really helps.

Most importantly have fun, and enjoy the game.

I've run across some other odd shots and styles of foosball table:

(CAUTION) Spin shot, executed by trapping the ball under any 'man' in the back (i.e., toward your own goal) of his swing and forcing the ball to move forward with fair speed. This shot causes the ball to accelerate, decelerate or curve as it travels. If you're not careful, the ball will go backwards instead (or you could break something). Also, if you're going to lose the ball behind you to your opponent, you can sometimes get it back with light spin.

Pass shot, executed with the 2- or 3-man bars. Pass the ball (parallel to the bars) from one man to another on the same bar then take a shot with the man you passed to. With a little practice this is a good shot to get around many tough defenses.

Indirect shot, performed with any but the goalie. Start with the ball between two men on a given bar. Hit it with one man so that the ball rolls (mostly) parallel to the bar with good speed, but don't follow through with the shot. Instead, as you hit, stop your men so they're only a little forward of straight up and down so that the ball will deflect off the other man. I can only do this one by accident so far, but it's a crazy shot. Maybe a picture would help. "B" is the bottom of the men's feet, "O" is the ball...

B _ _ _\
 ^     /
 |
 O
B

Bank shot, executed anywhere. Bounce the ball off a wall toward the opponent's goal. It's impossible to block off every angle, so with a fast shot and good angle control you can make shots from anywhere on the table.

Another table style is to have a single-man goalie bar on the extreme ends (instead of a 3-man in the goalie line), and sloping corners to replace the need to get the ball out of the corner. This table is more (and less...) like soccer because there are then eleven 'men'. This is the table style that I play on most often, and some shots can be made from rolling around the sloping corner (blockable, but it's difficult).

Game styles include any number of players from 2 up to 4 (or 8 if you want a crazy game). 2-player is straightforward; each player has 4 bars to control (1- or 3-man, 2-man, 5-man and 3-man). 3-player is often called "cutthroat": only the player on a side by themselves can score, and if the 2-person team makes a goal then everyone rotates. 4-player is just like 2-player except with 2-player teams. Putting any more than 4 players on a table means that at least two people can only control one bar at a time, and this is usually more difficult because it is crowded.

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For some trick shots and amazing footage, check out http://www.canadafoos.com/.