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Order Online
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1-800 770-4263
Uptrend
Industries Ltd.
UPS
shipping from
east & west coast
1927 Boblett Street
Blaine, WA 98230
Tel: (604) 961-1698
Fax: (604) 936-8862
uptrend@tablesoccer.com
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For other game
tables, visit our partner site below
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About us and the Rock-it foosball (table soccer)
tables
We are a company founded by foosball
enthusiasts who share a passion in improving the quality of foosball
playing for consumers. After studying dozens of tables on the market
through critical eyes of an educated consumer, we identified many
areas of design and manufacturing we can improve upon in our quest to
build tables with rich features and quality material that can live up
to our un-yielding standards of User-friendliness, Playability, and
Durability. We believe consumers deserve and appreciate these
quality aspects when buying a luxury product like a foosball
table.
How to choose a
foosball table
When
trying out at local stores or shopping online, consumers can greatly
increase product satisfaction by looking into the following areas of
concern in advance:
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- Who will play the
foosball mostly? Age, Height, Hand strength
level
- Is safety a concern for you? Will children be around
often to play and watch the game?
Traditional solid rods go through the sidewalls. They can poke the rival player's
stomach, children's faces If they are around and looking on. This is a
seriously under-reported injury and should make parents or
child-care givers very concerned. Telescopic
rods are definitely
a better choice for safety reasons in addition to the
excellent manoeuvrability.
- Feel of play. Generally defined as the ability to
allow the player to manoeuvre the rods and playing figures
to effectively control ball movements in pre-empting rival
player's defence and executing various trick shots. This is
a results of a whole range of design details (or the lack
of) as listed below:
- Gap between the tip of the
foot and the playing field, often too wide
on many tables that the ball can not be reached in
many dead spots.
- A good foot shape
with large surface at front and back as well as on
both sides to pin down or stop the ball from
getting to rival's zone of control and pass laterally
to the men on the same rod. Without such design,
the ball can easily slip away to the rival's
territory -- very frustrating. Good ball control
is half of the game won.
- Light rods, grippy
handles, and lubrication. Less inertia to
overcome and no slipping ensure fast response and
good ball control with less strain on muscle or
wrist injury. Telescopic rods or hollow rods are definitely
better.
- Playing figure coverage
overlap. Certain overlap is desired so that
each man can cover a wider area crossing over the
coverage zone of next man on the same rod . A
1.5" overlap is the least required on the
3-man offence rod and 2-man defence rod. A 1"
overlap is a plus on the 5-man rod. This allows
more flexibility in the use of men for any ball
position and increases the angle of offence and
defence. No overlap or even falling short of
covering the whole line is bad, creating spots no
man on that rod can reach. There are indeed tables
like that.
- Field surface and ball
surface. These surfaces, if too smooth or slippery, contribute to difficulties of
ball control. Soccer look-like
balls do not help. Ball material is the most
important factor.
- Do the men wiggle on the
rod? If they do, expect them to wiggle even
more and more over time since the gaps expand on
frequent impact from kicking the ball. It feels
like playing soccer wearing an over-sized shoe.
This tends to happen to low-end tables with
frequent men replacements.
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- Overall features offered. Besides the obvious, some
extra features can greatly enhance user-friendliness and
satisfaction:
- Weight-balanced men
that can be placed horizontal so your own
men's feet do not block your own shots from the
back field (by the defence & goalie rods)
- Side slopes on both
sides of the playing field to make the ball roll
off and towards the centre so the ball does not
get stuck on the side. Most tables use plastic
add-ons. On Rock-it, this side slope
(1" in width) is built in as a part of the
playing field.
- Machine-ground balls
to achieve a rough surface on balls of
slightly elastic material, for good ball control.
- Relatively flat playing
field board supported underneath by strong
supports.
- Pre-assembled table
structure or pre-installed men on rods to
reduce installation time.
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- Sturdiness
- Table construction material, surface finishing
- Parts durability
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This section is undergoing a re-writing. |
FAQs
| . How are the playing rods constructed? |
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Playing rods and
how easily they can be handled during fast-paced playing are the single
most important factor determining whether or how much fun a foosball
table can offer the end user. This is mostly decided at the drawing
board. Good playing rods should be mobilized easily by the player and
should closely follow hand motion to pass the ball and make or block shots. If the rods can
not be moved fast enough to catch the ball or to make a planned shot, it is the most frustrating
thing in the world. In
such situations, no intended shots can be executed; the sense of
satisfaction and fairness is lost; the arm gets tired quickly or even
injured. Some people resort to spinning the rods to
strike the ball at random. There is no fun playing this way. One could
find such tables everywhere. Yes, frequent lubrication of the
rods can help. Some lubricants can even become very sticky after a
while to make rod handling even harder. The problem just doesn't go away.
Since rough rod handling is caused by
too much friction inside the rod bushing / bearing, and friction is a
function of weight on the contact surface, reducing rod weight and
thus the contact surface friction is the only viable long-term
solution to the problem. Imagine holding a 7-pound rod (traditional
solid rods) and trying to overcome weight and friction. How can the
player catch the ball or make pre-emptive shots when the hand
and wrist are so much burdened?
