Air hockey

Current World Champion, Danny Hynes

Air hockey is a game for two competing players trying to score points in the opposing player's goal.

Equipment

Air hockey requires an air-hockey table, two mallets, and a puck.

A typical air hockey table consists of a large smooth playing surface, a surrounding rail to prevent the puck and mallets from leaving the table, and slots in the rail at either end of the table that serve as goals. On the ends of the table behind and below the goals, there is usually a puck return. Additionally, tables will typically have some sort of machinery that produces a cushion of air on the play surface through tiny holes, with the purpose of reducing friction and increasing play speed. In some tables, the machinery is eschewed in favor of a slick table surface, usually plastic, in the interest of saving money in both manufacturing and maintenance costs. Note that these tables are technically not air hockey tables since no air is involved, however, they are still generally understood to be as such due to the basic similarity of gameplay.

Air Hockey Mallet

Currently, the only tables that are approved for play and sanctioned by the USAA (United States Air-Table-Hockey Association) for tournament play are 8-foot tables manufactured by Dynamo. Approved tables include the Photon, Pro-Style, older Blue Top, Brown Top, Purple Top or Black Top with unpainted rails. The HotFlash 2 and other full-size commercial tables with neon lights and/or painted rails are not approved for USAA play but are still great tables on which to learn the games .

A mallet (sometimes called a goalie, striker or paddle) consists of a simple handle attached to a flat surface that will usually lie flush with the surface of the table. The most common mallets, called "high-tops", resemble small plastic sombreros, but other mallets, "flat-tops", are used with a shorter nub.

A group of five air hockey pucks

Air Hockey pucks are slim discs made of Lexan polycarbonate resin. Standard USAA-approved pucks are the yellow lexan, red lexan and the Dynamo green. In competitive play, a layer of thin white tape is placed on the face-up side.

Four-player tables also exist, but they are not yet sanctioned for competitive play.

Rules

File:Grip1.jpg

One Common Grip

Here are some basic rules as defined by the USAA:

• A face-off or coin toss decides which player gets the first possession of the puck.
• The first person to score 7 points by shooting the puck into the opponent's goal wins the game. When the puck breaks the horizontal plane inside the goal, a point is counted, whether or not captured by the electronic scoring device.
• Once the puck is on a certain player's side of the center line, he/she has 7 seconds to hit the puck back across the center line. Otherwise a foul is committed and the opponent receives possession of the puck.
• Placing one's mallet on top of the puck, known as topping, is a foul. Here the opponent receives possession of the puck.
• A player cannot touch or strike the puck with any part of his/her body or with any object other than the mallet. Doing so causes a foul and possession changes hands.
• If the puck is on a clear path into the goal and the player stops it with anything other than the mallet, this is goaltending. Here the opponent receives a free shot.
• Hitting the puck when it is on the opposite side of the center line, or crossing the center line completely with one's mallet causes a foul. Here the opponent receives possession of the puck.
• If the puck leaves the table, a foul is called on the player that caused the puck to go out of play due to offensive motion and the opposing player gets possession of the puck. Generally, when a player causes the puck to leave the table with a forward motion of the mallet, even defensively (known as charging), the foul is charged on them. An out of play foul results in the opponent receiving possession of the puck.

File:Grip2.jpg

Another Common Grip

Gameplay

Competitive (tournament) play is usually distinguished by the following:

• Grip the mallet behind the knob using your fingertips, not on top of it. This will allow more wrist action and help you be able to move the mallet around the table faster.

• For basic defense, keep your mallet centered about 8-10 inches out from the goal. From that point, very slight movements to the left and right will block virtually all straight shots. Pull back quickly to the corners of the goal to block the bank shots. This is known as the "triangle defense".

• Gain control of the puck before you take a shot. Shots are often hit out of "drifts", where the puck travels in set patterns designed to throw off your opponent's expectations and timing. The most popular drifts are the "center", "diamond", "diagonal", and "L". After establishing your drift, set up your shots like you would set up a shot in a game of pool - take your time, figure out where you want to shoot, aim and fire!

