Picking out the Best Family Foosball Table

To pick out the best family foosball table, let’s take a look at the history. Foosball is one of the best family games played around the world and was invented by Lucien Rosengart from France in 1930s. He invented the game so that his grandchildren could play the football indoors during winters. The original name of the game was “Babyfoot,” and it is also known as “Table Soccer.” Foosball was initially meant for rehabilitation purposes to improve hand-eye coordination in World War II veterans across the world. Today, it has become one of the most preferred recreational games. ITSF (International Table Soccer Foundation), established in France in 2002, is the governing body controlling all the international competitions.

Family Game

Foosball is played between two teams. Each team can have 1 to 4 members depending on the family size in a family or home foosball table. It is one of the family games that can engage up to 8 members with each player controlling one rotating bar. Family members take the roles of goalkeeper, defence, midfield and forward players in each team. The skill involves quickly moving the hands over the rotating bars to push the ball into the opponent’s goal. Families, including adults and children, enjoy friendly rivalries while playing tournaments during festival, get together parties.

Foosball Table

A typical foosball table measures an average 5 ft in length, 2.5 ft in width and 4 ft in height. A 4 ft of space around the boundary of the table on all sides is required to accommodate the rotating bars and the player movements. A minimum room size of 10 ft in length and 8 ft in width should easily accommodate up to 8 family members. A family foosball table is different from a professional foosball table. A professional foosball table needs high quality craftsmanship to conform to higher standards required for table levelling, figurine & rotating rod weights, scoring systems, etc.

Family Foosball Table Variants

One of the main differences is the number of players in the goalkeeper rotating rod of each team in the family foosball table. It has either 1 (goalkeeper) or 3 (2 defenders along with a goalkeeper) figurines. 3 figurine tables on goalkeeper rod are popular in USA whereas 1 figurine system is mostly played in Europe and other parts of the world. Most of the manufacturers offer conversion from one system to other and hence provides to play different game formats.

Foosball Table Price Differentiation

Foosball game requires a flat floor surface to prevent giving an undue advantage to a team. Different levelling systems are inbuilt into the table from wooden blocks / shims (cheapest option) to expensive telescopic or threaded legs. Use of pricey counterbalanced foosball figurines helps to retain the position instead of returning to a standing position. Finally, the material of the best family foosball table is a crucial price differentiator. A cheaper option is plastic, which offers the portability benefit through low weight but wears out quickly leading to leveling problem. On the contrary, the expensive metal tables provide more excellent stability but at the cost of weight. An intermediate option wood or laminated composite offers the advantage of low pressure & less wear out. Look at all these factor when looking for the Best Family Foosball Table.

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