Make the Right Choice
A MENU OF TACTICS
• Clear The Board | • Put Up a Tampa or St Pete • Kitchen Your Opponent | • Hide A Score • Go On The Board | • Clear A Kitchen • Score Your Hammer | • Don’t Chase A Hidden Disc • Use Kitchen Bait | • Fill In An Opponent’s Hide • Steal The Hammer | • Shoot To Double • Block The Board | • Shoot A High Number • Reverse A Kitchen |
These are basic shuffleboard tactics. But do you know the proper time to use each? Most of the time, there is one best choice. It is not simply a matter of shooting one or another depending on what’s available or what you feel you can make. You have to determine the best option based on what you need to do to win.
CourtShuffleboard.com scope note: The best choice of shot depends on game format, score, hammer sequence, court conditions, player skill, and the exact position of the discs. Treat the tactics here as a decision-making framework rather than universal instructions for every organization or court.
What you need to do to win usually changes many times over the course of a game. Winning isn’t just about making good shots. It is about taking advantage of your opponent’s errors, in shooting or strategy, and minimizing your own errors. If no player makes any shot or strategy error, the game outcome would be determined strictly by who had the first hammer (in a points game) or luck (in a frame game) such as a gust of wind or piece of debris on the court. It is only when a player makes a mistake and their opponent takes advantage of it that skill becomes the determining factor of the game outcome. How you best take advantage of a mistake requires adherence to winning strategy.
The best strategy at any moment depends on who is ahead at that moment. You have shot choices, some of which are best when you are ahead and some of which are best when you are behind. You first must know if you are ahead or behind, meaning who will win the game if no one makes any mistakes for the rest of the game. Then you choose your best shot for winning from the menu of tactics that applies for that game condition.
Can you look at the list of tactics above and separate them into two lists, one for when ahead and one for when behind? Some may appear in both lists, but even then, each tactic is more or less likely to be the best shot choice based on which applies, ahead or behind. If you can’t make the two lists or don’t know how to evaluate the tactics based on the two game conditions, you need to spend more time studying game theory – read, or reread, the available books and articles. When you read, make sure you understand why shots are good or bad choices for each of the two game conditions. Don’t just learn what the shots are and how to make them. Learn when to make them and when not to make them. That is the key to making correct choices that lead to wins.
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This article is also part of Coach Martin’s Learning Lab.