• Practice "combos": these are groups of shots which are hit with the same apparent delivery but opposite locations, caused by hitting the puck at slightly different locations on the mallet. For example, a transverse motion of the right arm can lead to a "cut shot" to the left corner of the opponent's goal or a "right wall under" (bank off the right wall, into the right corner of the opponent's goal). Keep your opponent guessing!

• There are many ways to get around your opponent's defense. Aim for the corners of the goal. On bank shots, try to get the puck in the goal off of a one-wall bank. If you hit double or triple banks, the puck loses velocity and will be easy to block.

History

Although it was believed for many years to have been invented by a Brunswick Billiards employee named Bob Lemieux in 1972, Air Hockey was actually invented by a trio of Brunswick engineers - Phil Crossman, Bob Kenrick, and Brad Baldwin - who were attempting to create a game utilizing a frictionless surface, circa 1969. The project never got off the ground and was left in mothballs for several years, but Bob Lemeiux later resurrected the project and refined the design to a certain degree. Some accounts of the story claim that Lemieux played the game on the table using a round disk and square mallets. Doorbells were hooked up at each end with a photo sensor to signal a "goal". It was then decided that the "game" may appeal to a larger market and Air Hockey was born. How much of this is truth and how much of this is the result of gaps in the story being filled in over time through multiple storytellers may never be truly known, given that Lemieux died in the early 1990s. What is certain is that the original patent references Phil Crossman, who, along with the other engineers, pioneered the frictionless table surface - and, almost by chance, created an instant classic of a game around it.

Air Hockey was an immediate financial success, and by the mid-1970s there arose substantial interest in tournament play. As early as 1973, players in Houston had formed the Houston AH Association, and soon thereafter, the Texas Air-Hocky Players Association, codyfying rules and promoting the sport through local tournaments at Houston pubs Carnabys, Damians,and the University of Houston. To ensure uniform play standards of the highest competitive quality, the United States Air-Table Hockey Association (USAA) was formed in 1975 by J. Phillip "Phil" Arnold, largely as an official sanctioning body. In this way, non-player friendly rules imposed by Brunswick corporation were rendered void, and the sport of air-hockey was secured under the control of Players since that time. Since its inception, the USAA has sanctioned at least one national-level or World championship each year, crowning 12 different champions over 30 years. The USAA remains at present the only recognized worldwide player organization for air hockey, and has maintained a close relationship with table manufacturers and event promoters over the years. Today, competitive air hockey is played by a close-knit community of serious players around the world, with extensive player bases near Houston, San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago, New York, and Boston in the United States, Barcelona in Spain, Saint Petersburg, Moscow and Novgorod in Russia and Most and Brno in the Czech Republic. From the late 1980s, Caracas, Venezuela served as a hotbed of activity; three-time World Champion Jose Mora, and other finalists originated from there. By 1999 most of the Venezuelan activity had disappeared.

On 25 August, 2007, the three inventors - Crossman, Kendrick, and Baldwin - attended the Texas State Tournament at the Southfork Hotel in Plano, Texas. It is the first appearance of the three together since the game was invented in 1969-1971.

