The dead man shot can turn out to be a pretty effective foosball shot, although it isn’t exactly as easy as the pull or even push shot.
The idea of this shot revolves around taking the shot by aiming the part of the goal which your opponent is in no position to defend, simply because they have used a certain type of defense that won’t allow them to cover a small part of the goal.
An Overview of the Dead Man Shot
Look at some videos of how the shot works. I recommend using the Youtube player controls to slow each shot down to as slow as it can go so you can see what is happening.
You can see the ball whip to the right of the screen quickly, and then the man who originally passed the ball catches up to it as it bounces back to him and fires a shot between the defender and the goalie into the bottom right corner.
You can see it here, too, if you slow it down enough. The man passes, basically catches his own pass at the farthest possible spot, and then wires it home.
This one is a little less polished, but there’s more of an explanation given for what’s going on.
We will be talking about the pull dead man shot in this post, although you can pretty much use this information to take a push dead man shot as well.
While taking a pull dead man shot, your opponent must have pushed their 2 bar defensive men completely to your side of the foosball table. This means that the defensive man in front of the goal cannot move towards your side of the table any further, leaving a small part of the goal in a very vulnerable position.
This part is exactly where you’re supposed to aim while taking the shot.
As the defensive man in front of the goal cannot move any further to defend it, you’re quite likely to end up scoring a goal. This is also the reason why it’s called a “dead man” shot, as the man just cannot move to defend that part of the goal.
Taking the Dead Man Shot
As mentioned earlier, it’s quite a difficult shot to master and will need a lot of practice. You cannot expect the ball to hit the goal simply by hitting straight. You may want to move the ball back and forth for some time, just to avoid giving any hints to your opponent, as they still can use their middle goalie to defend the shot.
You will also need to hit the ball from the far end of your offensive men’s bar to your end, and then use your middle offensive man to take the shot. This way, you will be hitting the ball from an accurate angle.
Understanding the Defense Style
Again, we would like to remind you that for this shot to work, your opponent needs to follow a specific way of defending. If you’re trying to take a pull dead man shot, your opponent needs to be defending the goal with the 2 bar defensive man closest to them, and vice versa if you’re trying to take a push dead man shot.
Similarly, you may also want to avoid going for the dead man shots if your opponent is moving their middle goalie back and forth, and would be able to defend the part of the goal you will be aiming for.