"My high score is 106" ~ A Discourse on the Finer Methods of Shuffling

Lately, I have been blessed with a certain amount of free time.  This has been a good thing.  And yet, I spent a day making a bird feeder.  A whole day.  So one can imagine the kind of free time I had today when I'd run out of wood supplies for any more woodworking projects.  Mind you... Steph kept me kinda busy.

On my mind, has been the thought that there should really be more information about shuffleboard on the internet.

By shuffleboard, I mean, Sjoelback or however the dutch speel it.  And by information I solely mean the strategy that I have developed for playing this game, which I feel the world is entitled to hear my input.  Whither they whant it or nhot.

Now.  Ask many of the amateurs of the game and they will tell you that their strategy is to whip the puck down the playing surface in the hopes that if it doesn't go in the hole, it will rebound far enough that they will be able to reach it and get it back to throw again.  I will admit that this works for an amateur.  If you adopt this strategy there are two things you should know.  One: The trick to getting the puck to bounce the entire way back is to RAISE the puck.  The puck will hit the wall above the opening and have the greatest chance of not being deflected about in any random direction to get stuck in the middle somewhere.  Two: Well.  You're a fool.  This strategy will not get you a high score.

So.  Studying this game for all of this past month.  I can inform you that there is a time and place for whipping the puck.  It is not in the first few throws.  Nay, the first few throws are meant to place the puck, in very specific spots.  Preferably right in front of the opening you were aiming for.  If it does not land in the very spot you wanted, then you should use your next puck to gently tap the puck on the side, so it barely moves over and in front of the opening you wanted it in front of.  The benefit of this is that very often both pucks will stop in perfect line with an opening. 

If you must.  Then now is the time to whip a puck.  Not at the openings, but at the puck that is lined up in front of the opening.  It works every time.

But it takes skill.  Which is something the amateur has neither skill nor patience for trying.

Eventually you will have screwed up so incredibly that the entire board seems congested with pucks.  Don't worry.  You haven't screwed up just yet.  The important thing to do here is to balance the pressure you place on the pucks.  In other words.  Don't waste pucks and time by shooting at one particular opening.  Instead balance your throws across the board.  Aiming for each opening in turn.  The pucks will find their way in provided that you have applied sufficient force to your throw.

One more tip - it often works to deliberately place a puck half way down the board in the center.  Then whip the next puck at the first puck and watch the first puck bounce in.  I don't know why, but the angles just seem to work...

Happy Shuffling!