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| . Telescopic rods vs. Solid rods
vs. Hollow rods
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The foosball industry has recognized the need to reduce rod weight for easy handling.
Some manufacturers use hollow rods with a small hollow hole going
through the centre of the rods. These hollow rods are still very
heavy. They also extend outside the side walls, which can be a safety
hazard. Then
telescopic rod structure came with the inside rod mounted to one side
wall without going through it and the outside rod being the only
moving part. The outside rod is weighed a small portion of the solid rod of
the same diameter beside shortened length. There is much less inertia to
overcome while handling the rods, and they react quickly and easily to
players' hand operation.
However, telescopic rods must be constructed
with particular material and dimensions to best balance
strength, weight and space for the inner rod.
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| . What makes the
Rock-it's telescopic rods so
different and special then?
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A.
Smooth handling
The outside rod -- the
only moving par of the rod assembly -- is light and
responsive. It weighs only 1.1 lb. (Family version) and 2.2 lb.
(Rock-it version) respectively, less than
30% of the weight
of the traditional solid rod with up to 30% reduction in
length. The result is a remarkable improvement in ease of
handling and heightened excitement due to players' ability to manoeuvre
the rods and playing men to quickly react to the ball,
block a shot, and pass the ball to a gap for a pre-emptive
strike. The rod assembly is constructed with optimal inside /
outside rod dimensions for proper balance between weight and
strength. This rod structure encourages use of skills and takes non-human factors out of winning a game.
Rod lubrication can further improve handling.
Oil-based hand lotion is our recommendation for
lubricants. They can be
found in local stores in the body care section. Other kinds of
lubricants often contain strong odour not safe for indoor use
and do not function as well in our trials.
B. Strength without the excessive weight
Rock-it's telescopic rods are
made of
commercial grade cold-drawn seamless steel pipes. They perform impressively on pressure
tests, heat-treated to stand
100-250 lb. without bending. Rods are of a steel grade with high wall thickness
and a diameter of 3/4" -- above the industry standard of
5/8" in diameter. For the Junior Version, the
telescopic rods have shown to endure 50--120 lb. of
sustained pressure without bending.
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| .
Rod bushing vs. Ball bearing |
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Recently, nylon ball bearings have been seen to replace rod
bushings to facilitate rod handling by reducing friction
against solid rod movement. These bearings work well to certain
extent, especially in facilitating spinning. However, a simple
try-out will show that weight of the solid rods can still
greatly reduce the speed at which rods are moved laterally.
Inertia of the 7-lb. rods just feels too heavy to pull or push
fast enough to keep up with the pace of the game. Many
skill shots rely heavily on rod speed to pass around the blocking
men to score. Heavy inertia just slows down rod speed and
compromises skill execution even with no friction. Furthermore,
some customers report that the small nylon balls in the
bearings can easily dislocate and fall out, especially after
playing wears the balls into smaller and skewed shapes, leaving a layer of nylon residue on the rods
which may also obstruct rod
handling. Sometimes the rods may even seize as tiny plastic
balls get stuck in the bearing.
On the other hand, with light telescopic
rods, friction is much smaller in all contact areas. Ball
bearings are not needed. In fact, some industry insiders admit
that ball bearings are more a marketing gimmick than a real
treat. So when you see a foosball table with ball bearings, do
not just try the rod spinning ( it spins great, for some time), try to move
the rods fast laterally too, to catch a flying ball and do
some ball passes.
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| .
Rubber block bumpers vs. Progressive springs |
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A simple survey
of some foosball tables around you could indicate the
following: when solid rods are pushed or pulled forcefully in
intense play to cause the rubber bumpers to hit the side walls
hard, these side walls may bend a bit and yield to such impact
and shake the game structure built mostly of wood or plywood
(this leads many people to believe that heavy duty tables are
preferred to endure aggressive playing). Over time, this
repeated impact can easily break the rod bushings or strike
them loose and make the whole game table shaky. Even
worse, playing men can become loose. Parts replacements
are inevitable. Wrist injury from rigid shock impact and arm
fatigue from labouring the heavy solid rods are also prevalent.
Again, all these problems can
be attributable to the heavy solid rods, the great inertia and
the rigid impact on the side walls. Furthermore, no matter how
well designed the rubber block bumpers can be, the range of
elasticity is very limited. The rubber block can also be
easily damaged through use, simply due to the easy wear and
tear of the material..
On the other hand, Rock-it's
light telescopic rods can never exert such damaging impact to rod
bushings or game structure, keeping the game table intact and
as sturdy as new, no need for the excessive weight. The
progressive-cushioning springs can shrink up to 1/2" to absorb
energy and stop the moving rods in a way most protective of
table parts and least harmful to wrist and arms.
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Play
foosball online here on a virtual table designed by Shockwave,
if you are not a serious fooser.
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