A Table football is a hard triangular folded piece of paper used to play a common variant of the game of Table Football. The football is manufactured in the following manner:
- Take a regular piece of notebook paper (essential since this is a game used to avoid working and learning while at school), fold it in half on the long axis, then in thirds on the same axis.
- Take the resultant strip of paper and fold one of the bottom corners up to touch the opposite edge, with the fold at a forty-five degree angle. The edge formerly on the bottom should now be even with the side of the strip.
- Continue folding the resulting triangle upwards along the strip, essentially wrapping the strip tightly around the triangular core to form a hard flat shape.
- When reaching the end, tear off the end of the strip in such a way as to make a tab that can be inserted under the edge of the prior fold to lock in the football shape.
You should now have a table football. When playing with the paper football instead of a coin, the
rules change in the following manner:
- Kickoff - Starting at the player's own edge, the player has three (optionally four) "flicks" or "thumps" (downs) with a finger or pencil to reach the opponents edge of the table. A successful drive will result in the football hanging over the edge of the table, thus scoring a "try". (This can be judged by running a ruler vertically along the table's edge to see if it hits the football)
- Converting a try - instead of spinning as in the coin version, the football is held vertically, one point on the table and one held by the index finger of the non-dominant hand. The other hand is used to thump or flick the football across the table and through the opponent's goalposts (formed as described in the parent node.)
Scoring can be set in any way acceptable to both
players prior to a game. Try both this and the coin variant and see which you like best. Just remember to wear
eye protection for those
intense rivalries!.