Air Hockey Tips: Shots, Banks and Defence

How a match works

A match is first to seven goals. A goal counts when the whole puck has crossed into the slot at the end of the table. After a goal the puck is served to the player who conceded, placed still in their half, so they always start with the puck. The robot never gets two free serves in a row unless you let it score twice.

There is one more rule, borrowed from table play: a puck that stays in one half for seven seconds goes to the other side. It stops either player from parking the puck in a corner, and it means a puck sitting still in front of you is a chance with a deadline.

The daily challenge picks a robot style for the day, one that defends deep, one that attacks, or one that loves bank shots, plus a level. Everyone meets the same robot, so results are comparable with friends. Free play has the level picker: Easy, Normal and Hard.

The physics in one minute

You do not need to think about numbers, but three facts explain almost everything on the table.

First, the puck takes the speed of the mallet. When your mallet hits the puck, the puck leaves with roughly the speed of your swing plus a share of its own speed, along the line between the centres of the two discs. A mallet that is standing still is a wall: the puck bounces off it and loses a little speed. A mallet moving fast into the puck sends it away faster than it arrived.

Second, the line of the hit decides the direction. The puck leaves along the line from the centre of your mallet through the centre of the puck. Hit it dead centre and it goes straight; catch it on one side and it flies off at an angle. That is why aiming is about where your mallet meets the puck, not about which way your hand is travelling.

Third, the rails are springy but not perfect. A bounce off a side rail keeps most of the speed, and the angle out equals the angle in. Each bounce takes a little pace off, so a shot that banks twice arrives slower than a straight one.

Striking: through the puck, not at it

The most common mistake is the slow push. You place the mallet against the puck and walk it forward, and the puck dribbles towards the robot, which simply waits and returns it. A good strike is short and fast. Put your mallet a little behind the puck, on the line you want it to travel, and then move sharply through it. The mallet has a top speed, so a long run-up gains nothing; it only gives the robot time to read you.

On a phone, start your swing a finger's width behind the puck and flick forward. Your mallet sits a little above your fingertip so you can see it, which also means you should aim with the mallet, not with your finger. With a mouse, the mallet follows the pointer as soon as it is over the table, so you do not need to hold the button down; a quick nudge of the wrist is a strike.

Hit the puck when it is coming towards you and you get its speed back for free. A puck sliding at you plus a forward swing adds the two together, which is how the fastest shots in the game happen. Waiting for the puck to stop and then pushing it gives you only your own swing.

Bank shots

A straight shot from the middle has one problem: the robot is standing on that line. A bank shot off a side rail arrives from an angle, and the robot has to read the bounce to get there in time. On Easy it barely tries; on Normal it reads straight lines well but bounces late; on Hard it reads one or two bounces, so you need speed as well as angle.

To aim a bank, imagine a second table drawn on the far side of the rail, a mirror of the real one. Aim at the goal on that mirror table, and the puck will bounce off the rail at exactly the point where your line crosses it and carry on to the real goal. In practice: the closer the bounce point is to the robot's end, the harder the shot is to read and the less room you need.

Mix them. A player who only banks gets read just as surely as one who only shoots straight. Two straight shots and then a bank from the same spot is the pattern that beats the Normal robot most often.

Defence: own the space in front of your goal

Every goal against starts with your mallet in the wrong place. After you shoot, bring the mallet straight back to a spot just in front of the middle of your goal. From there a short move covers either post. Chasing the puck into the corners leaves the whole goal open to a rebound.

When the robot shoots, do not swing at the puck; meet it. Put the mallet on the puck's path and hold it still or move slightly forward. A still mallet turns a fast shot into a controlled rebound, and a little forward movement turns it into a counter-attack. Swinging sideways at a fast puck usually deflects it into your own goal.

Watch the bounce, not the puck. If a shot is heading for a side rail, look at where it will come off, and be there first.

Rush and the seven-second rule

Rush is a different game. Ninety seconds is a short time, so the number of shots matters more than their quality. Shoot early, take the rebound, and shoot again. A draw is possible and counts as neither a win nor a loss.

The seven-second rule changes your choices too. When the puck stops in your half, you have time to line up, but not forever. Use about two seconds to set the mallet behind the puck and then strike. If the puck stops in the robot's half, wait: the robot either strikes or loses the puck to you.