Tournament history

World Championships

Year	Champion	Runner-up	Third Place
1978	Jesse Douty	Phil Arnold	Rolf Moore
1979	Jesse Douty	Phil Arnold	Joe Campbell
1980	Jesse Douty	Phil Arnold	Joe Campbell
1980	Jesse Douty	Robert Hernandez	Mark Robbins
1981	Bob Dubuisson	Paul Burger	Jesse Douty
1981	Jesse Douty	Bob Dubuisson	Paul Marshall
1982	Jesse Douty	Mark Robbins	Bob Dubuisson
1983	Bob Dubuisson	Jesse Douty	Phil Arnold
1984	Mark Robbins	Robert Hernandez	Bob Dubuisson
1985	Bob Dubuisson	Robert Hernandez	Vince Schappell
1985	Bob Dubuisson	Robert Hernandez	Mark Robbins
1986	Robert Hernandez	Bob Dubuisson	Mark Robbins
1986	Mark Robbins	Bob Dubuisson	Robert Hernandez
1987	Robert Hernandez	Jesse Douty	Phil Arnold
1987	Jesse Douty	Mark Robbins	Robert Hernandez
1988	Jesse Douty	Bob Dubuisson	Robert Hernandez
1988	Jesse Douty	Bob Dubuisson	Joe Campbell
1989	Tim Weissman	Bob Dubuisson	Jesse Douty
1989	Tim Weissman	Jesse Douty	Robert Hernandez
1990	Tim Weissman	Jesse Douty	Robert Hernandez
1990	Tim Weissman	Phil Arnold	Mark Robbins
1991	Tim Weissman	Mark Robbins	Robert Hernandez
1991	Tim Weissman	Jesse Douty	Albert Ortiz
1992	Tim Weissman	Robert Hernandez	Mark Robbins
1992	Tim Weissman	Keith Fletcher	Vince Schappell
1993	Tim Weissman	Andy Yevish	Keith Fletcher
1994	John Giraldo	Mark Robbins	Tim Weissman
1995	Billy Stubbs	Wil Upchurch	Don James
1996	Tim Weissman	Wil Upchurch	Andy Yevish
1997	Wil Upchurch	Tim Weissman	Jesse Douty
1999	José Mora	Pedro Otero	Jimmy Heilander
2000	José Mora	Pedro Otero	Tim Weissman
2001	Danny Hynes	Tim Weissman	José Mora
2002	Danny Hynes	Ehab Shoukry	Billy Stubbs
2003	Ehab Shoukry	José Mora	Andy Yevish
2004	Danny Hynes	Andy Yevish	Anthony Marino
2005	Danny Hynes	Billy Stubbs	Anthony Marino
2006	Danny Hynes	Wil Upchurch	Davis Lee Huynh
2007	Davis Lee Huynh	Keith Fletcher	Ehab Shoukry
2008	Danny Hynes	Ehab Shoukry	José Mora

US Championship

Year	Champion	Runner-up	Third Place
1983	Jesse Douty	Mark Robbins	Bob Dubuisson
1984	Jesse Douty	Phil Arnold	Mark Robbins
1998	José Mora	Pedro Otero	Tim Weissman
2004	Danny Hynes	Ehab Shoukry	Don James
2007	Wil Upchurch	Davis Lee Huynh	Keith Fletcher

European Championship

Year	Champion	Finalist	Third Place
2006 (Singles)	Goran Mitic	Michael L. Rosen	José Luis Camacho
2007 (Singles)	José Luis Camacho	Sergey Antonov	Sergio López
2006 (Teams)	Catalonia	Czech Republic
2007 (Teams)	Russia	Catalonia
2008	void

Texas State Open

Year	Champion	Runner-up	Third Place
1998	Tim Weissman	Jose Mora	Wil Upchurch
2000	Jose Mora	Danny Hynes	Jimmy Heilander
2002	Jose Mora	Danny Hynes	Anthony Marino
2003	Anthony Marino	Jose Mora	Danny Hynes
2004	Danny Hynes	Ehab Shoukry	Anthony Marino
2005	Danny Hynes	Ehab Shoukry	Anthony Marino
2007	Tim Weissman	Vince Schappell	Joe Cain

Catalan Championship

Year	Champion	Runner-up	Third Place
2003	Pedro Otero	Emilio Araujo	Marc García
2004	Marc García	Sergio López	José Luis Camacho
2005	José Luis Camacho	Sergio López	Marc García
2006	José Luis Camacho	Marc García	Javi Navarro
2007	Marc García	Mauro Sturlese	Javi Navarro

Russian Open

Year	Champion	Runner-up	Third Place
2006	Mauro Sturlese	Igor Masloboev	Sergey Grishin
2007	Dimitriy Butyrev	Sergey Grishin	Nikita Vaganov
2008	Dimitriy Butyrev	Vadim Chizhevskiy	German Vargin

External links

• USAA United States Air Hockey Association - the governing body for competitive air hockey
• Air Hockey World Air Hockey World F.A.Q.