I used to play foosball on tour, going to tournaments across the nation. Another member here pinged me a couple of days about it, which turned into a discussion of who the GOAT is. Among the leading candidates are Tony Spredeman, who's currently 35 years old or so and has been the best over the past decade, and Todd Loffredo, who was the greatest player from 1978-1986 or so and continued to win World titles up until 2012 (often playing goalie for the great Frederico Collignon in doubles). He's about 59 years old now.
That led me to dig up some footage of Todd Loffredo playing vs. Tony Spredeman: Todd is I think 54 years old in this, and Tony's around age 30.
There's probably $10,000 or so on the line for the winner here.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObcAE9jk2c4
The match is from Colorado States, which isn't a major but is one of the next highest tier of tournaments.
Games are to 5 points (win by 2, or first to 8 points wins if it goes on that long), match is best 3 out of 5 games.
Todd shoots a pull shot, Tony shoots a snake. The pull sets up at the far side of the goal and can be shot straight or pulled toward any part of the goal. The snake is pinned in front of the rod and can be shot straight or moved in either direction; it's shot by putting your forearm on the rod and rotating it up and over while moving the bar laterally (it's also called the rollover or wrist-rocket; it's legal because the rod spins less than 360° before and after hitting the ball). Those are by far the two most common shots at the highest level.
Good players shoot very well from forward, so passing from the 5-bar to the forward bar is critical. Todd uses a brush pass where he angles the pass down along the wall or up through the lane; he moves the 5-bar laterally as he's hitting through the ball, causing it to move in the direction he's brushing it (this is much more consistent than trying to chip it at an angle with the corner of the man). Tony uses a stick pass series: he weaves the ball very quickly back and forth on the 5-bar looking for holes before passing it straight to the 3-bar. He doesn't usually angle the passes, relying on the speed of his lateral motion to reach an open hole in the defense. Again, the stick and the brush are the two most common passing series used at the highest level.
Todd mostly shoots a pull from goal, sometimes a push (where the ball is set close to you and then pushed out laterally before moving). Tony mostly passes from goal to the 5-bar, using a brush pass (the same pass Todd uses from 5-bar to forward, and different from his stick series used up front). From goal, it's also more common to mix things up, using push-kick or pull-kick options (where the ball is tossed from one man to another who hits it straight), and Todd's one of the few master level players who occasionally employs bank shots as well.
Todd plays basically the same shot and passing style I did, he's just a million times better.